High Speed Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator for Supercritical CO2 Brayton Cycle Based Application

Abstract

Fourth generation nuclear reactors are undergoing the stage of research and development. Nuclear reactor technologies which are significantly advanced in power generation yield, safety, efficiency, availability and reliability. Amongst all categories of fourth generation reactors deploy super critical CO2 Brayton cycle methodology providing better efficiency, low cost and higher stability. For obtaining high system efficiency, the turbo-alternators of nuclear reactor needs to be compact, rugged and maintenance free and should be able to cope up with rapidly changing transients of the system. The substantially reduced size, high operating efficiency and high reliability of high speed permanent magnet synchronous generator makes it suitable for supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle application in nuclear reactors. The higher operating speed however, makes the design complex and different from the conventional generator design. This paper involves design methodologies for laboratory scaled 2 kW, 25000 RPM permanent magnet synchronous generator. The design study involves analysis of specific material requirements, theoretical calculations for arriving main dimensions and power losses. The winding arrangement, temperature flux mapping was analyzed from the prototype, model using software simulation and the results have been presented.