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This is an author-produced version of a paper published in IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering. This paper has been peer-reviewed but does not include the final publisher proof-corrections or journal pagination.Citation for the published paper: Yuen K., Thomas K., Grabbe M., Deglaire P., Bouquerel M., Österberg D., Leijon M. "Matching a permanent magnet synchronous generator to a fixed pitch vertical axis turbine for marine current energy conversion" IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, 2009, 34(1) Access to the published version may require subscription. I. INTRODUCTIONF REE flow marine currents, i.e. unregulated water courses, tides and other ocean currents, are an energy resource yet to be utilized on a commercial scale. Without dams, this nonfossil source can give an environmentally benign contribution to the world electricity production. The European tidal potential alone has been estimated to be 39-58 TWh annually [1]- [3]. A number of projects involved with extracting energy from this resource exist, and most concepts are similar to wind energy converters in that they include a turbine and a generator, e.g. [4]- [7].Wind power is similar to marine current energy as it is concerned with harnessing the kinetic energy in a flowing fluid, and there are many relevant comparisons concerning underlying physics, practical engineering experience, etc. However, there are also a number of significant differences, e.g. resource characteristics. As most parts of the system will be submerged in water and thus not easily accessible, it is good to try to minimize needs for maintenance and repair by avoiding mechanically complex systems with many moving parts. In [8], it is concluded that up to 20 percent of the downtime for a wind power plant is due to gearbox failures, and that the majority of these failures are due to wear. Therefore, avoiding gearboxes, yawing and blade pitching is likely to be beneficial Manuscript

This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Highlights • Large-Eddy Simulation strategy of wind turbine wakes including geometrical details is proposed. • The methodology is assessed on two different test cases and validated with experimental results. • The use of unstructured grids to take into account geometrical effects is proved. • High order numerical schemes demonstrated the improvements of the results.