J Material Based Lightweight Linear Electrical Generator With Improved Dynamics for Harvesting Oceanic Wave Energy

Dynamics of a linear electrical generator (LEG) for harvesting oceanic wave depends on the translator weight. Generally, the translator weight of a conventional LEG is very high owing to use of the conventional magnetic core with high mass density that results in poor dynamics. In this paper, an attempt of minimizing weight of the LEG is made by using Ferrite J material having low mass density. But it has poor magnetic saturation that results in a low amount of power generation. On the other hand, a high amount of electrical power is generated with the LEG by using electrical steel core because of its high saturation point. But the mass density of this core is high, which minimizes the dynamics due to its bulk weight. In addition, most of the high graded magnetic cores have the property of high mass density. To solve this dilemma, J material is used in the translator and electrical steel core is applied to the stator of the proposed LEG that produces enough electrical power while improving the dynamics. The simulation is executed by ANSYS/Maxwell software that uses finite element method. Based on the application of J material and electrical steel core, four combinations are found namely, LEG-I, LEG-2, LEG-3, and LEG-4. Various parameters are plotted and compared to find out the suitable one. From the simulation results and characterization, it is found that LEG-2 outperforms over the others, where combination of both Ferrite J material and electrical steel are used. The proposed LEG (LEG-2) generates 5, 841.6W more power than LEG-I for the same translator weight.