Study of a Hybrid Excitation Synchronous Machine: Modeling and Experimental Validation

This paper deals with a parallel hybrid excitation synchronous machine (HESM). First, an expanded literature review of hybrid/double excitation machines is provided. Then, the structural topology and principles of operation of the hybrid excitation machine are examined. With the aim of validating the double excitation principle of the topology studied in this paper, the construction of a prototype is presented. In addition, both the 3D finite element method (FEM) and 3D magnetic equivalent circuit (MEC) model are used to model the machine. The flux control capability in the open-circuit condition and results of the developed models are validated by comparison with experimental measurements. The reluctance network model is created from a mesh of the studied domain. The meshing technique aims to combine advantages of finite element modeling, i.e., genericity and expert magnetic equivalent circuit models, i.e., reduced computation time. It also allows taking the non-linear characteristics of ferromagnetic materials into consideration. The machine prototype is tested to validate the predicted results. By confronting results from both modeling techniques and measurements, it is shown that the magnetic equivalent circuit model exhibits fairly accurate results when compared to the 3D finite element method with a gain in computation time.