Abstract
One of the key challenges in wave energy conversion is the improvement of the Power Take-Off (PTO) system. The paper is based on a novel linear switched reluctance generator (LSRG) to be used as PTO. This new azimuthal topology of a LSRG improves the force density and reduces the use of magnetic material - hence, reducing its cost -. This new LSRG has been analysed in detail, optimising the control parameters and evaluating the efficiency, power, and force maps are presented. A detailed PTO model is used, which includes a detailed electric machine model, a power electronics converter model and the low-level control algorithms. This paper presents a methodology for using these maps to define a simplified PTO model version. This simplified model is a PTO-loss model which provides the electric power from the instantaneous velocity and force. A comparison between the results obtained with the simplified and detailed PTO models is performed, in terms of accuracy and computational load. From this analysis, the PTO-loss model is considered adequate to be used in Wave to Wire models due to its low computational cost. The presented methodology will be applied at the development of the azimuthal LSRG to derive its simplified model from real data obtained by characterisation tests. However, it can be used in a broader way to obtain simplified models of any PTO from either detailed models or real data.