Toward an Optimum Design of Large-Scale HTS Synchronous Generator for Wind Turbine Applications

In this paper, a thorough analysis is carried out to obtain an optimum design for a 10-MW-class high-temperature superconducting (HTS) synchronous generator for wind conversion systems. Different design challenges are studied, and a multiobjective function, which includes mass, cost, volume, and operating characteristics of the generator, has been considered. An improved analytical hierarchy process technique as a multiobjective decision-making algorithm is used to optimize the proposed objective function, and thereby, optimum dimension parameters of the generator are achieved. It is deduced that the generator total cost, particularly the HTS material price, has considerable influence on the optimum structure of the generator, which should be considered in the design procedure. This investigation suggested a precise study to obtain an optimum structure of the large-scale HTS synchronous generator for wind turbine applications.