Design Improvisation for Reduced Harmonic Distortion in a Flux Pump-Integrated HTS Generator

Abstract

This paper presents a design improvisation of a flux pump-integrated 10 kW high-temperature superconducting (HTS) proof of concept generator for reduced harmonic distortion. To carry out the design improvisation, a finite element analysis (FEA) model of the 10 kW HTS generator is developed, and time-stepped magnetic transient simulations are conducted on the 2D model. The effects of stator yoke material, winding pitch factors, and load configurations on total harmonic distortion (THD) are investigated. The results showed that fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) epoxy (G10) can be used as the stator yoke material to effectively avoid the hysteresis and eddy current losses. In addition, the study results show that for the non-conventional design of the machine, a winding pitch of 2/3 and the armature-load configuration of Star-Delta gives THD values within the standard limit defined by IEEE Standard 519-2014. The THD values indicate that the machine design configuration is suitable for the development of machines for both stand-alone and grid-connected operations, according to IEEE STD 519-2014.

Keywords

• current leads
• finite element method (FEM)
• flux pump
• HTS
• harmonics
• yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO)