A new smart digital twin that uses Nvidia’s Omniverse platform could reportedly make ocean waves a more predictable source of clean electricity and bring wave-powered data centers closer to reality.
Israeli renewable energy company Eco Wave Power announced on November 2 that it had completed the first phase of its digital twin project. The initiative was carried out together with Germany’s engineering and technology company AI Engineering GmbH.
The new technology creates a virtual model of how ocean waves interact with their equipment. It uses machine learning to predict electricity output and to boost the performance under different sea conditions. It could also power future coastal AI data centers with ocean waves.
“Wave energy is a particularly challenging engineering problem because it combines complex free-surface fluid dynamics, structural motion, and highly variable environmental conditions,” Stefan Adami, PhD, co-founder and general manager of AI engineering GmbH, pointed out.
Eco Wave Power already uses floating devices attached to piers and breakwaters to generate electricity from ocean waves. However, predicting how much energy they can generate remains a massive challenge, as ocean conditions continuously change.
To tackle the challenge, the team came up with a physics-based digital twin that simulates how waves interact with its floating devices. The first phase focused on analyzing wave forces, floater movement, structural loads, and electricity generation under different conditions.
It also uses machine learning to predict electricity output and the forces affecting the equipment. The effort also relies on NVIDIA Omniverse for virtual simulations and uses NVIDIA Warp and advanced computing technology for testing.
Source link
