Three Phase Synchronous Motors

Salony Rajbhandari
Lecturer
Department of Electrical Engineering
 Overview
 Three Phase Synchronous Motor
 Principle of Operation
 Starting Methods
 No Load and Load operation, Phasor Diagram
 Effect of Excitation and Power Factor Control, V and Inverted
V Curves
 Hunting
 Power Angle Characteristics of Cylindrical Rotor Machine
 Two Reaction Model of Salient Pole Machine
 Power Angle Characteristics of Salient Pole Machine

2
 Synchronous Motor
 A synchronous motor has the same relationship to an
alternator as a DC motor has to a DC generator. i.e., if an
alternator is supplied with AC power it is capable of rotating
as a motor and doing mechanical work.
 If the mechanical power supplied to a rotating alternator is
removed while the DC field remains energized, and an AC
supply is then connected across the armature terminals,
torque will be developed and the alternator will continue to
rotate at a speed determined by the AC supply frequency and
number of poles on the synchronous machine.

3
 Synchronous Motor
 Synchronous motors are AC motor which always rotates at a
constant speed equal to synchronous speed.
 Some characteristics feature of synchronous motor are:
 It can run either at synchronous speed or not at all, i.e; while
running it maintains a constant speed equal to the synchronous
speed.
 It is not self starting; some auxiliary means has to be used to
start the motor.
 The motor can be operated at wide range of power factors both
lagging and leading.

4
 Operating principle

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5
 Operating principle
 When the starter winding are supplied by 3 – ø voltage,
rotating magnetic field will produce.
 At starting, the rotor field windings are unexcited and the
rotor is driven at synchronous speed by some auxiliary
means.
 Then, the rotor field windings are supplied by DC current
and the auxiliary means axis disconnected, the rotor pole and
stator pole will get engaged with a strong force and the rotor
continuously rotates with synchronous speed.

6
 Operating principle

V *£

y -o

Figure: Circuit diagram of 3 – ø synchronous motor

 Figure shows the circuit diagram of a synchronous motor.

 Like in DC motor back emf is induced in the armature winding.
 The magnitude of back emf Eb is proportional to the flux per pole (ø) or field
current If.
 XS = Synchronous reactance of armature winding
 Ra = Resistance of armature winding
7
 Operating principle
 Since, the stator winding has fixed number of turns and rotor
speed is constant, and Eb emf is AC in nature, the magnitude
of Eb is constant unless If is changed. But the phase angle of Eb
changes with load. (see the phasor diagram in figure)
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Fig: Phasor diagram

8
 Operating principle
 Synchronous motor is not self starting.
 When the stator windings are supplied by three phase
voltage, rotating magnetic field will produce.
 At the same time if the rotor field windings are excited by
AC current, the rotor poles will get magnetized.
 But the interaction between stator magnetic field and rotor
magnetic will not be able to produce a continuous rotation.
This fact can be explained as follows:

9
 Operating principle
 At starting, the position of rotor poles could have many
alternative positions relative to the stator poles as shown in
figure below:

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10
 Operating principle
 If the relative position between rotor poles and stator poles at
the starting is as shown as fig a., the like poles will get repel
and the tendency of the rotor will be to rotate in anti-
clockwise direction.
 But after some time, the N-pole of the stator and S-pole of
the rotor comes face to face.
 Then, these opposite poles will try to get attracted with each
other, then the tendency of the rotor will be to rotate in
clockwise direction. But the heavy mass of the rotor cannot
response to such a quick reversal of direction of rotation.
Hence, the rotor remains at rest.

11
 Operating principle
 If the relative position between rotor poles and stator poles at the
starting is as shown in figure b, the unlike poles will get attracted
and the tendency of the rotor will be to rotate in clockwise
direction along with the stator poles.
 But the heavy mass of the rotor cannot pick –up the synchronous
speed immediately.
 Therefore, after sometime, N-pole of the stator and N- pole of the
rotor comes face to face.
 Now, the like poles repels each other and the tendency of the
rotor will be to rotate in anti- clockwise direction. But the heavy
mass of the rotor cannot response to such a quick reversal of
direction of rotation. Hence, the rotor remains at rest.

12
 Operating principle
 If the relative position between rotor poles and stator poles at
the starting is as shown in figure c, the like poles will get
repel and the tendency of the rotor will be to rotate in anti-
clockwise direction.
 But after sometime, the N-pole of the stator and S-pole of
the rotor comes face to face.
 Then these opposite poles will try to get attract with each
other, then, the tendency of the rotor will be to rotate in
clockwise direction. But the heavy mass of the rotor cannot
response to such quick reversal of direction of rotation.
Hence, the rotor remains at rest.

13
 Operating principle
 Hence, at any position, the motor is not self starting.
 If the rotor is rotated up to or near to the synchronous speed
(before supplying voltage to the stator) by some auxiliary
means without exciting the rotor field winding & then stator
and field are excited by their respective supply, the rotor pole
will get magnetically locked up into synchronism with the
stator poles, then the rotor rotates continuously even the
auxiliary means is removed.

14
 Starting method
 It has been explained that a synchronous motor must be
accelerated up to the synchronous speed by some auxiliary
means before exciting the stator and field.
 Various methods are available for starting the synchronous
motor. These methods are as follows:
 A DC motor coupled to the shaft of synchronous motor.
 Using field exciter of synchronous as DC motor.
 A small induction motor of atleast one pair of poles less than
the synchronous motor.
 Using damper winding as a squirrel cage induction motor.

15
 Starting method
 The first method is sometime used in the laboratories with
synchronous motors without damper winding. The unexcited
rotors is rotated by means of a DC motor coupled to the
shaft of the synchronous motor. The speed of the DC motor
is adjusted by its field regulator. As the speed reach near to
synchronous speed, the field winding of the synchronous
motor is excited by the DC current and the DC motor is
switched off. Then the motor continuously rotates with
synchronous speed.

16
 Starting method
 The second method is similar to the first method except that
the exciter of the synchronous motor i.e., a DC shunt
generator is operated as DC motor for the time being and as
the speed reaches close to the synchronous speed, the DC
machine is again used as exciter.
 The third method, using an auxiliary induction motor with
atleast one pair of pole less, involves the same synchronizing
process as that of the first method.

17
 Starting method
 Most of the modern synchronous motors are started with the
help of the damper windings (see fig below)
0

dfiw
IgWs

Fig: Rotor pole with damper winding

18
 Starting method
 It should be noted that the shorting strip, which short
circuits the rotor bars, contains holes for bolting to the next
set of damper winding on the next pole.
 In this way, a complete squirrel cage winding is formed.
 Although the bars are not of the capacity to carry the rated
synchronous motor load, they are sufficient to start the
motor as induction motor.
 Star-delta or auto transformer methods are used to reduce
the starting current drawn by the motor.

19
 Starting method
 It is practically impossible to start a synchronous motor with
its field excited.
 Even with unexcited condition, the rapidly rotating magnetic
field of the stator will induce extremely high voltage in many
turns of the field winding.
 Therefore, it is better to short circuit DC field winding
during the starting period, whatever, voltage and current are
induced in it may then aid in producing induction motor
action.

20
 Starting method
 All the above methods shall be used with the synchronous
motor without load.
 In order to start the synchronous motor with load, phase
wound damper winding shall be used so that external
resistance can be inserted to produce high starting torque.
 Figure shows the schematic diagram of phase wound damper
winding for starting synchronous motor.

21
 Starting method
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22
 Starting method
 Such motor will have rotor with five slip ring.
 Two for the DC field excitation and three for AC star
connected wound damper winding.
 The motor is started with full external resistance per phase
and DC field circuit open.
 As the motor approaches synchronous speed, the starting
resistance is reduced and when the field voltage is applied,
the motor pulls into synchronism.

23
 No-load and loaded operation
 It had already been explained that a synchronous motor is not
self- starting.
 It had to be speeded up to synchronous speed by some
auxiliary means, the supply to the DC winding of the rotor
had to be switched on, then the rotor poles will get
magnetically locked up with stator poles.
 However, the engagement between stator and rotor poles is
not absolutely rigid one. As the load on the motor increases,
the rotor progressively tends to fall but the motor still
continue to run with the synchronous speed.

24
 No-load and loaded operation
 At no load, if there is no power loss in the motor, the stator
poles and rotor poles will be along the same axis and phase
difference between the applied voltage ‘V’ and the back emf
‘Eb’, developed in the armature winding will be exactly 180°
(see fig a).
 But this is not possible in practice, because some power loss
takes place due to iron loss and friction loss.
 Hence, the rotor pole lags by some angle ‘’ with the stator
pole and the phasor diagram will be as shown in figure b.

25
 No-load and loaded operation
 The current drawn by armature at no load is given by,

V~Eb Ea
L= Z, zS
 Where, ER = Net voltage across the armature
 ZS = Synchronous impedance per phase

26
 No-load and loaded operation
 In case of DC motor, the speed of the armature decreases
with increase in load, due to which the back emf will
decrease and then the armature current will increase to
overcome the increased load.
 But in case of synchronous motor, the speed does not change
with load.
 When the load on a synchronous motor increases, the rotor
poles lags the stator poles by larger angle ‘ and the phase
angle between V and Eb will increase (note that magnitude of
Eb will remain constant) so that the net voltage ER will
increase and the armature current will increase.

27
 No-load and loaded operation
Stator Stator Stator
pole pole pole

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Su Rotor Su Rotor Su Rotor

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Pole pole pole

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 Effect of Excitation
 The DC current supplied to the rotor field winding is known as
excitation in synchronous motor.
 As the speed of the synchronous motor is constant, the magnitude
of back emf remains constant provided the flux per pole produced
by the rotor does not change.
 So, the magnitude of back emf can be changed by field excitation.
 If the excitation is changed at a constant load, the magnitude of
armature current and power factor will change. By changing the
excitation, the motor can be operated at both lagging and leading
power factor. This fact can be explained by the following analysis:

29
 Effect of Excitation
 The value of excitation for which the magnitude of back emf,
Eb is equal to the applied voltage, V is known as 100%
excitation.
 If the excitation is more than 100%, then the motor is said to
be over excited and if the excitation is less than 100%, then
the motor is said to be under excited.
 Consider a synchronous motor operating with a constant
load. Figure 7(a) in the next slide shows the phasor diagram
for the case of 100% excitation. i.e., when Eb = V (in
magnitude). The armature current Ia lags behind V by a small
angle ø. is the phase angle between Ia and ER, whose
magnitude is given by θ = tan-1 (XS/Ra). Since, XS and Ra are
constant, angle also remains constant.
30
 Effect of Excitation
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 Effect of Excitation
 If the motor is under excited, the magnitude of Eb will be less
than V.
 Therefore, the resultant of Eb & V i.e., ER will shift upward
by some angle, then the direction of Ia will also shift by same
angle so that angle again remains constant as shown in figure
(7 b). Here, the magnitude of Ia has increased and Ia lags V by
greater angle so that power factor is decreased, but the active
component Ia cosø remains same, so the output power also
remains constant.

32
 Effect of Excitation
 Figure (7 c) represents the condition for over excited motor
i.r., when Eb>V, therefore, the resultant voltage vector ER is
pulled in the anti-clockwise and Ia is also shifted in anti-
clockwise direction. It is seen that now motor is drawing a
lading current.
 It may also happen for same value of excitation, that Ia may
be in phase with V. i.e., power factor is unity as shown in
figure (7 d). At this instant the current drawn by motor is
minimum.

33
 Effect of Excitation
 The following two important points can be understood from the
above discussion:
 The magnitude of armature current varies with excitation. The
current has large values at both low and high values of excitation.
In between, it has minimum value corresponding to a certain
excitation for which power factor is unity. The variation of Ia with
excitation are shown in figure 8 which are known as ‘V’ curves
because of their shape.
 For the same input armature current varies between a wide range
and power factor also vary accordingly with excitation. When over
excited, motor runs with leading power factor and the motor runs
with lagging power factor when under excited. The variation of
power factor with excitation is shown in figure 8and is known as
minimum armature current corresponds to unity power factor.
34
 Effect of Excitation

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35
 Hunting
 It is seen that when a synchronous motor is loaded the rotor
poles fall back by a certain angle, called the load angle and
represented by α behind the poles of the forward rotating
magnetic field.
 If the load is suddenly thrown off, the rotor poles are pulled into
almost exact position to the poles of the forward field, but due to
inertia of rotor the rotor poles travel too far.
 They are then pulled back again and so on.
 Thus, an oscillation is set up about the equilibrium position
corresponding to new load.
 Hunting
 The oscillation of the rotor about its equilibrium position is
called the hunting.
 The hunting is caused by
 Change in load
 Change in excitation
 Change in some other conditions such as faults
 Hunting is, of course, an objectionable characteristic of all
synchronous motors, as it produces severe mechanical stresses as
well as large variations in current and power drawn by the
motor.
 Hunting
 Hunting is suppressed by providing a damper winding, also known as
the squirrel cage winding or damper grids.
 The damper windings consists of short-circuited copper or bronze
bars embedded in the faces of the field poles of the synchronous
motors.
 When the machine is operating at exactly synchronous speed, there is
no relative motion between the rotor and air-gap flux and so no
voltage is induced in this damper or squirrel cage winding.
 Thus at synchronous speed of the motor no current flows through this
additional winding and operation of the machine is not affected.
Hunting
 But when the speed of the machine deviates from the
synchronous speed or hunting takes place, there is a relative
motion between the rotor (or damper winding) and the air-
gap flux and, therefore, eddy currents are set-up in this
winding in such a way as to suppress the oscillations.

 The effectiveness of the damping winding in suppressing the

rotor oscillations, however, depends upon the resistance of
this winding; the lower the resistance the stronger is the
damping action.
 Hunting
 Fortunately, damper winding also serves to make the
synchronous motor self-starting and a high squirrel cage
resistance is necessary for developing good starting torque, it is
customary to use a compromise value for the cage.

 The dampers cannot prevent hunting completely because their

operation depends upon the presence of oscillating motion.
Power Angle Characteristics of Cylindrical
Rotor Machines
 Figure (a) shows the circuit diagram and phasor diagram of a synchronous machine in generating mode
and Figure (b) shows the same of a synchronous machine in motoring mode.
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a) Generating Mode b) Motoring Mode

 Power Angle Characteristics of Cylindrical
Rotor Machines
 The machines are assumed to be connected to the infinite busbar
having a voltage of ‘Vt’ and the resistance of the stator winding is
neglected and only the reactance of the machine has been
considered.
 For generating mode, from the triangle OMP,

E. h la. X:;
Sin(90" +<f>) Sin c')
(based on Sine Law)
 Power Angle Characteristics of Cylindrical
Rotor Machines
 For motoring mode,

Eb I a. Xs
Sin(90 - (f>) Si n S
• In general,
Eh la.Xs Rh la.Xs
Or
Sin(90" ± <j)) Sin d C os (j) Sin (>
Power Angle Characteristics of Cylindrical
Rotor Machines

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Xs
On multiplying both sides by Vt

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•
Vt.Ia.Cos(|) pi

SmO
\s
= Electrical power exchanged between infinite bus and machine
Vt.E …………………Eq (1)
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Xs
Power Angle Characteristics of Cylindrical
Rotor Machines
 From equation (1) it is clear that the electrical power of the
machine Pe is proportional to sinδ, where δ is the phase
angle between Vt and Eb. This angle δ is known as
power angle.
 Equation (1) can be represented by a curve as shown in
Figure (1). This curve is known as Power-Angle
Characteristic of Synchronous Machine.
Power Angle Characteristics of Cylindrical
Rotor Machines
A I’C
Generating mode
Vt E
- = Pe(max)
Xs
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- Pe(max)
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Motoring mode

Figure 1
Power Angle Characteristics of Cylindrical
Rotor Machines
 Maximum power occurs at δ=90°.
 At no-load the machine operates at δ=0 (but>0).
 As the load increases, δ will increase and more electrical
power will exchange.
 If the machine is overloaded so that δ>90°, then the machine
will loose the synchronism, the machine will not be able to
exchange more power and the machine will loose stability.
 δ=90° is the steady state stability limit.
 The machine is normally operated at δ much less than 90°.
This is to prevent the machine from going into an unstable
region during transient power swing.
 Salient-Pole Synchronous Machine – Two
Reaction Model
 All the above analysis of the synchronous machine is based on the
assumption that the rotor is cylindrical where the reluctance to
the air gap flux is uniform at any position of the rotor.
 But in case of salient pole rotor, this is not true.
 The reluctance to the air gap flux is not uniform at any position
of the rotor due to the asymmetrical construction of the rotor.
Magnetic Axes of the Rotor
 The axis of symmetry of the north magnetic poles of the
rotor is called the direct axis or d-axis.
 The axis of symmetry of the south magnetic poles is the
negative d-axis.
 The axis of symmetry halfway between adjacent north and
south poles is called the quadrature axis or q-axis.
 The q-axis lagging the north pole is taken as the positive q-
axis (see Figure 2).
 The quadrature axis is so named because it is 90 electrical
degrees (one-quarter cycle) away from the direct axis.
Magnetic Axes of the Rotor
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tj = quadratic
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 Two Reaction Theory
 Two-reaction theory was proposed by Andre Blondel.
 The theory proposes to resolve the given armature mmfs into two
mutually perpendicular components, with one located along the axis
of the rotor salient pole. It is known as the direct-axis (or d-axis)
component.
 The other component is located perpendicular to the axis of the rotor
salient pole. It is known as the quadrature-axis (or q-axis) component.
 The d-axis component of the armature mmf is denoted by Fd and the
q-axis component by Fq.
 The component Fd is either magnetizing or demagnetizing.
 The component Fq results in a cross-magnetizing effect.
 Two Reaction Theory
 If Ψ is the angle between the armature current Ia and the
excitation voltage Ef and Fa is the amplitude of the armature
mmf, then,

sin y
Fd = Fa
F,•/ = Fa cos \j/
Salient-Pole Synchronous Machine – Two
Reaction Model
 In the cylindrical rotor synchronous machine the air gap is uniform.
 The protruding pole structure of the rotor of a salient pole machine makes the air gap
highly non-uniform.
• Consider a 2-pole salient pole rotor rotating Direct axis (d-axis)
l>»

in the anticlockwise direction within a 2 Direct axis

pole stator as shown in Figure 3. The axis flux path N
0i/.
along the axis of the rotor is called direct «,/ Quadr,
(or d-) axis and the axis perpendicular to d- (fl a:
*-

axis is called the quadrature (or q-) axis.

These axes are shown in Figure 3.
r " Quadr;
% iflux p;
• It is seen that the direct-axis flux path S
involves two small air gaps and is the path of
minimum reluctance.

• The path denoted by Øq in Figure 3 has two

large air gaps and is the path of maximum Figure 3
reluctance.
 Salient-Pole Synchronous Machine – Two
Reaction Model
 The rotor flux BR is shown vertically upwards in Figure 4.
 The rotor flux induces a voltage Ef in the stator.
 If a lagging p.f. load is connected to the synchronous generator, a
stator current Ia will flow.
 The stator current Ia lags behind the generated voltage Ef by and
angle Ψ (see Figure 4)
 The armature current produces stator magnetomotive force Fs.
This mmf lags behind Ia by 90º.
 The mmf Fs produces stator magnetic field Bs along the direction
of Fs.
 The stator mmf Fs is resolved into two components namely the
direct-axis component Fd and the quadrature-axis component Fq.
Salient-Pole Synchronous Machine – Two
Reaction Model
 If Ød = direct axis flux
Øq = quadrature axis flux
Rd = Reluctance of direct-axis flux path

<*><( =
Frf
••

o=
Salient-Pole Synchronous Machine – Two
Reaction Model
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/

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Figure 4 Figure 5
 Since Rd < Rq, the direct-axis component of mmf Fd produces more flux than
the quadrature-axis component of mmf Fq. The direct and quadrature axis stator
fluxes produce voltages in the stator winding by armature reaction.
Rad ~ direct axis component of armature reaction voltage
Eni] = quadrature axis component of armature reaction voltage
Since each armature reaction voltage is directly proportional to its stator
current and lags behind the stator current by 90°, therefore armature
reaction
voltages can be written as
Ead j Xad ld (3.39.1)
Eaq = -jXaqlq (3.39.2)
where Xnd = armature reaction reactance in the direct axis per phase
Xaq armature reaction reactance in the quadrature axis per phase
~

The value of Xaq is always less than Xad since the emf induced by a
mmf acting on the direct axis is smaller than for the quadrature axis «
higher reluctance.
Thank you