Design and Modeling of Coreless Magnetoelectric Transducers for Snake-like Wave Energy Converters

With the development of the economy, people’s demand for energy is increasing, which has led to a shortage of fossil fuels. Wave energy is a widely distributed renewable energy source, and the development of wave energy generation technology can greatly alleviate the energy shortage problem. This study takes the snake-like wave energy converter (WEC) as an example and designs a coreless magnetoelectric transducer for it. The structure of the coreless magnetoelectric transducer is relatively simple, eliminating the iron core in the transducer, which can eliminate its own damping. At the same time, this structure can minimize the gap between the magnet and the coil, improve energy conversion efficiency, and work continuously under complex working conditions. This study takes two types of coreless magnetoelectric transducers as examples to analyze. This study aims to establish equivalent magnetic circuit models for the coreless magnetoelectric transducers, explore the effects of different magnets on the performance of the transducers, and optimize the parameters in the transducers. We used simulation software to analyze the transducer and verify the accuracy of the models. Finally, prototypes of the coreless magnetoelectric transducers were made, and a testing system for the transducer was established to test its energy conversion capability. Our experiments show that coreless magnetoelectric transducers have good energy conversion capabilities and can be used as transducers for snake-like WECs. At the same time, this type of transducer can also be applied to other types of WECs, providing a new approach for the research of WECs.