Study on the generation characteristics of a novel electromagnetic damping generator for a rotary steerable system

Abstract

This paper proposes an electromagnetic damping generator (EDG), which is a novel downhole generator for the rotary steerable system (RSS). The EDG is designed to solve the problem of unstable voltage output by the RSS generator. The generator is designed by integrating a traditional generator and an eddy current retarder (ECR). The system converts the excess kinetic energy of the EDG rotor into heating energy by the principle of eddy-current braking and resistance heating. The electromagnetic finite element models of the generator part and ECR part are established and solved by computer. The voltage and torque generated by the generator part and the braking torque of the ECR part are predicted. In the bench test, When the input power is 2537 W < Pinput < 3304 W, the EDG is able to output 300.8 V. When the input power is 3304 W, the output voltage of the ordinary generator is 346 V. The EDG can be adjusted by a decrement of up to 45.2 V to output the rated voltage. The problem of generator output voltage instability in the RSS is solved when mud flow is unstable.