Synchronous Machine Parameter Measurement 1

Synchronous Machine Parameter Measurement

Introduction

Wound field synchronous machines are mostly used for power generation but also are well suited
for motor applications where constant speed and leading power factor operation are desirable. In
this experiment, classical tests will be performed to determine the synchronous machine
parameters. Under generator operation, the standard open-circuit voltage and short-circuit
current characteristics are obtained. This allows calculation of the synchronous reactance and
Short Circuit Ratio (SCR).

The fundamental principle of the synchronous machine is that the electrical frequency (in Hz) is
related to the mechanical speed (in RPM) through the number of poles by

120 f
n (1)
poles

The radian electrical frequency is given by

e  2 f (2)

The synchronous generator steady-state per-phase equivalent electric circuit is shown in Figure
1. Typically, the armature voltage is used as a reference and the internal generated voltage (or
back-emf) and armature current are defined relative to this phasor by

Vˆa  Va 0 (3)

Eˆ af  Eaf  (4)

Iˆa  I a    (5)

In this model, the armature resistance is neglected and Xs represents the stator reactance. All
electrical quantities are operating at the frequency  e with the exception of the dc field voltage
and current.
 Synchronous Machine Parameter Measurement 2

A standard test that is performed on the synchronous generator is to measure the synchronous
reactance by measuring the open-circuit armature voltage and short-circuit armature current
versus field current while the machine is driven at a constant mechanical speed. If the machine
terminals are open-circuited, armature current will be zero and thus the magnitude of the open-
circuit voltage will be

e Laf I f
Va,OC  Eaf  (6)
2

Since Eaf is proportional to field current I f , one would expect the open-circuit voltage to
increase linearly with field current. However, as the field current is increased, the machine steel
saturates and the open-circuit characteristic exhibits the characteristic shown in Figure 2.

In Figure 2, the short-circuit current and stator reactance are also plotted versus field current.
From the equivalent circuit, the reactance can be defined as
 Synchronous Machine Parameter Measurement 3

Va,OC
Xs  (7)
I a,SC

It should be noted that Va,OC is a line-to-neutral voltage and if line-to-line voltage is measured,
the measured voltage should be divided by 3.

It can be seen from Figure 2, that the synchronous reactance changes as the machine saturates.
For low values of field current, the machine is unsaturated and the reactance value is referred to
as the unsaturated reactance X s,u . The saturated reactance is defined as the reactance calculated
according to (7) at a field current which corresponds to rated armature voltage on the open-
circuit curve.

If the armature resistance Ra is included in the model, an exact value for the stator reactance can
be calculated using

2
V 
X s,exact   a,OC   Ra2 (8)
 I a,SC 

For practical machines Ra is much less than X s and (7) gives a value of reactance with an error
less than 0.05%.

Another parameter that is of interest in synchronous machines is the short-circuit ratio (SCR).
This is defined as the amount of field current that results in rated armature voltage AFNL
(amperes field no-load) from the open-circuit test divided by the field current that results rated
armature current AFSC (amperes field short-circuit) from the short-circuit test. This can be
expressed as

AFNL
SCR  (9)
AFSC

With this definition, SCR is a per-unit quantity. It can be shown that the reciprocal of SCR times
the rated armature voltage Va,rated over the rated armature current I a,rated is equivalent to the stator
reactance

 1  Va,rated 

Xs    (10)
 SCR  I a,rated 


Equation (10) is valid for the saturated reactance as defined above.

 Synchronous Machine Parameter Measurement 4

Laboratory Software

Figure 3 shows a screen-shot of the laboratory software used in this experiment,

“LabSynchronousMachineParametersTenma.” For creating the open-circuit voltage and short-
circuit current plots, the primary variables of interest are the field current If, the armature voltage
VLL(rms), and the armature current Ia(rms). These variables are logged along with the
frequency by clicking the Add button. The field current in the synchronous machine is
controlled by the knob on the Tenma power supply. After adjusting the supply through all field
currents and obtaining the open-circuit test, the Test Type can be changed to Short-Circuit for
the short-circuit test.

Figure 5. Screen shot of LabView software used for this experiment.

 Synchronous Machine Parameter Measurement 5

Laboratory Synchronous Machines

Figure 7 shows the diagram of the motor test stand used for this experiment. The synchronous
machine is actually a wound-rotor induction machine. It will operate as a synchronous machine
when a dc current is supplied to the rotor. Besides the rotor windings accessible form the
connector box, the machine also has short-circuited damper windings on the rotor. Both sides of
each stator winding (as, bs, cs, an, bn, and cn terminals) are brought out on the connector box for
connection in wye or delta. However, in this experiment, the machine will be connected in wye.
The rotor is wye-connected internally, and the three terminals are brought out (ar, br, and cr).
Synchronization lamps are connected in-between the stator windings and the line connection
(terminals a, b, and c). A three-phase switch bypasses these lamps when switched on. This set-
up can be used for synchronizing the generator to the line or for synchronous motor starting. The
synchronous machine is rated at 208 V (line-to-line rms), 60 Hz, 200 W. It is a 4-pole machine
and thus has a synchronous speed of 1800 RPM.

The dc machine armature and field terminals are available for connection (A1, A2, F1, and F2).
The machine is designed to be shunt-connected (armature and field in parallel) and is used to
drive the synchronous machine as a generator or absorb a mechanical load when the synchronous
machine is operating as a motor.
 Synchronous Machine Parameter Measurement 6

Laboratory Work
Connect the dc and synchronous machines to the sources as shown in Figure 5. The dc motor
will be connected to the dc supply on the source panel through the meter box so that the voltage,
current and power can be displayed. The synchronous machine field is connected to the Tenma
benchtop dc supply through a meter box channel as shown. In future experiments, you will use
the Magna-Power supply instead. However, for this experiment, we need to operate at very low
current levels where the Magna-Power is unstable. Throughout this experiment, some variation
is allowable in the setting, ±0.05 A. Connect the synchronous machine armature terminals to the
first and second channels of the meter box as shown. Make sure the switch on the connection
box is in the ON position.

Open and run the correct parameter measurement program,

“LabSynchronousMachineParametersTenma.” Click Zero DC offset on the laboratory software
to zero the offset in the dc channels. After zeroing these channels, remove the short circuit
wires.
The benchtop supply should be set for its maximum output voltage (about 20 V) and minimum
possible current limit. Unfortunately, the current limit is not indicated unless the power supply is
active. Switch on the supply at the back, but do not enable it on the front. Adjust the voltage to
its maximum and turn the current down using the knobs on the front of the supply. Install a short
(the dotted line in Figure 5, on the low side of the third channel of the meter box, the
synchronous machine field connection) and enable the benchtop supply. Verify that the display
on the LabView program is similar to the display on the benchtop supply, and turn the current
down as low as possible. Disable the supply and remove the short.
Switch on the source panel and increase the voltage to 20%. At this time, the dc motor should
start. However, the machine may not start since the armature and field are being increased
simultaneously. If this is the case, reduce the voltage to zero and switch off the source panel
circuit breaker then connect the motor using the alternate connection shown in Figure 5. This
reverses the field flux and the machine should start the next time the source panel is switched on
and adjusted to 15%.
If the dc motor is running smoothly, increase the source panel voltage to 50%. This should
correspond to a dc voltage of about 150 V as seen on the computer screen. At this point, the
speed will be nearly 1800 RPM. Also, the armature voltage will have a small value even though
the synchronous machine field current is zero. This is because the rotor field poles are slightly
magnetized from previous use. This small voltage can be used to determine the number of poles.
Write down the frequency displayed on the computer screen. Use the hand-held tachometer at
your station to measure the shaft speed. From this information, the number of poles can be
computed from equation (1) above. The number of poles should be an even integer number.
Make sure the Test Type is set to Open-Circuit and log a data point by clicking Add. Increase
the commanded field current to 0.25 A (using the current knob on the front of the Tenma supply)
and log another data point. Some deviation is acceptable, ±0.05 A. Continue to increase the field
current in increments of 0.25 A and log each data point for the entire range (up to 2.5 A). You
should notice from the waveforms and rms readings that the armature voltage increases and the
armature current is zero. Decrease the commanded field current to zero.
 Synchronous Machine Parameter Measurement 7

At this point, the machine should still be running and the field current should be zero. The
armature voltage should be very small. Add the short circuit wires (dashed wires in Figure 5, on
the high side of the first two channels, the synchronous machine stator connections). Change the
Test Type to Short-Circuit. Log a data point by clicking Add. Increase the commanded field
current to 0.25 A and log another data point. Continue to increase the field current in increments
of 0.25 A and log each data point for the entire range (up to 2.5 A). You should notice the
armature voltage is nearly zero and the armature current will increase (linearly with field
current). Decrease the commanded field current to zero.
Turn the source panel voltage to zero and switch off the source panel. Switch off the Sorenson
power supply. Click Save and save the test data to a file.
Synchronous Machine Parameter Measurement 8
 Synchronous Machine Parameter Measurement 9

Calculations and Questions

1. Plot the open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current versus field current from the test data.
The measured open-circuit voltage is in line-to-line, so must be converted to line-to-neutral
before plotting. Also plot the air-gap line Va,airgap as shown in Figure 2. This can be
computed as a straight line using some of the points with lower values of field current.

2. Use one of the open-circuit data points in the linear region (low field current) to compute the
unsaturated synchronous reactance using (7). The 0.25 A or 0.5 A field current points are
probably best for this.

3. Based on the rated armature voltage of Va,rated  120 V and rated armature current of
I a,rated  0.7A , determine the AFNL and AFSC for this machine. Note that the measured data
may not contain these exact values and linear interpolation should be used for accuracy.
Using AFNL and AFSC compute the short-circuit ratio using equation (9).

4. Compute the saturated synchronous reactance using equation (7) for the data which
corresponds to rated voltage. Compute a corresponding field constant that provides the
generated voltage given a field current, using this same data point. Also compute the
saturated synchronous reactance using the short-circuit ratio as in equation (10).

5. The armature resistance for this machine is given in the table below. Compute the exact
saturated synchronous reactance using (8) and compare it to the calculation using (7).

6. Compute the field resistance Rf at each data point by dividing the field voltage Vf by the
field current If. Average the values for all data points to obtain a value for field resistance.

7. Compile the machine parameters in a table similar to the one below.

Synchronous Machine Parameters

Rated armature voltage Va,rated  120 V

Rated armature current I a,rated  0.7 A
Armature resistance Ra  12.5 
Field resistance Rf 
Unsaturated synchronous reactance X s,u 
Saturated synchronous reactance Xs 
Short-circuit ratio SCR 
Saturated Field Constant, Eaf/If Kf =