ENERGY CONVERSION ONE

(Course 25741)

CHAPTER FIVE
SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
.continued

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
Phasor Diagram of Equivalent Circuit
Voltages in Syn. Gen. are ac & expressed in
phasor which have both magnitude and angle,
therefore need to be presented in 2 dimensional
plot.
KVL relation of one phase can be plotted in
terms of phasor voltages through this 2
dimensional plot named phasor diagram
which show the relationship between different
voltages and currents

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
Phasor Diagram of Equivalent Circuit
Figure below show the phasor diagram when
supplying a load at unity power factor

EA differs from V by resistive & inductive

voltage drops, all referenced to V which
arbitrarily assumed at an angle of 0

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
Phasor Diagram of Equivalent Circuit
Phasor diagram when generators operating at
lagging & leading power factors

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
Phasor Diagram of Equivalent Circuit
Note: at specific phase voltage & armature current, a
larger internal voltage EA required for lagging loads
than for leading loads
Therefore a larger field current required with lagging
loads to get same terminal voltage
EA=K
Alternatively for a given IF and load current , V is
lower for lagging loads & higher for leading loads
In real synchronous machines, XS normally much
larger than RA & often neglected in qualitative study

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
Power and Torque
A synchronous generator is a synchronous
machine used as generator
converts mechanical energy to 3 phase
electrical energy
Source of mechanical energy is prime mover (a
diesel engine , a steam turbine, )
Any source employed should have an almost
constant speed regardless of load
If it were not constant, the power system
frequency would wander

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
Power and Torque
Not all mechanical power going to a
synchronous generator becomes electrical
power the difference between input & output
power represent losses, Power flow Diagram

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
Power and Torque
input mechanical power is shaft power in
generator
Pin=prime-mover m
(prime-mover Tapp in text book)
Pconv=Tgenerated m = 3EA IA cos
( angle between EA and IA)

(Tgenerated Tind in text book)

Difference between Pin and Pconv in generator
represents mechanical, core, and stray losses
of machine

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
Power and Torque

Real elect. output power of syn. Gen. in line quantities:

Pout=3 VT IL cos
in phase quantities:
Pout=3 V IA cos
reactive power output:
Qout=3 VT IL sin
Qout=3 V IA sin
ignoring armature resistance RA (XS>>RA), a useful
relation can be derive to approximate output power of
Gen.

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
Power and Torque
Generator Equivalent circuit for connection

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
Power and Torque
To derive that useful equation, when stator
resistance ignored, phasor diagram employed

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
Power and Torque
The vertical segment bc is EA sin or XS IA cos

IA cos = EA sin / XS
Substituting this in equation of Pout
P = 3V EA sin / XS
since resistances assumed zero, losses not included
in this equation (& it is both Pconv ,Pout)
Above equation shows power produced by a Syn.
Gen. depends on angle (between V,EA), the torque
angle
Maximum power that Gen. can supply occurs when
=90. At this angle sin=1
Pmax=3V EA / XS
(1)

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
Power and Torque
Maximum power in last equation called static
stability limit of Gen.
Real or practical Gen. never get close to this
limit
Full load torque angles of 15 to 20 are typical
angle of real machines
If V assumed constant, real power output
directly proportional to IA cos and EA sin
These are useful for plotting phasor diagram of
Syn. Gen. as load changes

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
Power and Torque
From chapter 4, torque developed in a Gen.
can be expressed as:
ind= k BR X BS
Tind=k BR X Bnet
Magnitude of torque in this equation is:
ind=kBRBnet Sin
: angle between rotor and net magnetic fields
Since BR produces voltage EA, and Bnet
produces voltage V, angle between EA and V is
same as angle between BR and Bnet

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
Power and Torque
Alternative expression for this torque in syn.
Gen. is derived (employing Pconv= Tind m) and
Equation (1):
Tind=3V EA sin/(m XS)

(2)

This equation gives torque in terms of circuit

parameters, while the equation in last chapter
expressed it in terms of magnetic quantities

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
MEASUREMENT of MODEL PARAMETERS
Equivalent circuit of synchronous generator contains 3
quantities that must be determined to describe
behavior of a real Syn. Gen.
1- relation between field current & flux (IF & EA)
2- Synchronous reactance
3- Armature resistance
To determine these parameters, the first step is to do
open-circuit test
1- Generator is turned at rated speed, and terminals
disconnected from loads, field current set to zero
2- Field current gradually increased in steps, and
terminal voltage measured at each step along the way

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
MEASUREMENT of MODEL PARAMETERS
Leave terminals open IA=0,
V= EA and thus construct
a plot of EA or VT versus IF
This plot is open circuit
characteristic (OCC) of Gen.
With this characteristic,
internal generated voltage of
Gen. for any given IF can be
determined
typical characteristic shown

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
MEASUREMENT of MODEL PARAMETERS
Note : in this characteristic, as If increases first curve
is almost perfectly linear until some saturation
observed at high field current
Unsaturated iron in frame of synchronous machine
has a reluctance several thousand times lower than
air-gap reluctance
at first all mmf is across air gap and resulting flux
increase is linear
When iron saturate reluctance of iron increase
profoundly and flux increases more slowly with a
similar increase in mmf
Linear section of OCC called air-gap line

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
MEASUREMENT of MODEL PARAMETERS
Second step is to perform a
short circuit test
1- adjust field current to zero
2- short circuit terminals of
generator through a set of
ammeter
3- armature current IA or line
current IL measured as IF
increased
4- such a plot named short
circuit characteristic (SCC)
It is a straight line

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
MEASUREMENT of MODEL PARAMETERS
It is a straight line, since employing the
equivalent circuit developed in this section:
IA= EA/(RA+jXS)
Phasor diagram shown:
Flux density vectors shown:

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
MEASUREMENT of MODEL PARAMETERS
Bnet is very small since almost BR and BS cancels
The machine is unsaturated and SCC is linear
The magnitude of current:
IA= EA / [RA ^2+jXS ^2]
internal Impedance of machine
ZS=RA^2+XS^2=EA/IA
Since XS>>RA above relation reduces:
XS EA/IA =V,OC/ IA
(3)
if EA and IA known for given situation, synchronous
reactance XS can be found

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
MEASUREMENT of MODEL PARAMETERS
Approximate method for determining
synchronous reactance XS :
1- measure internal voltage EA open circuit test
at the specific field current (OCC)
2- measure short circuit current flow IA,SC at the
same field current (SCC)
3- Find XS using the approximate equation (3)

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
MEASUREMENT of MODEL PARAMETERS
Concern:
the EA is determined from OCC where machine is
partially saturated for large field currents
While IA is determined form SCC , where machine is
unsaturated at all field currents
Therefore at high field currents (that core is saturated
in OC) EA measured from OCC at a specific If EA
measured at same If under short-circuit conditions
This makes resulting value of XS only approximate

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
MEASUREMENT of MODEL PARAMETERS
However, answer found by
this method is accurate up
to the saturation point
So, unsaturated
synchronous reactance XS,u
can be found at any If in
linear portion of OCC
Approximate Xs varies with
degree of saturation of
OCC, so it should be
calculated at approximate
load on machine
Plot of approximate XS as
function of If shown

SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
MEASUREMENT of MODEL PARAMETERS
It is important to know winding resistance as well as
synchronous reactance
Resistance can be approximated by applying dc
voltage to winding while machine is stationary &
measuring the resultant current flow
use of dc voltage means reactance of windings will be
zero in measurement
However, this is not perfect since ac resistance is
larger than dc resistance due to skin effect
Measured value of resistance can be inserted in
impedance equation to improve determination of
synchronous reactance, however this doesnt help
since the error due to saturation has much larger
effect in Xs