Design and performance investigation of small-scale wind turbine system based on hybrid excited flux switching machine

In this study, a new design of a hybrid excited flux switching machine is developed for small-scale wind turbine power generation in rural and/or urban context. The hybrid excited flux switching machine uses double excitations (permanent magnets and excitation coils) to control the flux linkage and the DC bus voltage. The design and the investigation of the electromagnetic performances have been effectuated on a 3 kW wind turbine equipped with hybrid excited flux switching machine. It is shown that the produced power can be easily controlled using the excitation current which is very interesting for wind turbine applications. According to the particular stator and rotor design, this presented machine is intrinsically safe in case of fault since no flux weakening is required. The integration of unconventional electric machine in a small-scale wind turbine system appears as a good solution and meets additional criteria such as improving reliability.