Performance Analysis of Isolated Self-Excited Reluctance Generator Connected to a Diode Bridge Rectifier

Abstract

With increased use of unconventional energy sources such as wind, solar, wave, tidal etc., a considerable interest has recently been devoted to the development of suitable isolated AC power generators. Reluctance generators have advantages over the other generators because of their simple construction, robustness, absence of current collection gears, low cost, maintenance free operation, no excitation winding in the rotor, easier in manufacturing and less costs. In addition, the frequency of output voltage is fixed and determined by rotor speed irrespective of load and excitation conditions. This thesis, presents the performance of three phases self excited reluctance generator connected to a diode bridge rectifier. The performance is presented under load and no load cases for different operating conditions. The experiment is conducted on three phase induction machine. The squirrel cage rotor of induction machine is modified to a reluctance structure suitable for reluctance generator. MATLAB/SIMULIK software is used to simulate the system. The results are compared with the experiment results