3D MEC modeling of a hybrid-excited claw pole alternator incorporating the rotor motion

The paper is devoted to the modeling of a hybrid-excited claw pole alternator (HECPA) by means of a variable position 3D magnetic equivalent circuit (MEC). The study is initiated by the derivation of a MEC with the rotor position kept at the maximum flux linkage between the rotor and stator, enabling the investigation of the steady-state features. The incorporation of the rotor position in the MEC is then considered. A dedicated numerical procedure based on the Newton-Raphson algorithm is developed for the resolution of the proposed variable position MEC. The obtained fluxes, for the different considered positions, allow the prediction of the HECPA time-varying features under no-load operation. A comparison between the results predicted by the variable position MEC and those computed by finite element analysis reveals a good agreement.