Fault Detection and Condition Monitoring of PMSGs in Offshore Wind Turbines

Research on fault detection (FD) and condition monitoring (CM) of rotating electrical generators for modern wind turbines has addressed a wide variety of technologies. Among these, permanent magnet synchronous generators (PMSGs) and the analysis of their electromagnetic signatures in the presence of faults deserve emphasis in this paper. PMSGs are prominent in the offshore wind industry, and methods for FD and CM of PMSGs based on electromagnetic measurements are extensively discussed in academia. This paper is a concise review of FD and CM in wind turbines and PMSGs. Terminology and fundamentals of PMSG’s operation are introduced first, aiming to offer an easy read and good reference to a broad audience of engineers and data scientists. Experience and research challenges with stator winding failures are also discussed.

End Effects and Geometric Compensation in Linear Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generators with Different Topologies

Electricity production from ocean waves with different solutions is a topic of major research interest. Many of such designs are based on linear generators that inherently introduce end forces. In this paper, detent force using Maxwell Stress Tensor and induced voltage is initially investigated for two different winding patterns for a generator topology with buried magnets in a finite element software. Two ways of overcoming the end forces are further examined: the first method reduces the magnetic flux variations of the translator between stator and air. The second method aims at countering the end forces at both ends for full active stator area. A comparison is then made between buried and surface-mounted topologies for the second end effect compensation method. Both no-load and load conditions are investigated in the comparison. The end effect compensation shows promising results for both topologies. Some clear similarities of the extended stator used to counter the end forces are also apparent, where the stator extensions completely cover the outer poles of both topologies. The results also indicate a longer full active stator area for the buried topology for the same pole-pitch and stroke length, resulting in a higher average voltage for partial stator overlap.

Wind-driven permanent magnet synchronous generators connected to a power grid: Existing perspective and future aspects

Scholars are motivated to work in the field of renewable energy systems (RESs) especially on grid-connected wind generators because of the exciting and noticeable developments going on in this area. This progress is utilized to obtain the maximal, efficient, and stable electric power from the RESs and integrating it into existing systems to improve its efficiency, stability, reliability, and overall power quality. Recently, permanent magnet synchronous generators (PMSGs) have become the main pillar of advanced wind systems thanks to their fascinating pluses over other types of wind generators. This paper presents the up-to-date trends in converter topologies, control approaches, maximal power production methods, and grid integration issues for PMSG-based wind systems. The performed statistical analyses assure the dominance of the two-level back-to-back converter among the studied power converter topologies, field-oriented control method for the machine side converter, voltage oriented control method for the grid side converter control, perturb and observe algorithm amongst the studied maximum power point techniques, and fault ride-through capability out of grid integration issues. Further, recent general trends in technological advancements for PMSG wind system components are illustrated as a pie chart in terms of percentage figures. It is expected that the researchers working in this field would benefit from this article in terms of the presented state-of-the-art statistical analyses and its related literature given in this study.

Induced EMF THD Reduction Design of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generators for Diesel Engine Generators

This paper deals with design of permanent magnet synchronous generators (PMSG) for diesel engine generators. The PMSG is required to reduce the total harmonic distortion (THD) reduction of the induced electromotive force (EMF) for the enhancement of power quality. In this paper, a design method is proposed to reduce the THD of the induced EMF for power quality enhancement in the PMSG. First, the selection process for the number of poles and slots is described. Second, the rotor shape design is proposed using an eccentric curve and slit shape. Based on the results of the first process, the optimal rotor shape is selected to achieve the additional THD reduction of the induced EMF. Finally, the performance for the optimal rotor shape is verified through a 2-dimensional finite element analysis (2D FEA) and prototype.