Comparing the Brushless DFIM to other Generator Systems for Wind Turbine Drive-Trains

Abstract

In this paper, the brushless DFIM based wind turbine drive-train topology is compared to the DFIG based and PM generator based drive-train topologies, that are most commonly applied in modern wind turbines. The comparison will be based on a 3.2 MW case study wind turbine. By using FE based multi-objective optimization, optimized generator designs for the different topologies are generated. Then the capital expenditures of the resulting drive-train topologies are calculated and compared. Additionally, wind turbine drive-train configurations with 1, 2 and 3 stage gearboxes as well as a direct-drive configuration are taken into account. The resulting comparison shows that the brushless DFIM based drive-train with a 2 stage gearbox configuration provides a feasible alternative in commercial wind turbine drive-train applications.