Analysis of a New Dual-Stator Doubly Salient

Brushless DC Generator
Yangyang Tao, Zhuoran Zhang, Yangguang Yan, and Zhou Bo
College of Automation Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China
apsc-zzr@nuaa.edu.cn

Abstract This paper presents a new dual-stator doubly
salient brushless DC generator (DSBLDCG). The key of
the proposed generator is to reduce the voltage and torque
ripples. Finite element analysis (FEA) of the generator is
carried out to investigate the magnetic field distribution at
different rotor positions. Furthermore, flux-linkage and
inductance characteristics are also given. The simulation
of the generator with three-phase half-wave common
anode rectifier circuit is well performed. The results from
the finite element analysis verify the theory analysis and
the rationality of the generator. It shows that the structure
of the dual-stator can decrease the voltage ripple
effectively, especially under heavy load conditions.
Keywords dual-stator; doubly salient generator; voltage
ripple; FEA; rectifier circuit
I. INTRODUCTION
Wind power generation has been attracting more
attention around the world because it is economic and
renewable. A wind power generator is the core
component of energy conversion in a wind power
generation system. A doubly salient motor (DSM) that
has no windings and permanent magnets on the rotor is
a new kind of brushless electrical machine. Due to the
easy controllability and high reliability, the doubly
salient electromagnetic machine (DSEM) has attracted
attention in wind power systems [1-5]. However,
DSEM suffers from the drawbacks of high voltage \ and
torque ripples because of the nature of the salient poles
in both the stator and rotor. Proper skewing of the rotor
can reduce the voltage ripple and torque ripple
effectively [6-8]. A new DSM, which consists of two
DSMs, is proposed [9]. The two DSMs, which have the
same parameter, share the shaft. The stators or rotors
stagger an electrical angle for some certain value to
reduce the torque ripple and voltage ripple.
In this paper, a new dual-stator doubly salient
brushless DC generator (DSBLDCG) with rectified
output that can effectively reduce the voltage ripple and
torque ripple, is proposed and investigated. The
configuration is introduced in Section II. In order to
study the electromagnetic performances and output
characteristics of the proposed generator, two-
dimensional (2-D) finite element analysis is given and
field-circuit coupled analysis is successfully performed.
978-1-4244-8921-3/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE
II. CONFIGURATION AND OUTPUT CHARACTERISTICS
A. Configuration
Traditional DSM has a 6N/4N-pole (N is a positive
integer) structure, so the dual-stator DSBLDCG has a
structure of 6N/4N/4N/6N-pole. Fig. 1 shows the
configuration of 6/4/4/6-pole dual-stator DSBLDCG,
which mainly consists of stator-inside, stator-outside,
rotor, armature winding and excitation winding. This
6/4/4/6-pole configuration is the most simple pattern of
the dual-stator DSBLDCG. Actually, the generator is
composed of two conventional DSMs (DSM-I and
DSM-II). DSM-I consists of the rotor and the stator-
outside, while the rotor and the stator-inside make up
DSM-II. The teeth on both sides of the rotor stagger an
electrical angle for 60o. Thus, phase waveforms of the
two DSMs will stagger an electrical angle for a certain
value. Both DSM-I and DSM-II have their own stator
windings: an armature winding and an excitation
winding. There are two sets of three-phase armature
windings in the generator. The three-phase armature
winding of DSM-I is named winding-I and another
three-phase armature winding of DSM-II is named
winding-II.
Fig. 1. Configuration of the proposed 6/4/4/6-pole dual-stator
DSBLDCG.
B. Output Characteristics
DSM generally cannot be used as AC generator
because of the non-sinusoidal induced potential. With
separate rectifier circuits, the rectified outputs of DSM-
I and DSM-II are connected in a series. There are three
different topologies of rectifier circuits: three-phase
half-wave common cathode rectifier circuit, three-phase
half-wave common anode rectifier circuit and three-
phase bridge rectifier circuit. Fig. 2 shows the three-
phase half-wave common anode rectifier circuit. The
armature reaction of dual-stator DSBLDCG with this
generation mode increases magnetism.
Fig. 2. Half-wave common anode rectifier circuit.
The output characteristic of DSM is primarily
determined by the armature reaction, commutation
voltage loss and impedance voltage drop. Thus, the
output dc voltage U d of DSM with load current output
can be expressed as:
U d U d 0 I d R U a U d U rec (1)
where U d 0 is output dc voltage of DSM at no-load;
I d R represents the voltage drop on the equivalent
resistance; U a is voltage drop caused by armature
reaction, U a may be negative while armature reaction
plays field enhancing effect; U d is commutation
III. 2D-FEA OF ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD AND
INDUCTANCE CHARACTERISTICS
A. 2D-FEA of electromagnetic field
Magnetic field distribution and steady-state
performance of the dual-stator DSBLDCG are analyzed
by using 2D-FEM. The steady-state magnetic field
distributions of the generator with different rotor
positions when the dc excitation current is 5A are
respectively shown in Fig. 3. It can be seen that there
are two different flux paths of iron core around the field
excitation windings. One flux path is concentrated on
the overlapping area between the stator-outside and
rotor teeth, and another flux path is concentrated on the
overlapping area between the stator-outside, rotor and
stator-inside.
(a) (b)
Fig. 3. Flux distribution with different rotor positions (If=5A).

voltage loss of the rectifier; U rec is voltage drop of

(a) r 15 o ;(b) r 21o
rectifier diodes.
The current commutation in DSM is caused by the
self-inductance and mutual inductance of the armature B. Inductance characteristics
windings, so the commutation voltage loss is closely Fig. 4 shows the curve of the excitation winding
related to the winding inductive reactance and load inductance of 6/4/4/6-pole dual-stator DSBLDCG
current. It can be derived as: under no load condition. It can be seen the self-
3 inductance fluctuation of excitation windings is very
U d ( X b X ba ) I 0 (2)
2 little and satisfactory, so high induced voltage of
where X b , X ba are inductive reactance produced by B- excitation windings could not be produced.
phase self-inductance and A-B phase mutual inductance 140
respectively, and I o is output dc current of DSM.
The rectified outputs of DSM-I and DSM-II are
Self-inductance(mH)

120
connected in the series, so the output dc voltage U o of
the dual-stator DSBLDCG can be calculated as: 100
U o U dI U dII (3)
where U dI , U dII are the output dc voltages of DSM-I 80

and DSM-II. Both U dI and U dII are determined by (1).

60
0 60 120 180 240 300 360
Electrical angle(degree)

Fig. 4. Self-inductance of excitation winding.


A-Self-inductance of phase winding of DSM-I
B-Self-inductance of phase winding of DSM-II
Fig. 5. Self-inductance of phase winding.
Fig. 5 shows the phase self-inductance versus the
rotor angle of different armature windings of 6/4/4/6-
pole dual-stator DSBLDCG by 2-D finite element
analysis. It can also be seen that the initial rotor
position of DSM-II is 60o (electrical angle) ahead of
DSM-I.
IV. FIELD-CIRCUIT COUPLED ANALYSIS
The dual-stator DSBLDCG with half-wave common
anode rectified output can provide DC power. The
armature reaction may enhance the magnetic field
Fig. 6 gives the no-load flux and phase voltage
waveforms of dual-stator DSBLDCG, from which we
can see that the dual-stator DSBLDCG works properly.
As the initial rotor position of DSM-II is 60o ahead of
DSM-I, phase voltage waveforms of DSM-I and DSM-
II stagger an angle.
The transient field-circuit coupled model of 6/4/4/6-
pole dual-stator DSBLDCG is established. Fig. 7 shows
the output voltage waveforms of 6/4/4/6-pole dual-
stator DSBLDCG, DSM-I and DSM-II under no load
condition and with a 2.4A dc load, while the excitation
current is 5A. As the teeth on both sides of the rotor
stagger an electrical angle for 60o, the output dc voltage
of DSM-I is minimum while the value of DSM-II
approaches to maximum. The voltage ripple coefficient
of dual-stator DSBLDCG is 0.084 while DSM-I is
0.119 under no load condition. When the dc load
current is 2.4A, the voltage ripple coefficient
respectively changes to 0.205 and 0.631. It is easy to
see that the structure of dual-stator can decrease the
voltage ripple effectively, especially under heavy load
conditions.
300
250
DS-DSBLDCG
200
Voltage(V)

produced by excitation MMFs in this mode. 2D-FEA

150
model of dual-stator DSBLDCG and circuit model of DSM-I
rectification are built in MAXWELL2D, and field- 100
circuit coupled analysis is successfully performed. DSM-II
50
0.4
0
DSM-I 0 1 2 3 4 5
DSM-II Time(ms)
0.3
Fluxlinkage(Wb)

(a)

0.2 400

DS-DSBLDCG
0.1 300
Voltage(V)

0 200 DSM-I

0 1 2 3 4 5
Time(ms)

(a) 100 DSM-II

200
DSM-I 0
DSM-II 0 1 2 3 4 5
100 Time(ms)

(b)
Voltage(V)

0
Fig. 7. Output voltage waveforms.
-100 (a) No-load condition; (b) 2.4A dc load current.

-200 Fig. 8 gives the curves of the power characteristics of

0 1 2 3 4 5
Time(ms) dual-stator DSBLDCG when excitation current is 5A. It
(b) shows that the maximum output power of the generator
Fig. 6. No-load flux and phase voltage waveforms is up to 2.7kW.
(a) No-load flux; (b) Phase voltage waveforms
 3 REFERENCES
2.5
2 60, Jan/Feb. 2006.
Power(kW)
1.5
1 3457, Oct. 2006.
0.5
0 machine, IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 38, no. 5, pp. 2382-2384,
0 10 20 30 40 50
Current(A)
Fig. 8. Power characteristic curves of dual-stator DSBLDCG
V. CONCLUSION
This paper presents a new 6/4/4/6-pole dual-stator
DSBLDCG. The generator is composed of two DSMs
(DSM-I and DSM-II). With separate rectifier circuits,
the rectified outputs of DSM-I and DSM-II are
connected in a series. Magneto static field distribution,
excitation inductance characteristics, as well as power
characteristics of the proposed generator are studied by
2-D finite elements analysis. According to the FEM
results, the dual-stator DSBLDCG can reduce voltage
ripple effectively. The dual-stator DSBLDCG may
provide a new scheme for wind power generation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the National Basic
Research Program of China (973 Program) under
Project 2007CB210302 and the National Natural
Science Foundation of China under Award 50807023.
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