This paper presents a novel salient pole synchronous generator i.e. permanentmagnet- assisted salient-pole synchronous generator (PMa-SGs). Due to saturation of conventional synchronous generators (SGs), permanent-magnet-assisted salientpole synchronous generators (PMa-SGs) are presented. PMa-SGs are a new type of salient-pole synchronous machines with extra permanent magnets (PMs) between the adjacent pole shoes. Placing PMs between adjacent pole shoes leads to a reduction in flux saturation plus an increase in armature flux linkage. In other words, the generator can operate at higher capacity. In this paper, a comparative study is carried out between conventional SGs and PMa-SGs based on finite element analysis (FEA). This is done via simulation of a PMa-SG compared to a conventional SG. Simulation Results show superiority of PMa-SGs over SGs. In fact, in PMa-SG maximum flux density in stator core is increased and pole bodies are not saturated. Besides, PMa-SG has higher flux linkage compared to conventional SG. Therefore, higher voltage could be produced in the generator. In other words, the output performance of the PMa-SG is considerably better than that of a conventional SG. Manuscript profile

Permanent magnet synchronous generators (PMSGs) are novel generators which can be used in high-performance wind farms. High efficiency and flexibility in producing electricity from variable rotation make them good candidate for wind power applications. Furthermore, because these kinds of generators have no excitation winding, there is no copper loss on rotor; hence, they can operate at high power factor. Besides, performance characteristics of such generators could be further improved by design optimization. This paper presents design optimization of PMSGs used in small wind turbines using novel and efficient optimization algorithm i.e. Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) Algorithm. Then, a well-known optimization algorithm i.e. Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used to show the validity and efficiency of the before-mentioned algorithm. For this purpose, the necessary equations are provided. Objective function of this study is to reduce the total volume of motor. Case study of this study is a 5 kW, 220 V, 50 Hz, 100 rpm generator. Finally, results obtained by optimization are verified with Maxwell software which is based on finite element method (FEM). Comparison shows that the results of optimization approach are in good agreement with that of FEM ones. Manuscript profile