Design and Experimental Verification of a Linear Permanent Magnet Generator for a Free-Piston Energy Converter

This paper discusses issues that are pertinent to the design of a linear permanent magnet generator for application in a free-piston energy converter. To achieve the required high power density, high efficiency, and low moving mass, a tubular machine equipped with a modular stator winding and a quasi-Halbach magnetized armature is employed. It is shown that the machine design can be optimized with respect to three key dimensional ratios while satisfying other performance requirements. It is also shown that, when the generator is interfaced to an electrical system via a power electronic converter, both the converter volt-amps rating and the converter loss should be taken into account when optimizing the machine design. The performance of such a tubular generator is demonstrated by measurements on a 10-pole/9-slot prototype machine.