Design of a Sustainable Wind Generator System Using Redundant Materials

Abstract

This paper presents the design of a sustainable wind generator system using redundant materials. The topology makes use of permanent magnets (PMs) from discarded computer hard disk drives. The challenges associated with these magnets are discussed in detail. An axial-flux machine topology is developed, which ensures balanced voltage production and eliminates the large proportion of coil interconnecting leads associated with direct-drive wind generators which operate at low speed and have many poles. The performance of the machine is first predicted using classical machine theory. Detailed 2-D and 3-D numerical analyses of the machine topology are then presented, and a sensitivity analysis is conducted with the help of the numerical analysis, in which the influence of the PM dimensions on the performance of the machine is investigated. Finally, the analytical and numerical results are verified using experimental results.