Direct-drive Permanent Magnet Wind Generator Research Articles

MADE3D: Enabling the next generation of high-torque density wind generators by additive design and 3D printing

Direct-drive wind turbine generators are increasing in popularity, thanks to recent project developments—especially offshore, where reliability and efficiency are major cost drivers. Yet, high capital costs are forcing many original equipment manufacturers to consider lightweight, high-torque density generators for next-generation multi-megawatt turbines that may be difficult to realize by traditional design or manufacturing methods. In this study, we present a new design framework enabled by advanced machine learning and multimaterial additive manufacturing to perform a magnetic topology optimization that maximizes the torque per rotor active mass for a 15-megawatt direct-drive permanent magnet wind generator. A comparison of the proposed approach against conventional topology optimization demonstrated a significant increase in computational efficiency and accuracy in performance predictions. Results using single and multimaterial compositions for rotor core and magnets identify a wider choice of 3D printable designs for a given specification. A hybrid combination of sintered and dysprosium-free polymer-bonded magnets shows good potential for torque performance by saving material costs up to 8.75%. More than 30% improvement in rotor torque densities is identified which can marginally improve the overall generator torque density. With the rapid evolution of multipowder deposition technolgies, this study can greatly inspire a new paradigm for design-driven manufacturing with novel material compositions and lightweight, low-cost, high-strength multimaterial geometries that were previously unexplored for direct-drive generators.

Optimization of Ventilation Spacer for Direct-Drive Permanent Magnet Wind Generator

As the rated capacity of the Direct-Drive Permanent Magnet Wind Generator (DDPMWG) increases, the heat produced from the generator’s inner components also increases and it becomes difficult to transfer the inner heat to the ambient. The ventilation spacer has a significant influence on the heat transfer process of DDPMWG. Thus, this paper focuses on the optimization of the ventilation spacer on the thermal field of DDPMWG. Firstly, the fluid flow and heat transfer coupled numerical calculation model is established. The physical model, composed of two half-slots and one tooth of DDPMWG, is established due to the structural symmetries to save the calculations. The sources and boundary conditions for the thermal calculations are also given. Five new ventilation spacers, compared with the original one, are proposed to investigate the thermal fields. The pressure drop and temperature field are compared to find the optimized ventilation spacer for the DDPMWG. The criteria are also presented for judging the heat transfer capacity. To validate the optimized ventilation spacer, the temperature rises of the armature winding with original and optimized ventilation spacers are measured. It proves that the armature winding’s temperature rise of the optimized ventilation spacer is about 4.7 K lower than that with the original ventilation spacer.

Health condition assessment of wind turbine generators based on supervisory control and data acquisition data

As the running time of a wind turbine generator unit (WTGU) increases, the ageing and wear of its components will be aggravated gradually, which leads to deterioration of its operation condition. In order to ensure the safe and stable operation of WTGU and prolong its service life, it is of great significance to know the health condition of the WTGU and reasonably arrange maintenance. Based on the structure of the WTGU and the operation principle of the wind turbine generator (WTG), the condition assessment indexes of WTG were built, and the factors influencing the assessment index were determined. The relationship function between the assessment indexes and their influencing factors was established by using the least square support vector machine, which was used to determine the dynamic limitation of condition assessment index of WTG. The dynamic weight of each assessment index was used to characterise the influence of deterioration degree of different components on WTG conditions. Then the health conditions of WTG were evaluated using a similar cloud and fuzzy comprehensive assessment method separately. Finally, the proposed methods were verified by two examples including a direct-drive permanent magnet wind generator and a doubly-fed wind generator.

The Structure and Finite Element Analysis of a New Type of Maglev Wind Generator

Abstract. In this paper, a new type of maglev wind generator is proposed. The working principle, structure characteristics and the finite element analysis of the new maglev wind turbine are introduced. The generator consists of a 2 degrees of freedom (DOF) maglev generator and a 3 DOF hybrid magnetic bearing. An eight poles active magnetic bearing with external rotor is added into traditional direct-drive permanent magnet wind generator. The rotor ring is hollowed, which can leads to the self-decoupling for magnetic fields between power generation system and suspension system. Compared with the conventional maglev wind generator, the proposed generator not only shows the same advantages of traditional maglev wind turbines, but also improves the axial length utilization and decrease the cost of motor control.

Electromagnetic Design of Concentrated Winding in a Direct-Drive Permanent Magnet Wind Generator with Evaporative-Cooling and Inner-Cooling System

This paper describes the fundamental principle of the direct-drive permanent magnet wind generator with evaporative-cooling and inner-cooling system and raises a method to apply concentrated winding to the electromagnetic design of this motor in order to simplify its processing technic. It also includes simulation and comparison of electromotive force of fundamental wave produced by concentrated winding under different slot-opening factors. A reasonable slot-opening factor was selected in the electromagnetic design of a 2 MW direct-drive permanent magnet wind generator with evaporative-cooling and inner-cooling system and the validity of the design has been proved by simulation.

Lumped-parameter-based thermal analysis of a doubly radial forced-air-cooled direct-driven permanent magnet wind generator

A lumped-parameter-based thermal analysis of a direct-driven permanent magnet wind generator with double radial forced-air cooling is presented. In the proposed thermal model, the thermal conduction and convection as well as the heating of the cooling fluid are modeled in terms of thermal resistances. The electromagnetic losses of the generator are calculated by a two-dimensional, non-linear, time-stepping finite element method. The developed thermal calculation model can be applied both to static and transient problems. The performance of the proposed thermal model is compared with the results calculated by using computational fluid dynamics. The presented modeling strategy is implemented into an analytical calculation tool, which is used in the design process of a 3.35MW high-torque low-speed direct-driven permanent magnet synchronous generator. Experimental results for a 3.35MW permanent magnet generator are presented.

Optimal Design of a Direct-Driven PM Wind Generator Aimed at Maximum AEP using Coupled FEA and Parallel Computing GA

Optimal design of the direct-driven Permanent Magnet(PM) wind generator, combined with F.E.A(Finite Element Analysis) and Genetic Algorithm(GA), has been performed to maximize the Annual Energy Production(AEP) over the entire wind speed characterized by the statistical model of wind speed distribution. Particularly, the proposed parallel computing via internet web service has contributed to reducing excessive computing times for optimization.