Synchronous Generators I

EE 340
Spring 2011
 Construction of synchronous machines

In a synchronous generator, a DC current is

applied to the rotor winding producing a rotor
magnetic field. The rotor is then turned by
external means producing a rotating magnetic
field, which induces a 3-phase voltage within
the stator winding.

• Field windings are the windings

producing the main magnetic field
(rotor windings

• armature windings are the windings

where the main voltage is induced
(stator windings)
 Construction of synchronous machines

The rotor of a synchronous machine is a large electromagnet. The

magnetic poles can be either salient (sticking out of rotor surface) or non-
salient construction.

Non-salient-pole rotor: usually two- and four-pole rotors. Salient-pole rotor: four
and more poles.

Rotors are made laminated to reduce eddy current losses.

 Construction of synchronous machines

Two common approaches are used to supply a DC current to the field

circuits on the rotating rotor:

1. Supply the DC power from an

external DC source to the rotor by
means of slip rings and brushes;

2. Supply the DC power from a

special DC power source mounted
directly on the shaft of the
machine.

Slip rings are metal rings completely encircling the shaft of a machine but
insulated from it. Graphite-like carbon brushes connected to DC terminals
ride on each slip ring supplying DC voltage to field windings.
 Construction of synchronous machines

• On large generators and motors, brushless exciters are used.

• A brushless exciter is a small AC generator whose field
circuits are mounted on the stator and armature circuits are
mounted on the rotor shaft.
• The exciter generator’s 3-phase output is rectified to DC by
a 3-phase rectifier (mounted on the shaft) and fed into the
main DC field circuit.
• It is possible to adjust the field current on the main machine
by controlling the small DC field current of the exciter
generator (located on the stator).
 Construction of synchronous machines

A brushless exciter: a
low 3-phase current is
rectified and used to
supply the field circuit
of the exciter (located
on the stator).

The output of the

exciter’s armature
circuit (on the rotor) is
rectified and used as
the field current of the
main machine.
 Construction of synchronous machines

To make the excitation of

a generator completely
independent of any
external power source, a
small pilot exciter is often
added to the circuit.

The pilot exciter is an AC

generator with a
permanent magnet
mounted on the rotor
shaft and a 3-phase
winding on the stator
producing the power for
the field circuit of the
exciter.
 Construction of synchronous machines

A rotor of large
synchronous
machine with a
brushless exciter
mounted on the
same shaft.
 Construction of synchronous machines

Exciter

Salient poles.
 Rotation speed of synchronous generator
By the definition, synchronous generators produce electricity
whose frequency is synchronized with the mechanical rotational
speed.
p
fe  nm
120
Where fe is the electrical frequency, Hz;
nm is the rotor speed of the machine, rpm;
p is the number of poles.

• Steam turbines are most efficient when rotating at high speed;

therefore, to generate 60 Hz, they are usually rotating at 3600
rpm (2-pole).
• Water turbines are most efficient when rotating at low speeds
(200-300 rpm); therefore, they usually turn generators with many
poles.
 The induced voltage in a 3-phase set of coils
In three coils, each of NC turns, placed around the rotor magnetic field,
the induced in each coil will have the same magnitude and phases
differing by 1200:

eaa ' (t )  NCm cos mt

ebb ' (t )  NCm cos mt  120 
ecc ' (t )  NCm cos mt  240 

Peak voltage:

Emax  NCm Emax  2 NC f

2
RMS voltage: EA  NC f  2 NC f
2
 Internal generated voltage of a synchronous
generator
The magnitude of internal generated voltage induced in a given stator is

EA  2 NC f  K
where K is a constant representing the construction of the machine,  is flux in it
and  is its rotation speed.

Since flux in the

machine depends
on the field current
through it, the
internal generated
voltage is a
function of the
rotor field current.
Magnetization curve (open-circuit characteristic) of a
synchronous machine
 Equivalent circuit of a synchronous generator

The internally generated voltage in a single phase of a

synchronous machine EA is not usually the voltage appearing
at its terminals. It equals to the output voltage V only when
there is no armature current in the machine. The reasons
that the armature voltage EA is not equal to the output
voltage V are:
1. Distortion of the air-gap magnetic field caused by the
current flowing in the stator (armature reaction);
2. Self-inductance of the armature coils;
3. Resistance of the armature coils;
 Equivalent circuit of a synchronous generator

Armature reaction:

• When the rotor of a

synchronous generator is
spinning, a voltage EA is
induced in its stator.
• When a load is connected, Lagging
a current starts flowing load
creating a magnetic field in
machine’s stator.
• This stator magnetic field BS
adds to the rotor (main)
magnetic field BR affecting
the total magnetic field and,
therefore, the phase
voltage.
 Equivalent circuit of a synchronous generator

The load current IA will create a stator magnetic field BS, which will
produce the armature reaction voltage Estat. Therefore, the phase voltage
will be

V  EA  Estat
The net magnetic flux will be

Bnet  BR  BS
Rotor field Stator field
 Equivalent circuit of a synchronous generator
Since the armature reaction voltage lags the
current by 90 degrees, it can be modeled by

Estat   jXI A
The phase voltage is then

V  EA  jXI A
However, in addition to armature reactance effect, the stator coil
has a self-inductance LA (XA is the corresponding reactance) and
the stator has resistance RA. The phase voltage is thus

V  EA  jXI A  jX A I A  RI A
 Equivalent circuit of a synchronous generator
Often, armature reactance and self-
inductance are combined into the
synchronous reactance of the machine:

XS  X  X A
Therefore, the phase voltage is

V  EA  jX S I A  RI A

The equivalent circuit of a 3-phase

synchronous generator is shown.

The adjustable resistor Radj controls

the field current and, therefore, the
rotor magnetic field.
 Equivalent circuit of a synchronous generator
A synchronous generator can be Y- or -connected:

The terminal voltage will be

VT  3V  forY VT  V  for
 Equivalent circuit of a synchronous generator

Since – for balanced loads – the three phases of a synchronous

generator are identical except for phase angles, per-phase
equivalent circuits are often used.
 Phasor diagram of a synchronous generator
(similar to that of a transformer)
Since the voltages in a synchronous generator are AC voltages, they are
usually expressed as phasors. A vector plot of voltages and currents within
one phase is called a phasor diagram.

A phasor diagram of a synchronous

generator with a unity power factor
(resistive load)

Lagging power factor (inductive load): a

larger than for leading PF internal
generated voltage EA is needed to form
the same phase voltage.

Leading power factor (capacitive load).

 Measuring parameters of synchronous
generator model
The three quantities must be determined in order to describe
the generator model:

1. The relationship between field current and flux (and

therefore between the field current IF and the internal
generated voltage EA);
2. The synchronous reactance;
3. The armature resistance.
 Open circuit Test
The generator is rotated at the rated
speed,
• all the terminals are disconnected
from loads,
• the field current is set to zero first.
• Next, the field current is increased
in steps and the phase voltage
(whish is equal to the internal
generated voltage EA since the
armature current is zero) is
measured.
Since the unsaturated core of the machine has a reluctance
thousands times lower than the reluctance of the air-gap, the
resulting flux increases linearly first. When the saturation is
reached, the core reluctance greatly increases causing the flux
to increase much slower with the increase of the mmf.
 Short Circuit Test

In here,
• the generator is rotated at the rated speed, with the field
current is set to zero first, and all the terminals are short-
circuited through ammeters.
• Next, the field current is increased in steps and the armature
current IA is measured as the field current is increased.

The plot of armature current (or line current) vs. the field current
is the short-circuit characteristic (SCC) of the generator.
 Short Circuit Test
The SCC is a straight line since, for the
short-circuited terminals, the magnitude
of the armature current is

EA
IA 
RA2  X S2

The equivalent generator’s circuit

during SC

The resulting
phasor diagram
 Short circuit test
An approximate method to determine the synchronous reactance XS at a
given field current:
1. Get the internal generated voltage EA from the OCC at that field
current.
2. Get the short-circuit current IA,SC at that field current from the SCC.
3. Find XS from

EA
XS 
I A, SC

Since the internal machine impedance is

EA
ZS  R  X 
2
A
2
S  X S since X S RA 
I A,SC
 OCC and SCC
A drawback of this method is that the internal generated voltage EA is
measured during the OCC, where the machine can be saturated for large
field currents, while the armature current is measured in SCC, where the
core is unsaturated. Therefore, this approach is accurate for unsaturated
cores only.
The approximate value of
synchronous reactance varies with
the degree of saturation of the
OCC. Therefore, the value of the
synchronous reactance for a given
problem should be estimated at the
approximate load of the machine.
The winding’s resistance can be
approximated by applying a DC
voltage to a stationary machine’s
winding and measuring the current.
However, AC resistance is slightly
larger than DC resistance (skin effect).
 Example
Example 7.1: A 200 kVA, 480 V, 50 Hz, Y-connected synchronous generator with a
rated field current of 5 A was tested and the following data were obtained:
1. VT,OC = 540 V at the rated IF.
2. IL,SC = 300 A at the rated IF.
3. When a DC voltage of 10 V was applied to two of the terminals, a current of 25 A
was measured.
Find the generator’s model at the rated conditions (i.e., the armature resistance and
the approximate synchronous reactance).

Since the generator is Y-connected, a DC

voltage was applied between its two
phases. Therefore:

VDC
2 RA 
I DC
VDC 10
RA    0.2
2 I DC 2  25
 Example (cont.)

The internal generated voltage at the rated field current is

VT 540
EA  V ,OC    311.8V
3 3
The synchronous reactance at the rated field current is precisely
EA2 311.8 2
X S  Z S2  RA2   RA2   0.2 2
 1.02
I A2, SC 300 2

We observe that if XS was estimated via the approximate formula, the result would
be:
EA 311.8
XS    1.04
I A, SC 300
Which is close to the previous result.
The error ignoring RA is much smaller
than the error due to core saturation.
 The Synchronous generator operating alone

The behavior of a synchronous generator varies greatly under

load depending on the power factor of the load and on
whether the generator is working alone or in parallel with other
synchronous generators.

Although most of the synchronous generators in the world

operate as parts of large power systems, we start our
discussion assuming that the synchronous generator works
alone.

Unless otherwise stated, the speed of the generator is

assumed constant.
 The Synchronous generator operating alone

Effects
A increaseof
in load changes
the load is an
increase in the real and/or
reactive power drawn from the
generator.

Since the field resistor is unaffected, the field current is constant and, therefore, the
flux  is constant too. Since the speed is assumed as constant, the magnitude of
the internal generated voltage is constant also.
Assuming the same power factor of the load, change in load will change the
magnitude of the armature current IA. However, the angle will be the same (for a
constant PF). Thus, the armature reaction voltage jXSIA will be larger for the
increased load. Since the magnitude of the internal generated voltage is constant

EA  V  jX S I A
Armature reaction voltage vector will “move parallel” to its initial position.
 The Synchronous generator operating alone

Increase load effect on generators with

Leading PF

Lagging PF

Unity PF
 The Synchronous generator operating alone

Generally, when a load on a synchronous generator is added, the following

changes can be observed:

1. For lagging (inductive) loads, the phase (and terminal) voltage

decreases significantly.
2. For unity power factor (purely resistive) loads, the phase (and
terminal) voltage decreases slightly.
3. For leading (capacitive) loads, the phase (and terminal) voltage rises.

Effects of adding loads can be described by the voltage regulation:

Vnl  V fl
VR  100%
V fl
Where Vnl is the no-load voltage of the generator and Vfl is its full-load voltage.
 The Synchronous generator operating alone
• A synchronous generator operating at a lagging power factor has a fairly large
positive voltage regulation.
• A synchronous generator operating at a unity power factor has a small positive
voltage regulation.
• A synchronous generator operating at a leading power factor often has a
negative voltage regulation.
Normally, a constant terminal voltage supplied by a generator is desired. Since the
armature reactance cannot be controlled, an obvious approach to adjust the
terminal voltage is by controlling the internal generated voltage EA = K. This
may be done by changing flux in the machine while varying the value of the field
resistance RF, which is summarized:
1. Decreasing the field resistance increases the field current in the generator.
2. An increase in the field current increases the flux in the machine.
3. An increased flux leads to the increase in the internal generated voltage.
4. An increase in the internal generated voltage increases the terminal voltage of
the generator.
 Power and torque in synchronous generators

A synchronous generator needs to be connected to a prime mover whose speed is

reasonably constant (to ensure constant frequency of the generated voltage) for
various loads.
The applied mechanical power
Pin   appm
is partially converted to electricity
Pconv   ind m  3EA I A cos 
Where  is the angle between
EA and IA.

The power-flow diagram of a

synchronous generator.
 Power and torque in synchronous generators

The real output power of the synchronous generator is

Pout  3VT I L cos   3V I A cos 

The reactive output power of the synchronous generator is

Qout  3VT I L sin   3V I A sin 

Recall that the power factor angle  is the angle between V and IA and not the
angle between VT and IL.
In real synchronous machines of any size, the
armature resistance RA << XS and, therefore,
the armature resistance can be ignored. Thus,
a simplified phasor diagram indicates that
EA sin 
I A cos  
XS
 Power and torque in synchronous generators

Then the real output power of the synchronous generator can be approximated as

3V E A sin 
Pout 
XS
We observe that electrical losses are assumed to be zero since the resistance is
neglected. Therefore:
Pconv  Pout
Here  is the torque angle of the machine – the angle between V and EA.

The maximum power can be supplied by the generator when  = 900:

3V E A
Pmax 
XS
 Power and torque in synchronous generators

The maximum power specified is called the static stability limit of the
generator. Normally, real generators do not approach this limit: full-load
torque angles are usually between 150 and 200.
The induced torque is

 ind  kBR  BS  kBR  Bnet  kBR Bnet sin 

Notice that the torque angle  is also the angle between the rotor magnetic field
BR and the net magnetic field Bnet.

Alternatively, the induced torque is

3V E A sin 
 ind 
m X S
 Problems
• 5.1 through 5.17