Design and Experiment Analysis of a Direct-Drive Wave Energy Converter with a Linear Generator

Jing Zhang, Haitao Yu and Zhenchuan Shi
Additional contact information
Jing Zhang: School of Electrical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
Haitao Yu: School of Electrical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
Zhenchuan Shi: School of Electrical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 4, 1-15

Abstract: Coastal waves are an abundant nonpolluting and renewable energy source. A wave energy converter (WEC) must be designed for efficient and steady operation in highly energetic ocean environments. A direct-drive wave energy conversion (D-DWEC) system with a tubular permanent magnet linear generator (TPMLG) on a wind and solar photovoltaic complementary energy generation platform is proposed to improve the conversion efficiency and reduce the complexity and device volume of WECs. The operating principle of D-DWECs is introduced, and detailed analyses of the proposed D-DWEC’s floater system, wave force characteristics, and conversion efficiency conducted using computational fluid dynamics are presented. A TPMLG with an asymmetric slot structure is designed to increase the output electric power, and detailed analyses of the magnetic field distribution, detent force characteristics, and no-load and load performances conducted using finite element analysis are discussed. The TPMLG with an asymmetric slot, which produces the same power as the TPMLG with a symmetric slot, has one fifth detent force of the latter. An experiment system with a prototype of the TPMLG with a symmetric slot is used to test the simulation results. The experiment and analysis results agree well. Therefore, the proposed D-DWEC fulfills the requirements of WEC systems.

Keywords: wave energy conversion; tubular permanent magnet linear generator; finite element analysis; computational fluid dynamics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/4/735/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/4/735/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:11:y:2018:i:4:p:735-:d:137798

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().