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Reliable Maximum Energy Damping Selection Strategy for Wave Energy Power Converters

Fig. 1. Power and temperature fluctuation under nominal wave condition Hs = 1.25 m, Te = 6.5 s, Zin = 7.5 Ω. Output power of the power converter Po, and the junction temperature of the IGBT module Tj1-d1 are shown.
It is necessary to develop a control algorithm for power converters to reduce the damage from thermal cycles and produce more energy. Fig. 2 shows the damping selection strategy to maximize the energy over different wave conditions. The annual wave control profile is then selected based on the map in Fig. 2 for maximum power and maximum energy strategy for each wave condition. Energy and power over certain wave conditions is weighted based on its possibility over the course of a year, which sums up as the average power. Total recoverable energy is derived from the energy of each irregular wave condition over the period Tirr, multiplied by the total numbers for each condition, and adding up all the products. The final results for each selection strategy are shown in Fig. 3. With the maximum power strategy for damping selection, the average power over a year is higher than with a maximum energy strategy; in fact, the total recoverable energy is 38.5% higher when selecting damping with a maximum energy strategy.

Fig. 2. Maximum energy and maximum power damping selection map on annual wave profile.

Fig. 3. Average power per year, and total recoverable energy on maximum power or maximum energy selecting strategy.
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