Non-Salient Brushless Synchronous Generator Main Exciter Design for More Electric Aircraft

This paper presents a prototype of high speed brushless synchronous generators (BSG) design for the application in autonomous electric power generation systems (e.g., airplane power grid). Commonly used salient pole field of the main generator part of BSG was replaced with a prototype non-salient pole field. The main objective of the research is an investigation into the advantages and disadvantages of a cylindrical field of the main generator part of BSG over the original salient pole field. The design process of the prototype generator is presented with a focus on the electromagnetic and mechanical finite element method (FEM) analysis. The measurements of prototype and commercial BSG were conducted for the nominal speed of 8 krpm. The advantages and disadvantages of the proposed solution were established based on measurements in load and no-load conditions.