Design of low speed switched reluctance machines for wind energy converters

Abstract

A design study of 3-phase switched reluctance (SR) generators has been performed to investigate the influence of numbers of stator and rotor poles on the machine performance at low speed for use in a direct drive wind energy converter. The wind turbine is rated at 20 kW at 100 rpm. The design study has focussed on the influence of the number of poles per phase and magnetic gear ratio. Results of efficiency, torque per unit mass and SR converter requirement have been presented for all designs.