Multidisciplinary design optimization of direct-drive PMSG considering the site wind profile

摘要

The paper proposes a multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) of permanent magnet synchronous generators (PMSG) for wind energy conversion systems (WECS). Such a MDO seeks the best compromise between the PMSG cost and the lifetime energy production of the WECS. So far, most of the papers in this field presented design methods using quite a few optimization variables and requiring a lot of assumptions. In the proposed MDO the specifications consist of geometrical, economical, magnetic, electrical and thermal constraints. Several analytic and semi-analytic sub-models where used to deal with these constraints, resulting in a large non-linear optimization problem that uses a sequential quadratic programming optimization algorithm. The paper considers the annual wind profile to estimate the lifetime wind turbine energy production. Moreover, the best possible solutions are presented in a Pareto front showing the trade-off between the generator cost and the wind turbine energy production. Among them, one optimal solution machine was chosen to be further investigated and its results were verified by finite element analysis. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.