IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 32, NO.

4, JULY 1996

2389

A Permanent-Magnet Generator for Wind Power Applications

L. SMerlund and J-T. Eriksson J. Salonen, H. Vihriiila and R. P e d a Tampere University of Technology, Laboratory of Electricity and Magnetism
Abstruct-h order to achieve a gearless construction of the wind energy conversion system (WECS) a low-speed, i.e. multipole, generator is required. This paper examines an axial-field permanent-magnetsynchronouswind power generator (PMWG) mainly from the magnetic viewpoint. Both mechanical and electromagnetic designs are described as well as some primary test results concerning the model generators having nominal power of 5 and 10 kW.

I. INTRODUCTION The rotational speed of a modem 500 kW wind turbine is

20-40 rpm. Therefore a gearbox is needed to increase the

rotational speed suitable for the commonly used four-pole induction generator. A construction containing no gearbox offers several advantages, namely higher overall efficiency and reliability, reduced weight and diminished need for maintenance. Thus the present trend in wind power industry is to achieve such a construction. In order to produce a 50 Hz frequency at such a low speed, a large number of magnetic poles is required. The rotational speed of 40 rpm corresponds to a number of poles equal to 150, which would be very difficult to implement using traditional electromagnets. A novel generator enabling a very large number of poles has been designed and built at Tampere University of Technology. The magnetic field is axial and created by permanent magnets (PMs) representing the state of the art, namely Nd-Fe-B (Neodymium-Iron-Boron). 11. GENERATOR DESIGN Fig. 1 presents the schematic cross section of the generator. The stator is toroidal and its core is simply made of iron tape to avoid eddy currents. The winding is wound directly on the toothless stator core. A Slotless winding provides a very large magnetic airgap between the stator and the rotor iron cores causing the self and mutual inductances to be extremely small. In addition, the obvious absence of the slot leakage flux further decreases the inductances. The end windings are very short so that the
Manuscript received June 12, 1995. L. Siiderlund, e-mail soderlun@butler.cc.tt.fi, phone +358 3 3162006; J-T. Eriksson, phone +358 3 3162080 J. Salmen, e-mail jsalonen@cc.tut.fi, phone +358 3 3162003; H. Vihriala, e-mail vihriala@cctutfi, phone +358 3 3162005; R. P e d a , e-mail rp86501@ee.tut.fi, phone +358 3 3162005; All the authors fax number is +358 31 3162160. This work has been supported by the Advanced Energy Systems and Technologies Research Programme of the Finnish M i n i s t r y of Trade and Industry, ABB Strijmberg Motors Oy, ABB Striimberg Industry Oy and Outokumpu Magnets Oy.

resistance i s small, too. Permanent magnets are mounted on two rotor discs on both sides of the stator. The permanent magnet wind power generator (PMWG) has several significant adlvantageous properties. The construction is simple. It contains no teeth and the stator core can be wound directly from tape. The PMs are rectangular, while in the traditional radial-llux machines they would have a shape of an arc. Due to the magnets there is no need for the extemal magnetization, wlhich is important especially in stand-alone wind power applications and also in remote areas where the grid cannot easily supply the reactive power required to magnetize the induction generator. Due to the small resistance, PR-losses are small. Iron losses are also small, due to the laminated stator core and the absence of the armature reaction. The winding being in the airgap field causes eddy currents in the conductors, but by proper dimensioning of the winding the losses can be reduced to an acceptable level. The overall autial length of the generator is small and correspondingly the nacelle of the wind power plant becomes simpler than with the traditional drive. On the other hand the diameter is large. It should not exceed 10% of the turbine diameter. However, if there is a need to restrict the generator diameter several units can be connected mechanically in series within the same frame. The total weight assembled to the top of the tower decreases because of the absence of the gearbox, accordingly some financial savings are achieved.

I L
PERMANENT MAGNEl ROTOR TQROlDAl STATOR WINDING

dI

I.

. U

Fig. 1. Schematic cross section of the generator.

0018-9464/96$05.00 0 1996 IEEE

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111. ELECTROMAGNE~C DESIGN

A preliminary design algorithm has been derived to determine the basic active part dimensions. In order to simplify the calculations the following assumptions have been used: 1) The flux in the iron is uniformly lstributed and there is no leakage flux. 2) Relative permeability of iron is infinite and that of copper is one. 3) The flux created by the armature current has no effect on the main flux of the PMs. It is clear that these assumptions lead to somewhat inaccurate results. The primary goal of the algorithm is to obtain a good initial geometry for the numerical FEM computations. The calculations are performed mainly for twodimensional cases. A three-dimensional model is merely used for checking the results. That is because the time required by 3-d calculations is much longer than that of 2-d cases. A. Magnets
Material

TABLE I
SOME PROPERTIES OF P

m MAGNET MATERIAIS

B,(T)
1.280 0.385 0.560 0.870 1.230

K@")
51
235 239 637 881

BY,@J/m') 44 28 61 146 290

T,,("C)
>300 <lo0 a250
~150

Alnico V
Fenites Mn-Al-C SmCo, Nd,,B,F+

(3) edges of the stator iron, because some of the fringe flux can be exploited. Because of the mutual repulsion each magnetic pole must be of a size which can be mounted as a single piece. Screws must be used for the fastening of the pole pieces. The sintered magnetic material requires that the holes are accounted for during the manufacturing process. The added cost of obtaining such magnets is of little significance. Glue can not be used, because the temperature coefficients of iron and magnet material are different. Because of the susceptibility to corrosion magnets must be coated with nickel. When dimensioning the magnets, it is necessary to ensure that the operating point leaves a proper margin against demagnetization in all situations.
B . Winding

Table I [l] compares some relevant properties for a few common PM materials. B, is the remanence flux density, H, is the coersitive field strength, BH- is the maximum energy density and T- is the maximum operating temperature. In the present case Nd,5B8Fq7was chosen because of its superior properties. The ideal shape of a single magnetic pole is an arc. However, in large machines with nominal power of 100 kW or more, the diameter is several meters and the magnet shape is approximately rectangular. The torque can be calculated [l] as T = 2nJr2Bb(q2 - r,") and the power accordingly
P = 4n?Jr2Bnb(rlZ - r;).

(1)

(2)

There exists an optimum value of winding thickness maximising the power capacity for given copper losses [21. In such case resistive DC losses and eddy current losses are equal. Eddy current losses per unit conductor volume are given by [21

J is the current density in the conductors, B is the average flux density in the winding, n is the rotational speed, b is the axial thickness of the winding while rl and rz are the outer and inner radius of the stator core, respectively. A n optimum value of 43 can be found for the ratio between outer and inner radius [I], [2]. The optimum maximizes the power for the given outside diameter and loading. It is not, however, either mechanically or economically reasonable to use the optimal ratio. For an outside radius of 1 m, for instance, the ra&al width of stator core would be 0.42 m. The stator mounting would be extremely difficult because of the large torques at the inner radius. Furthermore, the price of the magnet material is so dominant that a much cheaper construction is achieved by keeping the radial length of the stator small, in about 0.2 m, and increasing the outer radius. The thickness of the magnets can be calculated using the basic magnetic circuit rules and is given in [I]. 6 is the airgap length and is the relative permeability of the magnet material. It is useful to extend the magnets a little over the

PE =

B:a2d2

(4)

32P B, is the peak value of the flux density, o is the electrical angular frequency, d is the diameter of a single conductor and p is the conductor resistivity. Eddy current losses are proportional to the square of the angular speed. In wind power application, the generator speed is variable and therefore the optimum value cannot be used. The cross section of the single conductor is set by the phase current. Obviously a large current and hence a large conductor diameter leads to high eddy current losses unless the conductor is subdivided into twisted fine strands. That, however, leads to a reduced copper section and increased 1% losses. On the other hand, phase current can be reduced either by connecting several individual coils in parallel or by using a large number of phases. The latter is preferred because of the high probability of circulating currents between coils in parallel.

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C . Optimum Proportions

It is clear that, due to the aspects mentioned above as well as several others any closed form for optimum design cannot be derived. Using a proper computer-aided method to evaluate the effects of different dimensions, an overall optimum within restrictions set by the applicabon purpose can be reached. In wind power applications the major restriction is the outer diameter of the nacelle, which must not exceed 10%of the diameter of the turbine. An optimum here means that the costs, including both capital costs and discounted costs of dissipated heat during the life cycle, are minimized. Naturally, this must be done without sacrificing the essential properties, such as voltage regulation, cooling and reliability. In subsection E such an iterative process is applied to a generator with a nominal power of 100 kW.

Fig. 2. Magnetic flux of the model generator.

D.Model Generator
In order to verify the calculations, as well as to study the mechanical properties, two experimental machines of 10 and 5 kW,respectively, have been designed and built. Table I1 lists major dimensions and properties. Fig. 2 presents the calculated no load flux. In machine 2 (5 kW) the radial distance between magnets and casing has been increased and the casing material was chosen with a lower conductivity than in machine 1 (10 kw). If the casing is too close to the rotating magnets the leakage flux will induce eddy currents causing extra losses and heating. The generators have been tested by using a DC driving machine. Some basic results are presented here. The axial flux densities at the surface of the stator iron and at the outer surface of the coils are presented in Figs. 3 and 4. It can be seen that the measured value especially at the iron surface is slightly larger than the calculated one, however a 5% accuracy is acceptable. The fluctuations are due to the nonuniformity of the PM material. The generator is connected to the grid via a current-source inverter. Hence a flat-topped flux wave is advantageous.
TABLE I1 MODEL GENERATOR DIMENSIONS AND PROPERTIES
Machlne Stator core outer diameter (mm) Stator core inner diameter (nun) Phases
Cods Turns / cod

o.3

Time (ms)
Fig. 3. The m a l flux density at the stator surface as a function of time at nommal speed.

0.45
o.4

1
400 230 3 42

2 400 230 3 42 40 1196 3.86 240 5 14 0'38

- CAlculated

36
0 6413 not calculated

Phase resistance at 20C (a) Phase self lnductance @H) Nomlnal voltage / phase Nomlnal power (kw) Pole number Average air gap flux density (T)

195
10

Time (ms)
Fig. 4. n e axial flux density at the (cod surface as a function of time at nominal speed.

14 0.34

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The phase voltages at no load and at 5 kW purely resistive load are presented in Fig 5 . The voltage wave includes a large proportion, 14% of the 3rd harmonic, which is due to the flat-topped flux wave. A slight distortion of the loaded voltage wave is due to load current magnetization. E . Design of 100 k W Generator
h

12 10

- l=O.lm I=U.lSm 1= 0.2 m 1=0.2S-m

"

Utilizing a computer algorithm the influence of the dimensions of the active part on the weight and the cost function was evaluated for varying outer diameters. At a nominal power of 100 kW the average flux density was set to 0 . 4 T. The curves are for four different radial lengths of the stator. The costs include the costs of lifetime losses (5% interest and 6.7 $/kWh). It should be noted that both the weight and the cost concern only active part materials. Furthermore, the algorithm, with it's limitations, is applied here. The weight of the active parts and overall costs are presented in Figs. 6 and 7, respectively. Both for the weight and the costs, there exists an optimum value of the outer radius. It may not be appreciable to choose the outer radius according to minimum costs, since some extra savings can be achieved by reducing the weight. Furthermore, the radius must be restricted, as mentioned above. IV. CONCLUSIONS The present PM synchronous machine is a new type of generator for slow speed applications, e.g. wind power generation. It easily facilitates a large number of poles. Using a simple algorithm combined with FEM, it is possible to design the magnetic circuit with great accuracy, as shown by the close agreement between calculations and measurements.

zl

64-

Outer radius (m)

Fig. 6. The active part weight as a function of outer radius, for B=0.4 T, P=lOO kW and n=60 'pn.

2.4 2.2 ,

A05

- 1tQ.l m

Fig. 7. Overall costs of the life cycle as a function of outer radius, for B d . 4 T, P=100 kW and n=60 rpm.

2 100 >

2 50
0

-_

At noioad ---- At 5 kW load

The mechanical construction requires small tolerances and reliable mounting of both the magnets and the stator core. Special attention must be paid to the choice of structure materials. In conclusion, the PMWG provides a compact and effective solution to the wind industry's present intention to implement a gearless energy conversion system with a high overall efficiency.
REFERENCES [ l ] R. Peril& "Electromagnetic design of a wind power generator", Tampere University of Technology, March 1994, intemal report (in f i s h ) . [2] E. S p n e r . B.J. Chalmers, "'TORUS': A slotless, toroidal-stator, permanent-magnet generator", IEE-proceedings-B, Vol. 139, pp. 497-506, November 1992.

Fig. 5. Phase voltages against ungrounded star-point at no load and at 5 kW resistive load.

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