the International Journal Volume 15

on Marine Navigation Number 4

http://www.transnav.eu and Safety of Sea Transportation December 2021

DOI: 10.12716/1001.15.04.21

Measuring the Voltage of a Three-Phase Circuit in a

Generator Set Control System
L. Vyshnevskyi, M. Mukha, O. Vyshnevskyi & D. Vyshnevskyi
National University "Odessa Maritime Academy", Odessa, Ukraine

ABSTRACT: The article proposes a technical implementation of a high-speed voltage sensor in a three-phase
circuit of a generator set, the frequency of which changes in transient processes. Sequential differentiation,
rectification and intensification of phase voltages allows one to substantially reduce the influence of the current
frequency on the measured voltage during one current period.

1 INTRODUCTION operational qualities contributes to an increase in the

efficiency of the power plant.
This paper is an extension of work originally Currently, on sea-going ships, synchronous
presented in conference name [1]. generators are mainly used as sources of electricity,
The development of new methods and technical which is explained by the simplicity of the technical
schemes for measuring three-phase voltage means for regulating their voltage. The multi-turn
parameters for controlling autonomous generator sets excitation winding on the generator rotor makes it
is justified by a fundamentally new approach to possible to control the voltage of the synchronous
controlling their voltage. The need to increase the generator using relatively small currents.
speed of the three-phase voltage sensor is caused by However, this "simplicity" caused two other
the prospect of using asynchronous generators with problems: the rotating slip rings on the rotor and the
capacitor excitation on ships [2,3]. There was a need high inductance of the excitation circuit, which
for a voltage sensor that measures the average value significantly reduced the speed of the voltage
of the three-phase voltage of an autonomous stabilization system.
generator, the speed of which is unstable, for half the
alternating current period. As a result of numerous scientific and
technological developments of synchronous
Improvement of autonomous power plants, generators and their excitation systems, generating
including marine transport facilities, improvement of sets have been created that have practically exhausted
their technical and economic indicators is the main the possibilities for further improving the quality of
trend in the development of ship's technology. For electricity [4].
example, the capacity of electrical equipment installed
on modern ships reaches 40% of the capacity of a Modern brushless synchronous generators with
power plant, therefore, the choice of an optimal inverted exciter and rotating diodes have eliminated
composition of a power plant with improved rotating contacts but have significantly complicated
the design of the generator. To increase the speed of

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voltage stabilization of synchronous generators, T T T
2 U T 2
 ( t ) dt =  02U m  sin
multiple excitation current forcing systems are used. ui = 2u t  dt == − m  cos t 2 =
Excitation of the asynchronous generator through
0 T 2 T
0
the stator circuit allows realizing a voltage regulation
U mT U  T 2U m
system that is practically invariant from the load, [5- =−  ( cos  − cos 0 ) = m =
8]. 2  

In marine generator sets with a diesel drive engine,

2 FEATURES OF AUTONOMOUS POWER SUPPLY a significant frequency deviation is allowed, both in
SYSTEMS steady-state and in transient modes, [10-12]. In this
case, the instability of the frequency of the current
According to the authors, a radical way to modernize will introduce significant errors in the output signal of
an electric power plant is the use of asynchronous the voltage sensor, [4].
generators with a squirrel-cage rotor and capacitor The article [13] describes and investigates a
excitation along the stator circuit, [3]. method for calculating the average value of an
The voltage control of the asynchronous generator alternating voltage by sequential differentiation,
is carried out on the stator circuit, i.e. along the load rectification, and integration of phase voltages
circuit, therefore the inertia of the control and during a half-period of alternating current :
disturbance channels are the same. As shown by the T /2 du ( t )
research of the authors [2,5,8], this allows to create an
almost load-invariant voltage stabilization system.
udi =  0 dt
dt = 2U m

The voltage control of the asynchronous generator The integration period is set by a
is carried out by switching to the three-phase stator synchronizing pulse which action in during positive
winding of the capacitor banks using triacs at certain value of the measured voltage. At the end of the
times when the voltages on the capacitor and the measurement process, the amplitude of the sync pulse
phase winding of the generator are equal. In this case, becomes equil zero, the value of the integral is
capacitors of different phases are switched at different memorized and stored until the next measurement
times, in accordance with the shifts of the phase period.
voltages. Therefore, the whole process of connecting a Simple circuit solutions of analog voltage sensors
three-phase unit takes time slightly less than the are proposed for both single-phase and three-phase
network period. circuits, which made it possible to significantly reduce
the dependence of the output signal of the voltage
sensor on the current frequency , [5,6], Fig. 1. In
2.1 Main part the frequency range from 40 to 50 Hz, the voltage
measurement error is about 2%, at it is -
The features of switching capacitor units determine 0.6%, and at it is +0.9%.
the requirements for the speed of the voltage sensor of
a three-phase network. The maximum speed of the
voltage stabilization system requires reliable
measurements of the RMS voltage for the three-
phase current period :
T


1 2
Us = u ( t ) dt
T
0
In most of the known sinusoidal voltage sensors,
the average voltage value is measured instead of
the RMS value, which significantly reduces the
computational complexity of their implementation.
With insignificant nonlinear distortions, the RMS
voltage value is proportional to its amplitude ,
therefore such a replacement is quite justified.
The calculation of the voltage average value is
associated with the integration of the voltage
instantaneous value during the positive half-
cycle of the alternating current , [6,9]. In this Figure 1. Dependence of the output signal of the AC voltage
case, the fixation of the voltage measurement period is sensor on the current frequency: – integration of the
carried out when the phase voltage passes through rectified voltage; – preliminary differentiation,
zero. rectification, and integration of voltage

A significant disadvantage of such sensors is the A diagram of the analog implementation of the
dependence of the output signal not only on the proposed method for a three-phase network is shown
voltage , but also on the frequency of the current in Fig. 2.
, as shown in our article [1]:

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 However, with unbalanced voltages, the form of
the charge of the capacitor ceases to be strictly
linear, but at the end of the half-period , the
value of the output signal is proportional to the
average value of the unbalanced phase voltages.
When regulating the voltage of an autonomous
generator, the deviation of the average value of the
phase voltages from the given one is used, depending
on which a control action is formed on the excitation
system of the generator.
Therefore, the authors checked the error of
measuring the average value of the asymmetric phase
voltages. The voltage amplitude of one of the phases
varied from 0 to 150% of the nominal value at
100% amplitudes of the other two phases. The
Figure 2. Analog part of the sensor for the average voltage obtained values of the output voltage of the
of a three-phase network sensor in relative units were compared with the
theoretical ones shown by the dotted line. These
Galvanic isolation and lowering of phase voltages results are shown in Fig. 4.
are provided by three transformers TR1, TR2 and TR3
with two output windings having a common point,
which makes it possible to realize full-wave
rectification of the alternating voltage of each phase
using diodes . Differentiation of input
signals is performed by RC - circuits .
Further addition and integration of the measured
signals is carried out by the operational amplifier
, the integration constant of which is determined
by the product of the capacitance on the
resistance (R14, R15). Synchronization with the
mains and discharge of the integrating capacitor is
performed by pulse shunting with the field-effect Figure 4. Accuracy and error in measuring the average
transistor , which is controlled by the operational value of asymmetric phase voltages
amplifier . Synchronizing circuit is
connected to the secondary winding of the phase When one of the voltages changes from 80 to 120%,
transformer. Oscillograms of the rectified phase the average value of the three voltage phases changes
voltages and the sensor output signal are shown in from 0.933 to 1.067. In this case, the sensor error is
Fig. 3. within the range of 0.1 - 0.6%.
Computer and physical modeling of the proposed
three-phase voltage sensor has shown that with an
asymmetry of the generator phase voltage up to 50%,
the output voltage of the sensor retains a sawtooth
shape, close to linear.
With a complete disconnection of one of the
phases, the error was 3.2%. Oscillograms are shown in
Fig. 5.

Figure 3. Oscillograms of the voltage sensor of a three-phase

network

The main advantage of the proposed circuit is the

close to linear waveform at the output of the
operational amplifier at symmetrical phase
voltages. In this case, the slope of the characteristic is
proportional to the amplitude of the phase voltages.
This makes it possible to quickly measure the Figure 5. Oscillograms of the voltage sensor of a three-phase
amplitude of symmetrical voltages. network when one of the phases is disconnected

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 The voltage waveform in Fig. 5 is already Transformers TR1-TR3 reduce phase voltages and
significantly different from the linear one. The voltage provide electrical isolation of power and measuring
sensor circuit of a three-phase network remains circuits. Capacitors C1-C6 and resistors R1, R2, R4, R5,
operational even when two phases are disconnected, R7, R8 perform differentiation, and diodes D1-D6
i.e. for single-phase use. Oscillograms are shown in rectify phase voltages. Then the analog signals are fed
Fig. 6. to the analog ports A1-A3 of the controller. The
controller interface (terminals 1 to 8) outputs some
bytes of information from the voltage sensor in digital
form, and digital-to-analog conversion of the output
signal of the three-phase circuit voltage sensor is
performed on the resistors R15-R22 and R6.
A resistor-diode divider R10-D7-R11 is used for
synchronizing with the mains voltage, the output
signal of which is put to port A0.

Figure 6. Oscillograms of the voltage sensor of a three-phase

network when two phases are disconnected (single-phase
mode)

The process of integrating the measured signal is

quite simply implemented in software in the digital
part of the sensor by summation after differentiation
and rectification of signals from phase voltages. Figure 8. The operation oscillograms of a three-phase
Synchronization of the sensor with the power grid voltage sensor with digital integration and synchronization
with the network
is also easily implemented by the controller by
comparing the instantaneous signal of one of the
phases with a given constant level. In Fig. 9 shows the operation of the voltage sensor
(green) and the regulator with integral control law
At the same time, the operations of differentiation (red).
and rectification are implemented by local
radioelements using capacitors, resistors and diodes, The controller has a digital integral regulator - pins
i.e. without ICs containing operational amplifiers. 9-12. The digital-to-analog conversion of the regulator
This circumstance makes it possible to optimize the signal is performed on resistors R9, R12-R14 and R23.
ratio of the analog and digital parts of the sensor The setpoint of the regulator input to the controller by
according to the criterion of ease of implementation. means of the resistors R3 and RV1 via port A4.
Such a diagram of a three-phase voltage sensor is
shown in Fig. 7. Electrical isolation, differentiation
and rectification of phase voltages are performed by
the analog part of the circuit, and integration and
synchronization are performed by the controller,
Fig.8.

Figure 9. An output signals oscillograms of the integral

controller:
a - an increase in the control action with a minimum
intensity
b - decrease in control action with threefold intensity

When simulating and for setting up the program

code, pins 1-8 can be used to output internal program
Figure 7. Circuit of a three-phase voltage sensor with digital variables. For example, in Fig. 9 shows the operation
integration and formation of a synchronization pulse
of the voltage sensor and regulator with an integral

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the output signal of the integral regulator, and the asynchronous generator. In: Vishnevsky, L.V. and
lower diagram illustrates the result of software Novosad, I. (eds.) Automation of ship technical facilities:
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