Effects of the modularity in PMSM synchronous machine behaviour

Permanent magnet direct drive configurations have considerable advantages in offshore wind farms improving reliability, longevity and lower maintenance by eliminating gearboxes and external excitation systems. The size of the multipole permanent magnet machine, necessary for direct drive applications, exceeds manufacturing and transport allowed limits. Thus, new machine concepts based on modular design are needed. This paper presents the study of the influence of rotor modularity on the behaviour of a radial flux permanent magnet synchronous generator with surface mounted magnets and fractional slot windings. The electromagnetic study is based on the finite element method and the solutions has been obtained by using the software tool FLUX 2D. The starting point of this study is a machine…