Analysis and Design of a Permanent-Magnet Outer-Rotor Synchronous Generator for a Direct-Drive Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine

In Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Generators (PMSGs) the reduction of cogging torque is one of the most important problems in their performance and evaluation. In this paper, at first, a direct-drive vertical-axis wind turbine is chosen. According to its nominal value operational point, necessary parameters for the generator is extracted. Due to an analytical method, four generators with different pole-slot combinations are designed. Average torque, torque ripple and cogging torque are evaluated based on finite element method. The combination with best performance is chosen and with the analysis of variation of effective parameters on cogging torque, and introducing a useful method, an improved design of the PMSG with lowest cogging torque and maximum average torque is obtained. The results show a proper performance and a correctness of the proposed method.