1

Introduction

1.1 ELECTRICAL MACHINES

Following the discovery of the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction in the

mid-nineteenth century, the design and construction of electrical machines
developed very rapidly. By the beginning of the twentieth century, industry was
using machines which were efficient, mechanically strong, and beautifully
made-indeed many of these machines are still in excellent working condition.
For about twenty years from 1900, much research and development went into
optimising cost and reducing loss. Design techniques were largely tailored to
this end. Here one must refer to the early voluminous work of Miles Walker, The
Specification and Design of Dynamo-electric Ma'chinery (Longman Green,
London, 1915).
In the early part of this century, control gear was simple and robust, to meet
conditions of starting, running, and load and speed control in steady state
operation. The Tirrill voltage regulator and the centrifugal governor, in
improved design, were almost the only pieces of equipment that could be
classed as automatic. Control equipment for prime movers for generation in
power stations was again fairly simple but reliable, in service with large
triple-expansion reciprocating engines and the first generation of steam
turbines.
In the first three or four decades, the problems of operation in the steady state
had largely been satisfactorily solved and efficiency was the main concern of
designers and operators. There was, on the whole, adequate protection against
the effects of transient disturbances and faults, although on some of the large
systems dynamic instability did on occasion cause serious trouble. Thus for half
a century, electrical machine engineering met the demands of industry very
creditably indeed and research, teaching, and design in industrial applications
were of a high standard. With the more recent introduction of fast-acting static
and solid-state devices in regulators, excitation systems, and control equipment,
the dynamic response of the machines has become of increasing importance.

D. P. S. Gupta et al., Electrical Machine Dynamics

© D. P. Sen Gupta and J. W. Lynn 1980
2 ELECTRICAL MACHINE DYNAMICS

Research in these areas has been greatly assisted by the concurrent development
of the large fast digital computers.
The design of an electrical machine is a highly specialised task, with a number
of iterative processes involved in the correlation of all the variables. The main
two features are, of course, the current-carrying copper coils in slots on the rotor
and stator and the iron circuits carrying the necessary magnetic field flux, in
which both the stator and rotor coils are immersed. In a motor one set of coils,
say those on the stator, produces a magnetic field and current flowing in the
other set interacts with this to produce a rotational couple on the rotor. The
roles of the stator and rotor coils may be reversed in some machines. In a
generator, torque is applied to the shaft, with the consequent generation of
voltage in the rotating coils. Again the roles of the rotor and stator coils may
sometimes be reversed.
The basic quantities which are usually specified in the design of a machine are
the operating voltage, speed, rotor torque, power, and efficiency. The machine is
designed to meet the required values of these under all normal operating
conditions, within given tolerance limits. It should also be of sufficient
mechanical strength and should not suffer any serious damage under forseeable
fault conditions external to the machine. The copper power-loss due to coil
resistance, the iron power-loss due to flux variations, and mechanical loss due to
windage and friction all tend to reduce the efficiency of the machine (which is
usually about 85-95 per cent), and in a good design these losses are kept to a
minimum.
Electrical power is proportional to the product of voltage and current, and an
electrical machine which is designed for a given power output and speed would
have a wide range of possible dimensions. It could be an 'iron-dominant'
machine, with a relatively large amount of iron, high flux values, high generated
voltage and smaller gauge coils. On the other hand it could be a 'copper-
dominant' machine with smaller iron circuit, lower magnetic flux values, lower
voltage, and correspondingly greater current and larger copper coils. Very often
the operating voltage and speed are the main constraints upon the design. If a
generator is to be operated in isolation from others then the voltage is not so
important, provided that the load equipment is obtainable at the specified
voltage. However, most machines will be designed for standard values of
impressed or generated voltage, to allow for interchangeability of equipment.
Aircraft alternators operate at high speeds (about 8000-10000 r.p.m.) driven
from the engines and they tend to be of the lower flux, lower voltage (about
100 V) heavy current type. There is a saving in weight with a high-speed low
voltage 'copper machine' as compared with one which is designed with higher
flux values and larger iron paths.
The shape of an electrical machine is largely determined by the relative values
of the voltage, current, and speed. The aircraft high-speed machine usually has
the shape shown in Figure 1.1 (a), with a rotor diameter which is small compared
to its length and with comparatively low moment of inertia per kV A. Most