Research Of Profiling Floats Propelled And Recharged By Ocean Thermal Energy

The Profiling Floats can measure quantities like profiles of temperature, salinity andpressure while it cycles vertically then relays data to ground through satellites. Providinginformation for ocean development and research, weather forecast and ocean military affairs,it has been widely used in recent years. The traditional Profiling Floats is powered by lithiumbatteries so that the quantity of the batteries imposes restrictions on its lifetime. After thebatteries run out, the Profiling Floats is dropped because it is hard to reclaim, then a new oneis put in and it costs a lot. We develop a new type Profiling Floats propelled by ocean thermalenergy to extend its lifetime and improve its working capacity. It can use phase changematerial to absorb the ocean thermal energy, which is following stored in an energyaccumulator. Then the energy is used to propel the Profiling Floats and generate electricity tocharge the batteries which supply power for control system and measuring apparatus.According to the design process we have done work as follow:Firstly this thesis designs the Profiling Floats’ duty cycle can not only propel the ProfilingFloats but also generate electricity according to the glider propelled by ocean thermal energyand the ocean thermal energy conversion system. Then we analyse the Profiling floats’ motionto provide a basis for control system.Secondly this thesis discusses the phase change process. We choose the melt process asfloats’ working manner after comparison of melt process with vaporization process. We testthe performance of the phase change material, getting a better understanding of its property.We analyze and calculate the heat conduction with change of phase. We also study thethermodynamics process and calulate the thermodynamic efficiency.Thirdly this thesis confirms the parameters of each component through building andsimulating the math model of the electricity generation process, positive buoyancy adjustmentprocess and negative buoyancy adjustment process. Then a model machine is built and testedand the test result is compared with the simulation result. After that we finish the preliminarydesign of this float’s mechanical structure and control system.