On the optimization of generators for offshore direct drive wind turbines

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McDonald, Alasdair and Bhuiyan, Nurul Azim (2016) On the optimization of generators for offshore direct drive wind turbines. IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion. pp. 1-10. ISSN 0885-8969 (https://doi.org/10.1109/TEC.2016.2624219)

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Abstract

The objective of this paper is to optimize direct drive permanent magnet synchronous generators for offshore direct drive wind turbines in order to reduce the cost of energy. A 6MW wind turbine design is assumed and parametric electromagnetic and structural generator models are introduced for a surface-mounted magnet generator topology (using magnets with high BHmax) and a flux-concentrating variant (using magnets with lower BHmax). These are optimized using a hybrid Genetic Algorithm and Pattern Search process and the results show that the surface-mounted permanent magnet generator produces the lower cost of energy. The choice of objective function is addressed and it is found that a simplified metric incorporating generator cost and losses proxy produces similar designs to a full cost of energy calculation. Further steps to improve the quality of the model include the effect of generator mass on the design and cost of the turbine tower and foundation, which can add €0.4m to the turbine cost. Further optimizations are carried out to show the impacts of magnetic material costs (doubling this leads to a €1.1/MWh increase in cost of energy) and generator diameter limits (increasing the upper limit from 6m to 8m leads to a 0.9% drop in cost of energy) have on the choice of optimum independent variables.

ORCID iDs

McDonald, Alasdair ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2238-3589 and Bhuiyan, Nurul Azim ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1646-2096;
  • Item type:Article
    ID code:58375
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    2 November 2016
    Published
    19 October 2016
    Accepted
    Notes:(c) 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works
    Subjects:Technology > Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
    Department:Faculty of Engineering > Electronic and Electrical Engineering
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:31 Oct 2016 15:57
    Last modified:20 Dec 2024 01:30
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/58375
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