This paper presents the development of an electrical drive suitable for energy conversion in an ocean wave energy converter. Two representative wave energy converters are used to design a linear generator and associated power electronic converter. The electrical drive is built and coupled to two small scale hydrodynamic prototypes which are tested in a wave tank. The operation of the drive, including variation of apparent damping and spring coefficients is presented and used to demonstrate automated direct drive control via a maximum power point tracking algorithm.
This paper presents a permanent magnet planar translational generator which is able to exploit multiple modes of sea wave energy extraction. Linear electrical generators have recently been studied for the exploitation of sea wave energy, but, to the best of our knowledge, no synchronous planar translational generator has been proposed. In this paper, to maximise the energy extraction, we have considered all the potential modes of motion due to wave excitation and included them within the mathematical model of the proposed system. The principle of operation of the generator can be summarized as follows: the moving part (translator) of the generator is driven from the sea waves and induces and EMF on the windings mounted to the armature. The movement of the translator is two dimensional and therefore all the movement modes of the wave, except heave, can be exploited. The proposed mathematical model includes the dynamic equations of the translator and the electric equations of the windings. The coupling parameters (inductances, fluxes etc.) have been determined by FEM analysis. Optimization of the device has been performed by considering both, the parameters of the electromagnetic circuit, and, the parameters associated with the stochastic features of the wave.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.