Accounting for the Armature Magnetic Reaction and Saturation Effects in the Reluctance Model of a New Concept of Claw-Pole Alternator

Abstract

We describe the development and the experimental validation of a magnetic equivalent circuit (MEC) of a new claw pole alternator where the DC-excitation winding is located in the stator (CPAES), rather than in the rotor in conventional claw pole alternator. Thus, we discarded the brush-ring system and achieved crucial cost, compactness, and reliability benefits. The proposed MEC treats both no-load and loaded armature operations. It also accounts for the saturation of the magnetic circuit. We numerically solve the established MEC using the Newton-Raphson algorithm. We validated the established MEC by considering experimental tests carried out on a prototype of the CPAES. We found that the results yielded by the proposed MEC and those given by the experimental tests are in good agreement.