A Step-by-Step Procedure to Perform Preliminary Designs of Salient-Pole Synchronous Generators

This paper presents a straightforward step-by-step procedure to design salient-pole synchronous generators, starting with its main specifications and finishing with all necessary data to put it on production. As most of the electricity is generated by synchronous generators, the design of these machines remains an interesting subject, but, although it is important, it is difficult to find a complete step-by-step procedure in the literature. The proposed procedure can be followed by an electrical engineer or student and, distinctively from most papers and books, all steps are presented. Such a procedure is based on analytic calculations, eventually relying on finite element simulation to verify if everything is all right and to adjust some design parameters. All calculations have been chosen to keep the design as simple as possible; otherwise, it would not be possible to present all steps and procedures. Therefore, it can be used for beginners in the art of design-synchronous generators, applied to obtain an initial design, or be adopted by any electrical engineering course, not only aiming to be an introductory electrical machine design course but mainly to enhance the students’ comprehension of synchronous machines. The results have been compared with finite element simulation, presenting very small differences.