Chapter 5: Synchronous Motors

5-1. A 480-V, 60 Hz, 400-hp 0.8-PF-leading eight-pole -connected synchronous motor has a synchronous
reactance of 0.6  and negligible armature resistance. Ignore its friction, windage, and core losses for the
purposes of this problem. Assume that E A is directly proportional to the field current I F (in other
words, assume that the motor operates in the linear part of the magnetization curve), and that E A = 480
V when I F = 4 A.
(a) What is the speed of this motor?
(b) If this motor is initially supplying 400 hp at 0.8 PF lagging, what are the magnitudes and angles
of E A and I A ?
(c) How much torque is this motor producing? What is the torque angle  ? How near is this value
to the maximum possible induced torque of the motor for this field current setting?

(d) If E A is increased by 30 percent, what is the new magnitude of the armature current? What is
the motor’s new power factor?
(e) Calculate and plot the motor’s V-curve for this load condition.
SOLUTION
(a) The speed of this motor is given by
120 f se 120  60 Hz 
nm    900 r/min
P 8
(b) If losses are being ignored, the output power is equal to the input power, so the input power will be
PIN   400 hp  746 W/hp   298.4 kW

This situation is shown in the phasor diagram below:

V

IA
jX I
S A

EA

The line current flow under these circumstances is

P 298.4 kW
IL    449 A
3 VT PF 3  480 V  0.8

Because the motor is -connected, the corresponding phase current is I A  449 / 3  259 A . The angle
of the current is  cos 1  0.80  36.87 , so I A  259  36.87 A . The internal generated voltage E A
is
E A  V  jX S I A

E A   4800 V   j  0.6   259  36.87 A   406  17.8 V

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(c) This motor has 6 poles and an electrical frequency of 60 Hz, so its rotation speed is nm = 1200
r/min. The induced torque is
POUT 298.4 kW
 ind    3166 N  m
m 1 min  2 rad 
 900 r/min    
 60 s  1 r 
The maximum possible induced torque for the motor at this field setting is the maximum possible power
divided by m

3V E A 3  480 V  406 V 

 ind,max    10,340 N  m
m X S  1 min  2 rad 
 900 r/min      0.6  
 60 s  1 r 
The current operating torque is about 1/3 of the maximum possible torque.
(d) If the magnitude of the internal generated voltage E A is increased by 30%, the new torque angle
can be found from the fact that E A sin   P  constant .

E A 2  1.30 E A1  1.30  406 V   487.2 V

 E A1   406 V 
 2  sin 1  sin 1   sin 1  sin  17.8    14.8
 E A2   487.2 V 
The new armature current is
V  E A 2 4800 V  487.2  14.8 V
I A2    208  4.1 A
jX S j 0.6 

The magnitude of the armature current is 208 A, and the power factor is cos (-24.1) = 0.913 lagging.
(e) A MATLAB program to calculate and plot the motor’s V-curve is shown below:

% M-file: prob5_1e.m
% M-file create a plot of armature current versus Ea
% for the synchronous motor of Problem 5-1.

% Initialize values
Ea = (0.90:0.01:1.70)*406; % Magnitude of Ea volts
Ear = 406; % Reference Ea
deltar = -17.8 * pi/180; % Reference torque angle
Xs = 0.6; % Synchronous reactance (ohms)
Vp = 480; % Phase voltage at 0 degrees
Ear = Ear * (cos(deltar) + j * sin(deltar));

% Calculate delta2
delta2 = asin ( abs(Ear) ./ abs(Ea) .* sin(deltar) );

% Calculate the phasor Ea

Ea = Ea .* (cos(delta2) + j .* sin(delta2));

% Calculate Ia
Ia = ( Vp - Ea ) / ( j * Xs);

% Plot the v-curve

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