Electr Eng (2018) 100:1797–1804
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00202-017-0662-8
ORIGINAL PAPER
A new brushless wound rotor synchronous machine using a special
stator winding arrangement
Asif Hussain1 · Byung-il Kwon1
Received: 1 August 2017 / Accepted: 2 November 2017 / Published online: 10 November 2017
© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2017
Abstract This paper proposes a new topology for a brush-
less wound rotor synchronous machine (BL-WRSM) using
a specially designed stator winding supplied through a sin-
gle three-phase inverter. In this topology, a special stator
winding, which comprises of two sets of series-connected
windings with an unequal number of turns, is used to generate
an additional spatial sub-harmonic component in the stator
magneto-motive force (MMF). This additional sub-harmonic
MMF (SH-MMF) component is utilized for exciting the field
winding of the BL-WRSM. The advantage of the proposed
brushless topology is the use of a single inverter compared to
a dual inverter used in the existing dual inverter BL-WRSM.
For the rotor, there are two separate windings: (1) harmonic
winding and (2) field winding. Both the harmonic and field
windings are connected in parallel with each other through a
rotating rectifier. The additional SH-MMF component gen-
erates a rotating air-gap magnetic field, which induces the
voltage in the harmonic winding. This induced voltage is then
rectified and used to supply a dc current to the field winding.
A 2-D finite element analysis is performed to analyze and
verify the operating principle of this new BL-WRSM.
Keywords Brushless wound rotor synchronous machine
(BL-WRSM) · Special stator winding · Sub-harmonic
magneto-motive force (SH-MMF) component · Harmonic
winding · 2-D finite element analysis (FEA)
B Byung-il Kwon
bikwon@hanyang.ac.kr
1 Department of Electronics Systems Engineering,
Hanyang University, Ansan 15588, South Korea
1 Introduction
Permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) have
been the best choice for applications which require high effi-
ciency, simple control, robust structure, and no need for an
external excitation system. However, the recent increase in
the cost of rare earth permanent magnet materials has signif-
icantly increased the cost of these machines [1]. Therefore,
there is a worldwide increase in the search of alternatives to
PMSMs that require less amount of permanent magnets such
as hybrid excitation synchronous machines [2,3] or the ones
that do not require permanent magnets at all.
In order to combine the advantages of PMSMs and wound
rotor synchronous machines (WRSMs), hybrid excitation
synchronous machines have been designed in [4,5]. A com-
parison study between the hybrid excitation topologies has
been documented in [6]. However, the increasing price of
permanent magnet (PM) materials is the main barrier to
developing these types of machines.
In [7], a novel stator electrically field excited synchronous
machine having salient pole rotor without any coil or mag-
nets was developed and its performance was analyzed in
comparison with the Toyota Prius interior permanent mag-
net synchronous machine. In [8], a WRSM was studied and
its performance was analyzed in comparison with a PMSM
for an electric vehicle application. From the analysis, it was
suggested that the conventional WRSM could be a viable
alternative to a PMSM in electric vehicle applications. While
comparing the conventional WRSM with PMSM, WRSM
has great advantages: a low-cost rotor (only copper winding
and field current is used for excitation), three control vari-
ables (id, iq, if) allow the extended control of WRSM for a
wide speed range, and the machine cost is not related to the
cost of the PM material.
123
1798
However, in conventional WRSMs, a dc current is sup-
plied to the field winding through an assembly of brushes
and slip rings to generate the rotor flux. Since this assem-
bly causes losses, sparking and maintenance issues, it is
only suitable for large synchronous machines. For small
synchronous machines, continual efforts are being made to
replace the brushes and slip rings with a brushless excitation
system.
A brushless and self-excited synchronous machine which
utilizes an additional three-phase current winding and the
secondary winding of a rotary compounding transformer for
generating the excitation current was studied in [9]. How-
ever, this machine is sensitive to the power factor of the
load when it is working as synchronous generator. More-
over, the structure and the circuits are complex. In [10], a
brushless self-exciting three-phase synchronous generator
was designed and analyzed and the voltage regulation for
various loads was achieved using this machine. In [11], a
rotating transformer operating at a high frequency was uti-
lized to reduce its weight and cost for brushless excitation of
WRSM.
A spatial third harmonic component of stator magneto-
motive force (MMF) was used for the brushless operation of
a WRSM in [12]. In this method, one inverter supplies the
fundamental current, and a second inverter is used to inject a
third harmonic current into the three-phase open stator wind-
ing. The MMF due to the third harmonic current induces the
voltage in the harmonic winding placed on the rotor. After
rectification, this induced voltage in the harmonic winding
supplies the dc current to the rotor field winding. However,
the drawback of this topology is the utilization of a second
inverter to inject the third harmonic current to the stator wind-
ing.
Another approach to brushless wound rotor synchronous
machines (BL-WRSM) is the use of a synchronous machine,
itself as an excitation as well as a torque producing device.
In [13], a controllable zero-sequence current is gener-
ated to excite the rotor field winding. In this topology,
thyristor switches are connected in parallel with the three-
phase stator winding to switch during the positive and
negative half cycles for generation of a zero-sequence cur-
rents.
The third harmonic component produced by the zero-
sequence current is then couples with a dedicated rotor
harmonic winding and induces the voltage. This voltage is
then rectified by a diode bridge rectifier and supplied to the
main field winding. A drawback of this brushless topology
is the need for thyristor switches, which are used to switch
during the positive and negative half cycles to generate zero-
sequence currents. This produces switching losses resulting
in high torque ripple of the machine.
123
Electr Eng (2018) 100:1797–1804
Fig. 1 Dual inverter brushless topology [14]
In [14], a special converter control is utilized to create
a sub-harmonic magneto-motive force (SH-MMF) compo-
nent in the stator air-gap field. In this brushless topology,
two three-phase currents are supplied to the stator winding
through two inverters. The stator winding of this topology is
divided into two portions, each of which is excited through
a separate inverter as shown in Fig. 1. The SH-MMF com-
ponent induces the voltage in the harmonic winding. This
induced voltage is then rectified through a diode bridge
rectifier and the dc current is supplied to the rotor field
winding. However, it uses two inverters to excite the sta-
tor of the machine for brushless operation of WRSM, which
increases the cost and size of the brushless excitation system.
This drawback makes this topology less suitable for practi-
cal applications. Based on the brushless topology presented
in [14], a PM-assisted, brushless wound rotor synchronous
machine was presented, which offered advantages for start-
ing the machine and providing better performance under full
load conditions [15].
This paper proposes a new brushless topology for gener-
ating an additional SH-MMF component using a specially
designed stator winding supplied through a single three-
phase inverter. The rotor excitation is achieved by using
the SH-MMF component to induce the voltage in the har-
monic winding. A diode bridge rectifier mounted on the rotor
periphery is utilized to rectify the voltage induced in the har-
monic winding. After rectification, the dc current is supplied
to the main field winding for the production of the main
air-gap magnetic field. A 2-D finite element analysis (2-D
FEA) is performed to validate this new type of BL-WRSM.
This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the
structure of the proposed brushless topology and the machine
configuration. Section 3 presents the operation principle of
the proposed brushless topology followed by a 2-D FEA of
the proposed BL-WRSM in Sect. 4. The conclusions of this
work are then presented in Sect. 5.
Electr Eng (2018) 100:1797–1804 1799

Fig. 2 Illustration of the proposed brushless topology

2 Proposed brushless topology and machine

configuration

2.1 Proposed brushless topology

Fig. 3 Machine layout with stator and rotor winding configurations

The proposed brushless topology is demonstrated in Fig. 2.
The stator winding used in this topology is divided into two
sets of three-phase windings: winding ABC and winding Table 1 Machine specifications for the BL-WRSM
XYZ. Both the windings are connected in series, and the
Parameter Units Value
number of turns in the winding ABC is kept double to the
number of turns in the winding XYZ. The stator winding is Rated power W 746
supplied by a balanced, three-phase currents through a single Operating speed rpm 900
three-phase inverter. Due to the special winding arrangement Stator outer diameter mm 177
proposed in this topology, the MMF of the stator has two main Stator inner diameter mm 95
components: the fundamental component for the torque pro- Air-gap length mm 0.5
duction and sub-harmonic component for the excitation flux. Shaft diameter mm 25
Two separate windings are placed on the rotor, the har- Stack length mm 80
monic winding and the field winding. The harmonic winding Number of poles – 8
is a four-pole winding, whereas the field winding is an 8- Number of stator slots – 48
pole winding which synchronizes with the stator winding.
Conductors per stator slot of winding ABC – 40
Both windings are connected through a diode bridge recti-
Conductors per stator slot of winding XYZ – 20
fier mounted on the rotor periphery. The harmonic winding
Conductors per pole of field winding – 50
is used to intercept the SH-MMF component of the air-gap
Conductors per pole of harmonic winding – 24
flux and develop the voltage across the harmonic winding.
Core material – 50H1300
This developed voltage is rectified through the diode bridge
rectifier and dc current is supplied to the field winding. To
intercept the torque generation component of the air-gap flux,
the number of poles of the field winding and stator winding
tor winding through a single three-phase inverter. The main
is kept the same (8 poles in this case).
machine specifications of the designed BL-WRSM are sum-
marized in Table 1.
2.2 Machine configuration There are two separate windings on the rotor of the
machine: the harmonic winding and the field winding. To
The proposed brushless topology is verified by designing an realize the operating principle of the proposed topology, the
8-pole, 48-slot BL-WRSM with a three-phase double-layer pole pitch of the harmonic winding is kept double the pole
distributed winding on the stator. The machine layout with pitch of the field winding. Consequently, the harmonic wind-
the stator and rotor winding configuration is shown in Fig. 3. ing has 4 poles. It is used to link the SH-MMF component,
To realize the operation of the proposed brushless topology, and the voltages are induced in the harmonic winding, which
the stator winding is distributed in such a way that the wind- are then rectified and dc current is supplied to the field wind-
ing ABC and winding XYZ are placed on alternate portions ing. The field winding has 8 poles and is used to synchronize
of the machine and connected in series with each other. A the 8-pole stator field with the rotor field. The structure of
balanced three-phase current is supplied to the proposed sta- the rotor windings is shown in Fig. 4.

123
1800 Electr Eng (2018) 100:1797–1804

Fig. 4 Rotor winding structure

3 Operating principle of the proposed brushless i a = Im sin ωe t

 
topology 2π
i b = Im sin ωe t −
3
Unlike the previously investigated brushless topologies for  
2π
WRSM, which used dual inverters for achieving the brushless i c = Im sin ωe t + (1)
3
operation [12,14], the proposed brushless topology requires
only a single three-phase inverter. In the proposed topology,
no additional winding on the stator or additional inverter is where Im is the peak current supplied by the inverter, ωe is
used to generate the SH-MMF component and the fundamen- the electrical angular frequency, and t is the time.
tal component of the stator MMF. The operation principle The proposed brushless topology is analyzed for the
of the proposed brushless topology is carried out by gen- designed 8-pole, 48-slot BL-WRSM. The MMF distribution
erating a SH-MMF component by supplying a balanced due to the specially designed double-layer distributed wind-
three-phase current into the specially designed three-phase ing of the 8-pole, 48-slot machine is plotted in Fig. 5. It is
stator winding. Both the harmonic components (fundamental plotted for the case, where the phase A current in the sta-
and sub-harmonic) of the stator MMF are generated from a tor winding has the maximum amplitude (phase A = 6.4 A,
three-phase double-layer distributed stator winding which is phase B = − 3.2 A, phase C = − 3.2 A), and the number
divided into two sets of series-connected windings. The two of turns in the winding ABC and XYZ is 40 and 20, respec-
windings have an unequal number of turns (winding ABC tively. The MMF distribution from 0 to 90 and 180 to 270
has double the number of turns in this case) and are supplied mechanical degrees is caused by the winding XYZ, and the
through an inverter. The sub-harmonic component of the sta- MMF distribution from 90 to 180 and 270 to 360 mechani-
tor MMF generates a rotating air-gap magnetic field, which cal degrees is caused by the winding ABC. The difference in
induces a voltage in the harmonic winding. The harmonic the peak values of the MMF in the windings ABC and XYZ
winding is responsible for inducing the magnetic field energy stems from the different number of turns in the two windings.
generated by the SH-MMF component. The induced voltage
ω 
in the rotor harmonic winding is then rectified through a diode e
F = −30.9 cos t + 106.92 sin (ωe t)
bridge rectifier mounted on the rotor periphery and supplies 2
ωe 
the dc current to the field winding. The field winding is used + 17.49 cos 3 t + 1.54 sin (5ωe t)
to produce the rotor main magnetic field. The three-phase  ω2 
e
currents supplied to the special stator winding are defined as, + 3.63 cos 5 t + 1.10 sin (7ωe t) + · · · . (2)
2

Fig. 5 MMF plot of the 8-pole, 48 slot stator winding

123
Electr Eng (2018) 100:1797–1804
Fig. 6 Fundamental and sub-harmonic component of the stator MMF
A Fourier series expansion of the MMF distribution is
expressed in Eq. (2). It contains a fundamental component
of the stator MMF along with all the odd harmonics exclud-
ing the triple harmonics and the SH-MMF component of
the fundamental with all its odd harmonics. Therefore, both
the MMF components (sub-harmonic and fundamental) are
clearly decoupled from each other.
Figure 6 shows the graphical representation of (2). It
shows that the fundamental component has 8 poles with the
frequency, ωe , and the sub-harmonic component has 4 poles
with the frequency, ω2e . The two components rotate at dif-
ferent speeds and in the opposite directions. The harmonic
winding is placed on the rotor such that its number of poles
is equal to the number of poles generated by the SH-MMF
Fig. 7 Flux density and flux lines distribution
1801
component. The number of poles in the field winding is equal
to the number of poles generated by the fundamental com-
ponent of the stator MMF. Thus, the brushless operation of
the proposed topology is achieved by linking the SH-MMF
component of the stator MMF with the rotor harmonic wind-
ing and by linking the fundamental component of the stator
MMF with the rotor field winding.
4 2-D finite element analysis
A 2-D finite element analysis (FEA) is performed to analyze
and verify the operation of the proposed brushless topology.
The stator winding of the BL-WRSM is supplied with a bal-
anced three-phase sinusoidal current with a peak current of
6.4 A at a 60 Hz frequency.
Figure 7 shows the flux density, B, plotted at the rated load
case. The flux density is higher on the portion of the machine
with winding ABC compared with the flux density on the
portion of the machine with winding XYZ. The difference in
the magnitude of the flux density is due to the double number
of turns in the winding ABC compared to the number of
turns in the winding XYZ. It also shows that the proposed
BL-WRSM is working under the flux density of 2 T.
The resulting induced voltage due to the sub-harmonic
component of the stator MMF in the harmonic winding is
shown in Fig. 8a. The induced voltage in the harmonic wind-
ing is alternating, and the peak value of the voltage of the
harmonic winding in the steady state is 8 V, which is then
rectified to supply to the rotor field winding. The voltage in
the rotor field winding is shown in Fig. 8b. The peak value
123
1802 Electr Eng (2018) 100:1797–1804

Fig. 8 a Induced voltage in the rotor harmonic winding, b rectified voltage in the rotor field winding

Fig. 9 a Current in the rotor harmonic winding, b current in the rotor field winding

of the voltage of the rotor field winding in the steady state is

approximately 8 V.
Figure 9a shows the induced current in the rotor harmonic
winding. The maximum value of the harmonic current in the
steady state is 9.2 A. The current generated in the harmonic
winding is then rectified and supplied to the rotor field wind-
ing. Figure 9b shows the current in the rotor field winding.
The average value of the dc current supplied to the field wind-
ing in the steady state is 9.05 A. It can be observed that after
rectification, the harmonic winding voltage is able to estab-
lish a stable excitation current in the field winding, which
confirms the feasibility of the proposed brushless topology.
Figure 10 shows the torque of the 8-pole, 48-slot BL-
WRSM with the proposed brushless topology. An average
torque of 7.28 Nm with a torque ripple of 19.13% is observed.
Fig. 10 Torque of the proposed BL-WRSM

123
Electr Eng (2018) 100:1797–1804 1803

Table 2 Performance
Parameter Unit Conventional WRSM Proposed BL-WRSM
comparison of the proposed
BL-WRSM with a conventional Stator current Arms 4.50 4.50
WRSM
Field current A 9.05 9.05
Harmonic current Arms 0 4.75
Terminal voltage Vrms 68.10 72.70
Average torque Nm 7.30 7.28
Torque ripple % 16.67 19.13
Stator copper loss W 68.04 68.04
Harmonic winding copper loss W 0 4.06
Field winding copper loss W 51.60 51.60
Core loss W 36.19 40.77
Efficiency % 81.53 80.70

The effectiveness of the proposed brushless topology is
examined using a performance comparison of BL-WRSM
with a conventional WRSM. All the design parameters for
the proposed BL-WRSM and the conventional WRSM are
the same including the outer dimensions, the current den-
sity in the stator and the field winding, air-gap length and
the number of turns per phase of the stator winding. How-
ever, in the case of the conventional WRSM, the number of
turns in the winding ABC and XYZ is kept the same and the
field winding is supplied with dc current directly through an
external supply through brushes and slip rings. Table 2 sum-
marizes the performance comparison of both machines. For
the proposed BL-WRSM, the average toque is similar to the
average torque of conventional WRSM; however, a 2.46%
increase in the torque ripple is observed, which is due to its
brushless operation. Moreover, the efficiency of the proposed
BL-WRSM is 0.83% less than the efficiency of the conven-
tional WRSM, which is due to the additional copper losses
in the harmonic winding and increased core loss due to the
additional sub-harmonic component of stator MMF in the
BL-WRSM. However, irrespective of these discrepancies,
the proposed BL-WRSM exhibits competitive performance
compared with the conventional WRSM.
posed brushless excitation principle is validated through 2-D
finite element analysis.
The proposed brushless topology has the following spe-
cific features:
1. The winding structure and the circuit are simple, because
no extra winding is utilized on the stator for opera-
tion of the proposed brushless wound rotor synchronous
machine.
2. The proposed brushless topology requires only one
inverter to supply the three-phase current to the stator
winding. This results in the reduced cost and size of the
overall system.
3. The brushless operation overcomes the problems of con-
ventional brushes and slip ring assembly providing an
alternative to very expensive PMSMs.
Acknowledgements This work was supported in part by the Human
Resources Program in Energy Technology of the Korea Institute of
Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP), granted finan-
cial resource from the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy, Republic
of Korea (No. 20154030200730), and in part by the BK21PLUS Pro-
gram through the National Research Foundation of Korea within the
Ministry of Education.

References
5 Conclusion
In this paper, a new brushless topology for a wound rotor
synchronous machine is proposed. The sub-harmonic com-
ponent of the stator MMF is generated and utilized for
brushless operation of the wound rotor synchronous machine.
The basic structure, the principle of operation and the exciting
characteristics are described. Applications of the proposed
brushless wound rotor synchronous machine are areas where
sparking due to brushes must be avoided, i.e., oil and gas
fields and aircraft, to name a few. The feasibility of the pro-
1. Barcaro M, Bianchi N (2014) Interior PM machines using ferrite
to replace rare-earth surface PM machines. IEEE Trans Ind Appl
50(2):979–985
2. Barcaro M, Bianchi N, Magnussen F (2012) Permanent-magnet
optimization in permanent-magnet-assisted synchronous reluc-
tance motor for a wide constant-power speed range. IEEE Trans
Industr Electron 59(6):2495–2502
3. Guglielmi P, Boazzo B, Armando E, Pellegrino G, Vagati A (2013)
Permanent-magnet minimization in PM-assisted synchronous
reluctance motors for wide speed range. IEEE Trans Ind Appl
49(1):31–41
4. Amara Y, Vido L, Gabsi M, Hoang E, Ben Ahmed AH, Lecrivain
M (2009) Hybrid excitation synchronous machines: energy-

123
1804
efficient solution for vehicles propulsion. IEEE Trans Veh Technol
58(5):2137–2149
5. Shushu Z, Chuang L, Yinhang N, Jie T (2015) A two-stage brush-
less excitation method for hybrid excitation synchronous generator.
IEEE Trans Magn 51(6):1–11
6. Wang Y, Deng Z (2012) Comparison of hybrid excitation topologies
for flux-switching machines. IEEE Trans Magn 48(9):2518–2527
7. Zhu ZQ, Liu X (2015) Novel stator electrically field excited syn-
chronous machines without rare-earth magnet. IEEE Trans Magn
51(4):1–9
8. Lipo TA, Du ZS (2015) Synchronous motor drives-a forgotten
option. In: 2015 International aegean conference on electrical
machines & power electronics (ACEMP), 2015 international con-
ference on optimization of electrical & electronic equipment
(OPTIM) & 2015 international symposium on advanced electrome-
chanical motion systems (ELECTROMOTION), side, pp 1–5
9. Smith IR, Nisar PA (1968) Brushless and self-excited 3-phase syn-
chronous machine. Proc Inst Electr Eng 115(11):1655–1660
10. Inoue K, Yamashita H, Nakamae E, Fujikawa T (1992) A brush-
less self-exciting three-phase synchronous generator utilizing the
5th-space harmonic component of magneto motive force through
armature currents. IEEE Trans Energy Convers 7(3):517–524
123
Electr Eng (2018) 100:1797–1804
11. Bortis D, Fässler L, Looser A, Kolar JW (2013) Analysis of rotary
transformer concepts for high-speed applications. In: 2013 twenty-
eighth annual IEEE applied power electronics conference and
exposition (APEC). Long Beach, CA, pp 3262–3269
12. Yao F, An Q, Gao X, Sun L, Lipo TA (2015) Principle of operation
and performance of a synchronous machine employing a new har-
monic excitation scheme. IEEE Trans Ind Appl 51(5):3890–3898
13. Jawad G, Ali Q, Lipo TA, Kwon BI (2016) Novel brushless wound
rotor synchronous machine with zero-sequence third-harmonic
field excitation. IEEE Trans Magn 52(7):1–4
14. Ali Q, Lipo TA, Kwon BI (2015) Design and analysis of a novel
brushless wound rotor synchronous machine. IEEE Trans Magn
51(11):1–4
15. Ali Q, Atiq S, Lipo TA, Kwon BI (2016) PM assisted, brushless
wound rotor synchronous machine. J Magn 21(3):399–404