Scientists Develop a Unique Magnetic Suspension Generator for a Gas Turbine Plant

A post-graduate student of South Ural State University presented his development of a fundamentally new generator design, which has a magnetic and gas-dynamic suspension. Such solutions have not yet been applied anywhere in the world. The development was awarded a grant from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research at the "Postgraduate" competition.

Cheaper, easier, and more reliable

A postgraduate student of the Institute of Engineering and Technology Nikolai Neustroev, under the guidance of D.Sc., Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering Sergei Gandzha, proposed to implement a new design of an autonomous generator for a gas turbine plant. It can significantly reduce losses in electricity generation and increase the reliability of the unit.

High-speed generators are a very promising scientific area. About 2,150 gas turbine units with a total capacity of 28 GW are annually used in Russia. Gas turbines have low maintenance, autonomous operation, high fuel efficiency, and small dimensions. They are used in different spheres of human activity.

"In the currently used radial magnetoelectric generators, the main disadvantage is large magnetic losses in steel due to the high frequency of magnetization reversal. This creates some problems: efficiency decreases, heat losses are reduced using a complex cooling system, the monitoring and control system becomes more complex. The use of special steels and the weakening of the magnetic flux only reduce the problem but do not solve it. In this case, the price of the product increases significantly. We propose to use a permanent magnet generator with axial magnetic flux and a diamagnetic armature. There is no steel core in it, which means there are no such problems either. The efficiency increases, the design is simplified and the price of the product is reduced," Nikolai Neustroev explains.

The high-speed generator with permanent magnets and axial magnetic flux on a magnetic gas-dynamic suspension has high efficiency due to the elimination of magnetic losses, it is energy efficient.

At the same time, the gas turbine engine can use any combustible substance from gas to fuel oil. The proposed concept can be applied in any field of technology: power supply of passenger airplanes, ships, on-board military equipment networks, household power consumption needs.

The original design modularity allows adjustment of the required power due to additional sections.

"At this stage, we are completing work on the creation of a "digital twin model", since all the main components and assemblies must have three-dimensional solid-state virtual models for virtual tests," the scientific advisor Sergei Gandzha says.

A unique generator requires innovative solutions to create it.

"Now, I spend all my free time on the design of a magnetic gas-dynamic suspension. The fact is that the proposed suspension will reveal the full potential of the generator being developed. However, it is not an easy task to combine the magnetic and gas-dynamic bearings, but this is why we need science," Nikolai Neustroev says.

After a thorough study of the existing Russian and foreign scientific literature, scientists calculate several options for magnetic suspensions, trying to take into account all possible technical risks. They should consider options for combinations of gas-dynamic and magnetic bearings and determine the optimal one. The scientists intend to test their innovative idea in practice, that is, to make and test a prototype using the funds of the grant. A real sample model should confirm the concepts applied.

The grant will help bring the research to its conclusion. The research results will be published in journals indexed by the scientometric databases Scopus and Web of Science (Q1 and Q2). The growth in the number of domestic developments and patents for inventions is provided for the Nauka national project, which should be implemented in Russia by 2024.

SUSU is a participant of the 5-100 Project intended to increase the competitiveness of Russian universities among the world's leading research and academic centers

Provided by South Ural State University