Analysis of Low-Speed IPMMs With Distributed and Fractional Slot Concentrated Windings for Wind Energy Applications

This paper introduces an alternative pathway to designing an efficient interior permanent magnet machine (IPMM) for direct–drive (D-D) wind energy applications. It analyzes the design optimization methodology in great detail, employing multiple experimental verifications to acutely pinpoint the most desirable and feasible format. The focal objectives of minimizing cogging torque, torque ripple, and maximizing efficiency were among the priority design goals and obtained through design optimization. It is demonstrated in the process that both the torque ripple and the cogging torque can be reduced to less than 5% by adjusting the slot and pole dimensions, without any other alterations in rotor pole shaping or skewing. This paper leads the way, pioneering experimental substantiation of theory, by varying existing geometrical parameters, winding, and pole design of a basic IPMM to come up with a highly efficient wind turbine generator with negligible cogging torque and torque ripple. The electromagnetic is at the heart of this paper’s design goals, as parameter optimization is essential for a wind turbine application. The winding layout is brought under scrutiny and both the distributed and concentrated wound IPMMs are compared to further adopt the design optimization. The superiority of the concentrated-wound design is demonstrated, and consequently a prototype machine is constructed based on the proposed design for experimental verification. The results from the experiment verify the feasibility of the proposed design for D-D wind turbine applications.