Power and Energy Institute of Kentucky (PEIK) and SPARK Laboratory researchers received a best paper award for their article, “Coreless Axial Flux Halbach Array Permanent Magnet Generator Concept for Direct-Drive Wind Turbine,” at the 2023 International Conference on Renewable Energy Applications (ICRERA), held at the Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa, Canada.
The award-winning paper describes an innovative axial flux electric machine concept using two special permanent magnet rotors and a single stator employing advanced winding technology. The advantages in terms of very high efficiency and torque density are illustrated through an example design for a multi-MW low-speed wind turbine generator, which is presented together with a reduced-scale laboratory prototype.
The paper exemplifies the SPARK Lab’s continued research interest in renewable energy and wind turbine technologies, tracking back for more than a decade, to when Dan M. Ionel, L. Stanley Pigman Chair in Power, SPARK Lab and PEIK Director, and IEEE Fellow, served as chief scientist for Vestas American Wind Technology, the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer.
The research in the winning paper was sponsored by the National Science Foundation through a five-year project that was recently successfully completed.
Ionel also delivered a keynote speech at the conference titled, “Electric Aircraft – Recent Technology Developments in the U.S.” This covered Department of Energy ARPA-E sponsored research and elements of the NASA University Leadership Initiative’s ongoing Integrated Zero-Emission Aviation (IZEA) project, on which UK is a major collaboration partner.
In addition to the winning paper, students in the SPARK Lab also presented the following papers:
- Lewis, D. D., Badewa, O. A., Mohammadi, A., Vatani, M., and Ionel, D. M., "Fault Tolerant Electric Machine Concept for Aircraft Propulsion with PM Rotor and DC Current Stator Dual-Stage Excitation," Proceedings, IEEE ICRERA, Oshawa, Ontario, CA (Aug 2023).
- Alden, R. E., Halloran, C., Lewis, D. D., Ionel, D. M., and McCulloch, M., "Assessment of Land and Renewable Energy Resource Potential for Regional Power System Integration with ML Spatio-temporal Clustering," Proceedings, IEEE ICRERA, Oshawa, Ontario, CA (Aug 2023).
The papers presented are based on research sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, and ANSYS, Inc. in collaboration with the University of Bath and University of Oxford in England.
Photo information: The main author of the winning paper, Matin Vatani, Ph.D. student, is shown holding the award certificate in front of the UK Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering. In the front row alongside Vatani are co-authors and Ph.D. students Ali Mohammadi (first from left) and Donovin Lewis (last on right). Dan M. Ionel, faculty advisor to students, is featured in the center of the front row.
A senior co-author not included in the photo is John F. Eastham, a professor and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in Great Britain, who served as Ionel’s doctoral advisor, mentor, and recently, an international remote collaborator of the SPARK Lab.