Control Design of the Brushless Doubly-Fed Machines for Stand-Alone VSCF Ship Shaft Generator Systems

This paper presents a stand-alone variable speed constant frequency (VSCF) ship shaft generator system based on a brushless doubly-fed machine (BDFM). In this system, the output voltage amplitude and frequency of the BDFM are kept constant under a variable rotor speed and load by utilizing a well-designed current vector controller to regulate the control winding (CW) current. The control scheme is proposed, and the hardware design for the control system is developed. The proposed generator system is tested on a 325 TEU container vessel, and the test results show the good dynamic performance of the CW current vector controller and the whole control system. A harmonic analysis of the output voltage and a fuel consumption analysis of the generator system are also implemented. Finally, the total efficiency of the generator system is presented under different rotor speeds and load conditions.