Waves to Water Prize ADAPT Stage: Team Canvasback Desalination System (Text Version)

This is a text version of the video Waves to Water Prize ADAPT Stage: Team Canvasback Desalination System.

For 35 years the Jack's Plastic Welding (JPW) team, our suppliers, customers, state-of-the-art design, cutting welding, and industrial fabrics have produced some real game-changing products. However, it is the people at JPW that make the largest difference. One of the best examples of this is the NASA astronaut rescue raft. JPW is a force for change in the 21st century and this desire to be part of the solution drives us all forward and frankly is the reason why we love our work.

This is a scale model test of JPW and Wave Venture's desalinization wave energy converter (WEC). This test is an inflatable octagon with an elastomer membrane across the top. The membrane reacts by bulging in and out forcefully in response to wave action. This force drives a pump that powers a reverse osmosis desalinization system. To get here, JPW and Wave Venture have collaborated on scale model testing numerical modeling and full-scale prototyping.

This is a full-scale test. Super strong X-tape joins the two octagons on the lines where the tubes contact. We use the same butt seam, welding, and inflation technology used on NASA stabilization collars. We have determined these inflatables to have a 550 percent safety factor at this pressure. The urethane film is assembled with radio frequency welding to a supported fabric that is glued to the rings. Excellent elasticity pulls it back into shape after stretching 156 percent.

Wave Venture provides software and analysis for all aspects of wave energy development. We've developed a special general-purpose software called FlexWEC for analysis of a wide range of flexible membrane WEC devices. FlexWEC combines analysis of internal flow, external flow, membrane dynamics, and power takeoff in a single general-purpose software. FlexWEC has been used on the JPW Waves to Water project to generate estimates of energy performance, membrane stresses, and survivability.