Limited-Angle Electromechanical Actuator for Micro Wind Turbines Overspeed Protection

This paper presents a novel limited-angle torque electromechanical actuator for low speed micro wind turbines used for overspeed protection. The proposed solution consists of an actuator with permanent magnets mounted on a rotor between two stator poles and an electronic device which provides the feeding and control of the stator windings. The actuator has the role to rotate the back rudder (tail vane) of the wind turbine. The rotation angle is limited to 90 degrees, as at this angle the wind turbine should be deviated from direct wind hit. The design evaluation of the new limited-angle electromechanical actuator, based on 3-D finite-element field analysis, proves that the proposed solution represents a feasible choice for the overspeed protection system in micro-wind turbine applications.