CONTENTs

Page

1. Introduction.................................................. 02

2. Theory of solid body heating and cooling........... 04

3. Methods of cooling......................................... 05

4. Induced and forced ventilation......................... 06

5. Radial and axial ventilation.............................. 07

6. Cooling of turbo-alternators............................. 09

6.1 Air cooled turbo-alternator................................... 09

6.2 Hydrogen cooled turbo-alternator........................... 09
6.2.1 Advantages of hydrogen cooling.................... 10
6.2.2 Hydrogen cooling system............................ 11
6.3 Direct cooled turbo-alternators............................... 13
6.3.1 Advantages of direct cooling........................... 13
6.3.2 Coolants used in direct cooling........................ 15
6.3.3 Direct cooling system..................................... 16

Conclusion
References

1
 INTRODUCTION

An Alternator is an electro-mechanical device that coverts

mechanical energy into electrical energy. The process of energy
transfer in case of rotating electrical machines involves currents
in conductors, and fluxes in ferromagnetic parts. Thus there are
various losses in windings. The losses appear as heat and
therefore the temperature of the system increases. These
alternators are in continuous operation and due to mechanical
reasons such as friction, insulation, etc. there is a considerable
wear and tear of system due to heating.

Heat is dissipated in form of

1. conduction given by

Qcon= (θ1-θ2)/RC

Where Qcon= heat dissipated by conduction, W;

θ1, θ2= temperature of two bounding surfaces, °C;

RC= thermal resistance of conducting medium, °C/W.

2. radiation given by
Qrad= 5.7×10-8e(T14-T04)

Where Qrad=heat dissipated by radiation W/m2

2
 Θ1, θ2= temperature of emitting surface and ambient medium

e= coefficient of emissivity

3. convection given by
Qconv= KC(θ1-θ0)n
Where Qconv= heat dissipated by convection W/m2

Such overheating may cause heavy damage to the system leading

to alternator failure leading to losses in capital. Thus cooling
techniques are applied to cool the alternator and prevent excess
heating of the alternator. Various cooling techniques are applied
such as hydrogen cooling, direct cooling and air cooling which are
used according to the requirement of alternator. Various
ventilating system also aid to the cooling of the alternator such as
axial ventilation, radial ventilation, etc. which are designed
according to alternator requirement.

3
Theory of solid body heating and cooling:
The temperature of a machine rises when it is run under load conditions
starting from cold conditions. Electrical machines are not homogeneous
bodies. Their parts are made up of different materials like copper, iron and
insulation. These materials have different thermal resistivities and due to
this, it is rather difficult to calculate the temperature of a part of machine
and so we take theory of heating of homogeneous bodies as basis for
analyzing the process of machine heating. The results obtained are
applicable to different parts of machine too.
The equation of temperature rise with time is given by
−t

θ=θ ( 1−e )
Th
m

Where, θ= temperature rise at any time t, °C

θm = final steady temperature rise while heating, °C

t= time, s
T h = heating time constant, s

The equation of cooling is given by

θ=θi e−t /T c

Where, θi= initial temperature rise over ambient medium

T c =¿Cooling time constant, s

4
Methods of cooling
In the near future, the greatest gains of output from a given size of machine
are likely to arise from improvements in cooling techniques. Small
electrical machines in the fractional horse power range may be cooled by
natural means. In this method no external devices are used and the cooling
is done by natural radiation and convection assisted by random air
currents set up by the rotor where the frames are open. But all modern
electrical machines are characterized by large losses per unit area of
surfaces of machine, which dissipate heat into the ambient medium and
hence artificial cooling methods are necessary in order to avoid excessive
temperature rise during machine operations.
In most cases the cooling of electrical machine is done by air streams and
this cooling is called “Ventilation”. In high speed machines such as turbo-
alternators, hydrogen is used for cooling. There are machines in which
water is used for cooling.
The cooling of machines according to the manner of cooling is of following
types:
1. Open circuit ventilation- the heat is given up directly to the cooling
air through the machine which is being continuously replaced.
2. Surface ventilation- the heat is given up by the cooling medium from
external surface of a totally enclosed machine.
3. Closed circuit ventilation- the heat is transferred to the cooling
medium through an intermediate cooling medium circulating in a
closed circuit through the machine and cooler.
4. Liquid cooling- parts of machine carry water or another kind of liquid
flowing through them, or they are immersed into a liquid.

5
INDUCED AND FORCED VENTILATION:
The ventilation of a machine is induced if the fan produces a decreased
pressure of air inside the machine causing the air to be sucked into the
machine under the external atmospheric pressure. The air is then pushed
out by the fan into the atmosphere. It is most commonly used in machines
of small and medium power output.
The ventilation of machine is said to be forced if the fan sucks the air from
the atmosphere and forces it into the machine, from where it is then
pushed out to the atmosphere. In induced ventilation cold air enters the
machine whereas in forced ventilation the temperature of cooling air rises
on account of losses in the fan. Thus the amount of air required to cool the
machine is higher with forced ventilation.

6
RADIAL AND AXIAL VENTILATION:
RADIAL VENTILATING SYSTEM
This system is most commonly employed because the movement of rotor
induces a natural centrifugal movement of air which may be augmented by
provisions of fans if required. The end shields are shaped to guide air on
the overhang and then on the back of the core. This method is suitable for
machines up to about 20kW. For larger machines, which have large core
lengths, the core is subdivided in order to provide radial ventilating ducts.
The air now passes radially through these ducts, the path of air in the ducts
being parallel to that over the overhang. The core is normally divided into
stacks 40 to 80 mm thick, with ventilating ducts of width 6.5 mm width.
The advantages of radial system are:
1) Minimum energy losses for ventilation
2) Sufficiently uniform temperature rise of machine in axial direction
The disadvantages are:
1) Makes machine lengths larger.
2) The ventilating system sometimes becomes unstable in respect to
quantity of cooling air flowing.

7
AXIAL VENTILATING SYSTEM
The axial ventilating system is employed in induction machines. This
system of machine is suitable for machines of medium output and higher
speed. This is because in high speed machines, a solid rotor construction
with restricted spider is used in order to avoid centrifugal stresses and this
restricts the provision of radial ventilating ducts and hence axial ventilating
ducts are used. In order to increase the cooling surface holes may be
punched where considerable heat dissipation occurs. This system improves
cooling but has some disadvantages like non-uniform heat transfer and
increased iron losses. However, in a large number of cases this loss is more
than compensated by improved cooling.
COMBINED AXIAL AND RADIAL VENTILATING SYSTEM
This method is usually employed for large motors and small turbo-
alternators. This is because of these machines the area of axial ducts
required to carry sufficient quantity of cooling air becomes excessive giving
rise to a large iron loss and therefore a mixed axial and radial system has to
be used. The air is drawn from one end and is encouraged to pass through
the ducts by baffling the fan end of the rotor spider. The rotor mounted fan
forces out the air.

8
COOLING OF TURBO-ALTERNATORS
The problem of cooling of turbo-alternators is one of the most complex
problems in electrical engineering since being high speed machines their
dimensions as compared with those of hydro-electric generators for
instance, are much smaller. In fact the problems associated with cooling
arise because turbo-alternators are characterized by long core lengths and
small diameters.

AIR COOLED TURBO-ALTERNATORS

The cooling of turbo-alternators by air is used for small units. The various
methods used for air cooling of turbo-alternators are:
1. One Sided Axial Ventilation. Machines for power outputs up to 3
MW permit the use of one sided axial ventilation. In this method the
machine is supplied with air by propeller fan and air enters the
machine from one side and leaves from the other. The disadvantage
of one sided axial ventilation is the great difference in the
temperature rise of the winding along the length of machine.
2. Two Sided Axial Ventilation. In this method the air is forced
through the machine from both the sides. It has the advantage that
end windings have same temperature rise.
3. Multiple inlet system. In a multiple inlet system the outer stator
casing is divided into a number of compartments, these being used
alternatively as inlet and outlet chambers. In the inlet chambers the
air is directed radially inwards while in outlet chamber the air is
directed radially outwards. Air is forced under pressure into the
stator casing where it enters the inlet chamber from where it flows
radially inwards into the stator ducts. Part of this air passes through
the axial ducts, the remainder flowing along the air gap. It then
passes radially outwards in the adjacent sections of the core to the
outlet chambers. The air is drawn from the outlet chambers and is
sent to the coolers where it is cooled and is recirculated. This
method can be used for machines up to 60 MW.

HYDROGEN COOLING OF TURBO-ALTERNATORS

Building of air cooled turbo-alternator above 50 MW rating presents
serious ventilation difficulties, not only in circulating the requisite quantity

9
of air through the machine but also because the high fan power required to
circulate the air. An idea of the quantities involved can be had from the data
of 60 MW machine which has a total loss of 1000 kW and requires a 150
tonnes of air per hour and a fan power of about 100 kW. Thus the air
circulating fan power required for this duty is high and on this score alone
the air cooled generator could be ruled out when it becomes necessary to
increase generator rating. Thus hydrogen cooling method was found.

ADVANTAGES OF HYDROGEN COOLING:

1. Increased efficiency. An increase in efficiency results from
reduction in the ventilation losses which are a major portion of the
total losses in a high speed machine. This is because the density of
hydrogen is only 0.07 times the density of air and therefore the
power required to circulate hydrogen should be about 1/14 of the
power required for an equivalent quantity of air. Thus efficiency is
raised by approx. 0.8% at full load values of 99 to 99.2%.
2. Increase in rating. Hydrogen has a heat transfer coefficient 1.5
times and its thermal conductivity is 7 times that of air. Consequently
when hydrogen is used as a coolant, the heat is more readily taken up
from the machine parts and given out. Therefore heat generated is
more effectively removed and the active materials can be loaded
more than in possible with air cooling. The higher value of thermal
conductivity of hydrogen, the temperature gradients across the film
barrier between cooled surface and coolant and across the coolant
are reduced. On account of above two factors, an increased output
can be taken from a given frame size if hydrogen cooling is used.
3. Increase in life. The life of a machine is mainly the life of winding
insulation and air pockets in insulation can be sources of such high
local temperature that there is always the risk of insulation
breakdown and fire. As thermal conductivity of hydrogen is of same
order as winding insulation, therefore when there are pockets filled
with hydrogen, heat conduction through them will be as good as
through winding insulation and consequently high local temperature
raises are not there.
4. Elimination of fire hazards. The outbreak of fire inside the
machine is impossible as hydrogen does not support burning.
5. Smaller size of coolers. The size of coolers required to cool the gas
are smaller in size when hydrogen is used as coolant.

10
HYDROGEN COOLING SYSTEM
Hydrogen when mixed with air forms an explosive mixture over a wide
range (4% to 76%) of hydrogen in air. Therefore the frame of hydrogen
cooling machines has to be made strong enough.

All joints in cooling system are made gas tight and oil film shaft
seals are used to prevent leakage of hydrogen. The seals must
accommodate axial expansion of rotor shaft and stator frame.
The seal bearing is a small thrust bearing held by springs to a
collar machine on the rotor shaft. The seal oil is forced in a
groove in the bearing face. The seal rings are two short bearing
fitting closely to the rotor shaft but held apart by a greater
spring. Sealing oil is forced into the space between the two
bearing rings and passes in two axial directions along the
shafts. A part of the oil flows towards the inner (gas) side and
other part to the air side. The oil that flows towards air mixes
with air, while the oil that goes towards hydrogen is collected
and degassed.
Fans mounted on the rotor circulate hydrogen through the
ventilating ducts and internally arranged gas coolers. The gas
pressure is maintained by an automatic regulating and
reducing valve controlling the supply from cylinders. When
filling and emptying the casing of machine, an explosive
hydrogen air mixture must be avoided, so that air is first

11
displaced by carbon dioxide gas before hydrogen gas is
admitted. The process is reversed when emptying the machine.
It is usual to provide a drier to take up water vapour entering
through seals. The purity of hydrogen is checked by measuring
its thermal conductivity.

12
DIRECT COOLED TURBO-ALTERNATORS
Conventionally cooled machines dissipate their losses to a coolant which
is entirely outside the coil insulation. The cooling methods described till
now are conventional methods.

Direct cooling is the process of dissipating the armature and field

winding losses to a cooling medium circulating within the winding
insulation wall. Machines cooled in this manner are also called
“supercharged”, “inner cooled” or “conductor cooled”. In this method the
coolant either is in direct contact with conductor copper or is separated
only by materials having negligible thermal resistance.

ADVANTAGES OF DIRECT COOLING:

1. Increase in rating. The attempt is always to increase the rating.
One way of doing it is by increasing the hydrogen pressure in
conventional cooling. Rotor copper heating is the most serious
limitation to the output from a conventionally cooled generator and
increasing the hydrogen pressure beyond 300 kN/m2. It is therefore
logical to adopt direct cooling of rotor conductors in order to
increase machine rating.
2. Decrease in temperature gradient. The stator of a large
turbo-alternator is provided with both axial as well as radial
ventilating ducts through which hydrogen(or air) under pressure is
forced through a ventilating duct provided below the bottom of the
rotor slot. This arrangement is suitable up to ratings of about 100-
125 MW but above this rating the temperature gradient across the
conductor insulation becomes high necessitating the use of direct
cooling. In conventionally hydrogen cooled turbo-alternator a
considerable temperature drop exists between the winding

13
conductor and the coolant. Since in direct cooling the coolant comes
in direct contact with the conductor, the temperature gradients
across the slot insulation, teeth and surface barrier are almost
completely eliminated with the results that winding temperatures
are considerably brought down.

14
COOLANTS USED FOR DIRECT COOLING

1. HYDROGEN. In direct cooled system using hydrogen, both stator

and rotor conductors are made hollow. Hydrogen is pumped
through these conductors from one end to the other. The rotor
conductors consist of rectangular tubes which are ventilated by a
cooling circuit separate from that of the stator. The hydrogen gas is
admitted to the tubes through flexible insulating connections at the
ends from a centrifugal impeller mounted on the out board end of
the rotor shaft. The rotor slot tubes are electrically connected at the
overhang by suitably shaped copper bars to form inlet and outlet
parts. It is possible to build machines up to ratings of about 300 MW
by employing direct hydrogen cooling.
2. Water. The transition from direct hydrogen cooled to direct water
cooled turbo-alternator stator was a logical step for two reasons.
Firstly, as the ratings of turbo-alternators increase, more space has
to be provided for the conductors for the flow of requisite quantity
of cooling gas. Secondly, mechanical limitations on rotor diameter
makes it necessary to increase the physical size of the machine by
increasing its length, and to circulate hydrogen through very long
conductor lengths requires high pressure heads. Water is superior
to hydrogen not only because of its superior heat transfer capacity
but also because the viscosity of pure water is small and is possible
to maintain flow in small tubes without building up dangerously
high pressure heads.

15
DIRECT COOLING SYSYTEM
Turbo-alternators of highest possible ratings so far contemplated
are likely to use hydrogen cooled stator cores and direct water
cooled stator and rotor windings. In the rotor slot of direct water
cooled turbo-alternator the width is reduced near the bottom in
order to increase the tooth width so that the stresses due to
centrifugal forces are kept within limits. An inlet seal is attached to
the outboard (non-coupling) end to enable the water to enter the
bore of the shaft. Water enters at the coil ends and leaves at the
midpoint of each coil side. Water can be circulated through holes in
the slot wedges which are used as damper windings in a turbo-
alternator. The high temperature rise of water flowing through the
copper is, therefore, only 30°C. High grade transformer oil is an
effective coolant and is being used in USA for direct cooling of stator
conductors. But oil has a flash point which can be reached by
machine under fault conditions and therefore can damage the
armature insulation. Water is preferred in UK because it has no fire
risk and if leaking occurs it can be restored by simple drying
process.

16
 CONCLUSION

Heating is a natural process and due to presence of ferromagnetic

materials like iron, copper,etc. occurs in alternators and would
dissipate in form of conduction, convection and radiation.
Alternators are used for continuous duty which makes it necessary to
be cooled for increased efficiency and minimum damage. Thus
various cooling techniques like hydrogen cooling, direct cooling and
air cooling are applied to an alternator according to the power
ratings and requirements which have been mentioned in the
previous pages. With the continuous innovation and technology
various new techniques of cooling are being employed for increased
efficiency.

17
 REFERENCES
1. A course in electrical machine design by A.K.
SAWHNEY & A. CHAKRABARTI

18
 ABSTRACT
The process of energy transfer in case of rotating electrical
machines involves currents in conductors, and fluxes in
ferromagnetic parts. Thus there are various losses in windings.
The losses appear as heat and therefore the temperature of the
system increases. Heat is dissipated in form of

1. conduction
2. radiation
3. convection

Such overheating may cause heavy damage to the system leading

to alternator failure leading to losses in capital. Thus cooling
techniques are applied to cool the alternator and prevent excess
heating of the alternator. Various cooling techniques applied are

1. Hydrogen cooling
2. Air cooling
3. Direct cooling

Which are used according to the requirement of alternator.

19