4.

Excitation of synchronous machines

- No-load and short-circuit characteristic
- Determination of necessary field ampere-turns
- Phasor diagram of saturated synchronous machines
- POTIER reactance

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Energiewandlung FB 18

4. Excitation of synchronous machines

4.1 No-load and short-circuit characteristic
No-load characteristic:
- Stator open circuit
- Rotor driven by auxiliary motor
- Variable rotor excitation If
- Stator: No-load voltage Us0 is
back EMF Up
Short-circuit characteristic:
- Stator short circuited
- Rotor driven by auxiliary motor
- Variable rotor excitation If

Synchronous reactance xd (per unit):

- Stator: Steady-state shortcircuit current Isk

xd = Xd/ ZN = 1/kk

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kk: No-load/short-circuit ratio

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4. Excitation of synchronous machines

4.1 No-load and short-circuit
characteristic
Measured and calculated no-load characteristic:
Line-to-line voltage versus field current at
3000/min, 50 Hz, 2-pole turbine generator, 400
MVA, cos N = 0,75 cap.
_________ measured
X

calculated

Source: AEG, Germany

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4. Excitation of synchronous machines

Saturation at no-load, no saturation at short-circuit

At stator short circuit stator air gap flux linkage sk = LdIsk is opposite to rotor air gap
flux linkage p = LdIf . It nearly cancels rotor air gap field, so resulting air gap flux
linkage h = LdIm is small (magnetic operation point A). As stator voltage is zero,
induced stator internal voltage h = LdIm must balance voltage, which is induced by
stator leakage flux: h = LdIm = LsIsk. So h is small, iron is unsaturated.
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4. Excitation of synchronous machines

Measured no-load and short-circuit curve: 2000 MW generator

SN = 2222 MVA, cosN = 0.9 over-excited, 27 kV, Y, 50 Hz, 1500/min, IsN = 47.5 kA

Olkiluoto 3: 2 GW turbo generator

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Source: Siemens, Germany

Prof. A. Binder : Large Generators & High Power Drives

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Energiewandlung FB 18

4. Excitation of synchronous machines

Measured reactances: Turbine generator 2000 MW

Olkiluoto 3: 2 GW turbo generator

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Source: Siemens, Germany

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Energiewandlung FB 18

4. Excitation of synchronous machines

Transfer ratio for rotor field current

Amplitude and phase shift of Up: may be described in equivalent circuit by fictive AC
stator current If : U p jX I f
h

This defines transfer ratio of field current If: I f

1
If
If

If is the equivalent stator AC field current, that flows in stator winding and by
self-induction causes the same back EMF Up as the real rotor DC field current If
does by rotation of rotor.

I f

X h I f

X hIs

Is

Up
U s,s

Is

Bp
Bs ,

V f
1
Is
Is
If

If
Vs

Example: Turbine generator:

2 Nf

k wf I f
Rotor m.m.f. fundamental: V f
p
we get:
2 ms N s
Stator m.m.f. fundamental: V

k ws I s
s

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If

ms N s k ws 2
2 N f k wf

Institut fr Elektrische
Energiewandlung FB 18

4. Excitation of synchronous machines

Fundamental of rotor field of turbine generator
Rotor m.m.f. and air gap field distribution have
steps due to slots and contain fundamental ( = 1):

2 N
V f f (k p , f k d , f ) I f
p
V f

, N f 2 p qr N fc
Bp 0

k p, f
Example: qr=2

kd , f

W
3
sin sin( / 3)
2
p 2
sin( / 6) ,
k wf k pf k df

qr sin( /(6qr ))

Rotor field winding is one phase of a three phase distributed winding, which is pitched
by 2/3 and fed by DC current.

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Brushless excitation armature and diode wheel

Source:
Siemens AG, Mlheim/Ruhr, Germany

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Energiewandlung FB 18

Static excitation collector via two slip rings and carbon brushes

Source:
Siemens AG,
Mlheim/Ruhr,
Germany
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4. Excitation of synchronous machines

4.2 Determination of necessary field ampere-turns
Calculation of magnetizing current, considering main flux saturation:

Magnetizing
current

Magnetic point of operation E of main air gap flux linkage h is determined by internal voltage:

U h j

This is given for any arbitrary load (Us, Is, ) and determines magnetizing current: U h jX h I m
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4. Excitation of synchronous machines

Determination of field current If from phasor diagram

- In order to get field current If from Im, we need to know addition of stator and rotor
current.
- From phasor diagram we get If. With knowledge of If we calculate If.

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4. Excitation of synchronous machines

Calculation of necessary field current for load point (Us, Is, )

A)

B)

A) In order to get field current If from Im, we need to know addition of stator and rotor current.
From phasor diagram we get If. With knowledge of If we calculate If.
B) If machine is already built and measured, we can take If from short-circuit characteristic.
It is the distance between Fand C, if the curve is given in dependence of If.
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4. Excitation of synchronous machines

Calculation of field current for load point (Us, Is, ) in ONE diagram

Input:
Us, Is,

Output:
u: under-excited, : over-excited

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If

Institut fr Elektrische
Energiewandlung FB 18

4. Excitation of synchronous machines

4.3 Phasor diagram of saturated synchronous machines

Magnetic characteristic is linearized in magnetic operation point E to determine (fictive)

back EMF for saturated load operation point.
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4. Excitation of synchronous machines

4.4 POTIER reactance

In d-axis rotor stray flux f~ If is ADDING to main flux h, so it will increase pole shaft
iron saturation.
Especially at over-excitation (big f~ If) this saturation may become very high.
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4. Excitation of synchronous machines

Worst-case over-excitation (maximum f~ If) at pure inductive
load of synchronous generator
Phasor diagram for pure inductive load of
generator at rated voltage and current:
Us = UN, Is = IN, cos = 0 over-excited
Due to this big rotor stray flux the rotor iron
saturates strongly, yielding an increased
demand of excitation ampere-turns If.

H ds 2 N f , pole I f 2 N f , pole ( I f I f )
C

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4. Excitation of synchronous machines

Increased demand of field current may be considered in phasor diagram by
POTIER reactance XP instead of stator leakage reactance Xs

Pole shaft saturation

is maximum at pure rated inductive load

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4. Excitation of synchronous machines

POTIER reactance XP
- Increased iron saturation will lead to decrease in main reactance.
- Usually this influence is not considered by reducing main reactance, but by
introducing POTIER reactance !
- Increased field current gives (at fictively constant main reactance Xhd) a fictively
increased back EMF Up. This has to be compensated by a fictively increased
leakage reactance Xs , which is called POTIER-reactance XP :

U p X hd I f

U p X hd I f

U h X hd I m

X P X s
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4. Excitation of synchronous machines

Measuring POTIER reactance with method of FISCHER-HINNEN

IRP
If

- No-load & short-circuit characteristic are measured and field current for pure inductive rated load (IRP)
- Magnetic point of operation E of internal voltage Uh includes terminal voltage UsN and voltage
drop XPIsN
- Substracting from field current If the stator current IsN.If yields magnetizing current Im.If, so we get
Uh(Im) = Us0(Im) from no-load characteristic.
- IsN.If is visible in short-circuit characteristic. There iron is unsaturated, so XPIN = XsIN.
- Paralleling unsaturated no-load characteristic and ampere-turns of short-circuit conditions is also
possible to determine Uh, instead of taking IsN.If (which needs knowledge of If )
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