Double PM-Rotor, Toothed, Toroidal-Winding Wind Generator: A Comparison With Conventional Winding Direct-Drive PM Wind Generators Over a Wide Power Range

• Published in: IEEE transactions on industry applications Vol. 52; no. 4; pp. 2881 - 2891
• Main Authors: Potgieter, Johannes H. J., Kamper, Maarten J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-07-2016; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Design analysis; Design optimization; finite-element (FE) analysis; Generators; Mathematical analysis; Optimization; Permanent magnets; permanent-magnet (PM) machines; Rotors; Stator windings; Topology; toroidal magnetic fields; wind energy generation; wind energy integration; Wind power generation; Windings
• ISSN: 0093-9994; 1939-9367
• DOI: 10.1109/TIA.2016.2536580

The double rotor, toothed, toroidal-winding permanent-magnet (PM) machine is not a well known concept and has received very limited attention in literature. In this study, the concept is proposed for use as a direct-drive wind generator. Due to the varying design requirements of wind generators over the different power ranges, the PM generator is optimized over the entire installed wind power range. For each power level, the optimum design is compared with optimum nonoverlap-winding and conventional overlap-winding PM machine designs. This also gives a much broader indication on the scaling of different wind generator technologies. Although the electromagnetic design, by means of finite-element analysis, of the generator is the main focus of the paper, some of the implementation issues are also discussed. An existing 15-kW double rotor PM wind generator is modified to include a toroidal-winding, which is used as a case study. Both simulated results and practical measurements in the laboratory for the 15-kW case study toroidal-winding PM generator are presented in this paper.