Development and Analysis of a Novel Cascaded Brushless Self-Excited Air-Core Compensated Pulsed Alternator With Squirrel-Cage Rotor Winding

Brushless structure is beneficial for air-core compensated pulsed alternator (ACPA) because its field current and rotation speed are too large for the slip rings and carbon brushes. To achieve the brushless structure, a cascaded brushless self-excited ACPA (CBSACPA), which consists of an exciter and a generator in cascade, is proposed, in this article. The exciter and generator have a common rotor. A novel squirrel-cage rotor winding (SCRW), which can eliminate the end winding compared with conventional wound rotor winding (WRW), is proposed to simplify the rotor structure and improve the performance. First, the structure of the CBSACPA with the SCRW is introduced. Second, the operation principles of the machine are elaborated. Third, the dynamic mathematical model is presented. Fourth, the operation principles are demonstrated by the finite-element method. In addition, the performance of the SCRW is compared with the WRW as well. Finally, a prototype of CBSACPA is developed and tested to validate the analyses and simulations. In conclusion, this study gives detailed introduction, analyses, and validation about the CBSACPA, which provides a new solution to achieve a brushless structure for the ACPA.