Modelling of Magnetizing Inductance

Saturation in Self-Excited Induction Generators

Abdlrahman Alfarhan

Shady M. Gadoue

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Bashar Zahawi

Mohammed Shalaby

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Khalifa University
Abu Dhabi, UAE

Department of Electrical Power and Machines

Cairo University
Cairo, Egypt

Mohammed A. Elgendy
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
AbstractSelf-excited induction generators (SEIG) are
used in small scale generation systems such as small wind
turbines and micro-hydro schemes where a grid
connection is not available. In such applications, there is a
strong need to model the generator as accurately as
possible in order to obtain a realistic estimation of the
machine behaviour and dynamics. In this paper, a
generalized dynamic model of a three-phase self-excited
induction generator (SEIG) in the natural abc reference
frame is presented. The developed model accounts for the
significant effects of magnetic saturation by expressing the
magnetizing inductance as an exponential function of the
magnetizing current considering both the value of the
inductance and its rate of change with the magnetizing
current (dLm/dim). The model is used to investigate the
SEIG steady-state and transient behaviours at balanced,
unbalanced and fault conditions.
KeywordsInduction
modelling; saturation.

generator;

magnetizing

inductance;

I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, research efforts have been focused on
renewable energy because of serious environmental and
geopolitical concerns related to the use of fossil fuels. Wind,
biomass and small-scale hydro (micro-hydro) are good
alternative clean energy sources particularly in rural areas
where the power grid is not available. In such remote areas, the
self-excited induction generator is an attractive and viable
option for power generation [1-5]. The SEIG is a cage
induction machine that does not rely on the grid to obtain its
reactive power requirement. Instead, the reactive power
requirement of the SEIG is provided by excitation capacitors
connected to its stator terminals. The SEIG has many other

advantages including the absence of a DC power supply for

excitation, brushless construction, reduced size, ruggedness,
and low maintenance cost.
In the predicting of SEIG performance a noticeable error is
observed when comparing the computed results obtained from
analytical models with actual experimental results. This
disparity can be attributed to the absence of an accurate
representation of magnetic saturation effects in the machine,
which plays a crucial role in the process of voltage build up,
and the stable operation of the SEIG [6].
For a more accurate representation of the variation of the
magnetizing inductance with current, a polynomial function is
usually used to model the nonlinearity caused by magnetic
saturation [7]. The nonlinear relationship between the air-gap
voltage (Vg) and the magnetizing current (Im) has also been
represented by piecewise linear functions [8].
A few studies [6, 9] have included the saturation effect by
both, representing the variation in the relationship between
magnetizing inductance and magnetizing current, and taking
into account the effect of the change in magnetic inductance
with current compromising model accuracy. Furthermore, the
proposed models in these papers were developed in the d-q
synchronous reference frame and therefore would not be
appropriate for unbalanced conditions [10, 11] . Additionally,
these models do not include the mutual saturation between
stator windings, as well as mutual saturation between rotor
windings.
In this paper, an SEIG model is developed in the natural
ABC/abc frame reference to allow for direct application under
various operating conditions, including balanced, unbalanced
load perturbation, transient. The effects of main path saturation
are included in the model as well as the mutual saturation
effects between stator windings, and mutual saturation effects
between rotor windings. In addition, an SEIG model is

978-1-5090-2320-2/16/$31.00 2016 IEEE

developed in which the magnetizing inductance is modelled as

an exponential function of the magnetizing current, taking the
variation of Lm with respect to the magnetizing current into
account. The determination of the magnetizing inductance
function requires only three measurement points of the opencircuit magnetizing curve of the generator, avoiding the need to
take measurements at high current values.
The model is implemented in the Matlab/Simulink
environment and used to investigate the generator operating
characteristics at different operating conditions. Results are
validated experimentally using a 7.5kW SEIG test rig. The
experimental investigation demonstrates excellent agreement
between measured waveforms and those obtained from the
proposed model.
II. PROPOSED SEIG MODEL
A three-phase, star-connected cage induction generator is
considered in this study. The output terminals of the generator
are connected to a three-phase capacitor bank for excitation and
a three phase load, as shown in Fig. 1. The basic three-phase
voltage equations of the stator and rotor circuits can be written
as:

where



where

   


(1)

where

+


+


The rms magnetizing current (Im) is calculated as [12]:



(3)

The relationship between the air-gap voltage across the

magnetizing inductance (Vg) and the magnetizing current (Im)
can be established through the following nonlinear exponential
equation
[13]:

(4)

where F is the per unit frequency (f/fbase) and fbase is the

reference frequency used in the test to obtain the excitation
curve. K1, K2, and K3 are constants that can be calculated from
the following equations:

where a, b and c in the above equations can be calculated

using only three points of the magnetizing curve [(Im1, Vg1),
(Im2, Vg2) and (Im3, Vg3)] as follows:
a = Vg1/Im1, b = Vg2/Im2 and c = Vg3/Im3.
where Im3 is the maximum magnetising current that could be
safely measured. The values of Im1 and Im2 are then determined
as Im2=0.7143Im3 and Im1=0.1428Im3.
The magnetizing reactance can be expressed as:

 ,  , ,

,  and ; rs and rr
are the stator and rotor per-phase resistances, respectively; Ls,
Lr and Lm are stator, rotor and mutual inductances, respectively.
is the rotor position angle with respect to stator, and r is the
rotor speed.
The inductance matrix is not constant, as the inductance
changes with the magnetizing current (im) and rotor position
(). The voltage equation can therefore be re-written as:

    

(2)

(5)

and the variation of the magnetizing reactance is obtained as:

(6)

The inductance derivatives matrices can now be expressed as:

    

    


where
,

and 

     








(7)
Finally, to model the current of the excitation capacitors and
load, the following equations are used:

where


Giving the following equation:

(9)

III. DESCRIPTION OF EXPERIMENTAL SYSTEM



  

    

These equations can be re-arranged in the form of state-space

representation and solved numerically for stator currents and
voltages.

Substituting into (2), we obtain:

(8)

The experimental investigation was carried out using a

7.5kW, 415V, 50Hz, 4 poles, three-phase cage induction
machine. The circuit diagram of the experimental setup is
shown in Fig. 1. A DC motor was coupled to the induction
generator and used as a prime mover. The generator was
connected to a star-connected shunt excitation capacitor bank
and a resistive load. The parameters of the machine (Rs=2.33,
Rr=2.11, Ls=13.54mH, Lr=13.54mH) were obtained from
standard dc, no-load, and locked rotor tests. In this study, it is
assumed that the machine is symmetrical with sinusoidal flux
and negligible iron losses. Therefore, Lms = Lmr = Lsr = Lm, and
the machine parameters are the same for all the three phases.
The magnetizing curve of the induction machine developed
from only three test points is shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 1. Circuit diagram of the experimental setup

400

C a lcu la te d

E x p e rim e n ta l

350
300
Vo ltag e( V )

250
200
150
100
50
0

0 .5

1 .5

2 .5
Im ( A )

3 .5

Fig. 2. Calculated induction machine magnetization curve (showing the three

measured points used for the calculation).

400

Calculated

Experimental

350

C a lc u la te d

E x p e rim e n ta l

4
C u rre n t ( A )

Voltage( V )

300
250
200
150

0
-2

100
50

-4
1

1.5

2
2.5
Im( A )

3.5

5 .4

Fig. 3. Induction machine magnetization curve.

This curve shows very good agreement with the full

measured magnetizing curve of the generator as illustrated in
Fig. 3.
IV. RESULTS AND EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION
In this section, model results are compared with those
obtained experimentally to verify the accuracy of the
mathematical representation of the SEIG. For the laboratory
machine used in this investigation, the minimum per phase
excitation capacitance for successful build-up of the SEIG
voltage was calculated at 25F. A capacitor of 30F was used
in the resistive load tests described in this paper, The speed of
the DC motor (prime mover) was controlled by a DC-drive
converter to run the generator at a constant speed. For better
accuracy, the actual shaft speed was measured and used as the
input speed vector to the simulation model. This accounts for
any small variations around the average constant speed, caused
by the DC drive harmonics or mechanical vibrations.
A. No-load tests
Fig. 4. shows the measured stator generated voltage and
current waveforms at a rotor speed of 1450 rpm (with this
speed being determined by the choice of available power
capacitors at the time of carrying out these experiments),
together with simulation results obtained from the proposed
model. Excellent agreement can be observed between
calculated and measured waveforms.
C a l c u la t e d

600

5 .4 5

5 .5
T im e ( S )

5 .5 5

5 .6

Fig. 4. No-load generated voltage and current waveforms at 1450 rpm;

C=30F per phase.

B. Balanced load tests

In Fig. 5, results for a balanced R-L load (R=365/phase,
L=1H/phase, C = 37F per phase) when the generator is
running at steady state conditions are shown. With the
generator operating at no-load, Fig. 6 shows the rms values of
the generated voltage and current, illustrating the transient
response of the SEIG following the removing of the load
resistors.
500

C alcu lated
Phase a

400

E xp erim e n ta l

Phase b Phase c

300
Vo ltag e ( V )

0.5

200
100
0
-100
-200
-300
4

4 .0 1

4 .0 2

4 .0 3

4 .0 4

4 .0 5

4 .0 6

4 .0 7

4 .0 8

T im e ( S )

5
C a lcu la ted

E x p e rim en tal

4
Phase a

Phase b

Phase c

3
Cu rren t ( A )

0
0

2
1
0
-1

E xp erim en tal

-2

V o ltag e ( V )

400

-3
4

200

4 .0 2

4 .0 3

4 .0 4

4 .0 5

4 .0 6

4 .0 7

4 .0 8

T im e ( S )

Fig. 5. Steady-state generated voltage and current waveforms; balanced R-L

load, R=365 per phase, L=1H per phase, C = 37F per phase, 1400 rpm.

-2 0 0
-4 0 0
5 .4

4 .0 1

5 .4 5

5 .5
T im e ( S )

5 .5 5

5 .6

450
C alc u late d

E xp erim e n tal

400

C u rre n t ( A )

Voltage ( V )

350
300
250
200

100

-4
-6
5 .0 3
9

10

11

12
13
T im e ( S )

14

15

5 .0 4

5 .0 5

5 .0 6

5 .0 7

5 .0 8

5 .0 9

5 .1

5 .1 1

5 .1 2

16

T im e ( S )

Fig. 7. Generated voltage and current waveforms; 500 resistive load

connected to phases b and c while phase a is open circuited; C = 30F per
phase.

4 .5
C alc u late d

E xp erim en tal

4
3 .5
C urrent ( A )

-2

50

E x p e ri m e n ta l

Phase C

150

C alcu lated
P hase A P hase B

V. CONCLUSION

2 .5
2
1 .5
1
0 .5
0

10

11

12
13
T im e ( S )

14

15

16

Fig. 6. Switching of a balanced load at 10.3 seconds; R=620 per phase.

C. Unbalanced-load tests
Fig. 7 shows the stator voltage and current waveforms for a
unbalanced loading condition where 500 load resistances are
connected to phases b and c while phase a is left open
circuited. As in previous results, the proposed model shows
very good agreement with the experimental results even in the
presence of severe unbalanced loading conditions

A new general mathematical model of the SEIG is

developed in the natural ABC/abc frame of reference, taking
into consideration the change of the magnetizing inductance
with both rotor position and magnetizing current. The
magnetizing inductance is represented as an exponential
function of the magnetizing current that can be derived from
only three measured points of the open-circuit magnetizing
curve of the machine. Results obtained from the proposed
model are verified experimentally using a 415V, 7.5kW SEIG
test machine. Different operating conditions were considered,
including no-load, steady state, transient, balanced and
unbalanced conditions. Results obtained from the proposed
model are shown to be in close agreement with measured
waveforms in both the magnitude and phase angle. The small
differences observed between the measured and calculated
results are likely related to neglected losses, or magnetization
curve approximation or measurement error.
REFERENCES

C a lc u lated

800

[1]

E x p erim en tal

Phase a Phase b Phase c

600
V o ltag e ( V )

400

[2]

200
0
-200

[3]

-400
-600
5 .0 4

5 .0 6

5 .0 8
T im e ( S )

5 .1

5 .1 2

[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]

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