Electromagnetic Structural Design Analysis and Performance Improvement of AFPM Generator for Small Wind Turbine

Axial Field Permanent Magnet (AFPM) generators are widely applied for the small wind turbine because of the higher power density per unit weight than that of the conventional radial field generator. It is caused by the disc shaped rotor and the stator structures. The generally used AFPM generator, AFER-NS generator, is composed of the two side's external rotors and non-slotted stator without stator core. However, the output voltage and the output power are limited by the large reluctance by the long air-gap flux paths. In this paper, the design study of AFIR-S generator having double side's slotted stator core is accomplished to improve the output generation characteristics. The electromagnetic design analysis and the design improvement of the suggested AFIR-S generator are studied. Firstly, the electromagnetic design analysis was done to increase the power density. Secondly, the design optimizations of the rotor pole-arc ratio of permanent magnet are accomplished to increase the output power and to reduce the cogging torque. Finally, the output performances of AFER-NS and AFIR-S generator are compared with each other. For this study, 3D FEA is applied for the design analysis because of three dimensional electromagnetic structures.