Lab 09

Characteristics Of Three Phase Synchronous Motor

OBJECTIVE

Three-phase synchronous machines account for a high percentage of this country’s power
generation. Understanding the machine’s behavior and determining its equivalent network and
performance characteristics are of prime importance to a power engineer. This experiment studies
the characteristics of doubly-excited synchronous motors and generators. Specific tests are run to
determine equivalent circuit parameters, torque, and power factor control. This lab shows that
system design considerations must include frequency, speed, power factor, and voltage. Also
illustrated are important machine design parameters including linear versus non-linear magnetic
characteristics and efficiency.

Theory

The three-phase synchronous machine, illustrated in Figure 1, is literally a DC machine turned

inside-out. The armature, excited by alternating current, is wound in the stator of the machine,
and the direct current field is wound on the rotor of the machine. Electrical power is transferred to
the rotor through stator mounted brushes that make contact with rotor mounted slip rings. The
rotating field that is necessary for continuous torque development is accomplished by the AC
utility supply.
Figure 1: Cross-sections of synchronous machines.

As shown in Figure 1, the rotor can be of either the salient-pole type or the cylindrical
(nonsalient-pole) type. The machine used for this experiment is somewhat salient, but the
impact of the salient is negligible. In either case, the flux of the field is fairly uniformly
distributed throughout the stator, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Mutual and leakage fluxes of synchronous machines. Figure 2 shows the assumed
current direction for phase a of the stator winding. The flux produced by the stator (armature)
current combines with the flux produced by the rotor (field) circuit to create the mutual flux. Any
flux produced that does not link another winding in the machine is called leakage flux.

We shall now explore how torque is produced in the cylindrical rotor synchronous machine. We
first assume that a direct current has been applied to the field circuit. Thus, the rotor contains
alternate North and South magnetic poles. The next step is to apply a symmetrical threephase
current to the armature winding. Such a current waveform is shown in Figure 3. If the armature
windings are properly distributed, each phase of the input current produces a sinusoidal
distributed MMF, or magnetic field, centered on each winding axis. The three MMF distributions
are;

Fa F max  cost cos A – T Eq,. 1

Fb F max  cos(t - 120º) cos( - 120º) A – T Eq. 2

Fc F max  cos(t + 120º) cos( + 120º) A – T Eq. 3

And

F max
I max k N
w phase
A–T Eq. 4

Where

F max = peak MMF

I max = peak current

kw = winding factor

N phase = series connected turns per phase

 k w N phase = effective turns

The total MMF due to the armature currents is the sum of the individual MMF’s. Thus,

F total
 Fa  Fb  Fc A–T Eq.5

After some trigonometric and algebraic manipulation,

F = 3
total cos(wt - theta ) A–T Eq. 6
2 F
ma
x

Eq. 6 describes a traveling wave which moves around the stator at a velocity

As long as the applied frequency is constant, Eq. 7 tells us that the speed of a synchronous motor
will be constant. Therefore, the only way to change the speed of a synchronous motor is to change the
applied frequency. However, if the frequency is decreased to slow the motor and the field current is held

constant, the back EMF and the synchronous impedance also decrease. Thus, if the applied voltage V t

is held constant, the armature current will increase until it burns the

armature windings. Therefore, to control the speed of a synchronous motor, the terminal voltage must be
adjusted roughly proportionally to the frequency.

N sync
=
120 f
RPM Eq. 7

where N sync
= synchronous speed

f = applied frequency, Hz
 P = number of magnetic poles in machine

Procedure

1. Do the connection of the synchronous motor according to the above diagram.

2. Slowly slowly move the noob of the machine that is providing voltage to the
synchronous motor which will slowly increase the voltage applied to the
sycnhronous motor.
3. Synchronous motors are designed to operate at unity (1.0) power factor or 0.8
leading power factor.
4. By increseing the (IF) the power factore improves.
5. Power factor improves when Q is reduced.
6. You will notice that power factor start’s inreasing, Iline reduces and Q decreases.
7. Note the readings and plot the Graph.

Data Recording
Plotting