Stator Winding Technologies for Renewable-Energy Alternators and for High-Efficiency Electric Motors

By Dr. Alberto Tessarolo

Energy production from renewable energy and energy saving through improved-efficiency motors are topics of paramount importance today and call for new electric machine technologies and design strategies. The speech will focus on some interesting state-of-the art stator winding technology solutions particularly suitable for use in large electric alternators for renewable energy production and in high-efficiency industrial electric motors. Specific attention will be placed on fractional-slot concentrated windings and on the recent developments intended to mitigate their drawbacks in terms of rotor losses and pulsating torques; special optimization techniques will be presented to extend their usage in machines with unconventional slot/pole combinations, as well as in multiphase and modular stator designs for improved fault tolerance. Industrial experiences will be reported from the industrial environment on full-scale realizations of the presented technology solutions and test results collected on small-scale laboratory prototypes will be presented to illustrate and validate some of the most cutting-edge and innovative features in the field.

Biography

Alberto Tessarolo received his Laurea and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Trieste, Italy, and Padova, Italy, in 2000 and 2011, respectively. Before joining the University, he worked in the design and development of large innovative motors, generators and drives with NIDEC-ASI (formerly Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali). Since 2006, he has been with the Engineering and Architecture Department of the University of Trieste, Italy, where he teaches the course of Electric Machine Design. He holds the scientific responsibility for several funded research projects in cooperation with leading companies and institutions. Dr. Tessarolo has authored over 150 international technical papers in the area of electrical machine and drive modeling and design. He serves as an Editor for the IEEE TRANS. ON ENERGY CONVERSION and Associate Editor for the IEEE TRANS. ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS and the IET ELECTRIC POWER APPLICATIONS. He was the recipient of the Electric Machinery Committee 2012 Prize Paper Award of the IEEE Power and Energy Society and of various best paper awards for contributions presented at IEEE-sponsored or co-sponsored conferences. He is Senior Member of the IEEE and a member of the Industry Applications, Power and Energy, Power Electronics, Industrial Electronics, Magnetics and Reliability Societies of the IEEE.