Simple Resonance Circuit to Improve Electrical Power Conversion in a Two-Sided Planar Permanent Magnet Linear Generator for Wave Energy Converters

Abstract

Developing simple, economic, and efficient electrical power conversion systems for wave energy converters (WECs) is an on-going research topic. This paper considers a simple resonance circuit to maximise the ac–dc power conversion of a permanent magnet linear generator (PMLG). To implement this circuit, the PMLG model parameters were obtained. In this paper, we developed a procedure for designing a two-sided planar PMLG considering the corresponding physical parameters. For this method, we set the basic parameters and calculated the derived parameters for the PMLG. The resonance circuit was composed of a three-phase rectifier with a shunt connection of capacitors between its diodes. The value of the capacitors was calculated using the resonance principle at a specific dominant frequency obtained from the location of the WEC installation. We compared the performance of the proposed resonance circuit with that of an existing resonance circuit. The proposed circuit generates more power, requires fewer components, and presents fewer harmonics. In addition, a higher-quality damping force was obtained when using the PMLG connected to the proposed resonance circuit and a resistive load.