Method and apparatus for wind turbine air gap control

Patent · Tue Feb 20 04:00:00 EST 2007

OSTI ID:1176118

Grant, James Jonathan; Bagepalli, Bharat Sampathkumaran; Jansen, Patrick Lee; DiMascio, Paul Stephen; Gadre, Aniruddha Dattatraya; Qu, Ronghai

Methods and apparatus for assembling a wind turbine generator are provided. The wind turbine generator includes a core and a plurality of stator windings circumferentially spaced about a generator longitudinal axis, a rotor rotatable about the generator longitudinal axis wherein the rotor includes a plurality of magnetic elements coupled to a radially outer periphery of the rotor such that an airgap is defined between the stator windings and the magnetic elements and the plurality of magnetic elements including a radially inner periphery having a first diameter. The wind turbine generator also includes a bearing including a first member in rotatable engagement with a radially inner second member, the first member including a radially outer periphery, a diameter of the radially outer periphery of the first member being substantially equal to the first diameter, the rotor coupled to the stator through the bearing such that a substantially uniform airgap is maintained.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-99GO10337
• Assignee: General Electric Company (Schenectady, NY)
• Patent Number(s): 7,180,204
• Application Number: 11/031,259
• OSTI ID: 1176118
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

17 WIND ENERGY