Design of a 10 MW Multi-Phase PM Synchronous

Generator for Direct-Drive Wind Turbines

Equation Chapter 1 Section 1

Alfonso Damiano, Member, IEEE, Ignazio Marongiu, Member, IEEE,Andrea Monni, Mario Porru
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
University of Cagliari
Cagliari, Italy
alfio@diee.unica.it

AbstractThis paper presents the preliminary design of a 10 been developed at the aim of satisfying the requirement of
MW permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) for off- increasing the electromechanical active surface and reduce the
shore direct drive wind turbines (DDWT). In order to improve structural mass necessary to guarantee the mechanical stiffness
the DDWT torque quality, energy efficiency, power management, [3-4]. Another DDWT requirement, strictly connected to the
fault tolerance and reliability a twelve-phase PMSG made of four PMSG design, is the improvement of electromagnetic torque
independent three-phase star connected subsystems has been quality. In fact, being the PMSG rotor shaft directly connected
considered. With the aim of satisfying the several constraints to the wind turbine one, the presence of PMSG torque ripple
related to cogging torque reduction, stator and rotor diameter can cause torsional and fatigue stress to wind turbine
limitation, low speed operation and magnetic decoupling of four
mechanical structure. The employment of multi-phase PMSG
three-phase subsystems, a multi-star fractional-slot tooth
concentrated winding PMSG has been designed. The analytical
is considered a suitable solution in DDWT in order to improve
results have been validated by means of Finite Element Analysis torque quality, energy efficiency, power generation, fault
(FEA) highlighting the worth and effectiveness of the proposed tolerance and reliability [5-8]. Moreover this kind of electric
configuration. generator permits the power and the current splitting between a
higher number of phases, allowing the per-phase inverter
Keywords Multi-phase electrical machines, PM synchronous power rating reduction, condition particularly important in high
generator, Motor Design, wind generation. power wind turbine [6-8]. In this paper a 10 MW multiphase
PMSG characterized by twelve phases managed to form four
I. INTRODUCTION independent three-phase star connected subsystems has been
designed in order to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed
In these last years, the trend of wind energy conversion configuration for DDWT.
systems has been characterized by the progressive increase of
rating power. This is principally connected to the requirement
of reducing the wind turbine annual energy yield-total cost and II. LAYOUT OF DIRECT DRIVE WIND TURBINE
to the huge perspective of developing off-shore wind farms The proposed multiphase PMSG design is directly
worldwide. In this context the total and active mass reduction connected to the electrical and mechanical layout of DDWT
and reliability are becoming design factors increasingly considered in this paper.
important. Under these assumptions, the increase of wind
turbine rating power determines an improvement of the direct
drive configuration compared to the geared ones is [1]. The
main characteristic of the DDWT is the direct connection of
wind turbine shaft to the electric generator. This avoids the use
of gearbox, one of the most critical component in wind turbine
[2]. As a consequence the mechanical operating conditions of
direct drive electric generators are characterized by low speed
and high torque values which require the adoption of special
machines. Nowadays one of the electrical machine
implemented in DDWT is the PMSG (Fig. 1). The absence of
external excitation, the high efficiency, the small pole pitches,
the low use of active mass and the reliability make this electric
generator suitable for DDWT [1]. Different design
configurations of PMSG suitable for DDWT are proposed in
the technical literature. They can be grouped in three main
categories: Radial Flux (RF), Axial Flux (AF) and Transversal Fig. 1: 4.1 MW PMSG offshore DDWT (GE)
Flux (TF) [1]. These different magnetic configurations have

978-1-4799-0224-8/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE 5266

 TABLE I. DIRECT DRIVE WIND TURBINE PARAMETERS

Parameters Value

Rated Power 10 [MW]

Rotor Blade diameter 190 [m]
Rated Rotor Speed 10 [rpm]
Rotor Speed Range 4.5-10 [rpm]
Rated wind speed 11.5 [m/s]
Cut in speed 4 [m/s]
Cut off speed 30 [m/s]
Maximum power coefficient 51.5 %
Fig. 2 DDWT schematic representation of electric layout for the proposed
Air density 1.225 [kg/m3]
12-phases PM synchronous electrical generator
Hub height 125 [m]

In order to prioritize the reliability, and the flexibility in

electric power management, the DDWT electric schematic Hence the PMSG air gap diameter and equivalent stack
layout, reported in Fig. 2, has been assumed [7-8]. This length have been initially selected equal to 10 and 2.3 meter
configuration is particularly suitable for off-shore applications respectively. The air gap has been initially set to D /1000.
thanks to the possibility to guarantee the wind turbine working
continuity, even in presence of phase and/or inverter faults. B. Design of multi-phase winding
Moreover it allows the implementation of an internal DC In order to minimize the mutual magnetic coupling
electrical energy distribution network that permits an efficient between the twelve phases a fractional slot tooth concentrated
management of power flow inside the wind farm [9-10]. In winding configuration has been employed [12]. Assuming m as
this framework the multiphase PMSG design requires the the number of phases of the stator winding, the symmetry
definition of input constraints connected to power electronic condition imposes the spatial displacement between each two
system, electric system and wind turbine. Referring to a 10 consecutive phases equal to 2/m. However, if m is an odd
MW wind turbine, characterized by the parameters reported in number and the phase connections are settled in order to form
Table I, the number of pole pairs has to be designed in order to three-phase subsystems, the windings may be spatially
guarantee an output voltage frequency of 50 Hz at the rating distributed asymmetrically. In this case can be equal to /m.
speed [1]. The output phases have to be magnetically As a consequence, using a configuration of twelve phase
decoupled and characterized by a rated voltage and current asymmetrically distributed machines partitioned in four three
within the limits of commercial IGBTs. As consequence, the phase subsystems, it behaves by electromechanical point of
phase voltage has been selected in the range of 5-6 kV. view as a 24-phases symmetrically distributed PM machines
[7] [11].When this winding configuration is implemented, the
III. MULTIPHASE PMSG DESIGN neutral point of each three-phase subsystem has to be kept
isolated [5][11].
A. Definition of main geometric parameters
Considering the above requirements, the PMSG design has
been developed referring to a fractional slot concentrated
multi-phase winding. The outer PM rotor configuration has
been used. The main geometric parameters (the air gap
diameter D and the equivalent stack length li) have been
defined according to (1) and (2) where Sn is the apparent
power rating, and ng are the rated shear stress and the rotor
speed respectively. Considering a magnetic loading of about 49
kA/m and 0.9 T air gap flux density, a rating shear stress of
31.4 kN/m2 follows.
D
li
4

5 60 S n
D 3
2 ng
Fig. 3: One pole pair equivalent configuration of 12-phase PMSG

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Basis on the above consideration the fractional slot TABLE III. REFERENCE VALUE RANGE OF CHARACTERISTIC
QUANTITY USED FOR PMSG DESIGN OPTIMIZATION
concentrated winding has been synthetized referring to a
symmetrical distribution of twenty four phases. The
connections in anti-series of corresponding phases leads to the Quantities Range
schematic twelve phase equivalent one pole pair PMSG
configuration reported in Fig. 3. The synthesis of the PMSG Air gap flux density 0.81.05 [T]
double layer fractional slot winding has been developed
referring to [12-15]. The Table II reports the main parameters Tooth flux density 1.52 [T]
of the proposed winding. Stator Yoke flux density 1.11.5 [T]
The developed multi-phase winding satisfies the condition Rotor Yoke flux density 1.31.6 [T]
of symmetry reported in (3) and it is characterized by a
magnetic loading 3565 [kA/m]
repetitive base configuration constituted by 96 slots and 47
pole pairs. Stator current density 26,5 [A/mm2]
Shear stress 2148 [kN/m2]
Q z
2 pq 2 p N
m' n TABLE IV. OPTIMIZED MULTI-PHASE PMSG GEOMETRY
n
N
m' Parameters Value
Moreover the number of poles and number of slots
maximize the least common multiple value determining a PM Remanent Flux density 1.23 [T]
number of cogging torque periods per slot revolution equal to
PM relative permeability 1.09
47. As consequence low cogging torque amplitude due to its
high frequency is achieved [15]. Stator diameter 10 [m] D
Stack length 2.3 [m] li
C. Definition of PMSG Geometry PM length 23 [mm] lm
The PMSG geometry has been developed following an PM width 44.5 [mm] wPM
analytical iterative procedure devoted to maximize the power
generation and energy efficiency and to minimize the PM Pole pitch 55.7 [mm] p
volume . In order to achieve this goal the PM length, the stator Stator slot pitch 54.5 [mm] s
slots dimensions and stack length have been optimized using Air gap 7 [mm]
as feedback the current density, the magnetic loading, the slot Carter Factor 1.154 kc
filling factor and the values assumed by flux density in the
different regions of the electrical machines. The range of Stator slot width 34 [mm] ws
variation of the different quantities used for iterative Stator slot length 78.6 [mm] hs
procedure is reported in Table III. The final results of PMSG Tooth length 78.6 [mm] ht
geometry definition are reported in Table IV . The schematic Tooth width 20 [mm] wt
representation of inner PMSG geometry and main dimensions
is depicted in Fig. 4. The results of analytic evaluation of the Stator Yoke length 14.2 [mm] hsy
PMSG parameters are reported in Table V. Rotor Yoke length 16 [mm] hry
Slot filling factor 0.45
TABLE II. MULTI-PHASE FRACTIONAL SLOT PMSG WINDING
Stator current density 2.26 [A/mm2]

Parameters Value

Number of phases 24 m
Number of pole pairs 282 p
Number of Slot 576 Q
machine periodicity 6 t
Slot number per pole per phase 2/47 q
Circularity index 92 ic
Reduced pole pair number 47 p
Reduced slot number 96 Q
Pole pitch referred to 1.021 Q/2p
Fig. 4 Schematic of two stator slots PMSG geometry

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 TABLE V. COMPARISON BETWEEN ANALYTIC AND FEA RESULTS

Parameters Analytic FEA

Rated Power 11 10,15 [MW]

Rated Torque 9.87 9.11 [MNm]
Rated phase Current 169.75 163 [A]
Rated phase Voltage 5.4 5.2 [kV]
Back e.m.f 5.94 5.91 [kV]
Air gap flux density 0.9 0.85 [T]
Max Tooth flux density 1.7 1.48 [T]
Fig. 5: Base Sector of proposed multiphase PMSG
Stator Yoke flux density 1.2 0.93 [T]
Rotor Yoke flux density 1.2 [T]
Magnetic loading 49.8 47.82 [kA/m]
Rated Shear stress 31,42 25.2 [kN/m2]
Phase Inductance* 51.7 52.6 [mH]
Mutual Inductance** 2.1 2.5 [mH]
Stator Resistance 0-533 0.553 []
Efficiency 0.97 0.965
*Tooth tip inductance included
** Mutual inductance between overlapped phases

IV. FINITE ELEMENT VALIDATION

Fig. 6: Field density distribution in the PMSG at full load when the PM is
The analytic design of multiphase PMSG is validated by centered respect to stator slot opening
means of FEA runs in Maxwell 2D environment. The
simulations have been developed considering the periodicity 8.00
Phase FEM without load ANSOFT

of the proposed PMSG and referring to base sector depicted in

Curve Info max rms
InducedVoltage(Phase_X1) 7.8881 5.9139
Setup1 : Transient

Fig. 5. In order to compare the analytic and FEA results the

6.00

evaluated parameters are reported in Table V. The 4.00

comparisons confirm a good matching between the analytic 2.00

InducedVoltage(Phase_X1) [kV]

and FEA results. The field density distribution at full load

when the tooth flux density assumes its maximum values is 0.00

reported in Fig. 6. The steady state time evolution of back -2.00

e.m.f at no load and at the rated speed is reported in Fig. 7. It -4.00

points out that the rated frequency is 50 Hz and the effects of

spatial distribution of PM generates. The steady state currents -6.00

evolutions at full load are reported in Fig. 8. Moreover, it -8.00

0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 30.00 35.00 40.00 45.00

shows the effect of15 electrical degree phase displacements Time [ms]

of four three phase subsystems. In Fig. 9 the electromagnetic Fig. 7: Steady state Back emf time evolution voltage
at no load and rated speed
torque at full load and at rated speed is reported. The torque Line Currents at full load Full load 4 stars connected7

analysis shows the presence of a ripple equal to 0,19%

ANSOFT
250.00
Curve Info max rms
Current(Phase_X1)
229.7203 163.0896
Setup1 : Transient
Current(Phase_X2)
229.7572 163.0865

compared to the average value. The same torque quality has

Setup1 : Transient
Current(Phase_X3)
229.4193 163.0856
Setup1 : Transient
Current(Phase_X4)
229.6950 163.0889
Setup1 : Transient
Current(Phase_Y1)

been obtained when two no adjacent star windings are fed,

229.5287 163.1016
Setup1 : Transient
Current(Phase_Y2)
229.6892 163.1039
Setup1 : Transient
Current(Phase_Y3)
125.00 229.6795 163.1044
Setup1 : Transient

confirming the goodness of proposed multi-phase PMSG

Current(Phase_Y4)
229.6409 163.0987
Setup1 : Transient
Current(Phase_Z1)
229.6870 163.0941
Setup1 : Transient
Current(Phase_Z2)
229.6654 163.0993
Setup1 : Transient

configuration. However if three subsystems are fed, as

Current(Phase_Z3)
229.7322 163.1030
Setup1 : Transient
Current(Phase_Z4)
229.7476 163.1002
Setup1 : Transient

reported in Fig. 10, a torque ripple of 1,84% occurs

Y1 [A]

0.00

characterized by a time harmonic component of six order as

stated in [7]. The analysis of mutual and self-inductance
reported in Fig. 11 points out that the mutual inductance is
-125.00

different from zero just in the case of the two phases spatially
consecutive which have coil layer overlapped in the same slot. -250.00
0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 30.00 35.00 40.00 45.00
Time [ms]

Fig. 8: Steady state time evolution of all phase currents

of SPMG at rated power

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 Electromagnetic Torque at full load
results of analytic PMSG design is reported in the paper. A
Full load 4 stars connected7
ANSOFT

0.00

Curve Info avg max min pk2pk

Moving1.Torque -9.1111 -9.1016 -9.1148 0.0132

finite element analysis of the proposed PMSG has been

Setup1 : Transient

-2.00
developed in order to corroborate the analytic results and to
demonstrate the worth and effectiveness of the proposed
electrical machine configuration in term of torque quality,
Moving1.Torque [megNewtonMeter]

-4.00

energy efficiency, power management and fault tolerance.

-6.00

REFERENCES
-8.00

[1] H. Polinder, F. F. A. van der Pijl, G. de Vilder, and P. J. Tavner

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ANSOFT
Systems With Focus on Swedish Wind Power Plants During 1997-2005
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Moving1.Torque -8.0182 -8.1675 0.1493 -8.0935

-1.00

[3] A.S. McDonald, M.A Mueller, H. Polinder, Structural mass in direct

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drive permanent magnet electrical generator, IET Renewable Power
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-3.00

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[6] D. Vizireanu, S. Brisset, and P. Brochet, Design and optimization of a
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9-phase axial-flux PMsynchronous generator with concentrated winding
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Fig. 10: Electromagnetic torque of PMSG when three subsystems are fed
60.00
Self and Mutual Inductances amoung phases Full load 4 stars connected7
ANSOFT
[7] E. Semail, F. Scuiller, J.F. Charpentier, Charpentier Multi-star
multiphase winding for a high power naval propulsion machine with low
50.00
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Curve Info avg
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Setup1 : Transient
L(Phase_X1,Phase_X2)
Setup1 : Transient -2.5142

[8] A. Damiano G. Gatto, I. Marongiu, A. Perfetto, A. Serpi A direct-drive

L(Phase_X1,Phase_X3) -0.0032
Setup1 : Transient
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Setup1 : Transient 0.0020
L(Phase_X1,Phase_Y1)
Setup1 : Transient -0.0011
wind turbine control for wind power plant with an internal DC
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L(Phase_X1,Phase_Y2)
Setup1 : Transient -0.0013

30.00
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-0.0022

0.0006
distribution system International Rewiew of Electrical Engineer
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Setup1 : Transient
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[9] Meyer, M. Hoing, A. Peterson, R. W. De Doncker, Control and Design

20.00 L(Phase_X1,Phase_Z3)
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-2.5142

52.6221
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Setup1 : Transient
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0.0032

-0.0012
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V. CONCLUSION
[14] N. Bianchi, S. Bolognani, M. Dai Pr G. Grezzani Design
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