Damping Control of Heaving Wave Energy Harvester Using a Single-Switch Boost Rectifier Circuit

In this paper, a novel online damping control strategy is proposed. The strategy is based on developing an explicit relation for controlling the damping force of the permanent magnet linear generator (PMLG) in real time. The strategy regulates the duty cycle of a single-switch three-phase boost rectifier connected to the PMLG. Computer simulations were conducted to assess the performance of the wave energy converter (WEC) when applying the proposed strategy under different operating scenarios. The results showed satisfactory performances for different sea wave conditions and under various electrical loading conditions.