Abstract: To be financially viable, both avoiding excessive downtime and offering continued power generation, the design of a submerged wave energy converter (WEC) must be based around survivability and low maintenance needs. A direct drive linear generator as the power take off (PTO) in a WEC has significant potential advantages towards this through
A crucial part of thelinear generator’s reliability is the performance of its’ bearings. This work explores how plain contact polymer linear bearings react when tested under conditions that replicate their operation in a WEC.
The content of this paper focuses on the work involved in converting a prototype novel linear generator, the C-Gen machine, into a test rig to determine response of the bearings to submerged, loaded, oscillating operation.