Design and testing of a linear generator for wave-energy applications

A linear-generator topology is proposed for wave-energy applications. The main significance of the generator topology is that the relative position of the magnets, copper, and steels has been chosen so that there are no magnetic attraction forces between a stator and a permanent-magnet (PM) translator. The lack of magnetic forces and the modular nature of the generator topology make the manufacture and assembly of the generator easier than a conventional iron-cored PM linear generator. Analytical modeling techniques are described with a genetic-algorithm optimization method. The proposed topology is implemented to an Archimedes-wave-swing wave-energy converter. A 50-kW prototype has been built to prove the concept, and the no-load- and load-test results are presented.