SYNCHRONOUS MACHINE

construction
A loop rotating in a magnetic field produces an alternating e.m.f. which can feed current to an
external circuit by means of slip-rings. To produce very high voltages in this way would require a large
number of turns and it would also be necessary to have considerable insulation for this voltage. If
heavy currents were to be fed from the machine also, then conductors of a large cross-section would
be required. These large coils and the iron core on which they would be mounted would become
unwieldly, creating serious problems when run at high speeds. Collecting such currents at these high
voltages would also create difficulties. Thus, for an a.C. generator.it is essential, in order to overcome
these difficulties, to have the armature coils stationary where weight and size are of no great
consequence, and have the magnetic field rotating. By using this method of construction, it is possible
to have conductors of large cross-section with adequate insulation for the large currents and high
voltages demanded by the modern supply system. The slip-rings are also eliminated in the armature
circuit and heavy bolted connections can be made. Thus, the armature Of almost all a.c. synchronous
generators, except the very smallest, is the outer fixed winding and is called the stator. The field,
which requires only a small amount of power supplied by d.c. through slip-rings, is the rotating part
and is called the rotor.

The rotor
The rotor provides the field and its coils are supplied by d.c. slip-rings. A small d.c. generator is usually
coupled to rotor shaft to provide this supply, and is known as an exciter. There are two types of rotor
construction. Low-speed machines generally employ salient-pole type, and high-speed rotors are of
cylindrical- or round-rotor type.
The salient-pole rotor consists of outward projecting poles, each pole wound with a concentrated
field winding. For low-speed machines of up to about 125 rev/min, the rotor is of large diameter with
the poles attached to the rim of a spider wheel. For speeds up to 500 rev/min, the poles may be fixed
by tuds to a magnet wheel.When the generator is engine-driven, this magnet wheel acts like a
flywheel to give smooth running.
At high speeds a synchronous machine uses a cylindrical rotor.

The rotor has concentrated windings which produce fixed rotor poles. The stator has a three-phase
distributed winding and, when the machine operates as a motor, this will be connected to a three-
phase supply. This produces a rotating magnetic field in which there are no physical poles but the
magnetic flux will rotate round the stator at synchronous speed. Consider this stator field rotating
clockwise and its effect upon the salient poles of the rotor. The letters N and S on the stator indicate
the position of the rotating stator poles at one particular instant. If the rotor is stationary. The stator
field will be rotating at synchronous speed, therefore each rotor pole will be subject to both an
attractive force and a repelling force every cycle of the supply frequency as it is passed by two stator
poles of opposite polarities. The inertia of the rotor will not allow it to move in either direction;
therefore when the rotor is stationary the resultant torque is zero. Thus, the synchronous motor is
not self-starting. If the rotor is made to rotate at or near the same speed as the stator field, that is,
synchronous speed, then stator and rotor poles of opposite polarity will 'lock' together, producing a
torque which will cause the rotor to continue rotating at synchronous speed. If the rotor slows down it
will fall out of step, I.e., out of synchronism, with the stator, the torque will be reduced to zero. and
the rotor will stop. The synchronous motor can run only at synchronous speed.
The relationship between number of poles, speed, and frequency is the same as that for the generator