How does WaveBlanket survive a perfect storm?
A. While steel experiences plasticity and failure under excessive loads, Pneumatic structures experience endless elasticity. Like an inflatable punching doll, which keeps coming back for more, even if the WaveBlanket is bent and folder by heavy seas, it will resume its shape as soon as the storm has passed. Unlike Pelamis, which represents the extreme over-reinforcement approach to survivability, WaveBlanket represents the other extreme – flexibility as a survival strategy. Q. One main question that I have is control and optimization and how that is figured into the design (i.e. parameterizing the resistance/buoyancy with wave conditions). A. The membrane can be tuned for wavelength by increasing the system pressure, and for wave height by increasing the pressure differential across the turbine. Reactive loading on a wave-by-wave basis can be achieved by including several turbine systems with different pressures. When a wave peaks, the pressure is measured and diverted into the turbine
