Absln~--To minimize cold water pipe lengths, the most favorable land or fixed platform based Ocean Thermal Energy Conversions (OTEC) sites have subbottom slopes greater than 5 °. Observations at OTEC sites in Hawaii indicate that turbidity currents of an impulsive or episodic nature can occur with frontal speeds of several meters'per second. Such speeds and the attendant potential for sediment ...

The potential of electric power generation from marine renewable energy is enormous. Ocean waves are being recognized as a resource to be exploited for the sustainable generation of electrical power. The high load factors resulting from the fluid properties and the predictable resource characteristics make ocean waves particularly attractive for power generation and advantageous when compared t...

Dielectric elastomer generators (DEGs) are attractive candidates for harvesting electrical energy from mechanical work since they comprise relatively few moving parts and large elastomer sheets can be mass produced. Successfully demonstrations of the DEG prototypes have been reported from a diverse of energy sources, including ocean waves, wind, flowing water and human movement. The energy dens...

In direct combustion-thermoelectric energy conversion, direct fuel injection and reciprocation of the air flowing in a solid matrix are combined with the solid-gas interfacial heat transfer and the solid conduction to allow for obtaining superadiabatic temperatures at the hot junctions. While the solid conductivity is necessary, the relatively large thermal conductivity of the available high-te...

Solar energy can be converted directly into electric and thermal energy through photovoltaic cells and thermal collectors, respectively. However this conversion, in particular the photovoltaic, has a reduced efficiency. A solution proposed to increase this efficiency is with the hybrid solar structure, which consists in the junction of the photovoltaic panel and the thermal collector in a singl...

The proposal of new technologies capable producing electrical energy from renewable sources has driven research into seas and oceans. Research finds this field very promising in the future energies, especially areas where there are specific climatic morphological characteristics to exploit large amounts sea. In general, kind is referred as six resources: waves, tidal range, current, ocean therm...

of Naval Research and the A ir Force Aerospace Research Laboratories and the Air Force Weapons Laboratory, Air Force Systems Command, United States Air Force, under Contract No. F33615-73-C-4107. tA. C. Eckbreth and J. W. Davis, IEEE J. Quantum Electron. QE-8, 139 (19n), and references cited therein. 2A.C. EckbrethandF.S. Owen, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 43,995 (1972); A.C. Eckbreth and P.F. Blaszuk, P...

Knudsen compressors are devices without any moving parts that use the nanoscale phenomenon of thermal transpiration to pump or compress a gas. Thermal transpiration takes place when a gas is in contact with a solid boundary along which a temperature gradient exists. If the characteristic length scale is on the order of, or smaller than, the molecular mean free path, then the gas flows from cold...

Thermophotovoltaic devices are energy-conversion systems generating an electric current from the thermal photons radiated by a hot body. While their efficiency is limited in far field by the Schockley-Queisser limit, in near field the heat flux transferred to a photovoltaic cell can be largely enhanced because of the contribution of evanescent photons, in particular for a source supporting a su...