Professor of the Department of Theoretical and Basic Electrical Engineering of Samara Polytech Pavel Grachev has designed the construction of electrical starter-generator for the power unit of a hybrid car. His post-graduate student Aleksey Tabachinskiy has improved the construction and adjusted it to the wind turbines. The recent research results are published in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications (DOI: 10.1109/TIA.2020.2964231).
The new construction of winding consists of an irregular cross-section conductor which varies sequentially. An innovative design reduces the mass and dimensions of the generator, as well as reduces the losses of electromechanical conversion.
"It's the unique feature of our generator because the serial generators either meet the requirements of energy efficiency by increasing the size and weight, either reduce the size by efficiency loss," Tabachinskiy says.
Besides the generator winding, the know-how of researches includes the implementation of control algorithms and electronic units for robust operation in a wide range of wind-wheel speeds.
"In stand-alone applications, all kinds of generators, such as in wind turbines, micro hydro power stations or on-board vehicle generators, an extra problem occurs for the required operation mode. The installation should just be generating power, but doing that efficiently and consistently," Tabachinskiy explains. "The control strategy has been developed by my research supervisor in his doctoral thesis. And I have considered the functional possibilities of its implementation in electric generators with our compact windings".
This design has already been patented as a key part of electric machine with integrated electronic units and liquid cooling.