ALTERNATOR

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 Armature & Field windings

• Conductors placed on a rotating armature were suitable

for DC and smaller low voltage AC generation. But AC
generation at high capacity and high voltages
necessitated use of static conductors.
• In AC generators or Alternators, the windings in which
EMF is induced are stationary and placed in the Stator
• The field windings are placed in the rotor and fed with
DC voltage.
• EMF is induced in the stator windings due to the relative
motion between the stator windings and the rotor field
which is driven by the prime mover

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 Types of Rotors

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 Frequency of induced EMF

• The EMF induced in a armature conductor goes

through one complete cycle in an angular
distance equal to twice the pole pitch.

• No. of cycles per revolution

= p/2 , where p = No. of poles.
• If N =R.P.M., N/60 = rev. per
second,
• Frequency in cycles per sec (f) = p/2 x N/60
=Np/120

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 Concentrated & Distributed windings

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 “Breadth” or “Distribution” Factor

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 “Full” & “Partial” Pitched coils

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 “Coil Span” or “Pitch” Factor

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 EMF Equation

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 AC Single Phase Generator

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 “Single Phase” & “3-Phase”
Generation

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 Waveforms of EMF in
Poly phase Generation

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 Relationship between “Phase”& “Line”
voltages and currents in 3-Ph alternators

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 Excitation of Alternators

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 “Brushless” Excitation of
Alternators

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 SCR Control as used in AVRs

I DC I DC
A _
K

MAIN FIELD
+

V AC
GATE CONTROL
+ G CIRCUIT

SET INP UT
1. DIODES WITH TWO TERMINALS ANODE & CATH ODE
ARE USED FOR NORMAL RECTIFICATION.
VAC
2. A TH YRISTOR WILL CONDUCT WH EN TH E
ANODE IS POSITIVE W.R.T CATH ODE AND A
BRIEF POSITIVE TRIGGER PULSE IS
APPLIED TO TH E GATE
3. BY CONTROLLING TH E TIMING OF GATE PULSE,
DURATION OF CONDUCTION AND TH ERBY TH E
OUTPUT DC CURRENT CAN BE CONTROLLED
I DC
SH ADED PORTION INDICATES
DURATION OF CONDUCTION.
4. DC OUTPUT WILL BE PULSATING AND TH E
CAPACITOR AND CH OKE WILL SMOOTH EN
TH E DC CURRENT AND VOLTAGE RESPECTIVELY
1 2 3

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 AVR – Bock Diagram

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 Settings in AVR

• Ramp Potentiometer – To set the time taken for initial build up of

the alternator voltage to its rated value ( 1-3 Secs)
• Droop setting – To enable proper sharing of KVAr load during
paralleling alternators.
• Under Frequency Roll Off – To give an indication when the
frequency falls below a set value ( 57 Hz for a 60 Hz alternator)
• Dip Setting – To adjust the Volt/Speed characteristic
• Dwell setting – Provides a time delay between the recovery of
voltage and recovery of frequency
• All the above settings are set during the initial commissioning
and are not to be meddled with indiscriminately

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 AVR Settings -1

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 AVR Settings - 2

• Ramp Potentiometer
enables adjustment of the time taken for the generator’s initial build-
up to its rated (normal) voltage during each start and run-up to its
rated speed. Ramp setting ranges from 1-8 secs usually pre-set for
3 secs.
• Droop Setting
The comon method of kVAr sharing is to create a generator voltage
characteristic which falls with a decreasing PF(increasing kVAr).

A current transformer in the Blue Phase provides a signal that is

dependant upon the current’s phase angle to the AVR. The CT has
a burden resistor and the percentage of the resistor’s voltage(Droop
Setting) is added to into the AVRs Circuit.

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 Protection in AVR- Excitation Trip

• An AVR supplied by PMG inherently delivers maximum

excitation power during “Line-Line” or “Line-Ground”
short circuits since output voltage drops down
drastically during above faults.
• To protect the windings from such over-excitation, an
excitation trip acts after a pre-determined delay to cut
off such over-excitation.
• The trip setting should be such that it does not operate
when the generator is on full load or when a small
overload occurs.

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 Protections in AVR
Overload Protection
• In the event of a loss of Voltage Sensing input
to AVR, the resulting excitation may cause a
Over voltage at the Generator output.
• In such an event, this protection can provide two
signals.
a. “De-excitation” of Generator
b. Open signal to the Generator Breaker
• The setting should be such that it does not
operate under “no load” conditions or during
“load shedding”

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 Types of AC Loads

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 Armature Reaction

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 Alternator Characteristics

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 Synchronous Reactance

• For the same field excitation, terminal voltage is decreased from its
no load value ‘Eo’ to ‘V’ (for a lagging PF) due to
1. drop due to armature resistance “ Ra” ,
2. drop due to Inductive reactance “XL” AND
3. drop due to armature reaction
• The drop in voltage due to armature reaction may be accounted for
by assuming a ‘fictitious” reactance ‘Xa’ in armature winding.
• The leakage reactance XL and the armature reactance ‘Xa’ may be
combined to give ‘Synchronous Reactance’, the word
‘synchronous’ being used merely as an indication that it refers to the
working condition.
• Synchronous impedance is the vector addition of “Ra” and
“(XL + Xa)”

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 Phasor Diagram - Alternator on load

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 Voltage Regulation of an Alternator

• With change in load, there is a change in

terminal voltage of an alternator. The magnitude
of this change depends not only on the load but
also on the load power factor.
• The voltage regulation of an alternator is defined
as “ ratio between the rise in voltage when full
load is thrown off (field excitation and speed
remaining constant) and the terminal voltage”

• %Regulation = Eo-V/V x 100.

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 Shaft Generator

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 Shaft Generator
 Shaft generators are driven directly by the slow moving propeller shaft or gear
connected to main engine.
The frequency of the shaft generator will vary with the engine speed but has

to be regulated so that the SG must feed a constant frequency to the busbar.A

frequency regulator achieves the above object with an AC-DC-AC converter.
The performance of the converter relies upon the PF of the busbar to be near

unity.
Since the load at the busbar is largely inductive, a synchronous motor whose

excitation can be varied and make it take a leading current is added to

maintain a near unity PF and thereby improving the performance of the
converter in the frequency converter.
A combined regulator for voltage and frequency regulator improves the output

of the SG and assures a constant voltage and constant frequency at the

busbars from NO LOAD to FULLLOAD.

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