Design, Modelling and Optimization of a Pseudo Direct Drive

Design, Modelling and Optimization of a Pseudo

Direct Drive
C. G. C. Neves1, A. F. F. Filho2, D. G. Dorrell3
1
Energy Engineering Course, Universidade Federal do Pampa, Brazil
2
DELET, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
3
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College Campus, Durban, South Africa
cgcneves@ieee.org, alyflores@ufrgs.br and dorrelld@ukzn.ac.za
 Introduction

 Direct Drives (DDs) - gearless systems which use outer-rotor

synchronous generators with permanent magnets.
 Generator is directly driven by the wind turbine (low-speed and high-
torque)
 Generator is bulky in size with a very high pole number.
 Weight and manufacture cost can be high.

Direct Drive
 Introduction

 Pseudo Direct Drive (PDDs) - integration of the magnetic gear and a

permanent magnet generator.
 Has the same torque as a DD machine without requiring a large size.

Pseudo Direct Drive

SPEED EQUATION AND GEAR RATIO

 The equation which

relates the speeds of the
different components is given
pby: 
inner innerp  n 
outer outer p p

 When the outer PM array

is held stationary and the
modulators are driven by a
turbine, the gear ratio is:
inner np Tp
Gr   
p pinner Tinner

 If np = 25 and pinner = 3 then the

maximum achievable Gr is 8.33.
 PDD SIZING – PSEUDO REPEAT
PATTERN

 The permanent magnet dimensions and modulators height (h)

were calculated by a pseudo repeat pattern which is mathematically
defined by three dimensionless parameters α,  and β:
2 2

l
a

l

la

l

 In order to reduce l and consequently decrease the diameter α,

 and β are chosen to be 2.4, 0.2 and 0.5, respectively.
 That generally gives good results for Vernier machines.
h

This table summarizes the PDD dimensions based on

the dimensionless parameters.
Parameter Value [mm] Parameter Value [mm]
τ2 22.0 la 9.00

l 45.5 g1, g2 1.50

a 4.00 h 40.0
Electromagnetic Torque Modelling

 Electromagnetic torque is produced in a magnetic geared

machine when the energy stored in magnetic fields varies with rotation of
the components.
 Torque on a component can be expressed as:
W '
T
 c
 where is W is the co-energy of the system and θc is the angular
position of the component on which the torque is calculated.
 In this analysis it is assumed that all the co-energy is stored in the air-
gaps and the magnets.
 In these regions, the co-energy can be calculated as
1
W'  
2 0 V
B 2 dV

 where B is the air-gap flux density and assuming that the permeability
of the magnets is approximately equal to that of air (free space).
 Torque in Movement Bands

 The Coulomb’s virtual work method was used for torque

calculation in the moving band.
N mb
L  T -1 G 1 B 2  G 
T
0  B G

e 1  e

 2 G  
 d

B = [B x , B y ] B = B

where ,

G is the Jacobian matrix of the global nodal coordinates with respect to

local element coordinates and [G] the determinant of G.
 Movement Bands Location

Band to calculate torque at inner gap (Tinner)

Band to calculate torque at modulators (Tp)

 OPTIMIZATION PROCEDURE

 An optimization procedure based on Quasi-Newton were used

to automatically change the outer widths τs and inner widths τi. in order
to achieve the maximum achievable Gr.
 Quasi-Newton methods are methods used to either find zeroes or
local maxima and minima of functions, as an alternative to Newton's
method.
They can be used if the  Jacobian or Hessian is unavailable or is too
expensive to compute at every iteration. 
 The maximum achievable was obtained for τs =16 mm and τi. =18 mm.
 The same analysis was used for different values of a and la and the
same values of τs and τi again gave the best Gr.
Torque inner gap
Torque at Modulators
 CONCLUSION

 A preliminary sizing of a PDD for wind power was performed.

 An optimization procedure determined the modulators dimensions to

obtain the maximum achievable gear relation.

 In the full paper further analysis will be applied to verify and improve
these results.