Novel Resonance Circuit for Heaving Wave Energy Converters

Enhancing electrical power conversion of Wave Energy Converters (WECs) is a continuous research area. A variety of electrical circuits topologies have been considered, including passive and active topologies. In this paper, we propose a simple, inexpensive and efficient that combines a conventional six pulse rectifier with resonance phenomena. Electrical resonance was achieved by adding shunt capacitors between the rectifiers diodes. Capacitors value was selected based on dominant electrical frequency which, in turn, governed by the velocity of the translator of the Permanent Magnet Linear Generator (PMLG). The proposed circuit increased the output power and reduced harmonics compared to another resonance topology. Besides, the behaviour of the closed loop WEC system, including hydrodynamic interactions, was also simulated. The new resonance configuration resulted in a wider bandwidth with respect to sea state.