Effect of cross-saturation on the performance of synchronous reluctance machine operating as autonomous generator

This paper deals with the cross-saturation effect on the performance of self-excited reluctance synchronous generator. Such machine is well known for its non-negligible saturation due to its air gap of small width that can be accounted for in different ways when using d-q diphase analytical model. On the basis of a test synchronous reluctance machine, the magnetizing inductances with respects to the current along both d and q axis are identified using 2D-FE. The model is then used to study the performance of the test machine as a stand-alone generator operating. Results obtained when the cross-saturation effect is considered are compared to the ones when the saturation effect is taken into account along the only d-axis or along both axes independently showing significant differences.