Chapter 4

Synchronous Motor
Construction of Synchronous Motor:

Construction:
Stator:
• At stator there is three phase winding
• These windings are kept 1200 apart and can be connected in either star pattern or delta pattern
Rotor:
• Rotor is a salient pole rotor.
• D.C supply is connected to rotor winding.
Synchronous Motor is not self-starting
• Three phase supply connected to stator winding
• RMF produced at stator
• Consider the rotating magnetic field as equivalent to the physical rotation of two stator poles Ns and Ss.
• Consider an instant when two poles are at such a position where stator magnetic axis is vertical, along A-
B as shown in the below figure (a).

(a) Rotor Torque in Anticlockwise Direction (b) Rotor Torque in Anticlockwise Direction
• At this instant, rotor poles are arbitrarily positioned as shown in the figure.
• Rotor is stationary and like poles will repel each other.
• Due to this rotor is subjected to torque in anti-clockwise direction as in figure (a).

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 • Before rotor hardly rotates in the direction of anticlockwise torque, it is subjected to reversal of the stator
poles in next half cycle
• This is shown in figure (b).
• At this instant, poles attract each other.
• Rotor is subjected to a torque in the clockwise direction.
• But before this happens, stator poles again change their positions reversing the direction of the torque
exerted on the rotor.
• Speed with which rotating magnetic field is rotating is high
• Due to its inertia, rotor is unable to rotate from its initial position,
• So whatever may be the starting position of the rotor, the synchronous motor is not self-starting.
Procedure to start a Synchronous Motor:
• Rotor is rotated by some external means at a speed almost equal to synchronous speed.
• D.C supply is switched ON
• Rotor poles are produced.
• The force of attraction between the rotor and stator poles pulls them into magnetic locking
condition.
• Rotor also starts rotating at synchronous speed.
• Rotor continuously experiences a unidirectional torque in the direction of the rotating magnetic
field
Working principle of synchronous motor:
• The 3 phase stator winding in connected with 3 phase supply.
• RMF (rotating magnetic field) is produced at stator.
• Now rotate the motor by some external means near to synchronous speed.
• Excite the rotor winding with D.C. supply.
• It creates the poles at the rotor.
• Then the force of attraction between the two pulls both rotor & stator poles into magnetic locking
condition.
• Rotor also starts rotating at synchronous speed.
• Rotor continuously experiences a unidirectional torque in the direction of the rotating magnetic field
• Rotor is said to be in synchronism with the rotating Magnetic field.
• The external device used to rotate rotor near synchronous speed can be removed once synchronism is
established.
• This is the reason why synchronous motor runs only at synchronous speed and does not rotate at any
speed other than the synchronous.
• This operation is shown in the below figures (a) and (b).
• It is necessary to keep field winding i.e. rotor excited from d.c supply to maintain the magnetic locking,
as long as the motor is operating.

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Methods of Starting of Synchronous Motor
1. Motor starting with an external prime Mover:
• Synchronous motors are mechanically coupled with another motor.
• It could be either 3 phase induction motor or DC shunt motor.
• DC excitation is not applied initially.
• It rotates at speed very close to its synchronous speed
• Then DC excitation is switched ON.
• Magnetic locking takes place
• Supply to the external motor is cut off.
2. Motor starting with damper winding (Motor starting as induction motor)

• Synchronous motor is of salient pole type,.

• Damper windings are solid copper or aluminium rod inserted in each pole shoe welded on both
sides by end rings
• With damper windings rotor of synchronous motor act as a squirrel cage rotor
• DC excitation is not applied initially.
• Three phase supply connected to stator winding
• RMF produced at stator
• RMF cuts damper winding
• Emf induced in damper winding

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 • Current flows through damper winding
• Torque is exerted by rotor
• Synchronous motor runs as squirrel cage I.M
• As speed approaches synchronous speed, DC excitation is switched ON.
• Magnetic locking takes place
• Rotor rotates at synchronous speed
• Hence at starting synchronous motor runs as three phase squirrel cage induction motor.
Load angle & Significance of load angle

• As load on motor increases, the rotor progressively tends fall back in phase by some angle with still
rotating at synchronous speed.
• This angle is called as load angle or coupling angle
• It is represented by α
• Load angle depends on load
• As load increases α increases
• Torque developed by motor depends on load angle
• Motor develops maximum torque when rotor is retarded by an angle of 900 (α = 900)
• Any further increase in load or load angle causes motor to pull out of synchronism and stop

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Torques in Synchronous Motor
• Various torques in Synchronous motor are
• Starting torque
• Running torque
• Pull in torque
• Pull out torque
Starting Torque:
• It is the torque developed by motor when full voltage is applied to its stator winding
• It is also called as breakaway torque
• Its value may be as low as 10%
• Its value may be as high as 200% to 250 %
Running Torque:
• It is the torque developed by motor under running conditions
• It is determined by horse power and speed of machine
• Peak horse power determines the maximum torque that would be required by the machine
• Motor must have maximum running torque greater than this value
Pull in Torque:
• The amount of torque at which rotor poles and stator poles get locked and rotor rotates at
synchronous speed
• It is the torque required to put rotor in synchronism with the stator field
Pull out Torque:
• The maximum torque which motor can develop without pulling out of synchronism
• As load on motor increases , rotor progressively tends to fall back in phase by some angle
(called as load angle)behind synchronously rotating stator magnetic field
• Motor develops maximum torque when rotor is retarded by an angle of 900
• Any further increase in load will cause motor to pull out of synchronism and stop
Synchronous Motor on load with constant Excitation
• Voltage V is applied to stator or armature winding
• DC voltage applied to rotor winding
• Rotor rotates
• Eb is back induced in armature winding by rotor flux
• Eb depends on rotor excitation ( field current i.e. current in rotor windings)
• ER is vector difference of V & Eb (ER = V - Eb)
• Armature current (Ia ) is obtained dividing ER by armature impedance (Ia= ER / ZS)
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 • At no load with no losses
➢ Eb = V
➢ ER is zero
➢ Ia is zero
➢ α=0

• At no load with losses

➢ α is small but not equal to zero
➢ ER increases
➢ Ia increases

• At load with losses

➢ Load angle α increases
➢ ER increases
➢ Ia increases
➢ Φ increases
➢ P.F decreases

Synchronous Motor at different Excitations

• If field current is such that Eb = V synchronous motor normal excited
• P.F is lagging
• If field current is such that Eb < V synchronous motor under excited
• P.F is lagging
• If field current is such that Eb > V synchronous motor over excited
• P.F is leading
• Normal excited ( Eb = V)
➢ At light loads
➢ Load angle α1 is small
➢ ER1 is small
➢ Ia1 is small
➢ Φ1 is small
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 ➢ Cos Φ1 is P.F
➢ Load increases
➢ Load angle α1 increases to α2
➢ ER1 increases to ER2
➢ Ia1increases to Ia2
➢ Torque increases
➢ Φ1 increases to Φ2
➢ Power factor Cos Φ2 is less than P.F Cos Φ1

Eb ER1

α1
V
ϕ1
Ia1

Eb ER2

α2
V
ϕ2
• Under excited (Eb < V)
➢ At light loads Ia2
➢ Load angle α1 is small
➢ ER1 is small
➢ Ia1 is small
➢ Φ1 is small
➢ Cos Φ1 is P.F
➢ Load increases
➢ Load angle α1 increases to α2
➢ ER1 increases to ER2
➢ Ia1increases to Ia2
➢ Torque increases
➢ Φ1 decreases Φ2
➢ Power factor Cos Φ2 increases

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 Eb ER1

α1=25
V
ϕ1

Ia1

Eb ER2

α2=50
V
ϕ2

Ia2

• Over Excited (Eb > V)

➢ At light loads
➢ Load angle α1 is small
➢ ER1 is small
➢ Ia1 is small
➢ Φ1 is small
➢ Cos Φ1 is P.F
➢ Load angle α1 increases to α2
➢ ER1 increases to ER2
➢ Ia1increases to Ia2
➢ Torque increases
➢ Φ1 decreases Φ2
➢ Power factor Cos Φ2 increases

Eb ER1

Ia1
α1 ϕ1
V

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 Eb ER2

Ia2
α2
ϕ2 V

• Ia increases as load increases regardless of excitation

• P.F approaches unity as load increases in under and over excited motors
• P.F becomes more lagging as load increases in normal excited motors

Effect of Changing Field Excitation at Constant Load

• Synchronous motor can be made to operate from lagging to leading power factor by changing the field
excitation
• Consider a synchronous motor having a fixed supply voltage and driving a constant mechanical load.
• Since the mechanical load as well as the speed is constant, the power input to the motor (=3 VIa cosΦ)
is also constant.
• This means that the in-phase component Ia cos Φ drawn from the supply will remain constant.
• If the field excitation is changed, back e.m.f Eb also changes.
• This results in the change of phase position of Ia w.r.t. V
• Hence the power factor cos Φ of the motor changes.
• Figure below shows the phasor diagram of the synchronous motor for different values of field
excitation.
• Note that extremities of current phasor Ia lie on the straight line AB

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 A

Eb ER

α Under Excitation Eb < V

V
ϕ Lagging Power Factor

Ia

Eb ER

α
V Normal Excitation Eb = V
ϕ Lagging Power Factor
Eb ER Ia

α Ia V Critical Excitation
Unity Power Factor
ϕ=0

ER
Eb

Ia
α ϕ Over Excitation Eb >V
V Leading Power Factor

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(i) Under excitation
• The motor is said to be under-excited if the field current (excitation) is such that Eb < V.
• Ia lags behind V by ϕ
• Motor power factor is lagging
(ii) Normal excitation
• The motor is said to be normally excited if the field current (excitation) is such that Eb = V.
• Ia phasor has come closer to phasor V.
• Phase difference ϕ decreases
• P.f. increases
• P.f is still lagging. .
(iii) Critical excitation
• As the excitation is increased, the power factor improves till it becomes unity
• Under such conditions, the current drawn from the supply is minimum.
• Motor is said to be critical excited
• ϕ=0
(iv) Over excitation
• The motor is said to be overexcited if the field excitation is such that Eb > V.
• Ia leads V and
• Power factor is leading
• From the above discussion, it is concluded that if the synchronous motor is under-excited, it has a
lagging power factor.
• If the excitation is further increased (i.e., over excitation), the motor power factor becomes leading.
V Curve of a Synchronous Motor
• V curve is a plot of the armature current versus field current for different constant loads.
• The Graph plotted between the armature current Ia and field current IF at constant load is obtained
known as V Curve.
• Since the shape of these curves is similar to the letter “V”, thus they are called V curve of
synchronous motor.
• The power factor of the synchronous motor can be controlled by varying the field current If.
• Armature current Ia changes with the change in the field current If.
• Let us assume that the motor is running at No load.
• If the field current is increased from this small value, the armature current Ia decreases until the
armature current becomes minimum.
• At this minimum point, the motor is operating at unity power factor.
• The motor operates at lagging power factor until it reaches up to this point of operation.
• When field current is increased further, the armature current increases and the motor start operating as
a leading power factor.
• The graph drawn between armature current and field current is known as V curve.
• If this procedure is repeated for various increased loads, a family of curves is obtained.

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• The point at which the unity power factor occurs is point where the armature current is minimum.
• Points on the right of the unity power factor corresponds to the over excitation and leading current.
• Points on the left of the unity power factor corresponds to the under excitation and lagging current.
Inverted V Curves
• If the power factor (cos Φ) is plotted against field current (If), then the shape of the graph looks like an
inverted V.
• Such curves obtained by plotting p.f. against If at various load conditions are called Inverted V-curves
of synchronous motor.
• These curves are shown in the Fig
• The figure below shows the graph between power factor and field current at the different loads

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Power flow in synchronous motor:

Ra= Armature Resistance per phase

Xs= Synchronous reactance per phase
Zs= Ra + j Xs
Ia = Er/Zs
Motor Input/ Ph = VIacosΦ
Total Power Input = 3 VIacosΦ = √3 VLIL cosΦ
Wscu= Stator copper loss= Ia2Ra
Total Wscu= Stator copper loss= 3Ia2Ra
Pm= P- Ia2Ra (per Phase)
Pm=√3 VLIL cosΦ - 3Ia2Ra (for three phases)
Efficiency = Pout/ Pin
Hunting or Surging or Phase swinging of a synchronous motor
• The stator and the rotor poles of running synchronous motor are magnetically locked
• Both run with same synchronous speed.
• But centre lines of the two poles do not coincide with each other.
• The rotor slips back behind the stator poles by a small angle α.
• This angle is known as load angle or torque angle.

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 • The backward shift of rotor poles increases by a larger angle as the load on the motor is increased
• But rotor poles still continue to run synchronously.
• The value of load angle α depends on the load carried by the motor.
• Load on the motor is increased gradually; rotor goes to new position smoothly.
• Load on motor load is changed suddenly; rotor cannot achieve its new position corresponding to the
new value of α smoothly.
• Rotor oscillates around its correct position for some time before adjusting to final position.
• This is known as hunting or surging or phase swinging in synchronous motor.
• The damper winding in synchronous motor plays a very important role in hunting.
• When rotor oscillates, the relative motion between RMF and rotor becomes non zero.
• Hence change in flux w.r.t damper winding
• EMF is induced in damper winding.
• Direction of induced EMF is in such that it will try to reduce relative motion due to hunting.
• Hence damper windings reduce hunting quickly
Causes of Hunting in Synchronous Motor
1. Sudden change in load.
2. Sudden change in field current.
3. A load containing harmonic torque.
4. Fault in supply system.
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Effects of Hunting in Synchronous Motor
1. It may lead to loss of synchronism.
2. Produces mechanical stresses in the rotor shaft.
3. Increases machine losses and cause temperature rise.
4. Cause greater surges in current and power flow.
5. It increases possibility of resonance.
Applications of Synchronous Motors:
• These motors are used as prime movers (drives) for centrifugal pumps, belt-driven reciprocating
compressors, Air Blowers, Paper Mills, rubber factories etc, because of their high efficiency & high
speeds (r.p.m above 600).
• Low speed Synchronous motors (r.p.m below 600), are widely used for driving many positive
displacement pumps like screw & gear pumps, vacuum pumps, chippers, metal rolling mills, aluminium
foil rolling machines etc.
• These motors are also widely used on board ships. The ship’s navigational equipment’s like Gyro-
compass use a special type of synchronous motor. They are also used as prime movers for Viscometer, a
device for measuring/regulating the viscosity of the main propulsion engine’s fuel oil.
• Most of the factories & industries use infinite number of inductive loads. These may range from the tube
lights to high power induction motors. Thus these inductive loads have a drastic lagging power factor.
An Over-excited Synchronous motor (a Synchronous Capacitor), having a leading power factor, is used
to improve the power factor of these supply systems.
• These Motors are also used for Voltage-regulation, where a heavy voltage dip/rise occurs when a heavy
inductive load in put on/off at the end of the long transmission lines.
• Synchronous motors can be run at ultra-low speeds by using high power electronic converters which
generate very low frequencies. Examples of these motors are a 10 MW range used for driving crushers,
rotary kilns & variable speed ball mills.
PROBLEM : A 20 pole, 40 hp, 660 V, 60 Hz, three-phase, wye-connected, synchronous motor is operating at
no-load with its generated voltage per phase exactly equal to phase voltage applied to its armature. At no-load,
the rotor retarded 0.5 mechanical degrees from its synchronous position. The synchronous reactance is 10
ohms, and the effective armature resistance is 1 ohm per phase. Calculate: (a) The rotor shift from the
synchronous position, in electrical degrees (b) The resultant emf across the armature, per phase (c) The
armature current, per phase (d) The power per phase, and the total power drawn by the motor from the bus (e)
The armature power loss, and the developed (ii) Repeat part- (i) with a mechanical displacement of 5° between
rotor and synchronous position.
Given: P=20 POUT = 40 HP VL = 660 V Eb =VPH β = 0.5 XS = 10Ω Ra = 1Ω
Find : i) α = ? ER =? Ia =? P/ph = ? P=? Wcu =? Pm =?
Solution: (i) β = 0.5
(a) α = P (β/2) = 20 (0.5 / 2) = 5°
(b) Vp = (VL / √3) = {(660) / (√3)} = 381 V
Eb = VPH = 381 V
ER➙ = (VPH – Eb cos α) + j(Eb sin α)
= (381 – 381 cos 5°) + j(381 sin 5°)
= 1.44 + j33.2 = 33.23 ∠87.51° V/phase.
➙
(c) ZS = Ra + jXs = 1.0 + j10 = 10∠84.3° Ω/phase
Ia➙ = (ER➙ / ZS➙) = {(33.2∠87.3°) / (10∠84.3°)}
= 3.32∠3.0° A/phase
(d) P/ph = VPH Ia cos ϕ = 381 × 3.32 cos 3° = 381 × 3.32 × 0.999
= 1265 W/phase
P = 3P/ph = 3 × 1265 W = 3795 W
(e) WCU = 3× Ia2Ra = 3 × (3.32)2 × 1.0 = 33 W.
Pm = P - WCU
Pm = {(3795 – 33 W) = 3762 W

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(ii) β = 50

(a) α = (Pβ / 2) = {(20 × 5) / 2} = 50° (electrical degrees).

(b) ER➙ = (VPH – Eb cos α) + j(Eb sin α)
= (381 – 381 cos 50°)+ j381 sin 50°
= 141 + j292 = 334∠64.2° V/phase.
(c) Ia = (ER➙ / ZS➙) = {(324∠64.2° V) / (10∠84.3° Ω)} = 32.4 ∠– 20.1° A.
(d) P/ph = VPH Ia cos ϕ = 381 × 32.4 cos 20.1° = 11,600 W.
Pin = 3P/ph = 3 × 11,600 = 34,800 W.
(e) WCU = 3Ia2Ra = 3 × (32.4)2 1.0 = 3150 W
Pm = P - WCU
Pm = (34,800 – 3150 W) = 31650 W

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