Electromagnetic Characteristics Prediction and Efficiency Analysis of Linear Permanent Magnet Generator for Marine Wave Energy Conversion using Finite Element Method

This paper aims to present electromagnetic analysis and evaluation of efficiency of linear generator for marine wave energy conversion using Finite Element Method (FEM). A Linear Generator (LG) with a novel shape of magnet is proposed which has superior characteristics and improves the efficiency as compared to conventional magnet. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) has been carried out for proposed LG and compared with conventional, which validates the results and identifies that proposed magnet enhances the performance and efficiency as compared to existing conventional magnet. Two modes are analyzed; stationary and dynamic and their results such as mesh plot, no-load open-circuit magnetic flux distribution, magnetic flux density, flux-linkage and induced-voltage are presented. The main parts of efficiency such as; copper loss and iron loss are analyzed on various magnitudes of excitation currents and frequency ranges, respectively. The efficiency has been evaluated on various coil length variation by keeping electric power to a constant rating, which also provides higher characteristics as compared to conventional.