AMOG validates its innovative wave energy concept

The concept for a new wave energy device that sits on rather than in the water, developed by engineering solutions company AMOG, has been validated at the facilities of the Australian Maritime College (AMC).

AMOG used AMC’s towing tank and model test basin to test 1:30 and 1:40 scale models of its concept, with the results informing the next phase of testing and commercialization of the technology.

Hayden Marcollo, Director of AMOG Technologies, explained that the model testing program was an important part of understanding the concept’s energy potential and survivability in extreme conditions.

His team had already carried out numerical analysis on the concept but needed the physical model test program to help validate the results from the software.

Marcollo said: “Testing at AMC demonstrated that our numerical models were working well and gave us a calibration point to help us fine-tune our numerical models and predict how much power could be generated from a full-scale device.

“Physical modelling also demonstrated what the mooring loads would be in extreme waves and how much water we could expect coming over the deck; this isn’t something that’s easily predicted with numerical models.”

AMOG, short for Australian Marine & Offshore Group, is now developing a 1:3 scale model based on the calibrations obtained from their AMC testing and is preparing for a two to three month field test off the coast of Cornwall at the FaBTest site.

A full-scale test would follow, and the concept could be commercialized – and could find application in Australia – in around three years, according to Marcollo.

The AMOG device sits on a boat and can be towed out like a normal boat and moored on anchors – negating the need for specialist drilling rigs to install the device, according to AMC.

The device is based on the principle of dynamic vibration absorption, more commonly found on tall buildings, whereby a mass is attached to a moving or vibrating structure to dissipate its energy.