Design and Electromagnetic Field Characteristic Analysis of 1.5 kW Small Scale Wind Power Generator for Substitution of Nd-Fe-B to Ferrite Permanent Magnet

Abstract

With the main objective of substituting a generator without a conventional Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet (PM), this paper describes the application of ferrite PM to a 1.5 (kW) wind power generator and proposes a newly designed generator with similar performance and machine size as the equivalent conventional Nd-Fe-B PM generator. The conventional generator with Nd-Fe-B PM was slotless in order to eliminate the cogging torque resulting from the PM and the tooth-slot structure. The magnetic structure of the proposed ferrite generator was newly designed using an analytical approach to obtain satisfactory performance. All analysis results were validated through experiments with a manufactured model, confirming the possibility of substitution of Nd-Fe-B magnet with ferrite magnet in such generators.