23 Alternators jroduction A.C. system has a numl ; T of veing exclusively used for pon, i¥antages over g % ch produces 3-phas Beneration, transm which P Phase power fro, Mecha ss eqerator. Alternators are the pri chanical ion of power. The mach Primary sou ower is called an aly manine i" ree ‘ lernator or 5 gachines are the largest &nergy conve of all the electrical ener; ynchronous fry imtO A.C. CNETBY. In thie chapta lets found in the World. They 2 “© consume, These : . They coy siternators. T+ WE shall discuss the construction and once a acteristics of pl. Alternator -—»>—__ 3-PHASE An alternator Operates o, n the same “— i damental Principle of electromagnetic induction asa dic. Senerator i.e. when the one flux linking a conductor changes, an eme, is induced in the conductor. Like a de generator, an alternator also has an arma- ture winding and a field winding. But there is one important difference between the two. In a d.c. generator, the armature wind- ing is placed on the rotor in order to pro- vide a way of converting alternating ROTOR voltage generated in the winding to a direct voltage at the terminals through the use of sotating commutator. The field poles are placed on the stationar 0 commutator is required in an alternator, Place the field winding on the rotating part ary part (i.e., stator). Advantages of stationary armature, The field winding of an alternator is placed on the ‘olor and is connected to d.c. supply through two slip rings. The 3-phase armature winding is placed on the stator. This arrangement has the following advantages : Fig. 23.1 IY part of the machine. Since nvenient and advantageous to t (ie., rotor) and armature winding on the station. it is usually more cor i i i Itages for which the alternators i) is easi insulate stationary winding for high voltage c eel aie Ff ae It is because they are not subjected to centrifugal forces and an oct ” ave is available due to the stationary arrangement of the armature. , i) ‘The ati nery 3ephase armature can be directly connected to load without going le stationat 7 " ‘able slip rings and brushes. thro large, unreliable slip ring: . a i pah)laree: ws s are required for d.c. supply to the field winding on Sead only ae Se ceil is small, the slip rings and brush gear required ar Ince the excitin; ~ Construction. 549iples of Electri sso Principles of Electrical Engineen truction of the rotor, higher speed of rotatin, (iv) Due to simple and robust covsthe output obtainable from a machine is possible. This increases dimensions. oom Note + All altemators shove SKVA employ a stationary armature (or stator) and a revolving de, field. 8 dc Fielg °f given .2. Construction of Alternator 23. 2. , Constru has 3-phase winding on the stator and a d.c. field winding on the roto, 1. Stator. It is the stationary part of the machine and is pesltlep Of sheet-steey liminations having slots on its inner periphery. A 3-phase Se laces these slots ang serves as the armature winding of the alternator. The armature winding is always connecteg in *star and the neutral is connected to **ground. . 2. Rotor. The rotor carries a field winding which is supplied with direct current through two slip rings by a separate d.c. source. This d.c. source (called exciter) is generally a sma, dic, shunt or compound generator mounted on the shaft of the alternator. Rotor construction is of two types, namely ; (Salient (or projecting) pole type (i) Non-salient (or cylindrical) pole type (O Salient pole type. In this type, salient or projecting poles are mounted on a large circular steel frame which is fixed to the shaft of the alternator as shown in Fig. 23.2. The individual field pole windings are connected in series in such a way that when the field winding is energised by the d.c. exciter, adjacent poles have opposite polarities. Low and medium-speed alternators (120-400 t.p.m.) such as ‘those driven by diesel engines or water turbines have salient pole type rotors due to the following reasons : (@ The salient field poles would cause an excessive windage loss if driven at high speed and would tend to produce noise. FIELD WINDING “Yq D.C. SUPPLY (®) Salient-pole construction cannot be made sttong enough to withstand the ne mechanical stresses to which they eS may be subjected at higher speeds. Since a frequency of SOHz is required, we must use a ** large number of poles on tt ‘Dtor of slow-speed alternators. Low-speed rotors always possess a large diameter to prove the necessary space for the poles. Consequently, salient-pole type rotors have large diainete® and short axial lengths, * In star connection, phase voltage Vek = V/V. Since the induced emf. in the phase winding “a alternator is directly proportional to the number of turns “4 number of turns than a deltaconnected altemator for the ve This permits 1 use protective devices (e.g, relays) to p see f=NP/120 wit a star-connected alternator will re4 same line voltage. lls rotect the system in case of groundnator ie 551 {iy Non-salient pole type. In this type, the jor is, made of smooth solid’ forged-steel al cylinder having a number of slots along aout periphery. The field windings are M edded in these slots and are connected in “ies to the slip rings through which they are soergised bY the d.c. exciter. ‘The regions forming the poles are usually left unslotted as shown in Fig. 23.3. It is clear that the poles ed are non-salient i.e., they do not project gut from the rotor surface. High-speed alternators (1500 or 3000 rpm.) are driven by steam turbines and use non-salient type rotors due to the following reasons = (a) This type of construction has mechanical robustness and gives noiseless operation at high speeds. Fig. 233 NON SALIENT POLE Field Winding (b) The flux distribution around: the periphery is nearly a sine wave and, hence @ better e.n.f, waveform is obtained than in the case of salient-pole type. Since steam turbines run at high speed and a frequency of SOHz is required, we need a small number of poles on the rotor of high-speed alternators (also called turboalternators). We tan use no less than 2 poles and this fixes the highest possible speed. For frequency of SOH2, it is 3000 rpm. The next lower speed is 1500 r.p.m. for a 4-pole machine, Consequently, turboalternators possess 2 or 4 poles and have “small diameters and very long axial lengths. 23.3. Alternator Operation The rotor winding is energised from the dic. exciter and alternate N and S poles are developed on the rotor. When the rotor is rotated in anticlockwise direction by a prime mover, the stator or armature conductors’ are cut by the magnetic flux of rotor poles. Consequently, e.m.f. is induced in the armature conductors due to electromagnetic induction. ‘The induced em‘. is alternating since NV and S poles of rotor alternately pass the ‘armature conductors, The direction of induced e.m.f. can be found by Fleming's right hand rule and frequency is given by ; NP. = 20 See Art 23.4 where N = speed of rotor in r.p.m. P = numberof rotor poles 4 The high speed of rotation produces strong centrifugal forces which impose Ilmit 00 th , Procuses erone cen an upper limit on thePrinciples of El i 552 i Ecc! A Ly de, B e° ROTOR. ° STATOR ’ WINDING WINDING a @ i) Fig. 23.4 Fig. 23.4 (i) shows star-connected armature winding and d.c. field winding, When rotor is rotated, a 3-phase voltage is induced in the armature winding. The magnitude of in, duced e.m.f. depends upon the speed of rotation and the d.c. exciting current. The magnitude of e.mf. in each phase of the armature winding is the same. However, they differ in Phase by 120° electrical as shown in the phasor diagram in Fig. 23.4 (i). 23.4. Frequency The frequency of induced e.m-. in the armature conductors depends upon speed and te number of poles. Let N = rotor speed in r.p.m. P = number of rotor poles f= frequency of emf. in Hz Consider a stator conductor that is successively swept by the Nand S poles of the rotor TF positive voltage is induced when a N-pole sweeps actoss the conductor, a similar negathe voltage is induced when a S-pole sweeps by. This means that one complete cycle of emt is generated in the conductor as a pair of poles passes it i.e., one N-pole and the adjacent fo lowing S-pole. The same is true for every other armature conductor, No. of cycles/revolution = No. of pairs of poles = P/2 No. of revolutions/second = N/60 No. of cycles/second = *(P/2) (N/60) = NP/120 But number of cycles of e.m-f. per second is its frequency. NP. TF 109 It may be noted that V is the synchronous speed. For a given alternator, the numb ror Poles is fixed and, therefore, the alternator must be-run at synchronous speed to gi¥@ : , 8 Output of desired frequency. For this reason, an alternator is sometimes called synchrom generator. 23.5. Pitch Factor and Distribution Factor Te - " . ee fe. The armature winding of an alternator is distributed over the entire arma ot distributed winding produces nearly a sine wave form and the heating is more | % No, of cycles/second No. of cycles/revolution x No. of revolutions/second,