Design and Analysis of Permanent Magnet
Synchronous Generator 12 Slots 8 Poles
for Small Scale Wind Turbine
Naufal Hamdan Rivani1; Ricky Elson
School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics
Electrical Power Engineering ITB
Jalan Ganesha no. 10 Bandung 40132 - Indonesia
naufal.hr24@gmail.com
Abstract—The Design of Permanent Magnet Synchronous
Generator for small scale wind turbine is aimed to help
increasing the electrification ratio in Indonesia, especially in
isolated island. The design is analyzed by using MagNet
Infolytica which is a FEM-based software which can analyze
the electromagnetic phenomenon. This permanent magnet
synchronous generator has 18 stator slots with 36-turns in each
winding and 16 rotor poles. The design is tested in both no-
load condition and at loading condition. In no-load condition,
the design shows a maximum cogging torque of 6mNm. In
loading condition, shows an efficiency of 87.64% with
maximum output power of 932W.
Keywords—PMSG, cogging, FEM
I. INTRODUCTION
The electrification ratio in Indonesia is still yet evenly
equal in each area. To increase the electrification ratio, the
government has been intensively constructing power plant
suitable for each area. There are many alternatives to choose
in constructing the power plant. It can be steam-powered,
solar-powered, or even wind-powered. The last option seems
to be somewhat seldom implemented due to the not-so-good
wind power potential in Indonesia.
Wind power potential in Indonesia is not as big as those
in Europe or America. The average wind speed in most of
Indonesian’s land is less than 2m/s, while the average wind
speed in most of Indonesian’s beach is about 3 to 4 m/s [1].
It seems not worth to harness such energy from this average
wind speed at first glance. But in actual, this average wind
speed can produce quite a good amount of energy since the
wind power is proportional to the cubic of wind speed.
II. BASIC DESIGN OF PMSG FOR SMALL SCALE WIND TURBINE
There are many parameters to consider in designing
synchronous generator which is going to be used for certain
application. Various parameters are discussed below to
determine the parameters of the design
A. Types of Excitation System
To produce rotating magnetic field, the synchronous
generator should have excitation system. The excitation
system can be provided in two ways: supplying dc field
current or by using permanent magnet. In this design,
permanent magnet is chosen as excitation system since it
doesn’t need any external electrical supply and it can also
eliminate rotor’s copper losses. [2]
B. Types of Flux
Depending on how the flux magnetic density flows
within the machine, a synchronous generator can be
classified into two types: radial-flux and axial-flux machine.
In radial-flux machine, the flux magnetic density flows
perpendicular to the rotation axis, while in axial-flux
machine, the flux magnetic density flows parallel to the
rotation axis. In terms of flexibility to increase the power
rating of the machine, the axial-flux machine is inferior to
the radial-flux machine since it has to change the geometry
of the design to avoid the increasing of air-gap length. [3]
C. Types of Rotor
Based on how the rotor are placed within the machine, the
types of rotor are classified into two, which are outer rotor
and inner rotor. As the name suggests, outer rotor type will
have rotor placed at the outer side, while in inner rotor type,
the rotor is place at the inner side of the machine. The
placement of rotor will affect the temperature rise of
machine’s part the cooling system is placed on the outside
of the machine. The closer to the outside of the machine,
that parts will have a better cooling. Since the stator of the
machine will undergo more excessive heating due to the
current flow in the stator winding, the inner rotor type is
chosen for this design. [3]
D. Permanent Magnet Configuration
The permanent magnet configuration within the rotor will
determine the mechanical strength of the permanent magnet
to face the centrifugal force caused by the rotor’s rotation.
The interior permanent magnet (IPM) which places magnet
within the rotor, has a high mechanical strength towards
centrifugal force. Thus, it’s suitable for high-speed
application. On the other hand,a surface-mounted permanent
magnet (SPM) is vulnerable to a high centrifugal force, thus
it is not desirable for a high-speed application. Since this
design is going to be used for a low-speed wind velocity, a
surface-mounted permanent magnet is chosen as the PM Mass Density [kg/m^3] 7500
configuration. [3] Last, the material chosen for stator’s winding is Copper
E. Materials of the Generator which has specification as follow
In choosing material for generator, different aspects are
TABLE III. STATOR’S WINDING SPECIFICATION
considered for different parts of the generator. For stator and
rotor, the materials are chosen to have low magnetic losses Parameters Value
to produce an efficient machine and high magnetic Conductivity [Siemens/m] 57700000
saturation point to receive as much magnetic flux as Thermal Conductivity [W/(m.C)] 386
possible. Meanwhile, for a permanent magnet, the material Specific Heat [J/(kg.C]] 383.1
is chosen to have a high residual magnetic flux in order to Mass Density [kg/m^3] 8954
get the highest voltage. Last, for the stator winding should
F. Number of Slot-Pole
have a high conductivity to make current flows easier.
Referring to the aspects above, the material chosen for stator The number of slots and poles in generator is designed so
and rotor is M-19 26 Ga. The B-H Curve of this material that the cogging torque produced in no-load condition is
stated in the MagNet software is shown below reduced to minimum. There are many ways to reduce the
cogging torque. Skewing the generator, reducing the pole’s
width [4] or using number of stator slots-rotor poles which
have a great least common multiple are some ways to
reduce cogging torque. The period of cogging torque in one
mechanical revolution is formulated as follow [5]
Ns = LCM (stator slots,rotor poles) (2)
G. Magnetic Flux Distribution
According to J. Pyrhonen, the magnetic flux density
recommended for electric machine should be as follow.

TABLE IV. MAGNETIC FLUX LIMITATION [3]

Parameter Nilai Fluks Magnet

Figure 1. BH Curve of M-19 26 Ga Rapat fluks magnetic pada air-gap [T] 0.2 < B < 1.5
The magnetic losses for M-19 26 Ga in various frequency Rapat fluks magnetic pada yoke stator [T] 1.1 < B < 1.5
are estimated by Steinmetz equation: Rapat fluks magnetic pada teeth stator [T] 1.5 < B < 2.0
P = Kh fa Bb + Ke (sfB)2 (1) Rapat fluks magnetic pada yoke rotor [T] 1.3 < B < 1.6
With Kh = 0.00968854; a = 1.19786; b = 1.79564; Ke =
7.19584e-005; and f = system’s frequency H. The Parameters of the Design
The other specification related to the material of Stator and In this design, the geometry of PMSG is chosen such that
Rotor is shown below. it will produce the smallest cogging torque in no-load
condition and it will produce as much energy in its full-load
TABLE I. STATOR-ROTOR SPECIFICATION condition. The geometry of PMSG chosen for this design is
Parameters Value as follow.
Relative Permittivity 1
Thermal Conductivity [W/(m.C)] 25
Specific Heat [J/(kg.C)] 490 2 1 1
Mass Density [kg/m^3] 7650 3 1
4 8
The material of permanent magnet used for this design is
Neodymium Iron Boron which has residual flux of 1.13 71
Tesla at 20oC. The other specification of this material in
20oC is stated in the table below.
5 61
TABLE II. PERMANENT MAGNET SPECIFICATION
6 51
Parameters Value 7 14
Relative Permeability 1.05619
8 9 13
Coercivity [A/m] -851720
1 1
Demagnetization [Tesla] -1.10138
2
Resistivity [Ohms.m] 1.5e-006
Figure 2. Cross section0views1of PMSG design
Thermal Conductivity [W/(m.C)] 9
Specific Heat [J/(kg.C)] 460
 The dimension as well as the other parameters of the Besides determining the maximum size of mesh, we also
proposed design PMSG are stated in the following table have to determine the numerical method to be used to solve
the electromagnetic problem. In this paper, the numerical
TABLE V. DESIGN PARAMETERS method used to solve the problem is Newton-Raphson
method with polynomial order of 2. This method is used to
Parameters Value shorten the computational time.
Number of poles 16
Number of slots 18 B. Magnetic Flux Distribution
Stator Outer Diameter [mm] 150
Stator Intermediate Diameter [mm] 134
The distribution of magnetic flux in the proposed design is
shown below.
Stator Inner Diameter [mm] 100
Rotor Outer Diameter [mm] 98
Rotor Intermediate Diameter [mm] 92
Rotor Inner Diameter [mm] 30
Thickness [mm] 50
Stator-Rotor material M-19 26 Ga
PM material Neodymium Iron Boron

III. DESIGN ANALYSIS USING MAGNET SOFTWARE

The PMSG design are analyzed in no-load condition
(static) and loading condition (transient). In static analysis,
the maximum cogging torque and flux linkage produced in
the generator are considered. The result of flux linkage will
show the number of phases the generator produces. If the
generator doesn’t produce 3-phase output, a certain action
will be executed. Meanwhile, in the transient analysis, the
effective number of turn and the output power of the PMSG
are to be looked for. The effective number of turns is
determined by testing the generator under its rated speed and
rated current. On the other hand, the output power is tested
under various number of rotational speed and under various Figure 3. Distribution of Magnetic flux density
number of loads which are represented by the value of
resistor. From the figure above, magnetic flux density in certain
place of generator can be evaluated as follow.
A. Simulation Setting
TABLE VII. DISTRIBUTION OF MAGNETIC FLUX DENSITY
To evaluate the proposed design in both static and transient Magnetic Flux Density
analysis, a certain setting should be implemented to the Generator’s part
[Tesla]
software. Since software MagNet uses Finite Element Airgap 0.8
Method to calculate the magnetic flux density, then the Stator’s Yoke 1.36
maximum size of the mesh should be stated. The maximum Stator’s Teeth 1.42
size of mesh is shown below. Rotor’s Yoke 1.4

TABLE VI. MESH SIZES From the table above, we can know that the magnetic flux
density occuring in the design is still within the permissible
Generator’s part Maximum size of mesh value of magnetic flux stated in table iv. Besides, the value
Stator 3 mm of magnetic flux density in each of the generator’s part is
Rotor 3 mm still below the saturating point of the material, which is
Stator’s winding 3 mm 1.5T.
Permanent Magnet 3 mm
Rotor’s shaft 3 mm C. Cogging Torque
Air gap 0.25 o For a 18 Slots 16 Poles generator, the number of cogging
torque’s cycle in one mechanic revolution will be 144 cycles.
Thus, to know the maximum cogging torque of the
generator, a rotation of 2.5o mechanical angle is needed. To
evaluate the cogging torque of the proposed design, a full-
rotor generator (see figure 3.a) is compared with the
proposed design. The cogging torque waveform produced in
2.5o mechanical angle for a full-rotor generator are shown
below.
rotor generator which produces maximum cogging torque of
90mNm.
D. Number of Phases in Generator
Number of electrical periods produced in one mechanical
revoloution is stated as follow [2]:
Electrical Period = 360o/ (Poles pairs) (3)
Since this generator has 16 poles, which is 8 poles pairs, then
to get one electrical period, the generator has to be rotated by
45o mechanical revolution. The flux linkage produced in
each of the coils of generator are shown below.

(a)

(a)

(b)
Figure 4 (a) Full-rotor generator; (b) Cogging Torque
produced by full-rotor generator
On the other hand, the proposed design of the PMSG with
the same mechanical angle displacement will produce the
following cogging torque.
(b)

Figure 5. Cogging Torque produced by proposed design

(c)
From the above graph, the maximum cogging torque
produced by the proposed design generator in no-load
condition is about 6mNm. It is much smaller than the full-
 Figure 6 (a) Flux Linkage in #1, #2, #3, #10, #11, #12
windings; (b) Flux Linkage in #4, #5, #6, #13, #14, #15
windings; (c) Flux Linkage in #7, #8, #9, #16, #17, #18
From the above pictures, it is known that the generator
produces 9 electrical phases. To produce a 3-phase output,
the winding’s configuration are modified as follow.

Figure 9. Circuit to evaluate effective number of turns

The result for effective turn’s number is shown as follow.

TABLE VII. OUTPUT POWER FOR VARIOUS NUMBER OF TURN

Jumlah Lilitan Daya Output (W) Efisiensi (%)

30 877.0482 86.069
34 917.436 87.756
35 930.6641 87.216
36 932.4909 87.645
37 907.1117 87.240
38 880.1219 84.681
40 852.4033 82.436
Figure 7 New Winding’s configuration
45 828.4436 84.632
In the figure above, the red windings represent phase A of
From the results above, the highest output power is produced
the generator, the yellow windings represent phase B of the
with 36 turns of winding which has efficiency of 87.645%.
generator, while the blue one represents phase C of the
So, the number of effective turns we have to use is 36 turns.
generator. The resulting flux linkage produces a 3-phase
output which have waveforms as follow.
F. Performance of Generator
To evaluate the generator’s performance, the generator
is tested under various number of rotational speed and
various number of loads. The proposed design is evaluated
using the same circuit like in the figure 7. The performance
of the generator under various rotational speed and number
of loads are shown below.

Figure 8. Fux Linkage of Modified Winding

E. Number of effective turn

To find the number of effective turns to be used in the
design, the generator is tested in 1000rpm and rated current
which is represented by a resistor of 10ꭥ. The effective turns
chosen for the design should have a high output power as
well as high efficiency. The circuit used to evaluate the (a)
number of effective turn is as follow.
 IV. CONCLUSION
The PMSG design which has 18 stator slots and 16 rotor
poles are analyzed by using MagNet Infolytica which is a
FEM-based software which can analyze electromagnetic
phenomenon. The design is analyzed in two states, static
analysis and transient analysis.
The static analysis simulation using MagNet shows that
the PMSG design has a maximum cogging torque of 6mNm
in a no-load condition. Besides, from the no-load condition,
it is known that the generator produces 9-phase output. Thus,
a certain modification is executed to make it 3-phase output.
(b) The transient analysis simulation uses a three-phase
rectifier bridge to represent the simple model of wind power
plant. An effective number of turns, which is 36 turns, is
achieved through this simulation. Besides, the transient
analysis shows that the proposed design of the generator
generates maximum output power of 932 Watts at rated
speed with efficiency of 87.64%.

REFERENCES

[1] Abdillah, R., Luthfi, Gilang, Muliandari, W., & Megatroika, A.

(2010). Kuliah Energi Angin dan Matahari. Bandung: Meteorologi
ITB
(c) [2] Chapman, Stephen J. (2012). Electric machinery Fundamentals. New
York: McGraw Hill
[3] Madani, N. & C. Sadarangani, A Permanent Magnet Synchronous
Generator for a Small Scale Vertical Axis Wind Turbine. IEEE, 2015.
[4] Muljadi, E. & J. Green, Cogging Torque Reduction in a Permanent
Magnet Wind Turbine Generator. National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, Golden, 2002.
[5] Boldea, Ion (2016). Variable Speed Generators. Romania: CRC
Press.

(d)
Figure 10 (a) Output current’s graph of the generator; (b)
Output voltage’s graph of the generator; (c) output voltage’s
graph of the generator; (d) Efficiency’s graph of the
generator
From the 4 graphs above, we can know that the output
current of the generator is non-linear for a bigger load, i.e.
smaller value of resistance. Thus, since the output voltage of
the generator is related with the output current of the
generator, this non-linearity of current will cause the output
voltage to be non-linear for a big load. It will also cause the
output power of the generator to be non-linear. This non-
linearity of current is caused by the armature reaction
produced by the stator’s current.
From the simulation, it is known that the maximum power
produced by the generator is 932 W at rated speed of
1000rpm with a load of 7.5ꭥ. This is achieved at efficiency
of 86.5%.