Performance Description of Brushless Doubly-Fed Induction Machine in Its Asynchronous and Variable Speed Synchronous Modes

Brushless Doubly-Fed Machine has attracted considerable attention in recent years due to its advantages. It has the robustness of the squirrel cage induction machine, and the speed and power factor controllability of the synchronous machine as well as the absence of brushes and slip rings, and using a fractionally rated frequency converter. Hence, there are considerable benefits over the conventional machines, when the machine is applied to applications such as a wind turbine generator or high power adjustable speed drive. However, these benefits are obtained in slightly more complex structure, higher cost and larger dimensions in comparison to the conventional induction machine. This paper presents fundamental aspects of the three modes of operation of brushless doubly fed machine, i.e. simple induction mode, cascade induction mode, and synchronous mode. The investigation is performed by analyzing the spatial harmonic contents of the rotor magnetic flux density. The direct cross couplings between stator and rotor fields as well as, indirect cross coupling between stator fields by the special rotor of this machine is described. Furthermore, loss analysis of the machine in various modes is presented and the torque-speed curves for asynchronous modes are obtained. A 2-D magnetodynamic finite element model based on the D-180 4/8 pole prototype machine is extracted and simulated to verify the results.