Electrical Engineering in Japan, Vol. 113, No.

7, 1993
Translated from Denki Gakkai Ronbuwhi, Vol. 112-D,
No. 5, May 1993, pp. 483-489

Analysis of Brushless Three-Phase Synchronous Generator

Without Exciter

SAKUTARO NONAKA and KATSUMI KESAMARU

Kyushu University

KAZUO HORITA
Tokyo Electric Power Co.

SUMMARY

Permanent magnet-type and crow-ball-type

synchronous generators are brushless. However, the
permanent magnet-type generators are not favorable
because of their machining difficulty and impossibility of
field regulation. The crow-ball synchronous generators
also have disadvantages of complicated structure.
Brushless self-excited single-phase synchronous
generators developed by Nonaka [1-31 produce constant
output voltages without using automatic voltage
regulators and are used widely as portable generators
inside and outside Japan.

Recently, a demand for small-capacity generators

has k e n increasing as electric sources in small ships and
automobiles or as portable electric souxes driven by
engines.
It is desired that the structure of small-capacity
generators be simple and robust, and that the generators
be highly reliable, easily maintained and controlled.
This paper describes an analysis of the original
brushless synchronous generator without exciter. The
output voltage can be adjusted in the wide range by
controlling the stator dc current. To analyze the
characteristicsof this generator,the finite element method
is applied. It is found that the results of theoretical
analysis agree well with the experimental results.

The double frequency voltage induced in the field

winding by the negative phasesequence current which is
produced by the single-phase armatu~ reaction is
rectified to produce the field flux. Generators of this type
are suited for constant-speed operation.
Earlier, we proposed single- and three-phase brushless synchronous generators with stator dc excitation 1461. These generators are suited for variable speed operation, and are equipped with two sets of stator windings
with a different number of poles. The field windings arc
equipped with diodes to rectify the induced ac currents.
They have very simple structure and are of brushless
type. Experimental results obtained from a 3-kVA test
machine show good operating performances [7-91.

Key words: Brushless synchronousgeneratoq halfwave rectifier, finite element method, magnetic field
analysis.
1. Introduction
Smallcapacity ac generators often are used in bad
environments such as a very hot or very cold climate,
sand storms in the desert, violently vibrating vehicles and
ships, factories filled with corrosive gas, etc. It is also
demanded that they be operated without maintenance for
a long time. AC generators used for these purposes must
have simple structures, high reliability and easy
operability.

Shibata proposed a brushless self-excited ac

generator. In this machine, the stator winding is provided
with ac or dc exciting current and the rotor is equipped
with a main field winding and a three-phase exciting
135

ISSN0424-7760/93/0oO7-0
135
0 1994 Scripta Technica, Inc.

v
Fig. 2. Cross section of generator.
Fig. 1. Brushless three-phase synchronous
generator.
study results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the
half-wave rectifier circuit [7].
winding. Since the two rotor windings have a different
number of poles, the structure is complicated [ 10, 111.

This paper aims at analyzing the brushless four-pole

three-phasesynchronous generator without exciter by the
finite element method, taking into account the external
power source [9, 15, 161. The operating characteristics
are analyzed taking into account the effects of c m
saturation and current interruption of rotor diodes. The
validity of the analysis is confirmed by comparison with
experimental results. The effect of air-gap length on the
operating characteristics also is analyzed to establish a
guideline for generator design.

To solve this difficulty, Shibata proposed a new

scheme in which a single-phase full-wave rectifier circuit
is connected between two midpoints of the two parallel
connected field windings [12, 131. In this scheme, the
four windings are connected so that they constitute a halfwave rectifier circuit to provide a rectified current to the
field winding. It works in the same manner as a brushless
generator proposed earlier by the present authors [ 1-3. 7,
41.

In effect, Shibata's generator is based on the same

principle as the stator dc excited brushless generator
proposed earlier by the present authors [7].

2. Circuit Configuration and Machine Structure

We discussed the operating characteristics of a

brushless synchronous generator without exciter; the
stator of this machine is equipped with a two-pole dc
exciting winding and a four-pole three-phase main
winding. The excitation characteristics are analyzed
theoretically and the practicality has been confirmed
experimentally.

The circuit configuration of a brushless three-phase

four-pole synchronous generator is shown in Fig. 1. The
stator is equipped with four-pole three-phase main winding W ,and two-pole dc exciting winding W,.The rotor
shown in Fig. 1 is of salient-pole type but the nonsalientpole-type rotor can be used in practice as well. Four field
windings W,-, to WM of the rotor are equipped with diodes
Dfl to Df4 to constitute a half-wave rectifier circuit. The
two-pole static field produced by the stator dc exciting
winding is compensated almost completely by the ac
component of the field current. Accordingly, the ac
voltage induced in the exciting winding is very small and

2.1 Circuit configuration

The flux distribution inside the machine has been

analyzed by the finite element method and it has been
confirmed that the rotor flux is kept constant despite the
presence of a large ripple component of field current. The

136

Table 1. Specification of generator winding

I

Items

ing
Field wdg.

w1-

we

Number of phases
Number of poles
Number of slots
Number of coils per phase
Number of coil turns
Number of turns in series
Per Phase
Type of winding

3
4

36
6
20

1
2
24
12
34

120

408

Concentric

Concentric

400

Concentrated

3.2 Fundamental equations

the constant voltage characteristics are realized easily by

the stator dc current.

Generally speaking, the two-dimensional electromagnetic field in the rectangular coordinate system (X-Y)
without taking into account the eddy current is expressed
by

2.2 Machine structure

The cross section of a 3-kVA test machine is
shown in Fig. 2. The stator core has an outer diametex of
216 mm, an inner diameter of 145 mm and an air-gap
length of 0.5 mm. The laminated core is 120 mm thick.
The winding specifications of this machine is shown in
Table 1.

where A, is the Z-component of vector potential A; v is

the magnetic reluctivity; and J , is the forced current
density (representing load current density, field current
density, and exciting current density).

3. Analysis by Finite Element Method

3.1 Assumptions
If the load consists of a wye-connected pure
resistance, the voltage equation of the generator is
represented by

To apply the finite element method, the following

assumptions are made.

(i) The electromagnetic field is two-dimensional
extending in the axial direction.
(ii) The eddy current and hysteresis are neglectad.
(iii) The skin effect of winding current is neglected
and the current Rows uniformly over the whole cross
section.
(iv) The rotor rotates at a constant speed or at a,,,.

where R is the load resistance of each phase including the

main winding resistance; ya,y,,,\y, are the flux interlinkages of phase-a, phase-b and phase-c main windings.
The voltage equation of exciting winding is given

(v) Leakage fluxes at the coil ends of four-pole

main winding and field winding are negligible in corn-

bY

parison with the leakage flux of two-pole & exciting

winding.

(3)
137

*
Setting of initial values

Calculation of current
variation 61 and vector
potential variation 64

NO

Fig. 3. Flow chart for analysis.

where \y, is the flux interlinkage of exciting winding; L,

is the coil end leakage inductance; Re is the winding
resistance; E, is the dc exciting voltage.

respective field windings; and R, is the rtsiatances of

respective field windings.
Equations (2) to (4) are approximated by backward
difference equations as shown below.

The voltage equation of field winding is given by

For instance, Eq. (3) is approximated by

where

v,,,

yfl,
,,.Y-\,

where A4,,= a&.

typo is the flux interlinkages of

138

Fig. 4. Finite element subdivision.

Gap length (nm)

Fig. 5. No-load characteristics.

The electromagnetic field under discussion is
analyzed by the finite element method taking into account
the external power source using the aforementioned
fundamental equations. The matrix to be solved in this
analysis is given in [15] and [16].

4. Results of Analysis
Taking into account the asymmetrical flux
distribution, the domain under discussion is divided into
1960 elements and 1028 nodes.

3.3 Method of analysis

The analysis is conducted following the flowchart

shown in Fig. 3. The motion of the rotor is simulated by
moving the stator coil by one slot at a time in the
opposite direction. The effect of slot harmonics is
neglected, and the effect of core saturation is taken into
account by using the Newton-Raphson method. The B-H
curve of the core is approximated by the following
equations:

The generator constants are as follows:

Re=7.0n, LezO.01 H, R/=3.0tl

The effect of air-gap length on the no-load voltage
is shown in Fig. 5. The terminal voltage E , decreeses in
inverse proportion to the air-gap length if the exciting
current I, is less than about 2 A. However, the terminal
voltage decreases monotonically due to the core saturation if the exciting current I, is larger than 2 A. The flux
distributions in no-load conditions for e,,, = 0, 40 are
shown in Fig. 6.The field current varies greatly because
it flows through the half-wave rectifier circuit but the
field flux is kept almost constant.

For 0 I (B-0.2)2S 4,
v =2.873[ 86+ 14 ((B - 0.2))))
~6B2
- 2 0-1 . 1 1 0 ~ ( ~ - 0 . 2 ) ~ ) 4 ( 1 - 0 . 2 / ~ ~

For (B-0.2)2 > 4,

~=2,873(
17,92O{(B-0.2))

Waveforms of rotor flux, stator flux and terminal

voltage in no-load conditions are given in Fig. 7. As
shown in Fig. 6,the rotor field flux yt,,-yp is kept almost
constant while it decays slightly due to the presence of
field resistance.

- 57,2581

3%=
6B [17,Y20 X 2,873(1-0.2/B)
To simulate the current interruption, it is assumed
that the rotor diode turns on when the winding-induced
voltage exceeds the forward voltage drop of diode (0.7
V) and turns off when the current vanishes.

The current waveforms in the no-load conditions of

3 kW are shown in Fig. 8. The waveform of field current
indicates that one diode is in the off-state impectively

139

1"

6m =

Oo

Fig. 6. Flux distributions with rotor angles at no-load.

IIO

l*O

ad*

11*

Mechanical angle of rotor Om (deg)

: Gaplength
Gap length
_ _ _ : Gaplength

-:

Mechanical angle of rotor On (deg)

Fig. 7. Waveforms of flux linkages and

voltage at no-load.

- 0 zmm
- 0 5mm
- 1 Omrn

Fig. 8. Waveforms of currents with some values

of gap length at full load.

140

39

1.5

1.0

I I

Meas. voltage

PP

-0.0

0,5

1.0

1.5

~ x ~ i t i ncurrent
g

1.0

3J

Li-.

IS ( A )

Fig. 9. No-load saturation curves.

of the air-gap length during the 90 deg-period of 6,.

However, the flux interlinking with the field winding in
the off-state is kept constant by the action of three field
windings in the on-state.

reduced by increasing the air-gap length but the required

field current and exciting current are increased. For
instance, the excitation loss, which is about 130 W for
the air-gap length of 0.2 mm, is increased to about 240
W if the air-gap length is as large as 1.0 mm. Therefore,
it is necessary to make the air-gap length as small as
possible in designing the machine.

5. Comparison with Experimental Results

The no-load saturation curves are shown in Fig. 9.
The dc average of field current or (h h = <) is
proportional to exciting current I, and the theoretical
value agrees well with the experimental value.

The m e a d current waveforms in the on-load

condition of 3 kW are shown in Fig. 12. The effect of
slot ripple is observable due to the absence of skew slots.
Except for the slot ripple, the measured waveforms agree
well with the theoretical waveforms.

The load characteristics for I, = 2.1 A are shown in

Fig. 10. The field current is kept constant irrespectively
of load current and air-gap length. The operating characteristics of terminal voltage Ed becomes more remarkable
as the air-gap length decreases.

6. Conclusions

The operating characteristics of a brushless fourpole three-phase synchronous generator without exciter
are analyzed by the fink element method. Special
attention is paid to the effect of air-gap length on the
operating characteristics and it has been found that it is

The load characteristics for E , = 220 V are shown

in Fig. 11. In the case of large air gap, the exciting
current does not vary so much but its absolute value is
rather large. This means that the armature reaction can be

141

2
2
" 2
Q

Load current

I, ( A )

Fig. 11. h a d characteristics (Ed = 220 V constant).

142

2.
3.
4.

5.

6.

7.
8.

9.

10.
0

110

300

Mechanical angle of rotor 8,

I40

720

(degrees)

11.

Fig. 12. Measured waveforms at full load.

12.
13.

desired greatly to reduce the air-gap length as much as

possible.

14.
The generator discussed in this paper is particularly
suited for variable speed operation and maintenance-free
operation.

15.

REFERENCES
16.
1.

Harada and Nonaka. Self-excited single-phase synchronous generator. Patent No. 244444 (Sho 332367).

143

Nonaka. Jour. I.E.E., Japan, Vol. 82, p. 627, Apr.

1962.
Nonaka and Muta. Ibid., Vol. 91, p. 1291, July
1971.
Nonaka and Kesamaru. 1981 National Conv. IEEJ,
No. 701.
Nonaka, Kesamaru and Fujii. Papex of Technical
Meeting on Rotating Machine, I.E.E., Japan, RM82-5, 1982.
S.Nonaka and K. Kesamaru. Brushless SeparatelyExcited Three-Phase Synchronous Generator
without Exciter. International Conference on
Electrical Machines, Budapest, p. 446, 1982.
Nonaka and Kesamaru. Trans. I.E.E.. Japan, Vol.
105-B, p. 851, Oct. 1985.
S. Nonaka and K. Kesamaru. Analysis of Voltageadjustable Brushless Synchronous Generator
without Exciter. IEEETrans.Industr. Applic., Vol.
IA-25, NO.1. 126, 1989.
S. Nonaka and K. Kesamaru. Magnetic Field
Analysis of Brushless 4-pole Single-phase
Synchronous Generator without Exciter.
International Conference on Electrical Machines,
Cambridge, p. 1177. 1990.
F. Shibata ad T.Fulrami. A Brushless, Self-Excited
Poly-phase Synchronous Generator. IEEE Trans.
Power Apparatus Syst., Vol. PAS-102, No. 8,2413,
1983.
Shibata and Naoe.Trans.I.E.E., Japan, Vol. 109-D,
p. 251, Apr. 1989.
Shibata and Fukami. Ibid., Vol. 109-D, p. 865,
Nov. 1989.
Shibata and Naoe.Ibid., Vol. 110-D, p. 1005, Sept.
1990.
Nonaka. Self-excited three-phase synchronous
generator. Patent No. 272321 (Sho 35-1 1263).
Nakata, Takahashi and Fujiwara. Paper of Joint
Technical Meeting on Rotating Machine and Static
Apparatus, I.E.E., Japan, RM-81-40, SA-81-30,
1981.
T. Nakata and N. Takahashi. Direct Finite Element
Analysis of Flux and Current Distributions under
Specified Conditions. IEEE Trans.Magnetics, Vol.
MAG-18, 235, 1982.

AUTHORS (from left to right)

Sakutaro Nonaka graduated in 1952 from Kyushu University and was appointed a Lecturer there in 1954. He also has
a Dr.of Eng. degree. He was promoted to an Assistant Professor at Kyushu University in 1955 and to Full Professor at
Kyushu Institute of Technology in 1965. He was appointed a Full Professor at Kyushu University in 1967 and Chair of
Electrical Apparatus Div. He served as a Director of Superconducting Magnet Research Center from April 1989 to March
1991. He has been involved in research on brushless single-phase synchronous generator, sinusoidal input/output-type PWh4
current source converter-inverter system, superconducting motor, linear induction motor for new railway system,
magnetically levitated railway system, etc. He was awarded a 1971-outstanding paper prize from EEJ,and 1985-IEEElIAS
outstanding paper prize. He served as a 1983-chairman of Kyushu Branch of IEEJ. He has been serving as a member of
operation committee of ICEM since 1980 and electrical machinery committee of IEEE/IAS since 1986. He is a member
of the power electronics study group.
Katsumi Kesamaru graduated from Saga University in 1972 and obtained a Ph.D. from Kyushu University in March
1977. He was appointed an Assistant at Kyushu University in April 1977 and promoted to Associate Professor in July 1989.
He is interested in the brushless generator and magnetic field analysis.
Kazuo Horita graduated from Kagoshima University in March 1991 and obtained a Mastersdegne from Kyushu
University the same year. He joined Tokyo Electric Power Co. in April 1991.

144