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Mathematics and Computers in Simulation 81 (2010) 239251
Optimal design of a high-speed slotless permanent magnet
synchronous generator with soft magnetic composite
stator yoke and rectier load
Ahmed Chebak
Corresponding author. Permanent address: Dpartement de Maths-Info et Gnie, Universit du Qubec Rimouski, 300 alle des Ursulines,
Rimouski, QC, G5L3A1, Canada. Tel.: +1 418 723 1986x1876/656 2131x7139; fax: +1 418 724 1879/656 3159.
E-mail addresses: ahmed chebak@uqar.qc.ca, ahmed.chebak.1@ulaval.ca (A. Chebak), philippe.viarouge@gel.ulaval.ca (P. Viarouge),
jerome.cros@gel.ulaval.ca (J. Cros).
0378-4754/$36.00 2010 IMACS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.matcom.2010.05.002
240 A. Chebak et al. / Mathematics and Computers in Simulation 81 (2010) 239251
Fig. 1. High-speed DC generation unit using a controlled rectier.
the DCoutput voltage waveforms highly depend on the transient impedance of the machine. This impedance is complex
in SMC machines because the eddy currents induced in this kind of magnetic material are not independent of the stator
yoke geometry like in laminated yokes [2]. On one hand, the machine transient impedance has a great inuence on the
average output DC voltage of the generation unit. On the other hand, the generator performances in terms of torque
and losses highly depend on the harmonic content of the armature currents. Consequently, the design process of such
a generation unit must use a specic methodology to take the strong machineconverter coupling into account.
In this paper, the authors present a design methodology of this kind of generation unit. It is based on an analyt-
ical design model of the machine, an electrical model of the machinerectier system and a non-linear constrained
optimization procedure. The coupling between both models is achieved by a specic correction mechanism during
the iterative process that performs an efcient convergence of the optimization procedure towards an optimal design
solution. The machine design model is derived from an analytical computation of the two-dimensional magnetic eld
distribution created by the magnets, the armature currents and the stator eddy currents that circulate in the SMC mate-
rial. It has been cross-validated by 2D nite element (FE) analysis. The design approach is applied to the specications
of a 1.5 MW, 18,000 rpm slotless PM generator with a rated DC output voltage of 1500 V.
2. Generator analytical design model
The generator design model is using the analytical modeling method of high-speed slotless PM machines that is
detailed in [2]. It has been adapted in this paper for the generator operation and several post-processors have been added
to compute specic machine performances. The model is based on the computation of the magnetic eld distribution
that is derived from the 2D analytical solution of the Maxwells equations in the magnets/air-gap/windings/stator core
regions of the slotless machine structure presented in Fig. 2. The model is formulated in polar coordinates and it takes
into account the stator eddy currents and the time and space harmonics of the magnetic eld. In this study, the following
assumptions are made:
The motor axial length is innite, i.e., the end-effects are negligible and the induced eddy currents are axially
directed.
The magnetic saturation and the hysteresis phenomena are absent.
The stator material permeability
s
and conductivity
s
are constant, isotropic and homogeneous.
Fig. 2. Structure of a 4 poles slotless PM generator with SMC stator yoke.
A. Chebak et al. / Mathematics and Computers in Simulation 81 (2010) 239251 241
The rotor iron core is innitely permeable.
The eddy currents in the magnets and in the rotor yoke are neglected.
The magnet retaining sleeve is non-conductive and non-magnetic.
2.1. Calculation of the magnetic eld distribution
The magnetic eld distribution in the generator structure is calculated separately as a superposition of the no-load
magnetic eld produced by the magnets and the armature reaction eld produced by the windings currents in terms
of potential vectors A
m
and A
s
, respectively. A general representation of the magnetization vector is used that is
applicable to radial or parallel magnetized magnets and discrete Halbach arrays, where the magnet permeability can
be different from
0
. The stator windings distribution is modeled for generalized balanced three-phase windings with
nite thickness [6]. In order to compute the magnetic elds, the generalized form of the diffusion equation that takes
into account the eddy current effects is applied [5]:
2
A = J
s
+
_
A
t
+V ( A)
_
+
0
M (1)
where J
s
is the winding currents density, Vis the circumferential speed of the conductive region, Mis the magnetization
vector, and are, respectively, the permeability and the conductivity of each material.
The no-load eld is derived by applying (1) in each region i of the generator structure (Fig. 2). By using the variable
separation resolution method, the general solutions in the rotor coordinates and in the four regions can be expressed in
terms of complex form of Fourier series:
A
(I)
m
(r,
r
) =
+
k=
_
A
(I)
m,k
r
+
B
(I)
m,k
r
+
S
k
(r)
_
exp
jkp
r
(2)
A
(i=II,III)
m
(r,
r
) =
+
k=
_
A
(i)
m,k
r
+
B
(i)
m,k
r
_
exp
jkp
r
(3)
A
(IV)
m
(r,
r
) =
+
k=
_
A
(IV)
m,k
I
_
m,k
r
_
+
B
(IV)
m,k
K
_
m,k
r
_
_
exp
jkp
r
(4)
with:
S
k
(r) =
0
jkp
M
r,k
M
,k
1
2
r if = |k|p / = 1
0
jkp
M
r,k
M
,k
2
r ln (r) if = |k|p = 1
(5)
where I
and K
are modied Bessel functions of the rst and second kind of order , with
2
m,k
= jkp
0
rs
s
.
p is the number of pole-pairs, is the rotor speed, and
rs
and
s
are the relative permeability and the conductivity
of the SMC material, respectively.
M
r,k
and
M
,k
are the complex Fourier coefcients of the radial and tangential
components of the magnetization vector distribution.
A
(i)
m,k
and
B
(i)
m,k
are constant coefcients that can be determined
by the boundary conditions, given by:
H
(I)
(r,
r
) |
r=R
ro
= 0
H
(i)
(r,
r
) |
r=R
i+1
= H
(i+1)
(r,
r
) |
r=R
i+1
B
(i)
r
(r,
r
) |
r=R
i+1
= B
(i+1)
r
(r,
r
) |
r=R
i+1
k=
+
h=
3
4
k
I
h
exp
j(kp
s
+hpt
h
)
if k +h = 3l, l Z (7)
where
k
are the Fourier coefcients of the winding density distribution, k is the order of the odd space-harmonics.
I
h
and
h
are the amplitude and the phase angle of the stator current nontriplen odd time-harmonics of order h.
By applying (1) in each region of the generator, the following solutions are obtained:
A
(i=I,II)
s
(r,
s
, t) =
+
k=
+
h=
_
A
(i)
s,k,h
r
+
B
(i)
s,k,h
r
_
J
k,h
exp
j(kp
s
+hpt
h
)
(8)
A
(III)
s
(r,
s
, t) =
+
k=
+
h=
_
A
(i)
s,k,h
r
+
B
(i)
s,k,h
r
+R
p,k,h
(r)
_
J
k,h
exp
j(kp
s
+hpt
h
)
(9)
A
(IV)
s
(r,
s
, t) =
+
k=
+
h=
_
A
(IV)
s,k,h
I
_
s,k,h
r
_
+
B
(IV)
s,k,h
K
_
s,k,h
r
_
_
J
k,h
exp
j(kp
s
+hpt
h
)
(10)
where
2
s,k,h
= jkp
0
rs
s
and
J
k,h
= (3/4)
k
I
h
. R
p,k,h
(r) is a particular solution of the eld problem in the
winding region that can be expressed as:
R
p,k,h
(r) =
0
r
2
4
2
if = |k|p / = 2
0
r
2
ln (r)
4
if = |k|p = 2
(11)
The constant coefcients
A
(i)
s,k,h
and
B
(i)
s,k,h
can be derived by using the same boundary conditions given in (6).
From the knowledge of the resultant magnetic eld in terms of total potential vector A
tot
= A
m
+A
s
, all elec-
tromagnetic characteristics required for the design model such as magnetic eld density, torque, losses, e.m.f. and
inductances can be derived. As an example, the calculated radial and tangential components of the ux density due
to the magnets and the stator currents are reported in Fig. 3 for a typical 4 poles, 1.5 MW, 18,000 rpm slotless PM
generator equipped with radial magnetized magnets. The results have been also validated by 2D time-stepping FE
analysis by assuming that the magnetic saturation of materials is negligible. One can notice an excellent agreement
between the two calculation methods.
2.2. Generator losses computation
2.2.1. Stator magnetic losses
The stator magnetic losses in the SMC material can be derived from the distribution of the resultant electromagnetic
eld calculated under generator full-load operation [3]. One assumes that they can be separated into eddy current losses
component and hysteresis losses component. The eddy current losses are computed by using the Poyntings vector
method in the stator reference system [10]:
P
EC
=
1
2
_
2
0
___
(S)
Real
_
_
d
S
_
dt (12)
where E and H are the resultant electric and magnetic elds, = p is the angular frequency and S is the integration
surface located at the inner radius of the stator core. The resultant electric eld is axially directed and can be determined
A. Chebak et al. / Mathematics and Computers in Simulation 81 (2010) 239251 243
Fig. 3. Flux density components due to magnets (a) and armature currents (b) at inner radius of the winding (analytical model vs. FE analysis
results).
form the total potential vector A
tot
in the SMC stator yoke region:
E =
A
(IV)
tot
(r,
s
, t)
t
=
A
(IV)
m
(r,
s
, t)
t
+
A
(IV)
s
(r,
s
, t)
t
(13)
The eddy current loss computation has been also veried by using a second method based on the integration of the
resultant eddy current density over the stator core volume.
The hysteresis losses are calculated by a specic postprocessor based on an analytical expression of the SMC
hysteresis loss density [4]:
P
H
_
W/kg
= C
m
B
x
max
f (14)
where f is the electric frequency, C
m
and x are specic SMC material coefcients and B
max
is the amplitude of the
full-load stator core ux density over one steady-state period. The stator core is split in small rings. For each ring
average radius, B
max
is derived from the resolution of the magneto-dynamic Eq. (1). The total hysteresis losses are
then computed by integration on the volume of the stator core.
Fig. 4 presents the variations of the stator magnetic losses components vs. rotor speed for the optimized slotless PM
generator (1.5 MW, 18,000 rpm) described in Table A.1 of Appendix A, where the 51 rst time and space harmonics
are taken into account (k = h = 51). The analytical computation of the eddy current losses is also validated by FE
simulations. One can notice that the eddy current losses remain more signicant than the hysteresis losses in this high
power machine despite the use of a less conductive SMC material. An opposite result has been obtained for low power
slotless PM machines [2,3].
244 A. Chebak et al. / Mathematics and Computers in Simulation 81 (2010) 239251
Fig. 4. Variation of stator magnetic losses with rotor speed.
2.2.2. Copper losses
A conventional approach is used to compute the copper losses in the windings as a sum of two components: the
RI
2
losses corresponding to the winding DC resistance R and the eddy current losses due to proximity effect resulting
from the magnet movement. The skin effect is neglected since Litz wire will be used, with a suitable strand radius r
LZ
lower than the skin depth corresponding to the operation frequency. The average of the extra eddy current losses per
volume for round wire can be written as the summation over the space frequency components [1]:
P
E
=
+
k=1
_
B
2
r,k
+
B
2
,k
_
k
2
2
r
2
LZ
8
c
(15)
where
B
r,k
and
B
,k
are the peak values of the ux density of the k th space-harmonic radial and tangential components,
respectively, and
c
is the copper resistivity.
2.2.3. Mechanical losses
The windage losses of the rotating rotor are derived from the drag torques of a rotating cylinder and a rotating disk
corresponding to the rotor ends, respectively. The corresponding losses are:
P
F
= C
F
3
R
4
o
L (16)
P
F,end
=
1
2
C
F,end
3
_
R
5
o
R
5
i
_
(17)
where C
F
and C
F,end
are specic friction coefcients [9]. is the density of the uid. R
o
and R
i
are the outer and the
inner radius of the rotor, and L is the length of the cylinder.
2.3. Torque computation
The generator instantaneous electromagnetic torque is determined by integrating the Maxwell Stress Tensor along
the air-gap:
T
em
(t) = r
o
0
__
(S
)
H
r
H
dS
(18)
where S