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TEAMER: Biofouling Analysis for Wave Energy Piston Design - Load Cell Data

Metadata Updated: July 9, 2024

Biofouling and corrosion are a major concern for all ocean-deployed components, especially when mechanical motion is involved. Triton has developed the concept of a biofouling mitigation seal as part of the piston sealing assembly for the Triton Wave Energy Converter (TSI-WEC). This mitigation seal has the purpose of preventing the formation of a biofilm on the inside of the piston cylinder. It is hypothesized that the prevention of a biofilm will reduce the amount of macro-biofouling that can occur in the piston assembly. The mitigation seal can also reduce the wear on the main dynamic seal, helping to maintain smooth operation and water-tightness. The cylinder is made from a thermoset composite epoxy, which is resistant to corrosion. However, no studies have researched the material's performance with biofouling.

Triton placed two prototype Power Take-Off (PTO) assemblies in a PNNL biofouling tank, one with a biofouling mitigation seal and one without, allowing for an evaluation of seal effectiveness at the prevention of biofouling.

In actual WEC operation, wave action would react against the piston, which would drive the linear actuator and electric generator, providing electrical power. In the test setup, this was reversed; a linear actuator was powered to drive the piston in a consistent motion within the cylinder.

There are two assemblies: one has a biofouling mitigation seal, the other (control) does not. The following data encompasses a 4 month test period, with load cells being used to monitor piston friction force.

Results from this testing will be used to improve seal design and material selection, mitigating risk of premature failure during open water testing and evaluation.

This project is part of the TEAMER RFTS 3 (request for technical support) program.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: Creative Commons Attribution

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Dates

Metadata Created Date July 9, 2024
Metadata Updated Date July 9, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from OpenEI data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date July 9, 2024
Metadata Updated Date July 9, 2024
Publisher Triton Systems, Inc.
Maintainer
Doi 10.15473/2315037
Identifier https://data.openei.org/submissions/6107
Data First Published 2021-11-01T06:00:00Z
Data Last Modified 2024-02-27T23:09:36Z
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 019:20
Metadata Context https://openei.org/data.json
Metadata Catalog ID https://openei.org/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Data Quality True
Harvest Object Id 8b57c183-4f36-4925-a622-5901f533ada2
Harvest Source Id 7cbf9085-0290-4e9f-bec1-91653baeddfd
Harvest Source Title OpenEI data.json
Homepage URL https://mhkdr.openei.org/submissions/534
License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Program Code 019:009
Projectlead Lauren Ruedy
Projectnumber EE0008895
Projecttitle Biofouling Analysis for Wave Energy Piston Design
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash b4ff5f8a8b18ff2b4b70e1687c57705503add13dd630e27d2296ce8a19d637d5
Source Schema Version 1.1
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