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Design of A Small Scale Wind Generator For Low Wind Speed Areas
Design of A Small Scale Wind Generator For Low Wind Speed Areas
SPEED AREAS
RA Msuya1, RRM Kainkwa1 and MI Mgwatu2
1
Departrment of Physics, College of Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Dar es Salaam,
P.O. Box 35065, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
2
Departrment of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering and Technology,
University of Dar es Salaam, P.O. Box 35131, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
E-mail: msuya@yahoo.com, Tel: +255 713 350 159
ABSTRACT:
Most small scale level wind turbine generators are directly driven system, variable speed, and
partially connected power electronic converter system. Choice of such system is to avoid costs
associated with gearbox. However, due to low wind speed in most of the tropical countries,
synchronous generators with smaller or medium speed Permanent Magnet (PM) generator design
found to be important and given high performance efficiency. In order to be able to harvest wind
energy in off-grid population efficiently, there was a need to design a synchronous generator that
can be able to operate under low wind speed, directly connected to the end user. Hence, the study
designed a six pole pair wind turbine generator using permanent magnet (PM) model, using
Maxwell two dimensions (2D) and Rotational Machine Expert (RMxrpt) software. The designed
PM AC wind turbine generator worked with efficiency of 93% at rotational speed (rpm) range
from 50 to 350 with maximum power output of 980 watts.
Rotational Machine Expert (RMxrpt) PMSG is very useful for wind turbine
software. applications because it is smaller in physical
size, has a higher efficiency and reliability
MATERIAL AND METHODS and it also has high power output, though it
Permanent Magnet Generator Model lacks voltage control due to their constant
The Permanent Magnet Synchronous excitation. This is one layout of PM generator,
Generator (PMSG) is a machine whose but there are several designs, like radial flux
excitation depends on the permanent magnet inner rotor, radial flux outer rotor, and axial
instead of the use of DC power. The flux. With reference to all these designs of
excitation is normally associated with some PM generator, flux crosses the air gap from
losses, where for small machine excitation the rotor to the stator in the radial direction
losses may reach up to 5 % (Ayehunie 2011). (Rucker 2005). This type of design is known
The PM synchronous machine is designed in as AC synchronous generator and this is as
such a way that the permanent magnets are in shown in Fig. 1.
the rotor surface, where it is separated by the
air gap with stator containing windings. The
Figure 1: The configuration design of AC Synchronous wind turbine generator (source: Rucker
2005)
E
V
With reference to Equation (1), the external Pin Po Pcu PFe Pmec (3)
characteristics of the PM synchronous
generator can be achieved when the load
resistance is varied. During the variation of where Pcu is copper loss, PFe is iron loss and
the load resistance the external behaviour of Pmec is mechanical loss.
the current and voltage can be realised, which The efficiency therefore can be evaluted from
determine the generator characteristics. If the equations (2) and (3) as:
equivalent electrical circuit is considered, the
electrical output power, the mechanical input P
power, input mechanical torque, and out . (4)
Pin
efficiency of the PM generator can be
calculated per phase (Guo et al. 2008) as:
Modeling and Simulation of Permanent
Magnet Synchronous Generator
Po 3VI g cos (2)
Many softwares have been used to develop
modeling the rotating electrical machines like
Hence the total mechanical input power can generators. The most used softwares include
then be computed as: Maple-software, HOMER software, Matlab,
Gridlab-D Comsol and Maxwell. In this study
Maxwell software was used in modeling the
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Tanz. J. Sci. Vol. 43(1) 2017
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Msuya et al. - Design of a small scale wind generator for low wind speed areas
Hs2 = 25mm
The designing considered fill factor, s, wich the machine. For the fixed power, the phase
is the extent that the conductor occupies the number is proportional to the increase in
cross-sectional area on the slot determined the voltage and the decrease in current or the
relation (Rucker 2005): increase in current and decrease voltage. In
most cases higher phases are used more in
Winding Area generators than in motors due to connection to
s (7) power electronics conversion form AC to DC
Total Slot Area and vice versa (Dogan et al. 2011).
The impact of phase numbers can be realized Number of slots per pole and per phase is
in the power, current, and voltage ratings of important parameter in generator design since
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Tanz. J. Sci. Vol. 43(1) 2017
it is used to determine the interactions the coils. The effect can easily be revealed in
relationship between the rotor poles and the as (Rucker 2005):
stator windings. The fractional slot of the
machine ‘m’ can be obtained through the hm
relation (Rucker 2005): Bg Br (9)
hm g a
Ns
m (8) where hm is magnet height (mm), g a is air
2 pq
gap (mm) and Br is magnet remnant
where Ns is number of slots, p represents pole flux density (T). Figure 4 shows
pairs and q the number of phases. Stator winding phase connections
while Figure 5 illustrates a 6 Pole
The magnetic height and the air gap normally Pairs Generator
have the greater impact to the machine if not
well designed, since they all affect the air-gap
flux density (Bg) and hence induced voltage in
141
Msuya et al. - Design of a small scale wind generator for low wind speed areas
Therefore the air gap should be as small as rpm, which is equivalent to wind speed of 0.3
possible to minimize the air gap flux density m/s to 7.8 m/s as converted through the
loss and also minimize the flux leakage which relation (Kolar 2012):
contributes to lower reluctance or permeance
value. The magnet height is supposed to be 1
60000 Speed ( ms )
larger than the air gap by a factor of 5 – 10 so Speed ( Rpm) (11)
as to have the uniform magnetic fields in the Rotor Diameter ( mm)
machine and when the number pole pairs
increases, necessitate the decrease in magnet The rotational speed was varied at the interval
at the given constant value of power/torque. of 50 rpm (i.e. 50, 100, 150, 200…1300 rpm)
This can be expressed as (Rucker 2005): where at each different rotational speed, the
values of all parameters were recorded and the
2 p 120 f (10) behaviour of the machine was examined.
These parameters were recorded while
where ω = angular speed (rpm), p = number running the new designed Generator at
of pole pairs and f = electrical frequency (Hz) different angular speed at the state of Full
Load Condition, whereas at the state of No
The operating temperature was selected 50 oC Load, the parameters were computed by
and rated output power 1 kW was inserted to Maxwell software where the parameters were
the model system. From the main menu computed by the system. When all the
‘Analyse All’ was selected in the Maxwell required parameters were inserted correctly
RMxprt 2D Designed to run the simulation with some adjustment of some of them, the
and give the results as proposed by the study, model simulation was run. The values from
which was to have the improved efficiency the state of No Load obtained as a result of
generator in low wind speed areas. The the interaction between the magnetic field and
designed PM AC Synchronous machine the coil winding of the generator. These
expected to work in high efficiency at values were obtained before the simulation of
rotational speed, starting from 50 rpm to 1300 the machine while the full load condition
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Tanz. J. Sci. Vol. 43(1) 2017
Torque Maxwell2DDesign2
0.00
Curve Inf o
Moving1.Torque
Setup1 : Transient
-5.00
-10.00
Moving1.Torque [NewtonMeter]
-15.00
-20.00
-25.00
-30.00
-35.00
0.00 50.00 100.00 150.00 200.00 250.00 300.00 350.00 400.00
Tim e [m s ]
143
Winding Currents Maxwell2DDesign2
25.00 1.00
Curve Inf o Y Axis
CoreLoss
CoreLoss
Setup1 : Transient
Current(PhaseA)
Y1
Setup1 : Transient
20.00
Current(PhaseB) 0.75
Y1
Setup1 : Transient
Current(PhaseC)
Y1
Setup1 : Transient
15.00
0.50
10.00
0.25
5.00
CoreLoss [fW]
Y1 [A]
0.00
0.00
-0.25
-5.00
-0.50
-10.00
-0.75
-15.00
-20.00 -1.00
0.00 50.00 100.00 150.00 200.00 250.00 300.00 350.00 400.00
Tim e [m s ]
Torque Maxwell2DDesign2
0.00
Curve Inf o
Moving1.Torque
Setup1 : Transient
-5.00
-10.00
Moving1.Torque [NewtonMeter]
-15.00
-20.00
-25.00
-30.00
-35.00
0.00 50.00 100.00 150.00 200.00 250.00 300.00 350.00 400.00
Tim e [m s ]
Simulation results from RMxprt software Cogging torque for the optimised generator is
showed the distribution of air gap flux density shown in Figure 10. It can be noted that
where the high total harmonic distortion cogging torque is directly proportional to
(THD) of induced voltage as observed was number of pole pairs of the machine. The
1.09 percent as shown in Figure 9. Such generator with less pole pairs has small
distortions might be due to some flux losses in cogging torque, while the machine with high
the air gap as a result of size of space between number of pole pairs has high cogging torque.
the bar magnet embedded in the rotor surface.
0.50
Curve Info
Air-Gap Flux Density
0.25
(Tesla)
0.00
-0.25
-0.50
0.00 125.00 250.00 375.00
Electric Degree
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Msuya et al. - Design of a small scale wind generator for low wind speed areas
0.03
Curve Info
Cogging Torque
0.02
0.01
(N.m)
0.00
-0.01
-0.02
-0.03
0.00 125.00 250.00 375.00
Electric Degree
It is important to reduce cogging torque when Figure 11 shows that there is no distortion
designing the generator so as to reduce observed in the phase voltage. The graph of
vibration of the generator during operations. phase voltage against electric degree shows
Cogging torque interacts with magnetic flux that values of the induced voltage were ±70
at the air gap and the stator teeth, which create Volts.
the periodic reluctance variations thereby
causing the cogging torque to be periodic
(Dosiek and Pillay 2007).
75.00
Curve Info
Phase Voltage va
50.00
25.00
(Volts)
0.00
-25.00
-50.00
-75.00
0.00 125.00 250.00 375.00
Electric Degree
146
Distortion of line current was so small such Generally, the fundamental standard of stator
that it could not be clearly observed as current waveforms can be expressed as
depicted in Figure 12, but the resultant current (Sittisrijan and Ruangsinchaiwanich 2013):
THD was easily noticed. The small distortion
was seen in the 6 poles machine, but very I mh I n sin(n e t n ) (12)
n1,2,...
little distortion was observed as pole pairs
increases. Such distortion was due to wide where In is a harmonic order of the peak
space between magnetic bars, which cause current and θn is initial phase angle of the
cogging torque. harmonic order phase current, ω is the angular
speed and t is time.
20.00
Curve Info
Phase Current ia
-10.00
-20.00
0.00 125.00 250.00 375.00
Electric Degree
Figure 12: Phase and Line Current for 6 Poles PMG
When the stator current is unbalanced, stator machine is computed and presented in the
current waveform becomes distorted, graphs shown in Figure 13 by the Maxwell
corresponding to the harmonic current software. That was done under reference
spectrum where some percentage of the total speed 350 rpm and rated speed of 1000 rpm.
harmonic distortion (THD) achieved at a When there was change in reference speed,
certain level as shown in Figures 12. the graphs also changed till the highest value
of efficiency where efficiency started to
Efficiency of the machines was computed by decrease slowly with an increase in rotational
the software and eventually computed from speed.
the data generated by the software work sheet.
It should be noted that efficiency of the
Msuya et al. - Design of a small scale wind generator for low wind speed areas
100.00
Curve Info
Efficiency
80.00
60.00
(%)
40.00
20.00
0.00
0.00 20.00 40.00 60.00 80.00 100.00 120.00 140.00 160.00 180.00
Pow er Angle +3 (degree)
Efficiency of the designed generators was Some of these parameters include power loss
computed from data generated by the software during the operation like friction loss, copper
during variation of rotational speed from 50 to loss and iron core loss, torque and short
650 rpm for each machine. Output efficiency circuit current. Figure 15 shows the loss of the
of the PM generator is presented in Figure 6 pole pairs machine, where by all the loss
14.At 50 rpm, efficiency of the machine was type are drown in the same graph. For detailed
77.35 percent and at the 350 rpm efficiency of observation it can be seen that the big loss is
was 91.97 percent. With these values it can be contributed by the friction, while others
concluded that the 6 poles machine works contribute a small amount. At the low speed
better at low wind speed as 8 and 4 pole pairs the friction loss is high and decreases with
PMG (Rogers et a.l 2014). speed increase.
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Tanz. J. Sci. Vol. 43(1) 2017
Efficiency
94
92
90
88
Efficiency (%)
86
84
82
80
78
76
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Angular Speed (rpm)
150