Cost-Effective Single-Inverter-Controlled Brushless Technique for Wound Rotor Synchronous Machines

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.