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Calculation of Power Losses in the Damper

Winding of Large Hydrogenerators at Open-Circuit
and Load Conditions
Georg Traxler-Samek, Thomas Lugand and Alexander Schwery
ALSTOM Hydro (Switzerland) Ltd.
Generator Technology Centre
5242 Birr, Switzerland
Email: georg.traxler@power.alstom.com

AbstractThis paper presents an analytical method for the

calculation of currents and power losses in the damper winding
of large salient-pole synchronous machines at various steadystate operational conditions. The algorithm is based on a damper
winding network containing all damper bars of a repetitive
section of the machine. The self and mutual inductances as well
as the induced voltages are computed taking into account the
air-gap permeance function.
The presented algorithm is used to compute currents in the
damper winding at open- and short-circuit test conditions. The
obtained analytical results are compared with the results of
transient finite element studies.

I. I NTRODUCTION
Large salient-pole synchronous machines typically are
equipped with an auxiliary squirrel-cage winding, called the
damper winding. This damper winding has to fulfill several
important tasks:

Damping of power and torque oscillations.

Reduction of parasitic harmonics in the airgap magnetic
field.
Suppression of the negative sequence field at unbalanced
load operation.
Protection of the excitation winding.
Transient stability.
Asynchronous start-up.

In the case of machines with integer slot windings, the damper

winding can have a big impact on the stator winding voltage
shape. An optimization of the damper bar pitch or a damper
winding displacement [13] can help to improve the voltage
shape regarding tooth ripple pulsations.
At steady-state operational conditions parasitic harmonics in
the airgap magetic field induce voltages in the damper bars and
lead to compensation currents with associated power losses.
These field harmonics are mainly caused by:
Tooth ripple harmonics: At open-circuit operation with rated
voltage excitation, the tooth-ripple harmonics created by the
stator-winding slot openings cause field pulsations on the poleshoe surface with an angular frequency of
t = G 6q

(1)

where G is the angular frequency of the grid and q the

number of slots per pole and phase of the stator winding.
The wavelength of this pulsation is equal to the statorwinding
slot pitch.
Armature reaction: At short-circuit test and load operation,
parasitic magneto-motive force (mmf) harmonics of the stator
winding create non-synchronously circulating field harmonics
with various angular frequencies and wavelengths.
The calculations of damper-winding currents are the content of many studies. BACHER and KOEFLER [1] present
the measurement of damper currents on a turbo-generator.
K ARMAKER and K NIGHT [2], [3] use a permeance model with
F OURIER series approach in order to compute damper currents
for machines with skewed stator slots. K NIGHT et al. [5],
[6] use the same method for standard machines. K ELLER [4]
in his PhD thesis uses finite-element computations combined
with an analtyic approach to predict damper currents at rotor
unbalance. The PhD thesis of K RATKI [7] describes the usage
of an inductance model in order to calculate the influence of
damper currents on the voltage shape of the stator winding.
M ATSUKI et al. [9] present damper current measurements on
a salient pole machine. N ICA et al. [10] analyse the effect
of current harmonics in converter-driven machines. ROCA et
al. [11] use a coupled circuit in order to study the influence
of damper currents on the stator winding voltage shape.
This paper presents an analytical method for the calculation
of the current distribution in the damper-winding due to the
tooth-ripple and the stator-winding mmf harmonics at various
operational conditions. From the current distribution, power
losses in the damper winding can be derived. The presented
method takes into account the actual positions of the damper
bars, and can therefore deal with displaced damper-windings
and different damper-winding bar pitches.
The algorithm is based on an equivalent damper winding
network and makes usage of an air-gap permeance model for
calculating the self- and mutual inductances of the damper bar.
This approach seems similar to [2], [3], [5], [6], but instead of
using F OURIER series expansions for the formulation of the
air-gap field, a umeric integration approach based on sample
functions is applied.

Airgap Permeance Function

The results of this analytic calculation method are compared and verified with the results of transient, finite-element
computations [8].

Let us assume an arbitrary time t and circumferential space

dependent air-gap magnetic magneto-motive force (mmf)
field wave V (, t)
V (, t) = < {V exp (jk j t)}
(2)

where j = 1, k 6= 0 is the wave number, 6= 0 the

angular frequency and defined in a rotor-fixed coordinate
system C R . This mmf field wave creates an air-gap magnetic field which moves relative to the damper winding and
induces voltages in the damper bars. The bar voltages will
consequently lead to compensation currents.
All damper-winding bars on the poles within a repetitive
section of the stator winding are modeled with a network
comprised of resistances, self and mutual damper bar inductances, and leakage inductances (Fig. 1). The damper bars
are connected via the damper ring by considering appropriate
ring reactances. The effect of the air-gap field pulsations is
taken into account by voltage sources. The self and mutual
inductances of the model as well as the induced voltages are
calculated using the airgap permeance function ().
From the damper bar network a linear system of equations
can be assembled and solved.
A. Air-Gap Permeance
Salient-pole synchronous machines have a variable air-gap,
where the minimum gap lies in the middle of the pole (direct
axis) and the maximum gap between two poles (quadrature
axis). When assuming radial flux lines, the air-gap permeance
can be obtained from the variable air-gap () by
() = 0

1
()

(3)

7.0E-05

Airgap Permeance (Vs/Am2)

II. A NALYTICAL M ODEL

8.0E-05

6.0E-05
5.0E-05
4.0E-05
3.0E-05
2.0E-05
1.0E-05
0.0E+00
0

Fig. 2.

200

400

600

800
1000
1200
Pole pitch (mm)

1400

1600

Airgap permeance function () over two pole pitches 2p

B. Determination of Damper Bar Inductances

The self inductances of the damper bars are calculated with
the help of an imaginary back conductor. This back conductor
is located on an arbitrary position between the damper bars
(Fig. 3). When building a current loop from the ith damper
bar to the back conductor, a current Ii can be imposed and
the recangular magneto-motive force function (mmf) Vi () be
built (Fig. 4). This rectangular function swaps between the
minimum value V = Ii /2 + C and the maximum value
V + = Ii /2+C, where C is an offset which will be determined
below.
The magnetic flux density distribution (Fig. 5) created by
the rectangular mmf is
Bi () = Vi ()() .

(5)

where is the circumferential length of the repetitive section

of the machine.
By numerical integration, the magnetic flux through the
current loop i and the inductance of the bar Lii = i /Ii
are obtained.

ith damper bar

XR

(4)

In order to avoid an unipolar magnetic field (M AXWELLs

equation B = 0 must be satisfied), the offset C is determined
such as
Z
Bi () = 0

where 0 is the permeability of air. Note that the tooth ripple

influence is not included in the air-gap permeance function.
The function () can also be obtained by a numerical air-gap
field calculation by applying an arbirary magnetic potential
between stator and rotor. Fig. 2 shows an airgap permeance
function obtained by a boundary element computation.

1800

Imaginary back
conductor

XR
RD

XD

X11

X1n

Ii

Ui
Fig. 1.

Network of a single damper bar including the end ring reactances

Fig. 3. Pole geometry showing the location of the damper bars and the
imaginary back conductor

Magneto-Motive Force of a Damper Bar Current Loop

This effect is taken into account with a transformation factor

based on a analytical solution of the L APLACE equation in an
air-gap configuration [13] (Fig. 6). A linear current density
function amplitude K S on the stator side can be converted
into a normal magnetic flux density on the stator side ByS

Magneto-Motive Force Function (A)

800.00

400.00

ByS = 0 K S

0.00

(6)

where is the gap width. The same linear current density

function can be transformed to a normal magnetic flux density
on the rotor side by

-400.00

ByR =
-800.00
0

200

400

600

800
1000
1200
Pole pitch (mm)

1400

1600

1800

Fig. 4. Magneto-motive force function V () of a current loop formed by a

damper bar with the imaginary back conductor, bar current Ii = 1000 A

fg =

0.06

0 K S
.
sinh (k )

(7)

A magnetic flux density field wave can therefore be transformed from the stator to the rotor (or vice-versa) by the gap
transformation factor fg

Magnetic Flux Density of a Damper Bar Current Loop

Magnetic Flux Density (T)

cosh (k )
,
sinh (k )

ByR
1
=
,
S
By
cosh (k )

(8)

where is the gap width and k the wave number of the

exciting field wave.
D. Induced Bar Voltages

0.03

From the mmf function (2) a linear current density function

K(, t) can be derived by
dV (, t)
(9)
d
With equation (7) the magnetic flux density distribution on
the rotor surface is obtained. When considering a variable airgap function () as defined by equation (3), derived from
numerical field calculations, the complex magnetic flux density
function based on a time dependency exp (j t) is

0.00

K(, t) =

-0.03

-0.06
0

200

400

600

800
1000
1200
Pole pitch (mm)

1400

1600

1800

Fig. 5. Magnetic flux density function B() of a current loop formed by a

damper bar with the imaginary back conductor, bar current Ii = 1000 A

The mutual inductances are calculated in a similar way: The

magnetic field distribution Bi () of the ith coil loop is used to
compute the mutual inductance Lji = j /Ii when j is the
flux through a coil loop formed by the j th damper bar with
the back conductor. Note that Lji = Lij .
When changing the position of the imaginary back conductor, the self- and mutual inductances will be changed.
Nevertheless this does not affect the computation result.

B() =

0 K
exp (jk )
sinh (k ())

(10)

The voltage of the ith bar is obtained by integration: When

i is the circumferential position of the ith bar, the complex
bar voltage U i is derived from the gap magnetic flux density
distribution equation (10) according to
Z i
B() d
U i = j L
(11)
0

where L is the axial length of the machine. The voltage

variation in time is U (t) = < {U i exp (j )}.

Stator
K

C. Air-Gap Transformation
As mentioned above, the permeance model assumes radial
flux lines through the air-gap. This assumtion is valid for field
waves with a big wavelength = 2/k . Exciting field
waves with a short wavelength will create an air-gap field
distribution with curved field lines. That means that a part of
the flux lines will be closed directly through the airgap and
not reach the pole shoe surface.

A=0

By

By

Rotor

Fig. 6. Air-gap transformations of the linear current density K S and the

magnetic flux densities ByS , ByR

Damper Bar Currents at Damper Slot Pitch 40mm

III. F INITE -E LEMENT M ODEL

FEM model

Analytical calculation

200

Damper bar current (A)

A two-dimensional approach is sufficient when calculating

damper winding currents of salient pole synchronous machines
with the finite element method [8]. For correctly taking into
account the influence of damper winding currents, the damper
bars are connected with an external damper winding circuit
which is linked to the finite element model [12]. Furthermore
a transient (time step) calculation with rotor motion must be
chosen.
When doing open-circuit or short-circuit test calculations,
the rotor winding is excited with a constant excitation current. The transient calculation is performed until steady-state
condition is reached.
For a rated load simulation, the load angle (rotor displacement angle) must be determined iteratively by magneto-static
simulations in order to get appropriate initial conditions for
the transient simulation [8].

150

100

50

0
1

7
8
9 10 11
Damper bar number

12

13

14

15

16

Fig. 7. Current distribution in the damper bars (rms-values) of two poles

at no-load condition for a damper bar slot pitch d = 40 mm, comparison
between FEM and the presented analytical method

IV. N O -L OAD C ALCULATION

Damper Bar Currents at Damper Slot Pitch 80mm

At no-load operation with rated voltage excitation, the stator

tooth ripple creates a field variation on the pole surface. The
fundamental magnetic flux density variation due to the slotting
directly on the rotor surface for an arbitrary air-gap is
described by the following approach:
(12)

where t is defined in equation (1), kt = 2/s and s

is the slot pitch. The magnetic flux density function can be
transformed in a linear current density function K with


Bt sinh (kt )
K(, t) = <

exp (jkt jt t) . (13)

0 cosh (kt )
With this surrogate linear current density function, the magnetic flux density on the rotor surface can be derived for any
air-gap (). Therefore this function will be used to compute
the damper bar voltages as defined by equation (10) and (11).
The exciting tooth ripple amplitude itself can be obtained
by curves based on numerical field calculations [13].
The presented algorithm is used to calculate damper bar
currents at no-load condition by variation of the damper bar
pitch d . The example machine data is shown in Table I. Fig. 7
and 8 compare the damper currents of two adjacent poles (rmsvalues) of a finite-element calculation with those computed

Damper bar current (A)

B(, t) = < {Bt exp (jkt jt t)} ,

FEM model

Analytical calculation

200

150

100

50

0
1

7
8
9 10 11
Damper bar number

12

13

14

15

16

Fig. 8. Current distribution in the damper bars (rms-values) of two poles

at no-load condition for a damper bar slot pitch d = 80 mm, comparison
between FEM and the presented analytical method

analytically. The damper bar pitch is d = 40 mm in Fig. 7

and d = 80 mm in Fig. 8. The total power losses in the
damper bar of two poles as a function of the damper bar pitch
are shown in Fig. 9.
V. S HORT-C IRCUIT T EST C ALCULATION

TABLE I
N O -L OAD C ALCULATION - E XAMPLE M ACHINE D ATA
Rated apparent power
Rated power factor cos
Rated stator voltage
Rated grid frequency
Rated speed
Stator bore diameter
Stator core total length
Stator slot pitch
Number of damper bars per pole

31.5
0.80
10600
50
750
2350
1300
60
8

MVA
V
Hz
rpm
mm
mm
mm

At a short-circuit test, the damper winding is mainly exposed to parasitic magnetic flux density harmonics generated
by the stator winding armature reaction. A general expression
for the stator winding mmf in a stator-fixed coordinate system
is

3X
VsS (x, t) =
V sin (k x + G t)
(14)
2 =1
where V is the mmf amplitude of the th harmonic, k
the wave number, the phase shift and G the angular
grid frequency. This function must be transformed to a rotor

Damper Bar Currents 300 Hz

Power Losses at No-Load Condition

FEM model

Analytical Calculation

FEM model

800

Analytical calculation

250

700

Damper bar current (A)

Losses per pole pair (W)

200
600
500
400
300
200

150

100

50
100

0
40

45

50

55
60
65
70
Damper winding slot pitch (mm)

75

80

Fig. 9. Power losses per pole pair at no-load condition for different damper
bar slot pitches based on a stator slot pitch s = 60 mm, comparison between
FEM and the presented analytical method

4
5
Damper bar number

Fig. 10. Current distribution in the damper bars (rms-values) of one pole at
short-circuit test condition, 300 Hz componente, comparison between FEM
and the presented analytical method
Damper Bar Currents 600 Hz
FEM model

coordinate system by a linear transformation x = +vt, where

v is the synchronous circumferential speed [13]:

Analytical calculation

100

G t (1 k v/ )) . (15)
With equation (9) the mmf can be converted into a linear
current density function which is then used to compute the
damper bar voltages defined by equation (10) and (11). Note
that the calculation must be done for each harmonic .
The damper bar current distribution is computed at shortcircuit test conditions for the machine data shown in Table II.
The calculation has been done with the presented analytical
method and with transient finite-element computations. Fig. 10
shows the rms-values of the bar currents of one pole for
the 300 Hz component of the armature reaction (5th and
7th harmonic). Fig. 11 and 12 display the corresponding
calculation results for the 600 Hz and 900 Hz components.

TABLE II
S HORT-C IRCUIT T EST C ALCULATION - E XAMPLE M ACHINE D ATA
Rated apparent power
Rated power factor cos
Rated stator voltage
Rated grid frequency
Rated speed
Stator bore diameter
Stator core total length
Stator winding slot pitch
Damper winding slot pitch
Number of damper bars per pole

120
0.90
16000
50
333.3
4850
1900
56
54
8

MVA
V
Hz
rpm
mm
mm
mm
mm

Damper bar current (A)

80

3X
VsR (, t) =
V sin (k +
2 =1

60

40

20

0
1

4
5
Damper bar number

Fig. 11. Current distribution in the damper bars (rms-values) of one pole at
short-circuit test condition, 600 Hz componente, comparison between FEM
and the presented analytical method

VI. C ONCLUSION
The paper presents an analytical calculation algorithm for
the computation of the current distribtion in damper bars of
large salient pole synchronous machines. The algorithm is
based on the air-gap permeance function () and uses a
numerical integral approach for the calculation of the induced
voltages in the damper bars. The damper currents are calculated with a network which connects all damper bars of a
repetitive section of the machine.
Example calculation have been done for no-load and shortcircuit test operational conditions. The presented analytical
calculation method shows excellent results when compared
with transient, finite element studies. The damper bar current
distribution can be correctly reproduced by the fast analytical
computation.
The algorithm is fast enough to be included in an electrical
design software for salient pole synchronous machines. The

Damper Bar Currents 900 Hz

FEM model

Analytical calculation

25

Damper bar current (A)

20

15

10

0
1

4
5
Damper bar number

Fig. 12. Current distribution in the damper bars (rms-values) of one pole at
short-circuit test condition, 900 Hz componente, comparison between FEM
and the presented analytical method

availability of damper winding losses in such a program

allows for a fast end efficient optimization of the electrical
machine design.
R EFERENCES
[1] Bacher, J.; Koefler, H.: Determination of the damper current distribution
in a turbo generator with a massive rotor by different measuring methods. Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Electrical
Machines (ICEM), Brugge (Belgium), 2002.
[2] Karmaker, H.; Knight, A.M.: Fields, Damper Currents and Losses in
Large Salient-Pole Synchronous Machines with Skewed Stator Slots,
Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Electrical Machines (ICEM), Cracow (Poland), 2004.

[3] Karmaker, H.; Knight, A.M.: Investigation and Simulation of Fields in

Large Salient-Pole Synchronous Machines With Skewed Stator Slots.
IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 20, No. 3, September
2005.
[4] Keller, S.: Large Low Speed Hydrogenerators UMP and Additional

Damper Losses in Eccentricity Conditions. These No 3773, Ecole

Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, 2007.
[5] Knight, A.M.; Karmaker, H.; Weeber, K.: Prediction of Damper Winding Currents and Force Harmonic Components in Large Synchronous
Machines. Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Electrical Machines (ICEM), Brugge (Belgium), 2002.
[6] Knight, A.M.; Karmaker, H.; Weeber, K.: Use of a Permeance Model
to Predict Force Harmonic Components and Damper Winding Effects
in Salient-Pole Synchronous Machines. IEEE Transactions on Energy
Conversion, Vol. 17, No. 4, December 2002.
[7] Kratki, N.: Spannungskurvenform, Dampferstrome und Zusatzverluste
in Dampferstaben bei Synchronmaschinen mit ausgepragten Polen im
Leerlauf. Dissertation, Universitat Dortmund, Deutschland, 1984.
[8] Lugand, T.: Two Dimensional Transient FE Analysis of Currents in
the Damper Bars of Salient Pole Synchronous Machines. Engineering
degree Thesis, ENSIEG-INPG, France, 2007.
[9] Matsuki, J.; Katagi, T.; Okada, T.: Slot Ripples in the Damper Windings
of a Salient-Pole Synchronous Generator. IEEE Transactions on Energy
Conversion, Vol. 9, No. 1, March 1994.
[10] Nica, C.; Enache, S.; Enache, M.A.: About Currents from the Damper
Winding Bars of Three-Phase Synchronous Generator Connected on
Rectifier. Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Electrical Machines (ICEM), Chania (Greece), 2006.
[11] Rocha E.J.J.; Johnny, J.; Uemori M.K., De Arruda Penteado A.: The
Damper Winding Influence Upon Salient Pole Synchronous Generator
Electromotive Force. Proceedings of the IEEE International Electric
Machines and Drives Conference (IEMDC), Milwaukee (WI, USA),
1997.
[12] Schwery, A.; Traxler-Samek, G.; Schmidt, E.: Application of a Transient Finite Element Analysis with Coupled Circuits to Calculate
the Voltage Shape of a Synchronous Generator. Proceedings of the
Tenth Biennial IEEE Conference on Electromagnetic Field Computation
(CEFC), Perugia (Italy), 2002.
[13] Traxler-Samek, G.; Schwery, A.; Schmidt, E.: Analytic Calculation of
the Voltage Shape of Salient Pole Synchronous Generators Including
Damper Winding and Saturation Effects. COMPEL Journal, Vol. 22,
No. 4, United Kingdom, 2003.

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