Slot Leakage Inductance and Eddy Current Losses

in Multi-Turn Stator Windings for Very High

Voltage Synchronous Generators
Meinolf Klocke
Abstract The slot leakage inductance of multi-turn stator windings
with circular conductive cross-sections and a slot cross-section mainly consisting of insulating material is calculated by imaging methods. The results
are compared with those obtained by numerical analysis and by applying
conventional formulas for rectangular conducting cross-sections. It turns
out that in practical cases these conventional formulae yield sufficiently accurate values for the leakage inductance.
Furthermore the eddy current losses in such multi-turn windings are
investigated numerically and by analytical approximations based on substituting the circular cross-sections by aedequate rectangular ones. The eddy
current losses are critically high due to the transversal magnetic field exerted on the upper turns inside the slot by the lower ones.

I. I NTRODUCTION
ECENT developments in electrical machine design concerning synchronous generators are aimed at a significant
increase of the rated stator voltage [1]. Once the stator voltage level reaches the external grid high-voltage of for instance
110 kV, the machine transformer usually fitting the voltage
levels of grid and generator to each other can be omitted.
Conventional stator windings of large synchronous generators
consist of two layers of coils with one turn per coil made of a
conductive bar subdivided into a number of single conductors
insulated against each other. These conductors are lead through
the cross-section of a bar in a twisted manner that each of them
is exposed to the same magnetic flux in the slot (Roebel-bar, see
e.g. [2]). Eddy currents in the bars can thereby be avoided or
at least reduced to a minimum. The skin effect is avoided and
a homogeneous current density distribution on the conductive
cross-section can be assumed. The bars are insulated against the
stator iron core and against the opposite layer in the slot by surrounding insulation layers based on mica. Since the copper area
can be considered rectangular and the insulation layer is rather
thin compared to the measures of the copper cross-section and
the slot cross-section, a one-dimensional transversal magnetic
field in the slot can be expected. The slot leakage inductance
can be calculated without difficulties according to well known
formulae e.g. from [3]. Iron saturation and deviations of the
magnetic field due to wide slot openings are neglected in this
consideration.
In windings for very high voltage usual high voltage cables
as used for power transmission have been suggested for application. These cables should then form multi-turn coils in order
to achieve a desirably high rated stator voltage level. Compared
to conventional stator windings two main differences would be
given: Firstly, the conductive cross-section is rather circular than
M. Klocke is employed at the Institute of Electrical Machines, Drives and
Power Electronics, University of Dortmund, Germany, which is held by Prof.
Dr.-Ing. S. Kulig. E-mail: klocke@mal.e-technik.uni-dortmund.de .

rectangular and its area is relatively small, since the cable crosssection includes quite thick insulation layers. Secondly, the filaments within the conductive cross-section are not strongly insulated against each other thus admitting eddy currents especially
induced by transversal field components.
In the following, investigations concerning these two crucial
points are presented. An analytical calculation scheme for the
slot leakage inductance of a very high voltage winding with
multi-turn coils of circular conductor cross-section is derived
based on imaging methods [4] and exact integration of all contributions to the resulting flux linkage [5]. The results of this
scheme are compared to finite element calculations with good
agreement. It turns out that the influence of the different shape
of the conductive cross-section is much less than expected. Only
for unrealistically small radii of the conducting areas significant
deviations from results obtained by applying the usual formulae
for rectangular cross-sections occur.
The eddy current losses in different slots of a pitched very
high voltage winding are calculated numerically under the assumption of two-dimensionality of the magnetic field with ideal
closing of the eddy current pathes on equipotential front end
and back end surfaces of the conductors. The results appear to
be comparable to those obtained analytically under the assumption of single rectangular cross-sections of the conductors [6].
Here, three different cases are investigated, which are rectangular cross-sections of invariant height h 2r or width w 2r
and square cross-sections h w compared to the original circular ones. For the sake of comparability in all three cases the
area r2 hw is the common invariant. The agreement of the
results for the case of invariant width with those obtained numerically turns out to be the best.

 

 

 

II. A NALYTICAL C ALCULATION OF F LUX L INKAGE

I MAGING M ETHODS

BY

Fig. 1 shows a cross-section of a slot with N aequidistant

symmetrically arranged circular conductors. A horizontal fieldline as a boundary of the slot leakage field is assumed. The
permeability of the surrounding iron be infinite.
By repeatedly imaging the original arrangement of conductors at the boundaries an infinite periodical arrangement of conductors is obtained. Imaging at the upper boundary fieldline
therein implies an inversion of the sign of the currents, whereas
imaging at the slot ground and the slot flanks creates currents
of identical sign. Such an arrangement of currents is shown in
Fig. 2.
For calculating the inductance the flux linkage of the N original conductors with the total resulting magnetic field of all con-

ductors must be determined. The flux linkage is given by the

contributions of the N original conductors. These contributions
are generated from the field contributions of all conductors of
the substituting arrangement. Thus infinite sums over the layers
of conductors in x- and in y-direction have to be evaluated.
A single circular conductor with current I and coordinates xC
and yC of its center point excites a magnetic vector potential in
the exterior of its cross-section according to:

 

denominator x2C

2
C

2
C

1
r2

 

A dS

SCS

 

 




x2
yC yC
0 I
ln C 2
4
xC y2C

 

0 I
2

(4)


 


   
 
 !  e (5)

A conductor between the planes at x "  0 and y " generates a
magnetic vector potential according to
 I ln sin # x$ sinh #
y  y " %$ e (6)
A 
 &
4 
sinh # y " $


2
w

w w

r
2

1
0

Fig. 1. Cross-section of a
slot with N-turn winding.

Fig. 2. Arrangement of original and imaged

conductors.

 

' 

where A is gauged to become zero at x y 0. The original conductor and some sign inversed image at xw
0 and
yw form a loop, the vector potential of which for the symmetry
plane x 0 can be written as:

'



A 

#
y  y "  $ sinh # y ' $  

  #
y  y '  $  sinh # y " $   e  (7)



With y  y the magnitude of A equals the flux linkage per unit
length  to a nonexcited slot conductor at y  not coinciding
with one of the loop conductors. For the primary loops created by imaging the original conductors at y  0, which forces
y '  y " , one obtains:
I
 sinh ##
y  y "  $ 
 
ln 
(8)
2   sinh
y
y "  $  




sinh
0 I
ln
2
sinh

w w

w w

w
w

0 I

x j y
ez
Re lnsin
2
w
0 I

ln sin2
x
y
sinh2
4
w
w

(3)

 ln  yr  14 
 


The evaluation of the double sum in x- and y-direction seems to

be critical concerning the calculation time and the boundaries of
summation. A simplification is achieved by the following analytical approach, which replaces the summation in x-direction.
From [4] it can be seen that the magnetic vector potential of a
conductor symmetrically positioned between two ideally ferromagnetic parallel planes, which have the distance w from each
other, is proportional to Re ln sin w x j y
. Deriving the
missing constant of proportionality from Amperes law and the
derivatives of A in great distance from the conductor, where the
field becomes homogeneous, one obtains:

  
 

(2)

This is the exact value of the vector potential in the center of the
flux receiving, nonexcited conductor.
With field exciting and flux receiving conductor in geometrical coincidence the contribution to the flux linkage is given
by an exterior part calculated from the vector potential on the
conductor surface and an interior part represented by the well
known inner inductance:

y
e
z

Eqn. (2) is evaluated by substituting the rectangular coordinates

by polar coordinates centered in the flux receiving conductor.
Eventually one obtains (3) like e.g. in [5].

l i n

 

l d

2
C

The
of the coordinate system.
The contribution to the flux linkage per unit length
caused by this field for a conductor with radius r and center coordinates xC 0 and yC is given by the average value of the vector
potential on the cross-sectional area of this conductor SSC . :

f i e

x  x 
y  y  e
(1)



x
y

y gauges A to become zero in the origin

0 I
ln
4

In case of coincidence of field exciting and flux receiving conductor, which only can occur for the primary loops, a particular
consideration is needed. From the vector potential
A





sinh
0 I
ln
2
sinh




#
y y "  $ 
#
y y " ($  &


(9)

which can be considered a superposition of the magnetic fields

of all images of a primary conductor loop at the slot flanks, the
contribution of the original primary loop in free space,
A0



  yy "  &
 " 

0 I
y
ln
2
y

(10)

is subtracted. The result may be considered a reduced vector

potential only arising from the images of the primary loop at the

flanks without the original contribution:

#
y y "  $ y y " 
  2I ln  sinh
 (11)
 sinh #
y y " %$  y  y "  
For y ) y " this becomes the contribution of the imaged conAred



 



red

i m
N

#  " " $  




(12)
y

- h
=

0 I
8
0 I
2

 " 
 " 





r i g

i n

a l

a g

" 0

y
"

s l o
d

s l o

c o

c t o

n
r s

h
+

s u
S

c c e e d

i m
N
p
c u

N
1

r i m
r r e n
=

- h

a g

i n

l o

y
s

y
S

a g

a d
c u

y
=

a f t e r

a g

i n

N
p
c u

r i m

a r y

r r e n

l o

i t i o

r r e n

f i r s t

a l

i m

- h
=

l o

N
t
i m

i t i o
t

h
=

a r y
t

 " 
"  



 


i m

a g

l o

i m
h

a l
o

a g

- 3

 w sinh #  2y "
ln 
r
*  


i n

a f t e r

 #
%  "  $

(14)

'

 '
(
, -,   


yL
yL

.
h  h /
k 

h  h /
k 
S

 
 

1 a
1 a

a d

i t i o

r r e n
i r d

t
i m

l o

n
o

a g

a l
p

i n

a f t e r
g

(13)

$  1
 4 +


N
c u

t h

Applying (8) and (14) for the field contributions of the primary
loops and (7) for all succeeding images of the primary loops
at the slot ground and its images the total flux linkage of all N
slot conductors can be calculated. Fig. 3 illustrates the imaging scheme: The j-th imaging procedure generates N 2 j 1 additional current loops. An image of the slot ground occurs at
2 j 2 1 hS , where hS denotes the slot height. The
ySG 13
center of the loops is located at yL 0 for the primary loops.
The j-th imaging procedure creates 2 j 1 additional loop centers. They start at ySG hS sign ySG with each following
one positioned at a distance of two slot heights, 2hS , from the
preceeding one. The coordinates of the k-th conductor of a loop
under consideration can be calculated from the center of the loop
yL , the slot height hS the distance of the lowest conductor central point from the slot ground h0 and the distance between two
conductors in neighbourhood a:

" 
' 

y
g

r r e n

e s

0 I
r
0 I
2yw
ln
ln
2
yw
2
yw
2yw
1
ln
r
4

red
0 I
2

a d

c u
2

Hence, the total resulting flux linkage per unit length of a slot
conductor coinciding with the exciting primary loop can be written as:

yw
yw

 


The contribution 0 of the primary loop itself has to be added

to complete the result. This contribution consists of a part arising from the inner inductance of the slot conductor, the flux
of the original slot conductor between surface and upper slot
boundary (fieldline with A 0) and the flux excited by the slot
conductor imaged at y 0. It turns out to be half of the flux
linkage of a two-wire transmission line or bifilar lead, see e.g.
formula in [5] or [7].
0

a g

s e c o

0 I
w 2yw
ln
2
sinh w 2yw

N
2

i m

ductors to the flux linkage in the original slot conductor.

h
5

A0

(15)

During the summation of the contributions to the total flux linkage alternating signs have to be taken into account. Imaging
procedures with an odd index j start with a negative sign beginning from the translated slot ground, whereas an even index
conditions a start with a positive sign.

y
=

- 1

h
S

Fig. 3. Scheme of imaging procedures with original slot conductors, primary

current loops and their images.

Calculations at simple examples show that the influence of

the imaged loops on the results is mostly low. Furthermore, in
many practical cases the conventional formula for rectangular
slot conductors are a sufficient approximation. This will be illustrated in the following.
III. T ESTEXAMPLES
For a slot with nine conductors as shown in Fig. 4 an estimation of the selfinductance by the formula for rectangular crosssections yields:
h h

  3w w

 81  4  10'   39010 1010

mH

mH
 0 40715 m


By an exact analytical evaluation according to the procedure
described above a value of L   0 40743 mH 0 m is obtained.
Herein the total contribution of the  images at the slot ground,
No. 1 to No. 4, is only 3 75 10 ' H 0 m, i.e. less than
 of r  2 mm instead
 radius
1 0 10000 %. With a conductor
of 5 mm the evaluation of the imaging procedures results in
L  0 40908 mH 0 m and with r  0 5 mm the result becomes



LS

N 2 0

10

h
G

=
1

h
6

=
S

m
h

h
G

=
1

h
w

h
2

=
0

r
=

m
=

m
2

1
h

r
=

Fig. 5.
Cross-section and measures of an example slot with oneturn winding.
m

w
=

LS 0 41158 mH m. Although the conductor width 2r in the

last example is only 10 % of the slot width w, the increase of
the slot leakage inductance of 1 1 % compared to the result for a
rectangular conductive cross-section is quite negligible.

In the given example this is conditioned by the fact that a

great part of the leakage inductance is produced by the wide homogeneous transversal fields of the single conductors between
the slot flanks and by mutual flux linkages of the conductors. By
contrast, the influence of local inhomogenities around the single
conductors is very low.

Different results occur in a slot with e.g. only one conductor

as in Fig. 5. Let N 1, h0 5 mm, hS 20 mm, w 10 mm:
For a conductor with a square cross-section, LS is calculated to:

 




hC hG
3w
w
H
1 6755
m
0

LS

4 10

'  10
 3  10

10
10

H
m

For a circular conductor with 2r 10 mm the analytical calculation yields LS 1 7064 H m, which is about 1.8 % more, and
with 2r 1 04 mm LS increases to 2 159 H m, i.e. about 27 %
more than for the square conductive cross-section.

As a confirmation results with good agreement can be obtained by a simple and quick FEM analysis with not more
than 1000 nodes. For the 2r 10 mm conductor LS becomes
1 702 H m and for the about ten times thinner wire it is determined to be 2 131 H m.

Fig. 7. Map of slot leakage field for

a wire with diameter equal to 10.4 %
of the slot width.

IV. S LOT L EAKAGE I NDUCTANCE OF D IFFERENT D ESIGNS

OF V ERY H IGH VOLTAGE W INDINGS
For the determination of the slot leakage inductance of
pitched two-layer three phase windings the self inductances
of the upper conductor layer Lup , the lower layer Llow and
the mutual inductance M between them are calculated. Accordingly , the flux linkages of each layer itself and the
mutual flux linkage are determined separately in the analytical approach described above during the summation. Adding
the self and mutual inductive voltage drops for one phase of the
whole winding results in a total slot leakage inductance LS of:

Fig. 4. Cross-section and measures

of an example slot with nine-turn
winding.

Fig. 6. Map of slot leakage field for

a thick circular conductor with diameter equal to slot width.

In Fig. 6 and 7 the fieldmaps of the FEM analysis are presented.

LS

#

   L $
2q    M   l

2p q Lup

low

Fe

(16)

A series connection of all 2p coil groups and a moderate coil

pitch q are assumed as well as a symmetrical three phase
current system. lFe denotes the iron core lenght of the machine
and p the number of pole pairs.
The first considered version of a very high voltage winding consists of eight cables per layer with an outer diameter of do 45 mm. The conductive cross-section is a circle
with 2r 23 mm. The cables exactly fit in the slot width, but in
the vertical direction an additional distance between two cables
in neighbourhood of 5 mm is provided. The gap height above
the uppermost cable in the slot is hG 30 mm. So, the measures
according to Fig. 1 are

0 
&




&
 
&
 0 
&

which result in a total slot height of
h
 h
N  1  a h

22 5
16  1  52 5 mm  825 mm



The analytical determination of the inductances of upper and
h0
a
w
h1

do 2 22 5 mm
do 5 mm 50 mm
do 45 mm
hG do 2 52 5 mm

lower layer per unit lenght via the contributions of flux linkage
according to the imaging method described above yields:

Llow

1 004

&   0  2890 mH
& M  0  4066 mH
m
m 

mH
Lup
m

The complete 2pole winding under consideration lies in Z1 36

slots and has got q 6 coils per coil group with a coil pitch of
3. The iron lenght of the machine is lFe 3 022 m. So the
total slot leakage inductance according to (16) becomes:

LS

69 00 mH

The influence of the diameter of the conducting area for this

multi-turn winding is as low as for the test example above. Setting r w 2 22 5 mm results in LS 68 92 mH and reducing
r to 0 05 mm increases LS only to 69 63 mH, i.e. by ca. 1 %.
If the slot leakage inductance is calculated by the conventional formula for rectangular conductive cross-sections according to [3], only a negligible deviation occurs. The dimensionless
slot leakage permeance results from

 0 

 k  3ws k  hw 
1

29 795
32 3 45

 

  5  920 &

7 30
8 45

where s is the total height of upper and lower layer. Here, the
distance between the slot ground and the upper surface of the
uppermost cable in the slot including insulation has been put in.
k1 and k2 are correcting factors, which can be taken from [3].
They take into account the influence of partial mutual inductive
effects between upper and lower layer caused by the coil pitch.
The slot leakage inductance is then given by:

      ' 3 022 H  69 06 mH
       


A second investigated machine and winding design is based
on a double iron lenght l  6 044 m and only contains four
 slot. The additional vertical
cables per layer, i.e. eight cables per
LS

2 p q S N 2 0 lFe
2 6 5 920 256 4 10

Fe

distance between the cable surfaces is omitted. Slot width w and

leakage gap height hG remain the same, but the total slot height
decreases to hS
8 45 30 mm 390 mm.
The following values for the inductances per unit lenght result
from the analytical imaging approach:


 

Llow

&   40  87 Hm & M  53  62 Hm 

H
Lup
m

121 30

The total slot leakage inductance becomes

LS

17 60 mH

This is about four times less than in the former case because of
the number of windings being halved. The influence of the double iron length is approximately compensated by the slot height
being nearly a half of its former value.
The evaluation of the formulae from [3] only negligibly deviates from the exact analytical result.
S

LS

29 360
32 3 45

 

  3 0 &

7 30
8 45

     '
       

2 p q S N 2 0 lFe
2 6 3 0 64 4 10 7 6 044 H

V. N UMERICAL C ALCULATION OF E DDY C URRENT L OSSES

AND S LOT L EAKAGE I NDUCTANCES OF M ULTI -T URN
V ERY H IGH VOLTAGE W INDINGS
As pointed out in the introduction eddy current losses might
play an important role in the design of a multi-turn winding,
if usual high voltage cables for power transmission are applied
instead of conductors made of stranded and insulated filaments.
In the following, results of an FEM analysis of this problem
for the winding geometries described above are presented and
compared to simple analytical approximations.
As a simplification isotropy of the conductivity of the material is assumed. So the conducting parts of the cables
are considered massive bars. As for a two-dimensional analysis in a rectangular coordinate system the vector potential and
the current density have only got z-components and thus the
magnetic flux density has x- and y-components.
The FEM program EMAS [8] has been used for the numerical
analysis of the eddy current phenomena. The model is formed
according to descriptions in [9]. It mainly consists of a base
plane of two-dimensional elements accounting for the magnetic
properties of the arrangement. In order to take into account voltage drops in z-direction the base model is extended by threedimensional hexahedral elements placed perpendicularly on the
base plane. These elements represent the electrical properties
of the conductors. Since current is assumed only to flow in zdirection, conductivity is set to be unisotropic with only the z zcomponent different from zero. The magnetic vector potentials
of front and back end surfaces are set to be equal, as no change
of the magnetic field occurs in the axial direction. In order not
to perturb the reluctance matrix of the two-dimensional base
model, permeability in the conductors is set to a nearly infinite
value, e.g. 1015. The front and back end cross-sectional surfaces of the conducting bars are considered equipotential, hence
allowing an ideal closing of eddy current loops. All nodes on
such a surface are coupled to one common reference node, the
unknown electric potential of which is prescribed as the potential of every node belonging to the cross-section. The series connection of the bars of one layer is also provided by appropriate
boundary condititons of the electric potentials of the back end
surface of one conductor and front end surface of the following
conductor.
Slots with different excitations have to be considered due to
the coil pitch. There are slots with upper and lower layer belonging to the same phase and slots with upper and lower layer
excited by subsequent phase currents in opposite directions resulting in a 60 phase shift of excitation.
In the calculation an effective conductivity of the conductor
material of 39 73 106 S m is assumed. This value results from
the resistance of the cable of 62 m m and the cross-sectional
area of 406 mm2 in the numerical model, which is slightly less
than the exact circular area of 11 5 mm 2 415 5 mm2 because of the discretisation.
With an effective current of 1 kA the power loss in the dc-case
becomes 1498 W, i.e. 187 3 W per each conductor in the slot
with 8-turn layers and 374 6 W in the slot with 4-turn layers.
Table I shows the power losses for a frequency of 50 Hz and
different cases of excitation. The comparison between case No.
1 and case No. 2 clearly points out the influence of eddy current

&

 

17 50 mH

 

induction on the total power loss. In the former the transversal

field excited by the lower layer induces eddy currents in the upper nonexcited layer. These increase the total losses by about a
factor of 3.8 compared to the later case, where the upper layer
is excited and the lower layer is not exposed to transversal magnetic fields.
The total losses of the windings under consideration are obtained by adding the loss contributions of the different cases of
excitation occurring in the winding. In both versions of windings with q 6 and 3 the same number of slots of case No.
3 and case No. 4 or No. 5, resp., are given. So the average loss
per slot is just the arithmetical average value of these two cases,
which has to be multiplied by the number of slots Z1 36.
In all cases and for both versions of windings a damage of
the cable and its insulation by overheat cannot be excluded in
particular for the upper conductors in the slot.
The plausibility of the numerical results can be checked analytically for case No. 2 and No. 3. In [6] for the increase of
resistance of the p-th conductor counted from the slot ground
in a slot containing rectangular conductors the following set of
equations can be found:

 p 
p  1 
x &
sinh2x sin2x
sinh x

x 
x

x 3 2x
&
cosh2x  cos2x
cosh x 
w
x 
h  h

-4 w    f 


Rac
Rdc

&

sinx
cosx

whole arrangement can be derived from (17):

l o

t
=

h S

I
u

s t

r d

t h

t h

p
u

I
p

- j

k
j

a c

l
F

=
e

S
m

l o

t
=

h S

P
=

R
=

a c

a c

. 8

. 3

. 6

. 9

. 9

. 8

. 6

a c

. 9

l
F

=
e




P
=

. 6

. 9

. 9

. 8

. 9

a )

=
=

h
)

8
3

. 0

,
k

,
k

m
m

,
k
m

N
4

=
R

m
. 0

2
1

. 4

1
2

. 4

=
=

c )

a c

a s e

(18)

TABLE II
A NALYTICALLY A PPROXIMATED FACTORS OF R ESISTANCE I NCREASE
D EPENDING ON T OTAL N UMBER OF E QUALLY E XCITED S LOT
C ONDUCTORS .

R
=

a c

p 1

Table II lists the results for the factor of increase of resistance

and power loss resulting from (17) and (18). A comparison with
Table I shows that best agreement is achieved for case b), in
which the width of the rectangular cross-section equals the diameter of the originally circular one.

. 3

/ 4
3

/ 8
8

o w
l o w

ac p

dc 1

Different choices for a rectangular approximation of the circular conductive cross-section appear to be possible. However, the
area must be invariant for a common dc-reference. In the following, three cases are considered more closely:
Square cross-section with
Case a):
hC wC 20 4 mm.
Flat rectangular cross-section with
Case b):
wC 2r 23 mm and hC 18 06 mm.
Upright
rectangular cross-section with
Case c):
hC 2r 23 mm and wC 18 06 mm.

b
a s e

Rac tot I 2
N Rdc 1 I 2

TABLE I
R ESULTS FROM FEM E DDY C URRENT C ALCULATION FOR D IFFERENT
C ASES OF E XCITATION .
C

p 1

hC denotes the height of one conductor, wC its width and C its

conductivity. wS is the width of the slot.
For a series connection of N equal rectangular bars in a slot
the following factor of increase for the ohmic resistance of the

Pac
Pdc

(17)

5   1 R 5
 5  NR 5  6
 N1  6

x p 
p  1 
x(

x 13 # N  1$
x


kR

. 5

. 8

. 3

=
R

k
1

k
R

. 2

N
8

. 3

. 6

k
6

=
R

k
3

k
R

. 1

. 4

. 8

Since the uppermost conductor of the upper layer is exposed

to the highest transversal magnetic field strenght, the maximum
contribution to the total eddy current power loss is induced in
it. These contributions are listed in Table III for both slot versions as resulting from the numerical analysis and the analytical
approximation according to case b).
In Fig. 8 to 10 exemplary distributions of current density resulting from the FEM analysis of slot 4/4 are shown.
In Fig. 8 the lower layer is excited referring to case No. 1.
The transversal magnetic field induces eddy currents in the four
conductors above the excited layer. The eddy current density
distribution is the same for every nonexcited conductor, since

TABLE III
P OWER L OSS C ONTRIBUTION AND FACTOR OF R ESISTANCE I NCREASE OF
U PPERMOST S LOT C ONDUCTOR .

c i t a t i o

r d

s l o

c a s e ,
t

c o

S
k

c t o

i n

e v

e r y

l o
h
( p

4
3

a n

a l y
C

t i c a l ,

1
2

. 0

c a s e
m

b
,

,
0

l
F

=
e

t h

s l o

l o
h

c o

a a cc , , 8 8

/ 4

=
S

c t o

r )

( p

/ 8

=
S

R R , 8, 8

2
6

,
l

t h

=
e

s l o

c o

aa cc , , 1 1 6 6

m
c t o

R R , 1, 16

r )

)
1

. 6

. 9

9
2

. 1

. 0

e r i c a l

. 1

. 4

. 2

. 0

the mere exciting magnetic field (without eddy current reaction)

above the lower layer does not vary with the height coordinate
y in the slot. The inhomogenity of the current distribution in
the excited conductors increases from conductor No. 1 at the
slot ground to conductor No. 4, but appears to be not as strong
as for the nonexcited conductors due to the dominating exciting
current.

7 89

Fig. 9. Distribution of eddy current density from FEM calculation referring to

case No. 2: Upper layer excited by 1 kA ej0 Slot with four cables per layer,
hS 390 mm

ductor which is about 3.5 times the average value.

7 89

Fig. 10. Distribution of eddy current density from FEM calculation referring to
case No. 3: Both layers excited by 1 kA ej0 Slot with four cables per layer,
hS 390 mm

7 8(9

Fig. 8. Distribution of eddy current density from FEM calculation referring to

case No. 1: Lower layer excited by 1 kA ej0 Slot with four cables per layer,
hS 390 mm

In Fig. 9 the upper layer is excited as for case No. 2, so

field strenght and current density in the four conductors below is
zero. Obviously, the current distribution on the cross-section of
the uppermost conductor is maximally inhomogeneous, whereas
the lowest excited conductor leads a nearly homogeneously distributed current like in Fig. 8.
Fig. 10 refers to case No. 3, in which all conductors are excited by the same phase current. In this case the inhomogenity
of the current density distribution continuously rises for all conductors from the slot ground to the opening and the maximum
current density of all three cases occurs in the uppermost con-

In Table IV and Table V the calculated complex voltage drops

at the upper and lower layer are listed for the sole excitation of
each layer, i.e. case No. 1 and case No. 2. From the real voltage
components of the excited layer the electric power consumed by
the arrangements can be calculated with good agreement to the
results obtained from evalution of the ohmic eddy current losses
by numerically integrating the loss density J 2 as listed in Table I. Note that in both cases the iron core length of the FEM
model is lFe 3 022 m, which implies a factor of 2 for the comparison of slot 4/4. In Table I this has already been taken into
account, but not in Table V. From the imaginary components
of the voltages the inductances per unit length can be calculated
and compared to the values above. For quasi-dc excitation with
10 6 Hz and 1 Hz the values agree to those analytically determined within an accuracy of about 0 1 %. Due to the skin effect
a frequency dependency of the inductances occurs. But it is not

'

TABLE IV
C OMPLEX V OLTAGES OF U PPER AND L OWER L AYER FROM FEM
C ALCULATION FOR S LOT 8/8 IN C ASE OF E XCITATION WITH M ERELY
R EAL C URRENT 1 K A IN L OWER (1 ST C ASE ) OR U PPER (2 ND C ASE ).

Case

f Hz
10 '

Uup V

1 229 10

'

 10'
j 7 720
 
12 28 10 '

j  7 720
0 3067
j 38 59

26 75 
j  375 86
 
1 498
j 5 487 10'
 
1 507
j 5 487

1 702
j 27 425

19 30 
j  267 58
 

Ulow V

1 498

14

1.0
1st
5.0
50.0
10

'

1.0
2nd
5.0
50.0

 j 1 906 10'
 
1 531
 j 19 06

2 316 
 j 95 273

72 81 
j 925 97
 
1 229 10 '
 10'
 j 7 720
 
12 28 10 '

j 7 720
 
0 3067
 j 38 590

26 75 
j 375 86
 

0 9753

1st
5.0
50.0

14

'

10

Uup V

1 535 10

'
 10'
 j 1 018
 
1 535 10 '

j 1 018
 
0 03833
j 5 089
 
3 3453
j 49 636
 
0 7492
j 7 761 10'
  
0 7502
j 0 7761
 
0 7745
j 3 880
 
2 9621
j 37 972
 

10

'

mH
M   0 3959
&   0  2818 mH
&
m
 m 

&   40  00 Hm & M  52  28 Hm 

H
Lup
m

VI. C ONCLUSIONS
The calculation of the slot leakage inductance of multi-turn
stator windings for very high voltage synchronous generators
has been discussed. An analytical calculation scheme based on
imaging procedures has been derived and confirmed by numerical finite element calculations. Although the conductive crosssections in the windings under consideration are neither rectangular nor covering a great part of the slot cross-section, the conventional calculation method for slots with rectangular, slot filling conductors yields satisfactory results in all practical cases.
Severe discrepancies between the results of the different calculation methods have not be observed.
Additionally the eddy current losses of such windings have
been investigated by numerical calculations. The plausibility
of the results has been confirmed by analytical estimations for
comparable arrangements of rectangular slot conductors. For

1.0
2nd
5.0
50.0

Ulow V

0 7492

15

mH
Lup
m

117 75

f Hz

1.0

For the slot with four conductors per layer the values are as follows:
Llow

Case

very strong as can be seen from the values of the inductances for
50 Hz, which are only about 3 % less than the dc values. For the
slot with eight conductors per layer the inductances become:
Llow

TABLE V
C OMPLEX V OLTAGES OF U PPER AND L OWER L AYER FROM FEM
C ALCULATION FOR S LOT 4/4 IN C ASE OF E XCITATION WITH M ERELY
R EAL C URRENT 1 K A IN L OWER (1 ST C ASE ) OR U PPER (2 ND C ASE ).
L ENGHT OF MODEL HERE : 3 022 m

 j 2 303 10'
  
0 7533
 j 2 303
 
0 8512
 j 11 51

9 657 
 j 111 79
 
1 535 10 '
 10'
 j 1 018
 
1 535 10 '

 j 1 018
 
0 03833
 j 5 089
 
3 3453
 j 49 636
 

15

a simple analytical estimation of the eddy current losses, the

circular conductive cross-section appears to be best replacable
by a flat rectangular cross-section with same area and width.
The practical conclusion drawn from the high values of eddy
current losses is that without additional measures concerning
the transversal insulation and twisting of single filaments within
the conductive area a very high voltage winding cannot be
constructed. Accordingly conventional high voltage cables for
power transmission appear to be unusable for multi-turn generator windings. The main reason for high eddy current losses in a
conductor is the transversal magnetic field excited by conductors
positioned below the conductor under consideration, whereas in
normal power transmitting operation the cable is only exposed
to its own circular magnetic field.
R EFERENCES
[1] F. Owman, T. Sorqvist, A. Emlinger, Ohne Transformator direkt ins Netz,
Elektrizitatswirtschaft, Jg. 98 (1999), Heft 4.
[2] G. Muller, Grundlagen elektrischer Maschinen, VCH Verlagsgesellschaft
mbH, Weinheim, 1994.
[3] W. Nurnberg, Die Asynchronmaschine, 2. Auflage, Springer-Verlag, 1963.
[4] L. V. Bewley, Two-Dimensional Fields in Electrical Engineering, Dover
Publications Inc., New York, 1963.
[5] W. R. Smythe, Static and Dynamic Electricity, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1968.
[6] K. Kupfmuller, Einfuhrung in die theoretische Elektrotechnik, 13., verbesserte Auflage, Springer-Verlag, 1990.
[7] A. von Weiss, Die elektromagnetischen Felder, Vieweg-Verlag, 1983.
[8] J. R. Brauer, B. S. Brown, EMAS, Users Manual - Version 4, Ansoft
Corporation, 1997.
[9] J. R. Brauer, EMAS, Application Manual - Version 4, Ansoft Corporation,
1997.