In case Ia lags Ef by an angle Ψ, the positive current maximum in the coil aa’ will occur angle Ψ

later, so that Ff now lies (90° + Ψ) ahead of Far as shown in the vector diagram of Fig. 8.5(a).

The corresponding phasor diagram is shown in Fig. 8.5(b) wherein Ff leads Far by (90° + Ψ).

The phase angle between Er and Ia indicated by θ is the power factor angle provided it is
assumed that the armature has zero resistance and leakage reactance so that the machine
terminal voltage

Vt = Er

The field poles lie an angle ahead of the resultant mmf (or resultant flux) wave.

The electromagnetic torque developed in the machine tries to align the field poles with the
resultant field and is, therefore, in a direction as shown in Fig. 8.5(a) as well as in Fig. 8.5(b).

It is immediately seen that the torque on the field poles is in opposite direction to that of
rotation which means that mechanical power is absorbed by the machine. This is consistent
with the assumed condition of the generating action (positive current in the direction of positive
emf).

In generating action, the field poles are driven ahead of the resultant flux wave by an angle
as a consequence of the forward acting torque of the prime mover.

Also, the field poles are dragged behind by the resultant flux from which results the
conversion of mechanical energy into electrical form.

If the magnetic circuit is assumed linear, the magnitude of the torque is given by
where Fr is the resultant flux/pole, Ff the peak value of field ampere-turns and is the angle by
which Ff leads Fr.

Ef also leads Er by the same angle .

When Ff and Fr are held constant in magnitude, the machine meets the changing requirements of
load torque by adjustment of the angle which is known as the torque (power*) angle.

The torque expression of Eq. (8.9) can also be written in terms of voltages as

T = KEr Ef sin

where Er = emf induced in the machine under loaded condition; called air-gap emf.

Ef = emf induced by the field mmf Ff acting alone, i.e. the machine is on no-load with same Ff (or
rotor field current) as on-load; called excitation emf.

In motoring action of the synchronous machine, the positive current flows opposite to the
induced emf.

Since the phasor diagrams above have been drawn with the convention of generating current
(i.e. current in the direction of emf), the armature reaction phasor Far will now be located by phase
reversing the motoring current for consistency of convention.

Accordingly the phasor diagram for motoring action is drawn.

Ff and Ef now lag Fr and Er respectively by angle . The torque of electromagnetic origin therefore
acts on the field poles in the direction of rotation so that the mechanical power is output
meaning thereby motoring action.

If the terminal voltage Vt = Er and its frequency is held constant by an external 3-phase source,
called infinite bus, the machine operates as a generator (Fig. 8.5) or as a motor (Fig. 8.6)
depending upon the mechanical conditions at a shaft.
Fig 8.3 is representative of no-load conditions when the machine is said to be floating on
busbars with zero stator current and the rotor being run at synchronous speed by external means
(prime mover).

If mechanical power from the prime mover is now increased, the field poles (rotor) move
ahead causing current to be fed into the bus-bars.

Under steady condition, the field poles lie ahead of the resultant flux wave by angle (Figs
8.4 and 8.5) creating electromagnetic torque in opposition to the direction of rotor rotation;

the value of corresponds to the balance of torques (or power, P = Tws).

The electrical power output is

3Vt (= Er)Ia cos θ (for 3 phases)

which balances the mechanical power input from the primemover because there are no losses in
the stator (resistance is assumed to be zero).

Ia is the generating current taken to be positive in the direction of the machine’s induced emf Er.

If instead, the shaft is mechanically loaded from the no-load condition (Fig. 8.3), the field poles
lag behind the resultant flux wave as in Fig. 8.6 creating electromagnetic torque in the direction
of rotation thereby outputting mechanical power;

the electrical input power being 3Vt (= Er) Ia cos θ, where Ia is the motoring current taken as
positive in opposition to the positive direction of Er.

The torque (power)-angle (T– ) relationship of Eq. (8.10) for fixed Ef and Er (= Vt) is drawn in Fig.
8.7 with taken as positive for generating action and negative for motoring action.
 The operating points as the generator and motor are indicated by g and m on this curve
corresponding to the specific condition of loading.
 The characteristic exhibits, both in generating and motoring operation, a maximum torque
at = 90°, called the pull-out torque, beyond which the synchronous link between field
poles and the resultant flux wave is severed and the machine falls out-of-step (or loses
synchronism).
 The average developed machine torque now becomes zero and so the average electric
power fed by the generating machine to the bus-bars, (infinite) or average electric power
drawn by the motoring machine from the bus bars reduces to zero.
 The generating machine thus accelerates and so overspeeds (primemover power is
assumed to remain constant) and the motoring machine decelerates and comes to stop.
CIRCUIT MODEL OF SYNCHRONOUS MACHINE

By assuming linearity of the magnetic circuit, it is possible to obtain simple circuit model of the
synchronous machine.

The validity of this assumption stems from the fact that air-gap is the predominant component of
the magnetic circuit of the machine.

The resultant mmf phasor is given by

Fr = Ff + Far

The emf phasors in Eq. (8.16) are proportional to the corresponding flux phasors of Eq. (8.15) with
the emf phasors lagging the respective flux phasors by 90°.

In this figure the flux phasor triangle and emf phasor triangle are similar to each other with the
emf phasor triangle being rotated anticlockwise from the flux phasor triangle by 90°.
The synchronous reactance takes into account the flux produced by the flow of balanced 3-phase
currents in the stator as well as the leakage flux.

The excitation emf, Ef, accounts for the flux produced by the rotor field (dc excited).

The magnitude of the excitation emf can be controlled by the dc field current (I f) called the
excitation current.

If the load on the machine is thrown off, Ef appears at the machine terminals which then is the
open-circuit voltage of the machine.

Ef is also called voltage behind synchronous impedance or reactance (as Ra can be neglected).

Synchronous impedance model of the synchronous machine is based on the linearity assumption
and will hold for the unsaturated region of machine operation and is valid only for the cylindrical-
rotor machine.

In the above method, we have converted mmfs to emfs based on magnetic linearity assumption,
this method is also known as the emf method.

Range of Synchronous Impedance

Expressed in the pu system, the synchronous reactance of synchronous machines lies in a narrow
range of values.

From practical data, it is observed that the armature resistance (Ra) is usually of the order of
0.01 pu, i.e. the voltage drop in the armature resistance at the rated armature current is about 1%
of the rated voltage.

The leakage reactance value ranges from 0.1 to 0.2 pu and the synchronous reactance (Xs =
Xar + Xl) is of the order of 1.0 to 2 pu.

It is, therefore, seen that the armature resistance of a synchronous machine is so low that it can
be neglected for all practical purposes except in the computation of losses, temperature rise and
efficiency.

It may be noted here that Ra must be small in order to minimize the I 2R loss and limit the
temperature rise of the machine, and Xs should be large to limit the maximum current that may
flow under fault (short-circuit) conditions.

However, the modern practice is to design* synchronous machines with a medium range of
values for synchronous reactance as quick-acting** circuit breakers are now available to
disconnect a machine from the faulted line.
Open-circuit Characteristic (OCC)

In this test the machine is run by a primemover at synchronous speed n s to generate voltage at
the rated frequency, while the armature terminals are open-circuited with switch S open.

The readings of the open-circuit line-to-line armature voltage, VOC = Ef , are taken for various
values of If , the rotor field current.

If is representative of the net mmf/pole acting on the magnetic circuit of the machine.

These data are plotted as OCC which indeed is the magnetization characteristic, i.e. the relation
between the space fundamental component of the air-gap flux and the net mmf/pole acting on
the magnetic circuit (space harmonics are assumed negligible).