 AC Machines – induced voltage – sinusoidal if

harmonics in air-gap B are suppressed – Techniques to

minimize harmonics
 Simple AC m/c – output voltages in stator coils were
sinusoidal because air-gap B distribution is sinusoidal
 If air-gap B not sinusoidal – stator output voltages will
not be sinusoidal
 In general air-gap B distribution in AC m/c will not be
sinusoidal – flux distribution consists of fundamental
sinusoidal component and harmonics – which generates
harmonic components in stator V & I
 One important technique to suppress unwanted
harmonics in V & I – use of fractional-pitch windings
 Pole pitch – angular distance between two adjacent
poles on a machine
360
 Pole pitch in mechanical degrees p P  =

 Regardless of no. of poles on a machine, a pole pitch is

always 180 electrical degrees
 Full-coil pitch – if stator coil stretches same angle as  p
 If stator coil stretches across an angle smaller than a
pole pitch – fractional-pitch coil

Ref: Stephen J Chapman –

Electric Machinery Fundamentals

 Ref: Stephen J Chapman – Electric Machinery Fundamentals
 Pitch of fractional pitch coil – expressed as a fraction
indicating the portion of pole pitch it spans
 Eg: a 5/6 pitch coil spans five-sixths of the distance
between two adjacent poles
 Pitch of fractional pitch coil in electrical degrees
m m P
= X 180 =
p 2

 m is mechanical angle covered by coil

 Practical stator coils – fractional pitch – advantages
 Windings employing fractional pitch coils – chorded
windings
 Simple two pole m/c with fractional pitch winding
 Pole pitch is 180° and coil pitch is 
 Assume magnitude of B
vector in airgap varies
sinusoidally with
mechanical angle
 α – angle measured from direction of peak rotor B, then
magnitude of B at a point around rotor given by
B = BM cos 
 Rotor rotating within stator at angular velocity ωm, the
magnitude of B at any angle α around stator given by
B = BM cos( t −  )
 Induced voltage in a wire eind = ( v  B ).l
 Segment ab – α=90°+ρ/2
 
eba = -vBM cos[m t - (90 + )]l = -vBM lcos(m t - 90 − )
 Segment cd – α=90°-ρ/2
2 2
 
edc = vBM cos[m t - (90 − )]l = vBM lcos(m t - 90 + )
2 2
  Segment bc and da – eind = ( v  B ).l = 0
 Total voltage induced
 
eind = eba + edc = -vBM lcos(m t - 90 − ) + vBM lcos(m t - 90 + )
2 2
 After applying trig. identities cos(a-b) and cos(a+b)
 Total resulting voltage
 
eind = −2vBM lsin sin(m t - 90) = 2vBM lsin cosm t
2 2
 Since 2vBM l =  
e = sin cos t
ind m
2
 For full-pitch winding eind = cost
 Fractional pitch coil – same as voltage in full pitch coil
except sin/2 term

 Define a term called pitch factor of coil k p k p = sin
2
 In terms of pitch factor, ind. voltage in single-turn coil
eind = k pcosm t
 Total voltage in N-turn fractional pitch coil
eind = N C k pcosm t

 Peak Voltage Emax = N C k p = 2N C k pf

2
 Rms Voltage EA = N C k pf = 2N C k pf
2

 If coil pitch ρ is given in mechanical degrees, then

pitch factor given by m P
k p = sin
2
 Real Machines – non-sinusoidal B distribution

 Salient-pole Sync m/c – rotor

sweeping across stator surface
 Reluctance of magnetic field
path is much lower directly under center than sides –
flux strongly concentrated at that point and B very high
 Resulting induced voltage – non-sinusoidal – contains
harmonics frequency components
 Voltage waveform symmetric – no even harmonics
 Odd harmonics – 3, 5, 7, 9…..-present in phase voltage
 Higher the number of given harmonic frequency comp.
– lower its magnitude in voltage – above 9th harmonic
effects may be ignored
 Three-phase connection – 3rd harmonic and its
multiples (9th) – triplen harmonics – suppressed
 Most of actual distortion – caused by 5th and 7th
harmonic frequencies – called belt harmonics – if these
comp. reduced – o/p voltage will be nearly sinusoidal
 One solution – to design the machine with fractional
pitch windings
 Key effect – electrical angle of nth harmonic is n times
the electrical angle of fundamental freq. component
 If a coil spans 150° electrical at its fund. freq – it will
span 450° elect. for 3rd harmonic, 750° elect. for 5th …..
 If ρ is elect.angle spanned by coil at its fund.freq and v
is the harmonic no. examined, then coil will span vρ
elect. degrees at that harmonic frequency
v
 Pitch factor of coil at harmonic frequency is k p = sin
2
 Pitch factor of a wdg – different for each harmonic freq
 By proper choice of coil pitch – possible to almost
eliminate harmonic freq. components
 Three-phase, two pole stator has coils with a 5/6 pitch
360
 Pole pitch in mech.degrees p  = = 180
P
 Mech. pitch angle  m of these coils–5/6 of 180=150°
m
 Resulting pitch angle in elect. degrees  = X 180 = 150
p
 Two pole m/c, so mech.pitch angle = elect. pitch angle
 Pitch factors for fund. and higher order harmonics
▪ Fundamental v 150
k p = sin = sin = 0.966
2 2
▪ Fifth harmonic k p = sin 5( 150 ) = 0.259
2
7( 150 )
▪ Seventh harmonic k p = sin = 0.259
2
Effect of coil pitch – 5th and 7th harmonics suppressed relative to
fundamental freq.
 Fractional pitch wdgs – drastically reduce harmonic
content of machine’s output voltage – while also
causing a small decrease in its fundamental voltage
 Windings associated with each phase – assumed to be
concentrated in a single pair of slots on stator surface
 Reality – each phase wdg always distributed among
several adjacent pair of slots – impossible to put all
conductors into a single slot
 AC Machines – several coils in each phase, distributed
in slots around inner surface of stator
 Voltage in any single turn – very small – so by placing
many of these turns in series–reasonable voltages made
 Large no. of turns physically divided among several
coils and coils are placed in slots equally spaced along
surface of rotor
 Phase A Coils – 15T/Coil - Total no. of turns – 240 T
 Slot pitch γ – Spacing in degrees between adjacent slots
on a stator – expressed in mechanical or elect. degrees
 Stator coils – normally double-layer windings – easier
to manufacture – fewer slots for given no. of coils –
less expensive
 Two pole, double layer, distributed full-pitch winding
 Four coils associated with each phase
 All coil sides of a phase placed in
adjacent slots – these sides known as
belt or phase group
 Six phase belts in two pole stator
 General – 3P phase belts on P pole
stator, P of them in each phase
 Distributed winding using fractional pitch coils
 Winding phase belts – phases of coils within an
individual slot may be mixed
 Pitch of the coils is 5/6 or 150° electrical
 Dividing total no. of turns into separate coils permits
more efficient use of inner surface of stator – provides
structural strength – since slots carved are smaller
 Turns composing a given phase lie at different angles –
their voltages will be somewhat smaller
 Machine with two pole
single layer wdg, with stator
wdg of each phase distributed
among three slots spaced
20° apart
 If central coil of phase a has volt
Ea 2 = E0 V
 The voltages of other two coils in phase a
Ea 1 = E − 20 V Ea 3 = E 20 V
 Total voltage in phase a will be
Ea = Ea 1 + Ea 2 + Ea 3 = E − 20 + E0 + E 20
= Ecos(-20) + jEsin(-20) + E + Ecos(20) + jEsin(20)
= E + 2 Ecos20 = 2.879 E
 If coils in a given phase is concentrated in same slot,
Ea = 3 E
 Ratio of actual V in a phase of a distributed wdg to its
expected value in a concentrated wdg with same no. of
turns called breadth factor or distribution factor of wdg
V actual
kd =
V exp ected with no distribution
 Distribution factor kd = 2.879 E = 0.960
3E
 Convenient way to summarize the decrease in voltage
caused by spatial distribution of coils in stator
 For a winding with n slots per phase belt spaced γ deg
apart, the distribution factor is given by
sin( n / 2 )
kd =
n sin( n / 2 )

 With n=3 and γ=20°, distribution factor

sin( n / 2 ) sin( 3 * 20 / 2 )
kd = = = 0.960
n sin( n / 2 ) 3 sin( 20 / 2 )
 RMS voltage in a single coil NC turns and pitch factor k p
E A = 2N C k pf

 Stator phase consists of i coils each containing NC turns

 No. of turns per phase NP = i NC
 Voltage across phase – voltage due to NP turns all in
same slot times the reduction caused by dist. factor
E A = 2N P k p k d f

 Pitch factor & distribution factor of a wdg combinely

called winding factor k w E = 2N k f
A P w