SELF-SYNCHRONIZING MACHINES. [10Th April
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62 ROSENBERG: SELF-SYNCHRONIZING MACHINES. [10th April, SELF-SYNCHRONIZING MACHINES. By DR. E. ROSENBERG, Member. (Paper first received 29th January, and in final form 10th March, 1913 ; read before THE INSTITUTION 10th April, before the MANCHESTER LOCAL SECTION 1st April, and before the BIRMINGHAM LOCAL SECTION gtli April SYNOPSIS. Scope of the Synchronous Motor. Self-starting Synchronous Motors. (a) Modified induction motor. (b) Salient pole motor. Pulling into Synchronism. (a) Field excited. (b) Field unexcited. Self-starting Rotary Converters. Self-synchronizing using Starting Motor. Voltage Distribution between Synchronous Machine and series-connected Starting Motor. This paper was primarily intended to describe a new method of starting synchronous machines; but as self-starting synchronous machines may be somewhat unfamiliar to many engineers—although such machines date back far into the last century—it was thought advisable also to explain the known methods of starting, to illustrate their working by some test results, and to publish in this connection a short theoretical investigation on " pulling into synchronism." SCOPE OF THE SYNCHRONOUS MOTOR. Synchronous motors have two advantages over induction motors : (1) they do not require magnetizing current from the line ; (2) they can be designed, and practically must be designed, with a bigger air- gap than induction motors. Their peculiarity of running at an absolutely fixed speed for a given frequency is only in a few cases a real advantage, and more often a serious drawback. The necessity of continuous-current excitation, and of the proper adjustment of the same, complicates the machine, and however much the starting apparatus may have been improved, it is certainly more complicated than that of a slip-ring or squirrel-cage motor. The synchronous motor should therefore only be installed where it 1913.] ROSENBERG: SELF-SYNCHRONIZING MACHINES. 63 gives distinct advantages, and only after careful consideration of the conditions. It is useless to improve the power factor of one, say 30 h.p., motor which only represents a fraction of 1 per cent of the station load, and which cannot materially affect the power factor of the system whether it runs at unity, leading, or lagging power factor. Of course it would improve the system if all small motors could be made to run at unity power factor, but it is quite wrong to install as a general proposi- tion a more costly machine, and to saddle every workman who starts a lathe or a pump with the obligation of looking after an exciter rheostat and a power-factor meter. It is far cheaper from the point of view of general economy to make the machines in the power station and the cables big enough to carry the magnetizing current in addition to the watt current, and to let the power factor look after itself. If, however, opportunity arises of replacing large motors of bad power factor by synchronous motors, then it may be a decided gain and far outweigh the additional complication. Synchronous machines running over-excited without doing mechan- ical work have sometimes been used, and have more often been pro- posed, as "synchronous condensers" to take leading instead of lagging current from the line, and so to compensate for lagging currents produced by other apparatus. A much superior and more efficient method of using the synchronous motor is to make it do some useful work in addition to its beautifying function of improving the power factor. Suppose, for instance, we had a load of 1,000 kw. at 0707 power factor, i.e. a watt load of 1,000 kw. and a wattless current corresponding to 1,000 k.v.a. If we want to improve the power factor to o*8 (1,250 k.v.a. at o*8 power factor, or a watt load of 1,000 kw. and a watt- less component of 750 k.v.a.), we have to install a synchronous con- denser able to give 250 k.v.a. at a power factor of zero. Such a machine must be much more liberally proportioned in its magnetic system than an ordinary 250 k.v.a. machine, and it will have losses amounting approximately to 25 kw. The addition of the synchronous condenser involves therefore a loss of fully i\ per cent of the total output of. 1,000 kw., and it is not often that this 2^ per cent can be fully recovered by the reduced losses in the cables and in the generator due to the reduction of the current. If, on the other hand, we could replace an existing induction motor of 250 kw. input, 0707 power factor, by a synchronous motor of 250 kw. running at unity power factor, we should at once reduce the wattless load to 750 k.v.a., and thus obtain a resulting load of 1,250 k.v.a. at o-8 power factor without any sacrifice of efficiency. A middle-sized or large synchro- nous motor running at unity power factor has, generally speaking, the same efficiency as an induction motor, and the synchronous motor for 250 kw. and unity power factor is, for the same speed, a cheaper machine than the synchronous condenser for 250 k.v.a. and zero power factor. Even an induction motor with 0*9 power factor may sometimes be replaced, with advantage by a synchronous motor. We can get the 64 ROSENBERG : SELF-SYNCHRONIZING MACHINES. [10th April, same power-factor correction for the system as before by running the motor over-excited with a power factor of approximately o-o. leading. If synchronous motors are started and brought up to speed by means of a starting motor and then synchronized, considerable skill is required for synchronizing. The experience and pluck of the switch- board attendant and the steadiness of the supply frequency and voltage make an enormous difference in the time required for synchron- izing. Synchronizing may take in plants of similar nature anything from one minute to a quarter of an ho'ur, and even more. The syn- chronous motor could therefore not become popular so long as the synchronizing operation on the part of the switchboard attendant was required. If the synchronous motor is to be used on consumers' premises for doing useful work, it must be able to start easily and develop an appre- ciable starting torque. One of the most useful fields of application for the self-starting synchronous motor is for motor-generators. Here a comparatively small starting torque is required unless a heavy flywheel is coupled to the motor-generator. If, however, the synchronous motor has to drive a pump or compressor, even with unloading valve, the required starting torque is considerable. SELF-STARTING SYNCHRONOUS MOTORS. (a) Modified Induction Motor.—The synchronous motor works as an induction motor during starting, and it can be used either as a slip-ring or as a squirrel-cage motor. For this purpose we can either make such changes in the induction motor as will enable it to run after starting as a synchronous motor, or we can take the synchronous motor and make such additions as will enable it to start as an induction motor. The ordinary wound rotor of an induction motor can be ex- cited, after full speed is reached, with continuous current. In order to obtain stability and overload capacity, however, it is essential to increase the air gap and get a ratio of magnetizing ampere-turns to armature ampere-turns somewhere in the neighbourhood of two, while with the ordinary induction motor the ratio is somewhere in the neighbourhood of one-third. Furthermore, if we take an ordinary wound rotor which gives, say, 500 volts between the slip-rings at the moment of starting, the continuous-current exciting voltage required after synchronizing will be very low. There is the alternative either to use for excitation a very small voltage and large current, or to allow an exceedingly high voltage during starting on the slip-rings and in the starting re- sistance. Wound rotors of this type can be arranged with two slip-rings and " single axis " winding, which, during the starting period, carries single- phase alternating current. But the machine can then only give a small starting torque, as the pull-out torque of a single-phase rotor at full speed is only a fraction of the full-load torque of the three-phase rotor. At half speed the motor runs with a greater pull-out torque, which is about half the pull-out torque of an ordinary three-phase 1913.] ROSENBERG: SELF-SYNCHRONIZING MACHINES. 65 rotor at full speed. Such a motor, if loaded to any extent, will there- fore tend to come up to half speed and remain there. The addition of a third slip-ring is certainly justified with such motors, and it also has another distinct advantage for running as a synchronous motor. Start Star Starting delta position switch Run Sb&bor FIG. I.—Diagram of Connections for a Self-starting Synchronous Motor with Distributed Rotor Winding arranged in Three Phases. It is well known that a synchronous motor is liable to hunt if sup- plied with currents of certain periodic irregularities. These periodic irregularities may be produced by the cyclic irregularity of the prime movers. Very often it is quite impossible to know which prime movers may be called upon to supply current for the synchronous motor, and therefore it is an absolutely necessary precaution to supply VOL. 51. 5 66 ROSENBERG : SELF-SYNCHRONIZING MACHINES. [10th April, the synchronous motor with dampers which, if sufficiently strong, prevent hunting even with considerable irregularities of the critical periodicity. A damper, to be effective, should be either a squirrel- cage or at least a two-phase closed winding.