Hydrodynamic and electromechanical simulation of a snapper based wave energy converter

Abstract

A coupled electromechanical and hydrodynamic simulation of a novel generator connected to a heaving buoy for wave energy conversion has been developed. The simulation is based primarily in MATLAB using its built-in Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) solvers. These solvers have acted on the data derived from an electromagnetic finite element analysis and from the WAMIT wave interaction simulation software, to simulate the full system in the time domain.

Mathematical modelling of wave energy converters: A review of nonlinear approaches

“…[111] describes different available concepts, such as the linear permanent magnet synchronous machine, the linear air-cored permanent magnet synchronous machine, the slot-less tubular permanent magnet synchronous machine or the Snapper concept, which has been specifically developed for wave energy conversion purposes under the seventh framework programme funded by the European Community [112]. [113,114] describe different forces, some of which can lead to nonlinear behaviour, that are involved in the operation within the machine: the interaction of the two sets of magnets, electromagnetic damping due to the current carrying coils and other forces due to different losses such as eddy currents in armature and translator, saturation and reactive field losses, and losses due to proximity effects.…”

Analysis, design and testing of a novel direct‐drive wave energy converter system

“…The buoyancy force, F BB , is based on Archimedes' principle, given by (7), where ρ is the density of water, g is the acceleration due to gravity, r is the radius of the buoy and h is the buoy displacement in heave.…”

“…In principle, this high‐speed movement should allow the reduction in size of the required magnets and their associated costs and also ease some of structural design problems resulting from the necessity for very high strength magnetic fields. Further discussion on the principle of operation of the machine can be found in [7, 8].…”