Brushless doubly fed induction generator (BDFIG)
has substantial benefits, which make it an attractive alternative as
a wind turbine generator. However, it suffers from lower efficiency
and larger dimensions in comparison to DFIG. Hence, optimizing
the BDFIG structure is necessary for enhancing its situation commercially.
In previous studies, a simplemodel has been used in BDFIG
design procedure that is insufficiently accurate. Furthermore,
magnetic saturation and iron loss are not considered because of
difficulties in determination of flux density distributions. The aim
of this paper is to establish an accurate yet computationally fast
model suitable for BDFIG design studies. The proposed approach
combines three equivalent circuits including electric, magnetic and
thermal models. Utilizing electric equivalent circuitmakes it possible
to apply static form of magnetic equivalent circuit, because the
elapsed time to reach steady-state results in the dynamic form is too
long for using in population-based design studies. The operating
characteristics, which are necessary for evaluating the objective
function and constraints values of the optimization problem, can
be calculated using the presented approach considering iron loss,
saturation, and geometrical details. The simulation results of a
D-180 prototype BDFIG are compared with measured data in order
to validate the developed model.