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In this paper, a brushless wound rotor vernier machine (Bl-WRVM) with a single inverter configuration is proposed to achieve the brushless operation. In the proposed topology, a single inverter is connected with series-connected ABC and XYZ windings through which the current flow produces the magnetomotive force with fundamental and sub-harmonic components, respectively. The XYZ windings have similar pole pairs to the excitation windings, whereas its number of poles is different from the ABC winding. A 24-slot stator, 4-pole armature ABC winding, 2 Pole armature XYZ and excitation windings, and 44-pole field winding for the outer rotor is designed and 2D finite element analysis is carried out to determine the performance of the machine. The proposed topology makes the Bl-WRVM cost-effective by applying only a single inverter as compared to a dual-inverter Bl-WRVM and it improves its torque quality.

This paper proposes a novel simplified brushless wound field synchronous machine (BL-WFSM) topology based on an uncontrolled three-phase rectifier. The output of the rectifier is injected into the common point of the star-connected three-phase armature winding. This arrangement develops an armature MMF consisting of two components: the fundamental MMF, which is rotating in nature, and the harmonic pulsating magnetic field, which induces the harmonic current in the specially designed harmonic winding of the rotor. The induced harmonic current is rectified through the full-bridge rectifier, which excites the main rotor field to achieve brushless operation and produce torque while interacting with the main fundamental rotating field of the armature. The proposed brushless topology is simple as it involves a single three-phase rectifier which does not require any complicated control strategy. Furthermore, this topology is a cost-effective solution as compared to the conventional brushless WFSM topologies since it does not require any additional hardware component except for a typical rectifier. In addition, the performance of the proposed brushless topology is better than the existing three-phase rectifier-based brushless scheme in terms of efficiency, output torque, and torque ripple. The proposed simplified BL-WFSM topology is validated through 2-D finite element analysis (FEA) using JMAG-Designer 19.1 to obtain the output torque of the machine.

This paper presents a novel dual-mode wound rotor synchronous machine (DWRSM) for variable speed applications. The proposed machine combines the advantages of both the conventional wound rotor synchronous machine (CWRSM) and the brushless wound rotor synchronous machine (BWRSM). Unlike the existing BWRSM, through the dual-mode operation of the proposed machine, constant torque is achieved in the constant torque region by operating the machine in mode-I, i.e., as a CWRSM, and constant power is achieved in the field weakening region by operating the machine in mode-II, i.e., as a BWRSM. The mode change is performed through an additional thyristor drive circuit. The airgap magnetomotive force (MMF) in both modes is derived analytically. To verify this principle, finite element analysis (FEA) and an experiment on a 1- horsepower prototype machine was performed, and key influential factors were verified. The transients in the stator currents and torque during the mode change was analyzed. The test results validated the correctness of the theory and the FEA results.

This paper proposes a cost-effective brushless technique for wound rotor synchronous machines (WRSMs). The proposed technique involves a traditional current-controlled voltage source inverter that utilizes a simple hysteresis-controller-based current control scheme and supplies three-phase currents to the armature winding of the machine. The supplied armature currents inherently contain fundamental-harmonic and third-harmonic current components. These unique armature current waveforms were previously realized by using dual-inverter-controlled schemes achieved with and without thyristor switches to develop brushless WRSM topologies. The fundamental-harmonic current component is applied to develop the main stator field, whereas the third-harmonic component is employed to realize the harmonic magnetomotive force, which induces a back electromotive force (EMF) in the harmonic winding located at the rotor periphery. The induced harmonic EMF is rectified to deliver a DC current to the rotor field winding through a full-bridge diode rectifier to achieve brushless operation. The proposed cost-effective brushless technique for WRSMs is validated using 2-D finite element analysis employing JMAG-Designer 19.1 to investigate the electromagnetic and electromechanical behaviors of the machine. Furthermore, the proposed technique is employed in machine topologies with different pole/slot combinations for the armature winding to achieve better performance.