883017a_WoundFieldSynchronousMachineDrives.ppt

ECE 8830 - Electric Drives Introduction For high power (multi-MW) applications, the high efficiency of synchronous motors makes them more appealing than induction motors. Indeed, most of today’s electrical power generators are 3? synchronous generators. Brushless dc Excitation Wound-field synchronous motors require dc current excitation in the rotor winding. This excitation is traditionally done through the use of slip rings and brushes. However, these have several disadvantages such as requiring maintenance, arcing (which means they cannot be used in hazardous environments), etc. An alternative approach is to use brushless excitation which is illustrated on the next slide. Brushless dc Excitation (cont’d) Brushless dc Excitation (cont’d) A wound-rotor induction motor (WRIM) is mounted on the same shaft as the wound-field synchronous motor. This is acting as a rotating transformer with the rotor as the primary and the stator as the secondary. The stator of the WRIM is fed by a 60Hz supply and the rotor of the WRIM rotates at a speed set by the supply frequency. The slip voltage in the rotor winding of the WRIM is rectified to provide the current feed to the rotor windings of the synchronous motor. Load Commutated Current-Fed Inverters Thyristor current-fed, load commutated inverters (LCI’s) are very popular for high power (multi-MW) wound-field synchronous motor drives. We will briefly review current-fed thyristor inverters and then discuss load commutated inverters in some detail. We will then see how to apply them to wound-field synchronous motor drives. Review of Current-Fed Thyristor Inverter Let us first briefly review the operation of the current-fed thyristor inverter. Review of Current-Fed Thyristor Inverter (cont’d) Initially, ignore commutation considerations. Induction motor load is modeled by back emf generator and leakage inductance in each phase of the winding.