Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction
Kato Engineering primarily manufactures synchronous 3 phase electrical generators. The ability to predict
the subtransient reactance of a particular generator design is of prime importance. Power system designers
routinely use the generator subtransient reactance as a key parameter to aid in the design of the complete
electrical power generation system.
The subtransient reactance, Xd, is the generator internal impedance element that is effective in the first
cycles of a transient load event and determines the magnitude of the instantaneous fault current from the
generator. The transient reactance, Xd, becomes effective after approximately 6 cycles into a transient
load event and determines the amount of voltage change seen at the generator terminals due to the step
change in load. As stated, the reactances of a generator have a direct effect on the transient fault currents
experienced in an electrical power generation system, as well as the motor starting capability of the
generator. The magnitudes of the fault currents need to be calculated so that breakers, etc. can be sized
accordingly. The peak magnitudes of the 3 phase fault currents are inversely proportional to the
subtransient reactance of the generator. For new generator designs, the transient and subtransient
reactances are routinely tested for as part of a thorough evaluation of the generators performance
characteristics.
Traditional reactance prediction methods have served engineers well when new designs closely mimic
previous designs which have been tested and their reactance predictions validated. From the perspective of
the machine designer, an uncomfortable level of uncertainty always accompanied a new design that
deviated significantly from standard form. In this paper, a method is presented to calculate the transient
and subtransient reactance of a generator using transient dynamic circuit-coupled finite element
electromagnetic analyses. Finite Element electromagnetic analysis offers a powerful tool to reduce the risk
in new generator design.
A series of Finite Element (FE) electromagnetic simulations were performed in order to generate the
following simulation data:
The open-circuit saturation curve and voltage signal harmonics were obtained from the magnetostatic
model and the reactance calculations were based upon results from a transient circuit-coupled model with a
moving interface at the rotor-stator air gap. The voltage signal harmonics were also calculated with the
transient circuit-coupled model, for comparison. The transient circuit-coupled finite element modeling
technique presented utilizes odd periodic symmetry along with a moving interface at the rotor-stator air
gap. The use of odd periodic symmetry allows for the simulations to be accomplished with half of the
model size as compared to even periodic symmetry.
The particular generator design used for these analyses is a Kato Engineering, salient pole, 3 phase, 60 Hz,
13.8 kV synchronous generator. The generator rotor is a 4-pole rotor with a normal operating speed of
1800 RPM. The generator is rated for 4.5 MW of output power at 0.8 Power Factor with a temperature rise
of 95C at an ambient temperature of 50C. The generator is approximately 7 ft wide by 10 ft tall by 11 ft
long. Figure 1 shows a view of the generator assembly. One of the reasons this design was chosen for
analysis was the fact there is a plethora of good test data in existence for this design.
Model Information
For all of the simulations performed, the portion of the generator assembly modeled is commonly referred
to as the active region of the generator rotor and stator. The active region is comprised of the generator
rotor and stator stacks along with their respective windings. The models are all 2D models with periodic
symmetry. The model covers 1 pole of a 4 pole generator (i.e. 90 degrees). The rotor shaft is included in
the rotor portion of the model, and the stator portion of the model is bounded by the outer diameter of the
laminated stator stack. Figure 2 shows a view of the 2D geometry which was utilized for all of the
simulations. The geometry was created in Pro/Engineer and transferred to ANSYS via an IGES file
transfer. The simulated length of the model was 33.5 inches. This is representative of the stack lengths
for the rotor and stator.
Elements
Three basic element types were used in the models. The table below shows the element types that were
used and a general description of where they were used in the models
Table 1. Element Type Tabular Listing
ANSYS Element Type
Where Used
PLANE53
CIRCU124
MESH200
The same element mesh was used for the magnetostatic model and the circuit-coupled models. The mesh
contained 9,636 elements and 29,564 nodes (excluding the circuit elements and nodes). Figure 4 shows a
view of the element mesh (excluding the circuit elements). The mesh is not connected at a boundary arc
between the rotor and stator elements. The boundary arc resides at the middle of the air-gap between the
rotor and stator.
Material Properties
For all of the simulations there were 3 unique magnetic materials, each with their own B-H curve. Figure 5
shows the B-H curves for the magnetic materials listed below:
R=
L turns FF
area
The circuit-coupled solid conductor elements, which represent the damper bars of the generator rotor, used
the cold resistivity of copper in the solid conductor element specification.
Slot leakage flux The flux in the stator that does not completely encompass the stator slot by
crossing the stator slot. Flux leakage increases with narrower slot and deeper slot.
Zig zag leakage flux The flux that zigzags across the air gap from tooth to tooth and never
links the stator winding. Flux leakage increases with smaller air gap and wider teeth with respect
to the slot pitch.
End-connection leakage flux The stator flux that is generated in air surrounding the stator end
windings. Flux increases with the axial length of the coils with respect to the stack length.
All but the end-connection leakage flux are accounted for in the Finite Element model. For this reason, the
leakage inductors are added to each phase of the output voltage circuit in order to account for the armature
end-connection leakage reactance. The inductance value used for the leakage inductors is based on a
fraction of the total calculated armature leakage reactance. Inductance (L) and reactance (X) are related by
the formula for inductive reactance, as shown below [2]:
L=
Kato Engineerings in-house design programs calculate the total armature leakage reactance based on the
input design parameters of the generator.
For the 3 phase short-circuit simulation the short-circuit fault is simulated by applying a zero voltage DOF
constraint at the output terminals on the coupled circuit. The output terminal nodes correspond to the nodes
on the right hand side of the inductor elements.
For the magnetostatic model, the rotor and stator meshes are connected by the use of the CEINTF
command. The CEINTF command effectively couples the Az DOF between the rotor and stator regions in
the static model.
For the dynamic models, the rotor/stator moving interface is dealt with via the use of a macro titled
ODDSLIDE. The macro was written by the author, and is similar in functionality to the SLIDE macro
which is not documented, but supported to an extent by ANSYS. The SLIDE macro does not support
odd-periodic symmetry and can only be used for even-periodic symmetry models. The ODDSLIDE
macro allows for the use of odd-periodic symmetry (i.e. the model size) and is discussed in further detail
in the next section.
For all but one of the transient dynamic models a time step increment of 750 microseconds was used for the
simulations. This equates to an angular step of 8.1 degrees for the 1800 RPM machine, and a sampling
frequency of 1.33 kHz. The time stepping used was a compromise between solution fidelity and solution
run time. The period of oscillation for the output voltage and current of the machine is approximately 16.7
milliseconds (i.e. 60 Hz). Therefore, the time stepping used results in roughly 22 solutions per period of
oscillation. Another iteration of the transient dynamic model was performed with a time step increment of
130.2 microseconds (i.e. 7.68 kHz sampling frequency) in order to verify the open-circuit voltage signal
harmonics which were calculated via the magnetostatic model. The generator voltage harmonics test data
is available out to the 39th harmonic which has a frequency of 2.34 kHz.
Enter /prep7
Call the oddslide macro with the new absolute rotor position
Enter /solu
Solve
The basic loop shown above was repeated for each time step increment. For the short-circuit simulation the
output side of the inductor nodes (on the coupled circuit) were grounded at a particular time in the
simulation loop. The grounding was accomplished by constraining the node voltage DOF to zero. The
simulation loop was then continued with the grounded output terminals (i.e. 3 phase short-circuit).
oddslide Macro
The primary function of the oddslide macro was to provide connectivity between the rotor and stator
meshes at the air-gap line, given a displaced position of the rotor. The rotor and stator mesh densities need
not be identical at the interface. The dissimilar meshes are handled with the CEINTF command within the
oddslide macro. Since only a single polarity of the rotor poles is included in the FE mesh, the macro must
consider the absolute location of the displaced rotor in order to determine whether a positive or negative
rotor pole is residing beneath the stationary portion of the FE mesh. In its simplest form, if a positive
pole is residing beneath the stator mesh the mesh coupling can be described as Az = Az or even coupling.
If a negative pole is residing beneath the stator mesh the mesh coupling can be described as Az = -Az or
odd coupling. This latter type of odd coupling essentially reverses the polarity of the rotor pole as seen
by the stator mesh. Figure 6 shows a very simplified flowchart of the process used in the oddslide macro.
f output frequency
(AZ.2 - AZ.1) difference in air-gap magnetic vector potential (per unit length) at adjacent
quadrature axes
The output frequency, winding distribution factor, pitch factor, turns per phase, and generator stack length
are all parameters which come from the Kato Engineering in-house spreadsheet design program for a given
electrical machine design. The difference in air-gap magnetic vector potential at adjacent quadrature axes
comes from the FE model results.
The predicted field current required to produce rated voltage in the generator was 65.9 amps from the
magnetostatic simulation. The actual field current required to produce rated voltage in the generator during
Factory Acceptance Tests (FAT) was 66.2 amps. The percent error of the simulation prediction was 0.45%. The predicted open-circuit field currents from the Kato Engineering in-house spreadsheet design
programs were 61.4 amps and 78.6 amps. The former prediction comes from our design program which is
used on most new R&D projects and the latter prediction comes from our more standard design program
which employs test data correction after a design is built and tested. The R&D spreadsheet program is
generally more accurate for out of the box predictions of this type.
calculating the reactance values in order to reduce the time required to calculate the values based upon the
short-circuit phase current trace data. The automated process was set-up and performed with the software
program Mathcad. Figure 12 shows the phase current trace data from the short-circuit simulation.
Conclusions
The open-circuit saturation curve predicted from the magnetostatic simulation correlates extremely well
with the open-circuit saturation curve developed from the generator Factory Acceptance Tests. The
predicted field current required to produce rated open-circuit voltage was within 0.5% of the actual tested
field current requirement. The model does an excellent job of predicting the saturation characteristics of
the machine and this capability has proven to be extremely useful. The heating in the field coil winding is
proportional to the square of the current flowing in the winding, and the ability to accurately predict the
current requirements has a big impact on the ability to predict the heat generation in the field coil windings,
among other things. Our in-house spreadsheet design programs generally do a good job of predicting the
linear behavior of the saturation curve (i.e. the air-gap line), but they tend to struggle with the actual
saturation characteristics as well as the effects of the air vents in the stator stack. The excellent correlation
of the FE model saturation curve essentially validates the magnetic material properties used for the
analyses.
The magnetostatic model and transient circuit-coupled model both do a good job of predicting the voltage
signal harmonics for the generator. In this case, the predictions from the magnetostatic model were the
most accurate. The peak individual harmonic prediction from the magnetostatic model was within 5.3% of
the measured peak individual harmonic from the generator Factory Acceptance Tests. The Total Harmonic
Distortion prediction from the magnetostatic model was within 0.3% of the measured Total Harmonic
Distortion. The R&D in-house spreadsheet design program also does a reasonably good job of predicting
the voltage signal harmonics. The spreadsheet predictions were within 17.6% and 6.8% for the peak
individual harmonic and Total Harmonic Distortion, respectively. Note that the simulations show a higher
harmonic distortion content near the 30th harmonic than what is found in the test data. For this generator
design, the slot passing frequency for the rotor is 1.8 kHz. The 30th harmonic has a frequency of 1.8 kHz.
The simulation voltage signal has a 1.8 kHz ripple due to the rotor passing the stator slots. This is typically
reduced in reality by using a slot skew on the stator stack. This particular design has a 1 slot skew and the
skew results in lesser measured distortion near the 30th harmonic.
The transient circuit-coupled simulation provides a powerful tool for predicting the transient and
subtransient reactances of the generator. The subtransient reactance prediction was within 5.5% of the
measured value from the generator Factory Acceptance Tests. The transient reactance prediction was
within 10.7% of the measured value. The reactance calculations themselves are a bit nebulous due to the
nature of how the calculations are carried out. Typically, Kato Engineering guarantees the measured
reactance values within +/-20% of the predicted reactance values. The importance of the ability to predict
the reactance values can be brought to light by considering the history of this particular generator design.
The guaranteed subtransient reactance for this generator design was 9.3% to 12.6% (+/-15% of the standard
spreadsheet design program prediction). This particular customer specification had a slightly narrower
tolerance band for the allowable subtransient reactance (i.e. +/-15%). The measured subtransient reactance
was 9.1% and we had to request a specification deviation from the customer in order to deliver the
generator. Had we been able to use the Finite Element simulation tools presented herein for predicting the
subtransient reactance we would have put forth a guaranteed range of 7.3% to 9.9%, and the measured
subtransient reactance would have been well within the limits of our customer driven specification.
References
1.
John H. Kuhlmann, Design of Electrical Apparatus, 3rd ed., John Wiley and Sons, New York,
1950.
2.
James W. Nillson, Electric Circuits, 4th ed., Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1993.