Issues with Low Speed Direct-Drive PermanentMagnet Generator Design Comparison of RadialFlux Slotted and Torus Machines

D. G. Dorrell* and Min-Fu Hsieh** *School of Mechanical, Electrical and Mechatronic Systems, University of Technology Sydney, Australia **Department of Systems and Naval Mechatronic Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan David.Dorrell@uts.edu.au which has not been previously reported. The generator design is developed using SPEED PC-BDC and PC-FEA [8].
1500 mm
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Abstract- This paper describes two alternative designs of a direct-drive permanent-magnet generator for use in a novel seawave electrical generator. The basic system is briefly described and the target specification is given from the wave device. The design for a fractional-slot high-pole number brushless permanent-magnet generator and a torus generator are sized and developed using the design packages SPEED PC-BDC and PC-FEA. The designs are compared. A diode bridge model is also tested using Portunus system simulation. A design for a switched reluctance machine is also briefly investigated.

800 mm Twin generators: Twin generators - one one for each for each armature armature

I.

INTRODUCTION

300 mm 300 mm

300 mm 300 mm

With the development of new electrical generation systems which are both low-speed and variable-power, there is increasing attention is being paid to the need for direct-drive generators. Many applications are renewable energy sourced so high efficiency is required. Many permanent magnet generators suffer from low power factor [1] and will require controlled rectification. It is an advantage to have high power factor so that a diode bridge load can be utilized for simple and robust operation [2], rather than controlled rectification. The topology of these machines can vary considerably they can be of conventional radial-flux [2] with slotted stator and surface/internal magnets, axial-flux machines with airgap windings [3], torus arrangements [4] or Vernier hybrid [5]. This paper describes a comparison between two directdrive PM generators for use in a low speed electrical generator application. There is little literature the direct comparison of different generators, and this is an important aspect to the selection of a suitable machine. Hence this paper sets out to do this for two different generator topologies. A basic target specification is outlined for a target prototype sea-wave electrical generation application under development (as shown in Fig. 1). This has already been tested and the small permanent magnet generator, which was used via 10:1 belt gearing, was found to be inappropriate for this application, hence direct-drive was considered as the correct arrangement. This is a specialized application; there has been some recent literature on marine energy generator design using axial-flux air-cored machines [6] and linear machines [7]. This paper represents an electromagnetic design challenge and discusses a direct machine comparison

Sea wave with cylinder marginally buoyant just below water surface

Wave propagation Cylinder rotates around this orbit (but stays upright in water)

Generator rotor turns around this axis as cylinder moves in a circular orbit in water Generator maximum stator diameter Armature structure

Fig. 1 Axial section through Bristol Cylinder device, photo of manufactured device with 10:1 step-up gearing and small generator (inside top - not a successful arrangement), and simple diagram showing operation.

II. SYSTEM SPECIFICATION AND SLOTTED MACHINE OUTLINE The generator is aimed at being used in a novel Bristol cylinder device as described in [9]; a simple diagram of the location of the generators in the semi-submerged cylinder is shown in Fig. 1. If the target speed is 15 rpm (with a 200 Nm load), and allowing a frequency of 12.5 Hz at this speed, then a pole number of 100 is obtained. The reason for using a low frequency is to restrict the pole number as discussed below. The frequency is low because the generator may be required to operate at higher speed (above 60 rpm) and also the pole number would be prohibitively high in such a relatively small machine. Surface magnets are used to prevent saliency and minimize Xq. This will also simplify the rotor structure of the rotor. The reason for doing this is to restrict the voltage drop due to armature reaction as shown in Fig. 3 (a). This will improve the power factor. Further work would be to investigate the use of an interior permanent magnet rotor for this sort of generator. The slot number should be a multiple of 3 for a 3-phase winding. A convenient number for 100 poles is 90 slots with two coil-sides per slot. The machine uses rare earth magnets. Fig. 2 shows the machine and winding layout (for 3 phases). The periodicity of this arrangement is 9 slots (10 poles). The use of fractional slot stator topology is necessary to reduce prohibitive cogging torque.

PC-FEA, in conjunction with PC-BDC, was used to construct a 2-D model of the machine and obtain a set of solutions for various problems such as back-EMF under no load, current/flux-linkage loops for torque calculation under load, and cogging torque. This represents a very timeeffective way of obtaining performance calculations since these are automatic routines within the packages used. It can also be combined with other packages (for instance, thermal design packages, as illustrated in [10]). In the section below, a sizing exercise is carried out for the slotted machine. After this, the phasor diagram, cogging torque and diode bridge operation is addressed. The Torus machine is slotless and has low armature reaction, so cogging torque does not exist and it should operate well when connected to a diode bridge rectifier so these are omitted for this machine. A. Sizing As stated earlier, if the target speed is 15 rpm, and the frequency of 12.5 Hz at this speed, the pole number is 100. [11] suggests that the torque per rotor volume (TRV) for a high-performance (i.e., with rare-earth magnets) brushless permanent-magnet machine should be between 20 and 45 kNm/m3. Since this is a prototype permanent magnet machine then the low end of the range is taken. The total axial length for the machine is 270 mm and often the core length of a machine is about half the total length. Using 135 mm for the core length gives a rotor diameter of

D=2

T 200 1 =2 = 0.307 m (1) TRV Lstk 20 103 0.135

(a) Winding arrangement

(b) Radial crosssection

Fig. 2. (a) Winding arrangement and (b) stator cross section.

III. DESIGN OF SLOTTED RADIAL-FLUX MACHINE In this section the machine is sized using basic sizing techniques and geometric parameters. There is much literature on designing this sort of machine as a motor though it is more limited when related to the design of the machine as a generator. There are some subtle differences in requirement, especially if a diode bridge is used rather than a controlled rectifier. In this case low armature reaction is prerequisite for successful operation.

Hence, the radius of the rotor is 150 mm and the axial length is 135 mm. Surface magnets are used to prevent saliency and minimize Xq. The machine is 3-phase. A simple 3 coils-per-pole could be set which would be 3 slots per pole. The problem with this is that there is likely to be substantial cogging torque and also 300 slots is a complicated and difficult geometry to realize as already mentioned. A fractional slot arrangement is far more practicable. The size is calculated to fill the generator voids in Fig. 1. It should easily meet the performance so that it can be connected to a diode bridge rectifier (requiring low armature reactance) and give good efficiency. The problems with compact generator design were discussed in [2]. The slot number should be a multiple of 3 for a 3-phase winding. As discussed above, a convenient slot number for 100 poles is 90 slots with two coil-sides per slot. This gives 30 coils per phase and each coil has a one tooth pitch. There is an alignment every 9 slots (or 10 poles) so that the coils can be grouped in 3 coils per grouping. Fig. 2(a) shows the coil arrangement. The slots and stator are scaled to give appropriate slot area (211 mm2), tooth width (4 mm) and yoke depth (30 mm). This is shown in Fig. 2(b). The outer radius is only 420 mm which is much less than the cylinder void. The slot opening was set to 3 mm and the coils consist of 60 series turns and each turn is formed from two parallel stands of 0.75 mm diameter wire. The gross slot fill is 0.5.

This represents a winding that can be realized though tightly packed. The magnets are a rare-earth type with a Br of 1.1 T. The thickness was set to 3 mm with a pitch-per-pole of 150 electrical degrees. The thickness of the magnet can be crucial. If they are too thin then there will be high armature reactance and poor regulation. If they are too thick then this is quite wasteful in magnet material. At 228 Nm (generating) the current is only 1.77 Arms (with an induced back-EMF of 68 V). This gives a winding current density of 2 A/mm2. This is very low; however, it is necessary to do this to maintain a good efficiency (70 %) although the power density will be at the lower end of the TRV range. While brushless permanent-magnet motors are known to operate at efficiencies well in excess of 90 %, this is for machines operating at maybe 100 Hz supply frequency. There is a trade-off here where the operating frequency is low to limit the pole number. For instance, if the speed is doubled to 30 rpm (25 Hz operation) and the torque is maintained, then there would be a small increase in iron loss but the copper loss is about the same. The generated power is therefore doubled for the same current (i.e., the efficiency increases to about 85 %). Hence low-loss windings are essential for efficient operation in low-frequency high polenumber machines. B. Phasor Diagram The phase winding back-EMF has a good sinusoidal waveform with 3rd harmonic (which does not affect the operation). The torque has little ripple (with a mean of 228 Nm). The machine is current-fed and the current phasor is on the q axis. The phasor diagram is shown in Fig. 3(a). When the machine is attached to a diode bridge rectifier the performance will be degraded, this is because the current will not be in phase with the back-EMF and not sinusoidal. Low IqXq will help the diode bridge and this is investigated later. C. Finite Element Analysis and I-Psi Diagram The current/flux-linkage loop (I-Psi diagram) is used to cross-check the torque. This is obtained by rotating the rotor and current vector together in the FEA, and obtaining a number of simulations at set positions. The area enclosed in the loop represents the work done and hence the torque can be obtained. This is the method used to obtain torque in a switched reluctance machine but it can be applied to any machine in general. The model spanned 10 poles and a flux plot is shown in Fig. 3(b) for this segment. This shows that the machine is not heavily fluxed and the frequency is low so that it will have low iron losses and lower TRV. The derived current/flux-linkage loop is shown in Fig. 4. The current and rotor rotation are cycled round together and the flux linkage measured at each step. The area enclosed is the work done and therefore, with a knowledge of the rotor speed, the torque can be calculated in a straightforward manner. If the loop is long and thin then the machine is operating poorly however this example shows good conversion. These loops are calculated both in PC-BDC

(solid line torque = 222 Nm) and PC-FEA (dotted line torque = 254 Nm). Good correlation is illustrated showing the validity of the analytical magnetic circuits in PC-BDC even with a design with many poles and a fractional slot number.
RIq Eq=68 V IqXq

Vt=56 V Vq

Vd Iq

Fig. 3. (a) Phasor diagram with current on the -q-axis and (b) One
solution for FEA model showing 10 pole (pitch of periodicity).

Flux linkage [V.s]

Current [A]

Fig. 4. I-Psi loop for one phase (dotted PC-FEA, solid PC-BDC).

Fig. 5. Cogging torque characteristic over rotor cycle.

D. Cogging Torque The cogging torque is also examined using PC-FEA. This is done by stepping round one rotor pitch using small steps and obtaining the torque when the stator windings are unexcited. Cogging torque requires fine detail of the machine magnetic circuit to calculate an accurate model, particularly when there is not an integral number of slots-per-pole, as is the case here. This routine steps around the rotor and measures the cogging torque using a variety of methods. Cogging torque is very susceptible to numerical error so it is important to use these different methods to see if the calculation is valid. The calculation is also prone to errors due to poor meshing. The air-gap has four regular layers and the shape of these do not change during the rotation - the distance between the nodes round the central air-gap boundary is equal to the step angle between steps. Fig. 5 shows the cogging torque calculation from the virtual work method. The other

methods correlated with this; the cogging torque of about 2.8 Nm peak to peak. E. Diode Bridge Operation The system was simulated using Portunus (which is a circuit and power electronics simulation package). The circuit is shown in Fig. 6. This was carried out to investigate the performance of the machine when attached to a diode bridge rectifier rather than a controlled rectifier where the current is kept on the q-axis (i.e., the negative axis). The back-EMF, phase resistance and phase inductance can be extracted from PC-BDC and used in a system simulation of the machine in operation with a diode bridge. There are several circuit simulators available and here Portunus is used. The backEMF waveform is approximated as a sine-wave (the 3rd harmonic is zero order and does not generate current in a starconnected machine); if further refinement is required then harmonic voltage sources can be put into the circuit. The simulation in the previous sections has an output power which is obtained from Pout = 3Eq I q 3I q2 R ph (2) = 3 68 1.77 3 1.77 2 10.6 = 261.3 W where the variable relationship are shown in the phasor diagram. Rph is the phase resistance. The current is on the q axis so that the there is unity power factor between Eq and the current. The efficiency is about 70 %. This neglects iron loss, and friction and windage.

is found to be about 220 W. This fits in with the results in [2] which suggested that the output power reduction is about 20 % when moving from -q-axis current control to diode bridge rectification with a generator of reasonably low armature reactance. The load resistor can be adjusted to vary the output power and 30 is used here. For a commercial system, the DC voltage of the output stage of the diode bridge can be controlled using a chopper. The chopper output should be stabilized by connection to a DC link and a battery/inverter combination of some sort. This is a somewhat more straightforward system than using a fully-controlled rectifier with position feedback to maintain q-axis control, and would minimize the instrumentation needed for the generator which is advantageous in a simple system. IV. THE TORUS GENERATOR - COMPARISON WITH AN ALTERNATIVE TOPOLOGY

Generator

In this section a comparison is made an alternative topology. The Torus arrangement has the advantage of low armature reactance and can be either radial flux or axial flux [12]. It is formed from a toroidal stator core with air-gap windings wound around it. The disadvantage to this arrangement is that the coupling with the winding is reduced and the available winding area is limited. It is well known that there can be additional eddy-current losses in air-gap windings so parallel strands of thin wire may be required. Therefore to design this machine the maximum diameter Diode bridge with load resistor available should be used. It was decided to use 760 mm for (30 ) and smoothing capacitor the outer diameter of the machine and the same magnet material. The pole number was increased to 120 poles since there is no cogging torque and an integral number of coilsper-pole-per-phase was used (120).
Air behind stator

One phase coil

Fig. 6. Portunus model used for simulations.

Stator

75

Phase Voltage Terminal Voltage

Load resistor Load power power (/10) (10)

One magnet

Rotor back iron

Fig. 8. Radial-flux Torus design showing one pole pair (stator at top showing

100 ms
-75

Line current (10)

Phase Current (*10)

200 ms Voltage freq. = 12.5 Hz

Fig. 7. Waveforms with diode bridge rectifier load.

However, using a diode bridge means that the current is no longer locked on the q axis and the simulation waveforms under these conditions are shown in Fig. 7. The output power

The rotor diameter was set to 735 mm so that the machine is more of a ring in structure which requires careful mounting within the frame. The thickness of the winding layer was limited to 1.4 mm with a low 0.7 mm air-gap. This is to attempt to maintain good flux linkage with the rotor. Because the Torus arrangement has limited end-winding (since the coils are wound around the toroidally-laminated stator core) it is possible to increase the axial length (up to 170 mm). This is necessary because of the limited number of turns that can be

used so every effort should be made to improve the fluxlinkage. It is straightforward to wind the machine so the slot fill was increased to 0.7 rectangular conductors may be used. Fig. 8 shows an open-circuit 2D finite element analysis of the machine while Table I shows a comparison of the designs.
TABLE I COMPARISON OF MACHINE DESIGNS (AT FULL LOAD AND 15 RPM) Parameter Slotted Machine Torus Machine Outer Diameter [mm] 420 760 Core Axial length [mm] 135 170 Copper [Kg] 12.4 6.5 Magnet [Kg] 2.3 7.6 Load current (set) [A] 1.77 1.77 Torque [Nm] 228 231 Back-EMF [V] 68.3 68.9 Power Factor 0.87 1 Copper losses [W] 99 162.9 Rotor Diameter [mm] 300 735 Efficiency [%] 69.9 55.5

store sufficient energy to supply the motoring mode energy over a short period (which should be less than one rotation).
Power flow PM Machine + DC link Fixed 3-phase supply

Variable frequency Diode Fixed frequency and voltage generator bridge inverter (a) Most simple arrangement with diode bridge and inverter Power flow IM Machine + DC link Fixed 3-phase supply

Controlled Fixed frequency rectifier inverter (b) Controlled rectification with DC link energy storage Power flow PM / IM Machine + Link Fixed 3-phase supply

Table I shows that the issue with the limited area for the winding leads to the requirement for more magnet material while there is additional copper losses in the winding because it runs with a higher current density. Even with the increase in poles it is still difficult to get sufficient flux linkage and hence back-EMF. With further design it would probably be possible to obtain better performance by optimizing the magnet thickness and winding window to obtain the optimum back-EMF and copper loss for best efficiency. This illustrates that the slotted machine is easier to design for a given specification because of the flexibility of the winding area available. V. DISCUSSION ON ALTERNATIVE ARRANGEMENTS The alternatives to a permanent magnet generator arrangement are the induction generator, synchronous generator or switched reluctance generator. However, the issues with low frequency due to low speed operation will also exist for the synchronous generator and induction generator (assuming the generation is at low slip for efficient generation). Doubly-fed induction generators (as commonly used in wind turbines) are a possibility; these decouple the flux rotational speed from rotor speed. However, a doublewound machine with slip rings and with high pole number appears to be a complicated structure to realize for this application. In addition, simple diode rectification cannot be used for induction type generation since the excitation has to be supplied form the supply; Fig. 9 (b) shows the required converter topology for an induction generator. This illustrates that this is a more complicated rectifier requirement for the permanent magnet generator shown in Fig. 9 (a). However, for this application, it may be that as the cylinder rotates and there is a mixed sea state, there may be a requirement for the generators to go into motor mode in order to keep the cylinder in synchronism with the main sea wave frequency. Therefore the power electronic converter illustrated in Fig. 9 (c) will be required. The DC link capacitor needs to be able to

Rectifier/inverter Fixed frequency combination inverter (c) Controlled rectification/inversion on generator with DC link energy storage Fig. 9. Possible converter arrangements with induction type generators.

The switched reluctance machine appears a realist option amongst the established commercial machine designs. However, high stator and rotor pole number are still required. The number a steps is given by S = mN r (3) where m is the number of phases and Nr is the rotor pole number. If three phases are used and a 60 stator pole 40 rotor pole arrangement is adopted then the switching frequency at 15 rpm is still only 10 Hz, leading to the same issues of excessive current required to overcome limited induced EMF. Fig. 10 shows the geometry of a 60/40 switched reluctance machine using the same geometry at the slotted permanent magnet motor and this is not a successful design due to this reason. In addition, with so many poles, the pole pitch is quite low so it will probably be difficult to control the switching accurately via a shaft encoder.

Fig. 10. Unsuccessful switched reluctance machine design frequency too low for effective operation even with 60 stator poles and 40 rotor poles.

To realize a successful generator design for this application then further work is needed and an investigation into the use of hybrid generator carried out. Hybrid generators are essentially reluctance machines with permanent magnet assistance. A possible conceptual arrangement is shown in Fig. 11 and this will be the focus of further work.
Fit magnets here for hybrid operation? N S

REFERENCES
[1] [1] M. R. Harris, G. H. Pajooman and S. M. Abu Sharkh, The problem of power factor in VRPM (transverse-flux) machine, 8th EMD conference, Cambridge, UK, 1-3 Sept. 1997, pp 170 174. [2] D. G. Dorrell, Design Requirements for Brushless Permanent Magnet Generators for Use in Small Renewable Energy Systems, IEEE IECON, Taipei, Taiwan, 5-8 Nov. 2007, pp 216 - 221. [3] M. A. Mueller, Electrical generators for direct drive wave energy converters, IEE Proc Gen, Trans and Dist, Vol. 149, No. 4. July 2002, pp 446 456. [4] E. Spooner and B. J. Chalmers, `TORUS': a slotless, toroidal-stator, permanent-magnet generator, IEE Proc Elec. Pow. Appl., Vol 139, No. 6, 1992, pp 497 506. [5] M. A. Mueller and N. J. Baker, Modelling the performance of the vernier hybrid machine, IEE Proc Elec Pow Appl, Vol. 150, No. 6, 2003, pp 647 - 654. [6] P. Virtic, P. Pisek, T. Marcic, M. Hadziselimovic and B. Stumberger, Analytical Analysis of Magnetic Field and Back Electromotive Force Calculation of an Axial-Flux Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator With Coreless Stator, IEEE Trans on Magn. Vol. 44, No. 11, part 2, Nov. 2008, pp 4333 4336. [7] N. M. Kimoulakis, A. G. Kladas and J. A. Tegopoulos, Power Generation Optimization From Sea Waves by Using a Permanent Magnet Linear Generator Drive, IEEE Trans. on Magn. Vol. 44, No. 6, June 2008, pp 1530 1533. [8] T.J.E. Miller, SPEEDs Electrical Motors, SPEED Laboratory, University of Glasgow, 2006. [9] D. G. Dorrell, Permanent Magnet Generators for Renewable Energy Devices with Wide Speed Range and Pulsating Power Delivery, International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, Vol. 36, No. 2, 2009, pp 77 82. [10] D. G. Dorrell, Combined Thermal and Electromagnetic Analysis of Permanent Magnet and Induction Machines to Aid Calculation, IEEE Trans, on Ind. Elect., Vol 55, No 10, Oct. 2008, pp 3566 3574. [11] J. R. Hendershot and TJE Miller, Design of Brushless permanent Magnet Motors, Magna Physics Publishing, Oxford, 1994. [12] J. R. Bumby, R. Martin, M. A. Mueller, E. Spooner, N. L. Brown an B. J. Chalmers, Electromagnetic design of axial flux permanent magnet machines, Proc. IEE Elec. Pow. Appl., Vol 151, No. 2, March 2004, pp 151 - 160.

Fig. 11. Possible hybrid generator arrangement.

VI. CONCLUSIONS This paper has put forward the electromagnetic design for two permanent magnet generators. It illustrates that low speed machines can be very difficult to design and that the efficiency is compromised because the back-EMF constant is low. A comparison with a Torus machine was put forward this was found to be larger for the application and less efficient. The paper would be of benefit to machine designers who are involved in designing more novel forms of lowspeed permanent-magnet generators. There is little literature on the comparative characteristics of these machines. The paper further discusses other options involving induction and switched reluctance machines.