Application of linear magnetic gears for pseudo-direct-drive oceanic wave energy harvesting

Abstract

This paper proposes a linear permanent magnet (PM) machine for direct-drive wave energy harvesting by using a linear magnetic gear. The proposed machine consists of a linear magnetic gear cascaded with a linear PM generator in which the high-speed mover of the linear magnetic gear and the translator of the PM generator artfully shares with the same shaft. In short, the slow reciprocating wave motion is directly captured by the low-speed mover of the gear, and then amplified in speed via the gear to actuate the generator, hence producing higher output voltage. By using finite element analysis, the steady and dynamic performances are analyzed, which confirms that the proposed machine can offer higher power density and higher efficiency than its counterpart. © 2011 IEEE.