936 Chapter 23 m Three-Phase Systems 23.1 Three-Phase Voltage Generation ‘Three-phase generators have three sets of windings and thus produce three ac voltages instead of one. To get at the idea, consider first the elementary single-phase generator of Figure 23-1. As coil AA’ rotates, it produces a sinusoidal waveform ex, as indicated in (b). This voltage can be represented by phasor B,y- as shown inc). a aa oi (a) Basie ae generator (6) Voltage waveform (e) Phasor FIGURE 23-1 A basic single-phase generator If wo more windings are added as in Figure 23-2, two additional volt- ages are generated, Since these windings are identical with AA’ (except for their position on the rotor), they produce identical voltages. However, since coil BB is placed 120° behind coil AA’, voltage egg: lags eqy: by 120°; si larly, coil CC’, which is placed ahead of coil AA’ by 120°, produces voltage cc: that leads by 120°. Waveforms are shown in (b) and phasors in (c). AS indicated, the generated voltages are equal in magnitude and phase displaced 4y, ew enw ce" 0} Vv (a) Basic 3-phase generator (©) Voltage waveforms (©) Phasors FIGURE 23-2. Genera three balanced voltages. 1 three-phase voltages. Thee sets of coils are used to produceSection 23.2 = Basic Three-Phase Circuit Connections 937 by 120°. Thus, if Exy is at 0%, then Egy will be at ~120° and Be.- will be at 120°. Assuming an rms value of 120 V and a reference position of 0° for phasor E,,- for example, yields Eyy = 120 V20°, Ey». = 120 VZ~ 120° and Bec = 120 VZ120°, Such a set of voltages is said to be balanced, Because of this fixed relationship between balanced voltages, you can, if you know ‘one voltage, easily determine the other two. a. If Eqy = 277 V.20", what are By and Bee? pene PROBLEMS 1 B. If Eye = 347 V.Z—120°, what are Byy and Bee? €. IfE ge = 120 V2150°, what are Ex, and Egy? ‘Sketch the phasors for each set. Answers: QIVZ-120% Bye = 277 V2120" SHTVZ0% Ego = S47 VZ120" 120V230%; yy = 120,V2-90" 23.2. Basic Three-Phase Circuit Connections ‘The generator of Figure 23-2 has three independent windings: AA’, BB’, and CC’. As a first thought, you might try connecting loads using six wires as in Figure 23-3(a). This will work, although it is not a scheme that is used in practice. Nonetheless, some useful insights can be gained from it, To illus- irate, assume a voltage of 120 V for each coil and a 12-ohm resistive load. With Ey as reference, Ohm’s law applied to each circuit yields Eq/R = 120V.Z0°N12. 0 = 10.420 Egg /R = 120V.Z~120°12. 0 = 10AZ—120° EcciR = 120V.Z120°/12.0 = 1042120" ‘These currents form a balanced set, as shown in Figure 23-3(b). Four-Wire and Three-Wire Systems Each load in Figure 23-3(a) has its own return wire, What if you replace them with a single wire as in (c)? By Kirchhoff’s current law, the current in this wire (which we call the neutral) is the phasor sum of I, Ip. and I. For the balanced 12-ohm load, Ty = Ly 4 Ty tle = 10AZ0° + 10AZ~ 120" + 1042120" = (OA + j0) + (—5.A ~ j8.66 A) + (—5.A + J8.66.A) = 0 amps ‘Thus, the retum wire carries no current at all! (This result is always true regardless of load impedance, provided the load is balanced, ie., all phase impedances are the same.) In practice, power systems are normally operated close to balance. Thus, the return current, while not necessarily zero, will be quite small, and the neutral wire can be made smaller than the other three conductors. This configuration is called a four-wire system and is one of the systems used in practice.938 Chapter 23 m Three-Phase Systems R (@) First thoughs na Te= WAzi20° = 0AaZe y= 10A2Z-10"° (b) Currents form a balanced set (6) 4-Wire system, The return wire is called the neutral GBH 100K Evernote pase comeson ‘The outgoing lines of Figure 23-3(c) are called line or phase conduc- tors. They are the conductors that you see suspended by insulators on trans- mission line towers. Symbology Having joined points A’, B', and C’ in Figure 23-3(c), we now drop the 4’, B’, and C’ notation and simply call the common point NV, The voltages are then renamed Ey, En, and Bey. They are known as line-to-neutral voltages. Standard Representation ‘Three-phase circuits are not usually drawn as in Figure 23-3, Rather, they are usually drawn as in Figure 23-4, (Figure 23-4(a), for example, shows Figure 23-3(c) redrawn in standard form.) Note that coil symbols are used to represent generator windings rather than the circle symbol that we use for single phase. As Figure 23-4(a) shows, the circuit that we have been looking at is a four-wire, wye-wye (Y-Y) cireuit. A variation, the three-wire wye-wye cir- cuit, is shown in (b). Three-wire wye-wye circuits may be used if the load cean be guaranteed (o remain balanced, since under balanced conditions the neutral conductor carries no current. However, for practical reasons (dis- cussed in Section 23.7), most wye-wye systems use four wires. Delta-Connected Generators Now consider 4 connection of the generator windings. Theoretically, this is, possible as indicated in Figure 23-5. However, there are practical difficul- ties. For example, when generators are loaded, distortions occur in the coil