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Dynamic Short-Circuit Analysis of Synchronous Machines

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DOI: 10.1109/TMAG.2017.2661580

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 53, NO. 6, JUNE 2017 8103304

Dynamic Short-Circuit Analysis of Synchronous Machines

Cornelius Jäger, Iossif Grinbaum, and Jasmin Smajic
Institute of Energy Technology, University of Applied Sciences Eastern Switzerland, CH-8640 Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland

Dynamic operational behavior (DOB) of electrical machines can cause effects that are difficult to describe and understand. The
short-circuit behavior (SCB) in particular is a dangerous DOB for machine and human. It could destroy the machine itself and
cause heavy damage to the power supply unit and mechanical coupling components. Analytical calculation of the SCB is simplified
and thus not highly accurate. Therefore, the finite element method simulation of the SCB is an important tool for understanding
these effects without the danger of damaging the machine by experiments. In this paper, a suitable field formulation, modeling
details, and simulation methods for dynamic analysis of synchronous machines are presented in detail. In particular, the accuracy
of 2-D and 3-D transient electromagnetic simulations is analyzed by comparison against the available measurements performed on
a chosen testing salient pole synchronous machine under the conditions of three-phase, two-phase, and single-phase short circuit.
Index Terms— 3-D electromagnetic field simulation, dynamic analysis, short circuit (SC), synchronous machine (SM).

I. I NTRODUCTION The main purpose of this paper is manifold: 1) to review

D YNAMIC operational behavior (DOB) of electrical
machines and their side effects, particularly short-circuit
behavior, are important for understanding the response of
the machines to dynamic conditions. The corresponding
results are of paramount importance for developing motor
components and dimensioning electrical and mechanical
safety installations [1]–[3]. For example, the peak value of
the short-circuit (SC) current and torque are decisive for
mechanical dimensioning of end-winding region, motor frame
and mechanical coupling components.
In the analysis presented in this paper the following three
essentially different dynamic failure regimes are considered:
1) three-phase SC; 2) two-phase SC; and 3) single-phase SC.
To perform dynamic measurements of a machine under the
above failure conditions starting from its nominal operation
could be very hazardous for the device itself, as well as for
the measurement equipment. Therefore, a detailed preparation
for it is of high importance. Furthermore, the measurements
are sometimes even not possible due to their unacceptably high
cost and duration.
Dynamic electromagnetic simulation of a synchronous
machine can be performed analytically, by introducing rad-
ical simplifications of the machine geometry and material
properties [4]–[6]. A next step toward higher accuracy can
be made by numerical time domain solution of ordinary
differential equations of the machine arising from its detailed
equivalent circuit. For further increasing the accuracy, the
parameters of the equivalent circuit can be obtained from finite
element method (FEM) field simulations taking into account
the magnetizing curve of the core material [5], [6]. The highest
accuracy level, however, can be reached by performing 2-D or
3-D transient time domain field simulations which is the main
subject of this paper.
Manuscript received November 20, 2016; revised January 16, 2017;
accepted January 24, 2017. Date of publication January 31, 2017; date of
current version May 26, 2017. Corresponding author: J. Smajic (e-mail:
jsmajic@hsr.ch).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2017.2661580
0018-9464 © 2017 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
the available numerical methods for 2-D and 3-D transient
time-domain FEM simulations of synchronous machines;
2) to validate their accuracy by comparison against the
corresponding sophisticated measurements; and 3) to show
the importance of 3-D effects for the accuracy of the results.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows.
Section II presents the numerical methods used. Section III
contains the obtained results and their comparison against
measurements. Section IV concludes the paper.
II. N UMERICAL M ETHODS
For the mentioned DOB-analyses a testing three-phase
salient pole synchronous motor shown in Fig. 1 is chosen.
The electromagnetic 2-D and 3-D field simulations
presented in this paper are based on the following T- for-
mulation implemented in the field solver Ansys Maxwell [7]:
H = Ts − ∇, in CD (1)
∇(μ∇) = 0, in CD (2)
∂
= n · Ts , on ∂ N CD (3)
∂n
(r, θ0 + p) = (r, θ0 ), on ∂ P CD (4)
 = 0, t = 0, in CD (5)
where Ts is the source current vector potential, H is the
magnetic field, CD is the 2-D or 3-D computational domain,
 is the magnetic scalar potential, ∂ N CD is the Neumann
boundary of the computational domain, ∂ P CD is the periodic
boundary of the computational domain, θ0 is the reference
angle of the machine’s periodicity, and p is the periodicity
angle (see Fig. 1, bottom).
It is worth mentioning that the chosen synchronous machine
has no eddy current regions. Thus the field formulation (1)–(4)
has no a domain where the current vector potential T should
be computed.
The boundary initial value problem (BIVP) (2)–(5) with
respect to the magnetic scalar potential  is solved in each
time step of the simulation starting with the zero initial
condition (5). For the simulations nonlinear material using the
8103304
Fig. 1. Chosen synchronous salient pole motor is depicted. One quarter
of the machine is modeled in both the 3-D model (top) and the
2-D model (bottom). The motor data are: 400 V, 50 Hz, 5 kW, 1’500 rpm, and
cos ϕ = 0.8.
original BH-curve is taken into account. The source of the
field is the electric current flowing in the winding system of
the machine producing Ts .
The transient simulations considered in this paper were
performed with voltage sources attached to the winding
system. Thus, the current must be computed in each time step
for the known instantaneous voltage value by coupling the
BIVP (2)–(5) with the following voltage equations of the
stator and excitation windings:
∂1
u s (t) = R1 i 1 (t) + N1 (t) (6)
∂t
∂ E
u E (t) = R E i E (t) + N E (t) (7)
∂t
where R1 is the resistance of the stator winding, N1 is the
number of winding turns of one stator phase, and 1 is the
stator magnetic flux, R E is the resistance of the excitation
rotor winding, N E is the number of winding turns of one
excitation rotor coil, and  E is the magnetic flux through the
excitation coil.
Starting with an initial value of the current in each time step
the magnetic field is computed. After integrating the magnetic
field, the magnetic flux through the winding is obtained. With
this value in (6) the accuracy of the instantaneous voltage
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 53, NO. 6, JUNE 2017
is tested. If the accuracy is not sufficient the current is
corrected and the field simulation repeated. The process is
performed until the desired voltage accuracy is reached.
In case of 2-D simulations the 3-D effects of end-winding
region (Fig. 1, top) is not visible in the simulation model
(Fig. 1, bottom). If the value of the resistance and inductance
of the end-winding region is known (6) and (7) of the
2-D simulation can be corrected as follows:
∂i 1 ∂
u s (t) = R1 i 1 (t) + R1EW i 1 (t) + L 1EW (t) + N1 (t) (8)
∂t ∂t
∂i E ∂ E
u E (t) = R E i E (t) + REEW i E (t) + L EEW (t)+ N E (t)
∂t ∂t
(9)
where R1EW and L 1EW are the resistance and inductance of
the stator end-winding region, andREEW and L EEW are the
resistance and inductance of the excitation end-winding region,
respectively.
In case of 3-D simulation shown in Fig. 1 (top) the voltage
(6) and (7) are used as no corrections for the end-winding
region are required, i.e., the end-winding region is present in
the model in its full geometrical complexity.
III. N UMERICAL R ESULTS
Using the time domain simulation approach described
in Section II the following dynamic failure regimes are
considered:
Case 1: Single-phase SC of the synchronous machine (SM)
in generator regime.
Case 2: Two-phase SC of the SM in generator regime.
Case 3: Three-phase SC of the SM in generator regime.
To verify the obtained results the testing SM is measured
in all the three above failure cases by using a modern testing
bench consisting of an asynchronous motor (AM), as a source
of the mechanical power, and a power electronics module for
providing the AM and testing SM with the required form of
electrical energy.
In each failure case the speed of the testing SM was kept
constant at 1500 rpm using the power of the prime AM. During
each failure case the winding voltages, currents, torque, and
speed were simultaneously measured. The data acquisition was
performed with a 12-chanel measuring system of Dewetron
and the high-sampling rate of 10 kHz was used.
For measuring the electric currents, current transformers
with accuracy of 0.05% were used. Not to damage the machine
under test, the failure regimes were measured at a considerable
lower level of the excitation current (with 25% of its nominal
value).
For simultaneous establishing of the three-phase and two-
phase SCs a three-phase relay system was used. All the
three short-circuits were maintained until the motor entered
stationary regime.
The SC-currents of all three-phases of the testing SM in
case of the three-phase short-circuit are presented in Fig. 2.
The obtained simulation results of the 2-D model, corrected
2-D model and measured results were compared and a consid-
erably higher accuracy of the corrected 2-D model was found.
JÄGER et al.: DYNAMIC SHORT-CIRCUIT ANALYSIS
Fig. 2. Results of the three-phase short-circuit transient analysis are
shown. The stator currents (top), obtained by using 2-D simulations with
and without the corrections of 3-D effects, were compared against the corre-
sponding measurements. The first peak of the SC current, computed with the
2-D model, is around 25% higher than the measured value. The corrected
2-D simulation yielded the peak that is 10% higher than the measured value,
which is a considerably more accurate result. The flux density distribution
over the motor cross section (bottom) at t = 3 ms (before the short-circuit), at
t = 27 ms (the moment when the SC-current reaches its first peak value),
and at t = 50 ms (the moment of time after the fourth peak value of the
SC current) is depicted.
The B-field visualization in Fig. 2 (bottom) reveals a different
level of saturations of the machine during the failure case.
A similar situation is found in the excitation circuit. The
results of the obtained excitation current in case of the three-
phase SC are shown in Fig. 3. The corrected 2-D simulation
delivers highly accurate results while the 2-D simulations
considerably overshoots the first peak of the excitation current.
The end-winding inductance of the SM for correcting the
2-D simulation is obtained by performing a single 3-D sim-
ulation of the testing SM shown in Fig. 3 (bottom) [5], [6].
The magnetic field of the end-winding region is integrated
over the entire volume of this region in order to obtain the
8103304
Fig. 3. Obtained excitation current during the three-phase SC (top) is
presented. The 2-D simulation again overestimates the first peak considerably
and the corrected 2-D simulation has a very high accuracy. The end-winding
inductance for correcting the 2-D model is obtained by performing a single
3-D simulation of the machine (bottom).
corresponding energy. The inductance is computed from the
magnetic energy of the end-winding region [8], [9].
To reach even a higher accuracy level a time domain 3-D
simulation can be performed by modeling the chosen SM in
its full geometrical complexity. This requires, however, a con-
siderably longer CPU time. The 2-D time domain simulation
of the SM requires around 10 min of CPU time on a modern
PC (6 cores 2.6 GHz, 128 GB RAM) and the corresponding
3-D simulation takes around two days.
The performance of the 3-D time domain simulation is
presented in Fig. 4. The corrected 2-D simulation delivers
almost as accurate results as the corresponding 3-D simulation.
Both methods predict highly accurate the first several peaks of
the SC current. The 3-D simulation, however, shows its higher
accuracy at later simulation times. This is clearly visible in
Fig. 4 (top).
A very similar picture is visible in the excitation circuit
(Fig. 4, bottom). The 2-D and 3-D simulations predict the
peak of the current equally well but, at later stage, the
3-D method shows its dominance in terms of accuracy.
The numerical results of the remaining two failure cases
are shown in Figs. 5 and 6. Due to their asymmetric character
the two-phase and single-phase SC cause completely different
time dependence of the stator and excitation current compared
to the symmetric three-phase SC.
Evidently, the results verification presented in Figs. 4–6
shows a high level of accuracy of the corrected 2-D and
3-D method. Since the corrected 2-D method requires
radically shorter CPU times, it is recommended for daily
design purposes. The 3-D model should be used only in
case when dynamic SC forces on the components of the
end-winding region are needed. In this case, the radically
longer CPU time of the 3-D method can be justified by the
results that the 2-D model cannot deliver.
8103304
Fig. 4. Results of the three-phase short-circuit transient analysis are shown.
The stator currents (top), obtained by using the corrected 2-D simulation
and 3-D simulation were compared against the corresponding measurements.
Both numerical methods deliver highly accurate simulations of the current
peaks. At later times of the SC, however, the 3-D method demonstrates its
better predictive power. A similar situation can be found also in the excitation
circuit (bottom).
Fig. 5. Numerical results of the single-phase (top) and two-phase (bottom)
SC are presented. Evidently, both simulation methods deliver highly accurate
results. It is interesting to see there are small disagreements between the
simulations and measurements concerning the first peak of the SC current.
This was not the case in Fig. 4 that presents the three-phase SC.
The presented methods for simulating synchronous
machines in time domain under dynamic operating condi-
tions are evidently capable of delivering accurate results. The
obtained results are a solid base for performing mechanical
design of the structural components of every SM.
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 53, NO. 6, JUNE 2017
Fig. 6. Excitation current of the single-phase (top) and two-phase (bottom)
SC are presented. The accuracy of both simulation methods is again
confirmed. Again, small disagreements between the simulations and
measurements in terms of the excitation current peaks are visible. This was
not the case in Fig. 4 (bottom) showing the three-phase SC.
The next logical step of this study should be coupling of the
presented electromagnetic models with a dynamic mechanical
model of the entire system involving the load, machine, shaft,
and mechanical coupling components.
IV. C ONCLUSION
Three different numerical algorithms for performing
electromagnetic simulations of synchronous machines are
presented in detail. The pure 2-D approach delivers rather
inaccurate results. The corrected 2-D and 3-D approaches have
a considerably higher accuracy level due to their consideration
of 3-D effects of the end-winding region.
For daily design purposes the corrected 2-D time domain
simulation has a sufficient accuracy if the parameters of the
end-winding region are accurately computed by a single
3-D magnetostatic simulation prior to the dynamic
2-D simulation.
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