ALTERNATORS

AC generators or alternators (as they are usually called) operate on the same fundamental principles of electromagnetic induction as dc generators. They also consists of an armature winding and a magnetic field but there is one important difference between the two. Whereas in dc generators, the armature rotates and the field system is stationary, the arrangement in alternators is just reverse of it. In their case, standard construction consists of armature winding mounted on a stationary element called stator and the field windings on a rotating element called rotor.

 When the rotor rotates, the stator conductors (being stationary) are cut by the magnetic flux, hence they have induced e.m.f. produced in them. Because the magnetic poles are alternately N and S, they induce an e.m.f. and hence current in armature conductors, which first flows in one direction and then in the other. Hence, an alternating e.m.f. is produced in the stator conductors whose frequency depends on the number of N and S poles moving past a conductor in one second and whose direction is given by Flemings Right-hand rule.

Alternators according to their construction

Revolving-armature type alternator Revolving-field type alternator

Revolving-armature type alternator

It has stationary field poles and revolving armature It is usually of relatively small kVA capacity and low-voltage rating. It resembles a dc generator in general appearance except that it has slip-rings instead of a commutator. The field excitation must be direct current and therefore, must be supplied from an external direct current source.

Revolving-field type alternator

It has a stationary armature or stator, inside of which the field poles rotate Most alternators are of the revolving-field type, in which the revolving-field structure or rotor has slip rings and brushes to supply the excitation current from an outside dc source. The armature coils are placed in slots in laminated core, called the stator which is made up of thin steel punching or laminations securely clamped and held in place in the steel frame of the generator. Usually, the field voltage is between 100 V and 250 V and the amount of power delivered to the field circuit is relatively small.

Stationary Armature Windings

Advantages of having stationary armature (and a rotating field system)

1. The output current can be led directly from fixed terminals on the stator (or armature windings) to the load circuit, without having to pass it through brush contacts. 2. It is easier to insulate stationary armature winding for high ac voltages, which may have as high as 30 kV or more.

Advantages of having stationary armature (and a rotating field system)

3. The sliding contacts, i.e. slip rings are transferred to the low-voltage, low-power dc field circuit which can, therefore, be easily insulated. 4. The armature windings can be more easily braced to prevent any deformation, which could be produced by the mechanical stresses set up as a result of short-circuit current and the high centrifugal forces brought into play.

Rotor
Two types of rotors are used in alternators: 1. Salient-pole type or Projecting-pole type 2. Smooth-cylindrical type

Salient-pole type
It is used in low-and medium-speed (engine driven) alternators. It has a large ny=umber of projecting (salient) poles, having their cores bolted or dovetailed onto a heavy megnetic wheel of cast-iron, or steel of good mahnetic quality.

Smooth-cylindrical type
It is used for steam turbine-driven alternators, i.e. turbo-alternators, which run at very high speeds. The rotor consists of a smooth solid forged steel cylinder, having a number of slots milled out at intervals along the outer periphery ( and parallel to the shaft) for accommodating the field coils. Such rotors are designed mostly for 2-pole (or 4-pole) turbo generators running at 3600 rpm (or 1800 rpm)

Pole Pitch

One cycle of emf is induced in a conductor when one pair of poles passes over it. In other words, the emf in an armature conductor goes through one cycle in angular distance equal to twice the pole-pitch.

Since one cycle of emf is produced when a pair of poles passes past a conductor, the number of cycles of emf produced in one revolution of the rotor is equal to the number of pair of poles. P Therefore: No.of cycles per revolution
2 N No.of revolution s per second 60 P N PN Frequency ,f x Hz 2 60 120

Frequency of EMF Generated

Alternators usually run at synchronous speed. The frequency of the emf generated is given by:

where: P number of poles N speed in rpm

PN f Hz 120

N is known as the synchronous speed, because it is the speed at which an alternators must run, in order to generate an emf of the required frequency. In fact, for a given frequency and given number of poles, the speed is fixed.

Check Your Understanding

A 3-phase, 16 pole alternator has wye connected armature winding with 144 slots, 10 conductors per slot and runs at 450 rpm. What is the frequency ?

Check Your Understanding

Meralco is providing 220 V ac at 60 Hz, if from the generator from the power plant has 6 poles, what is the synchronous speed of the generator?

For producing a frequency of 60 Hz, the alternator will have to run at the following speeds:

The two types of armature windings most commonly used for 3-phase alternators: 1. Single-layer winding 2. Two-layer winding

Single-layer winding
It is variously referred to as concentric or chain winding. Sometimes, it is of simple bar type or wave winding.

A single-layer, one turn, full-pitch winding for a four-pole three-phase (RYB) generator. No. of slots = 12 Slots per pole = 12 slots/4 poles=3 slots per pole Pole pitch = 3

To get maximum emf, two sides of a coil should be one polepitch apart i.e. coil span should be equal to one pole pitch. In other words, if one side of the coil is under the center of a N-pole, then the other side of the same coil should be under the center of S-pole i.e. 180 electrical degrees apart. In that case, the emfs induced in the two sides of the coil are added together.

Phase R: starts at slot 1, passes through slots 4,7 and finishes at 10

Phase R: starts at slot 1, passes through slots 4,7 and finishes at 10

Phase Y: starts 1200 afterwards which is two slots away from the start of Phase R because 3 slots correspond to an angular displacement to 180 electrical degrees, two slots correspond to an angular displacement of 120 electrical degrees. It starts at 3 and passes through slots 6,9 and finishes at 12.

Phase Y: It starts at 3 and passes through slots 6,9 and finishes at 12.

Phase B: starts 1200 afterwards which is two slots away from the start of Phase Y. It starts at slot 5 and passes through slots 8,11 and finishes at 2.

Phase B: It starts at slot 5 and passes through slots 8,11 and finishes at 2.

The ends of the windings are joined to from a star point for a Y-connection.

Wye Connection
For Y-connection, R1, Y1, B1 are joined together to form the star-point. Then, ends, R2, Y2, B2 are connected to the terminals.

Delta Connection
For Delta-connection, R2 and Y1, Y2 and B1 and B2 and R1 are connected together and terminal leads are brought out from their junctions.

Two Layer Winding

This winding is either of wave-wound type or lap-wound type (this being much more common especially for high-speed turbogenerators. It is the simplest and most commonly used not only in synchronous machines but in induction motors as well.

Two important points regarding this winding should be noted: 1. Ordinarily, the number of slots in stator (armature) is a multiple of the number of poles and the number of phases. Thus, the stator of a 4-pole, e-phase alternator may have 12, 24, 36, 48 etc. slots all of which are seen to be multiple of 12 (i.e. 4 x 3).

Two important points regarding this winding should be noted: 2. The number of stator slots is equal to the number of coils (which are all of the same shape). In other words, each slot contains two coil sides, one at the bottom of the slot and the other at the top. The coils overlap each other, just like shingles on a roof top.

No. of poles = 4 No. of slots = 24 Pole pitch = 24/4 = 6 For maximum voltage, the coils should be full pitched. It means that if one side of the coil is in slot 1, the other side should be in slot 7, the two slots 1 and 7 being one pole-pitch or 180 electrical degrees apart.

Each of the three-phases has 24/3 = 8 coils, these being so selected as to give maximum voltage when connected in series.

Each of the three-phases has 24/3 = 8 coils, these being so selected as to give maximum voltage when connected in series. (Lap)

Full-pitched coils
Full-pitched coils are coils having span which is equal to one pole-pitch, i.e. spanning over 180o (electrical). Coils sides are placed in slots 1 and 7.

Short or fractional-pitched coils

If the coil sides are placed in slots 1 and 6, then it is short-pitched or fractional pitched because coil span is equal to 5/6 of a polepitch. It falls short by 1/6 pole-pitch or 180o/6= 30o

Advantages of short-pitch coils

They save copper of end connections They improve the wave-form of the generated emf Eddy current and hysteresis losses are reduced and thereby increasing the efficiency

Pitch Factor
vectoror phasorsum of inducedemfs per coil kp arithmeticsum of the inducedemfs per coil k p sin(90 p) cos

where: p winding pitch

coil span in terms of number of slots p slotsper pole coil span in terms of electricaldegrees p 180

Let Es be the induced emf in each side of the coil. If the coil were full-pitched, i.e. if its two sides were one pole-pitch apart, then total induced emf in the coil would have been equal to 2 Es

 If it is short-pitched by 30 electrical degrees, then their resultant is E which is the vector sum of two voltage 30 electrical degrees apart.

30 E 2 E s cos 2 E s cos15 2

2Es cos15 vectorsum E kp cos15 0.966 arithmeticsum 2Es 2Es

Pitch Factor
In a full pitch winding, the emfs in the two coil sides are in phase and therefore the coil emf is twice of each coil side. In a fractional pitch coil, the emfs of the two coil sides are not in phase and must be added vectorially to give the coil emf. The factor by which the emf per coil is reduced, because of the pitch being less, is known as pitch factor (or coil span factor) kp In full pitch winding, kp = 1

Check Your Understanding

Calculate the pitch factor for 36 stator slots, 4poles, coil span, 1 to 8.

Calculate the pitch factor for 36 stator slots, 4poles, coil span, 1 to 8.

Calculate the pitch factor for 36 stator slots, 4poles, coil span, 1 to 8.

The coil span falls short by (2/9)x180 40 , 40 40 k p cos cos 20 0.94 2

Check Your Understanding

Calculate the pitch factor for 72 stator slots, 6poles, coil span, 1 to 10.

Calculate the pitch factor for 72 stator slots, 6poles, coil span, 1 to 10.

Calculate the pitch factor for 72 stator slots, 6poles, coil span, 1 to 10.

The coil span falls short by (3/12)x180 45 , 45

45 k p cos cos 22.5 0.924 2

Check Your Understanding

Calculate the pitch factor for 96 stator slots, 6poles, coil span, 1 to 12.

Check Your Understanding

Calculate the pitch factor for 96 stator slots, 6poles, coil span, 1 to 12.

The coil span falls short by (5/16)x180 5616' , 5616'

5616' k p cos cos 288' 0.882 2

Distribution or breadth or belt factor

When the coils comprising a phase of a winding are distributed in two or more slots per pole, the emfs in the adjacent coils will be out of phase with respect to one another and their resultant will be less than their algebraic sum. The ratio of the vector sum of the emfs induced in all coils distributed in a number of slots under one pole to the arithmetic sum of the emfs induced (or to the resultant) of the emfs induced in all coils concentrated in one slot under one pole is known as distribution factor, kd

Distribution factor, kd
n sin 2 kd n sin 2

where: n number of slots per pole per phase angle between adjacent slots in degrees Note: kd is always less than unity

180 slotsper pole

Angular Displacement between Slots

The value of distribution factor of a 3-phase alternator for different number of slots/pole/phase

EMF Generated
The rms value of the emf generated per conductor is given by the equation

e 2.22f V
where : flux per pole in Webers f frequency in Hz

Induced/generated emf per phase

The emf induced per phase

where: Z number of series connected conductors per phase flux per pole in Webers f frequency in Hz kp pitch factor or coil span kd distribution factor or belt factor

E 2.22k p k d Zf V

Check Your Understanding

A 3-phase, 16 pole alternator has a wye connected armature winding with 144 slots, 10 conductors per slot and runs at 450 rpm. The flux is 40 mW per pole. What is the value of the line-to line voltage in kV?

A 3-phase, 16 pole alternator has a wye connected armature winding with 144 slots, 10 conductors per slot and runs at 450 rpm. The flux is 40 mW per pole. What is the value of the line-to line voltage in kV?
PN 16(450) f 60Hz 120 120 144(10) Z 480 series conductorsper phase 3 0.040W b k d 0.96 kp 1 E 2.22k p k d fZ E 2.22(1)(0.96)(0.040)(60)(480) 2455.14V E L 3 (2455.14) 4252.43V

Check Your Understanding

A 3-phase , 4-pole alternator has a single layer full-pitch winding with 8 conductors per slot. The armature has a total of 36 slots. Determine the voltage between lines when the alternator is driven at 1800 rpm with a flux of 0.05 Wb per pole. Assume delta connected.

The value of distribution factor of a 3-phase alternator for different number of slots/pole/phase

Check Your Understanding

A 4-pole, 3-phase, 60 Hz wye-connected alternator has 60 slots with 2 conductors per slot in 2 layers. Fractional pitch winding with one side in slot 1 and the other in slot 13. Determine the flux per pole required to induced an emf of 6600 V between lines.

Check Your Understanding

A 4-pole, 3-phase, 60 Hz, wye-connected alternator has 24 slots with 40 turns in each coil and a flux per pole of 63 mWb. What is the terminal voltage on open circuit if the pitch factor is unity?

Check Your Understanding

A 3-phase, 16-pole alternator has a wyeconnected full pitch winding with 144 slots and 10 conductors per slot all in series. The flux per pole is 0.03 Wb at 60 Hz. What is the no load emf between lines?