A Pole Pair Segment of a 2 MW High Temperature Superconducting Wind Turbine Generator

A 2 MW high temperature superconducting (HTS) generator with 24 pole pairs has been designed for the wind turbine application. In order to identify potential challenges and obtain practical knowledge prior to production, a fullsize
stationary experimental set-up, which is one pole pair segment of the full generator, has been built and tested. The
experimental set-up comprises a consequent-pole HTS rotor and a conventional three-phase copper stator. This paper first presents the electromagnetic designs of the full generator and the set-up, then it goes to compare the performance of the full generator and the set-up in terms of the flux density, the operating condition of the HTS winding, and the force-generation capability. Finite element (FE) software MagNet is used to carry out numerical simulations. The findings show that the HTS winding in the set-up is a good surrogate for these that would be used in the full generator. The FE simulations also tell that the maximum tangential force generated in the set-up is 3.77% lower than that in the full generator. Good agreement between the values of interest in the set-up and those projected in the full generator has revealed a costeffective prototyping methodology for developing HTS machines.