Analytical model for Diagnosis of Stator Inter-Turn Fault in Self-Excited Synchronous Reluctance Generators for Renewable Energy Applications

The self-excited synchronous reluctance generator (SE-SynRG) is gaining importance for its potential use in standalone renewable energy applications, especially in wind energy applications. Absence of rotor windings, simple design, reliability and lack of rare-earth minerals are few of its key features. Stator winding faults are the most common failures occurring in the electrical machines. The occurrence of stator inter-turn faults (SITF) can have a significant impact on its performance and reliability. This work proposes a novel analytic modeling for the SynRG which will aid in the diagnosis of inter-turn faults. The detailed mathematical development of a dq model for SynRG, which allows for the incorporation of SITF, to understand and analyze the fault current behavior at various fault severities and operating conditions has been envisaged. The conclusions of this study will be helpful for developing diagnosis techniques for SynRG, and to plan the post-fault operations. The developed model has been simulated in MATLAB environment for investigating the behavior of the machine at different fault severities and operating conditions.