14th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference, EPE-PEMC 2010

Calculation of Unbalanced Magnetic Pull in a Salient-Pole Synchronous Generator

Damir arko*, Drago Ban*, Ivan Vazdar** and Vladimir Jari***
*Faculty

of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of Electric Machines, Drives and Automation, Zagreb, Croatia, damir.zarko@fer.hr, drago.ban@fer.hr **KONAR Generators and Motors Inc., Zagreb, Croatia, ivazdar@koncar-gim.hr ***MARTING d.o.o, Zagreb, Croatia, vladimir.jaric1@zg.t-com.hr account it is necessary to use optimization to find the parameters of the nonlinear analytical model [4] using the test results in which case the parameters are valid only for a single operating point. On the other hand, the FEM can include saturation [5], but it is more time consuming and in the case of salient pole synchronous machines with high number of poles and fractional slot windings may results in necessity to model a large portion of the machine to take into consideration the geometric symmetry [6]. The calculation of forces in FEM is also sensitive to discretization errors. In that regard the Maxwell stress tensor approach is more sensitive than virtual work method [7]. This can be important for calculation of UMP because the rotor displacement is usually expressed in micrometers, which can be significantly smaller than the size of the finite-element mesh in the air gap. In this paper the measured shaft orbit of a salient-pole synchronous generator in no-load operation and the associated vibration displacements in two directions, perpendicular to one another, have been used to calculate the unbalanced magnetic pull by means of FEM. For calculation of forces the virtual work method has been applied. The correlation between harmonic contents of the unbalanced magnetic pull and of the shaft orbit has been established on examples of analytical and FE calculations assuming either infinitely permeable or saturated stator and rotor core. II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Shaft vibrations are defined as rapid motions of the shaft which are related to its deflection in rotating motion [8]. The deflection of the shaft is a deformation of its elastic line which connects all geometric centers of the shaft cross sections along the axis of the bearings A and B (Fig. 2). The axis OL is an imaginary line which connects geometric centers of the bearing bores and is aligned with the z axis of the absolute reference frame. Since the shaft bends under the action of static radial forces, its centers of rotation form a static deflection line. In rotation the kinetic displacement sk is added to the static displacement ss. The motion of a shaft cross section is composed of a motion of the shaft center C around the point S of the static deflection line and also of a rotation of the cross section around the shaft center C. This motion of the shaft is called precession. The precession is defined by the motion of the shafts center of gravity which can be given in the complex plane by equation [9]
z = Ue
j ( t +U )

Abstract The unbalanced magnetic forces which act upon the rotor of a salient-pole synchronous generator due to eccentric motion of the rotor shaft in the presence of magnetic field originating from the field current in no-load operation have been calculated using finite-element method. The displacement of the rotor has been modeled using the actual shaft orbit recorded on a 5 MVA salient-pole generator driven by a gas turbine in a cogeneration plant. The results indicate that a variation of unbalanced forces in no-load operation at rated voltage occurs at the precession frequency of 25 Hz with maximum force of 2.32 kN. Keywords AC machine, measurement, simulation, modeling

I. INTRODUCTION The magnetic field in a synchronous machine in interaction with the armature winding currents or the salient poles creates tangential electromagnetic forces on the rotor which produce torque. The radial forces are generated at the same time, but in the case when the stator and rotor are perfectly concentric having a symmetrical air gap around the perimeter, the radial forces are cancelled out. These forces depend not only on electromagnetic parameters of the machine, but also on the geometric shape of the stator and rotor and the presence of eccentric motion of the rotor. When the rotor is eccentric the unbalanced magnetic pull (UMP) occurs in which case the net radial force is developed and in interaction with the mechanical system may cause unwanted, harmful vibrations [1]. The general case of eccentric motion includes dynamic eccentricity when the rotor center follows an arbitrary trajectory whose geometric center does not coincide with the center of the stator. In addition, the stator and rotor shape may deviate from an ideal symmetric shape [2]. In both cases the UMP will arise due to asymmetry in the air gap. The two important parameters of the unbalanced forces are frequency and amplitude which implies their periodic nature due to rotating motion of the machine. The calculation of unbalanced magnetic forces is essential for the analysis of vibrations and evaluation of the mechanical stress which arises in various parts of the machine. The two common approaches are analytical methods and finite-element method (FEM). The problem with analytical solutions is their limitations to linear problems [3]. In the case when saturation is taken into

+ Ve

j ( t +V

+ ce jt

(1)

978-1-4244-7855-2/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE

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where U and V are the magnitudes, and U and V are the phase shifts of the vectors of forward and backward precession respectively, is the angular speed of precession, c is the distance between the shafts center and the shafts center of gravity and is the angular speed of rotation of the shaft around its center. The path of the shaft center in the radial plane is called shaft orbit (marked as K in Fig. 3) and is given by a general equation in the complex form [9]
K = ss + sk = ss + Ue
j ( t +U

bearings and gyroscopic effects [11]. In the forward precession the deflection line retains the sagged shape which it has in the nonresonant motion, while in the backward precession the deflection line alternates, i.e. the shaft flexes twice for every turn around its center. This alternate flexion requires high energy which makes the backward precession less likely to appear.
A OL
Static deflection line Kinetic deflection lines at a different time instants

+ Ve

j ( t +V

(2)

where ss is the complex vector of static displacement and sk is the complex vector of kinetic displacement. When >0 and V = 0 the precession is given by a vector Uejt, which represents the pure forward precession (Fig. 1a). In that case the shaft orbit has the same orientation as the rotation of the shaft. When <0 and U = 0 the precession is given by a vector Vejt, which represents the pure backward precession. In that case the orientation of the shaft orbit is opposite to the rotation of the shaft. The most general type of motion contains both forward and backward precession as shown in Fig. 1b and described by (2). When = the synchronous forward or synchronous backward precession occurs.

Fig. 2. Kinetic deflection of the shaft in the case of absolutely stiff bearings (the bearings A and B are stationary in the absolute space)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 3. Kinetic shaft orbit

Fig. 1. (a) Pure forward and (b) combined forward and backward precession of the shaft

In electric machines the vibrations of the fundamental frequency are caused by the unbalance of the masses in rotation or the unbalanced magnetic pull. Very often higher order harmonic components appear which can be caused by roller or ball bearings, where the number of impulses in one revolution is equal to the number of cylinder or balls. They can also be caused by the fluid whirl in poorly lubricated fluid bearings [10]. The equation for the shaft orbit in that case is
K = ss + Ue
j ( t +U )

III. MEASURED ECCENTRICITY The salient-pole synchronous generator for which the detailed design datasheets and the results of measured rotor vibrations are available is used in a cogeneration plant with a gas turbine as a prime mover. The basic data of the generator are shown in TABLE I. The rotor and stator of the generator in the final manufacturing stage are shown in Fig. 4.
TABLE I. DATA OF THE SYNCHRONOUS GENERATOR Parameter Rated power Rated power factor Rated voltage Voltage regulation Rated frequency Rated speed Overspeed Moment of inertia Stator outer diameter Stator inner diameter Air gap size along the centerline of the pole shoe Air gap size at the edge of the pole shoe Axial length Number of stator slots Slot opening width Value 5000 kVA 0.8 10500 V 10% 50 Hz 1500 rpm 1800 rpm 304 kgm2 1250 mm 800 mm 5.5 mm 8.8 mm 820 mm 72 14.2 mm

+ Ve

j ( t +V

+ an e
n =1

j ( n t + n )

(3)

where an, n and n are the amplitude, the frequency and the phase shift of the nth harmonic component and k is the maximum number of higher order harmonic components. Note that the higher order harmonic components do not affect the time needed to go over one closed loop of the shaft orbit. They only affect the shape of the orbit. The size, shape and location of the shaft orbit vary with the speed of rotation and load [8]. In general, the kinetic shaft displacements reach maxima at the critical speed. The most common type of motion in synchronous machines is a synchronous forward precession. The backward precession can also occur with anisotropic

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Fig. 5. Locations of measurement points on the generator

(a)

The measured variables are vibration displacement, vibration velocity and vibration acceleration. The most useful quantity for our analysis is the vibration displacement which is given in a form of a shaft orbit graph. The shaft orbit has been initially recorded for the cold unit in a mechanical run at 1500 rpm with both field and armature winding currents equal to zero. This orbit is shown in Fig. 6. The rotor shaft exhibits dynamic eccentricity with forward synchronous precession. The coordinates of time integrated mean values of static shaft displacement are (-11.2, 82.6) m. The recorded shaft orbit for the case of no-load operation at synchronous speed of 1500 rpm with the excitation current of 36.5 A and induced rated armature voltage of 10500 V is shown in Fig. 7. The coordinates of static shaft displacement are (-12.6, 78.3) m. From Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 it is apparent that the presence of magnetic field in no-load operation, and consequently the unbalanced magnetic pull, affect the shaft orbit to a small extent.

(b) Fig. 4. (a) Rotor and (b) stator of the studied salient-pole synchronous generator

The measurement and analysis of bearing and shaft vibrations have been carried out by means of B&K VIBROTEST 60 vibration analyzer and DEWE-50-PCI16 data acquisition system. The electrodynamic sensors (VS080) have been fixed on bearings housings at two directions (x, y). The non contact sensors (IN 085) for shaft vibration measurement have been fixed near drive end (DE) bearing at two directions. Therefore, the shaft vibrations have been measured relatively to the bearing casing which is mounted on the machine frame. The tracking signal for determination of the phase angle of fundamental component of vibration speed vectors has been obtained from the rotor shaft by means of a photosensitive transducer. The measurement points are shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 6. Recorded shaft orbit in mechanical run of the cold unit at 1500 rpm. Field and armature winding currents are equal to zero.

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150 100 50 y, m 0 -50 -100 -150

-150 -100

-50

0 x, m

50

100

150

Fig. 8. Average shaft orbit in no-load condition used for FE simulation TABLE II. HARMONIC CONTENT OF THE AVERAGE SHAFT ORBIT

Fig. 7. Recorded shaft orbit in no-load condition (1500 rpm, 10500 V)

IV. FINITE-ELEMENT MODEL FOR CACLULATION OF UNBALANCED MAGNETIC PULL The eccentric motion of the rotor in the case when the generator is magnetized either in no-load or loaded operation will results in unbalanced electromagnetic forces which act upon the rotor and consequently on the bearings of the machine. The goal is to use the finite-element method to simulate the measured eccentric motion of the shaft and calculate the resulting unbalanced magnetic pull. Since the shaft orbit for every revolution of the rotor is slightly different (see Fig. 7), for the purpose of FE simulation the average orbit shown in Fig. 8 is calculated. The harmonic content of the average orbit is shown in TABLE II. Assuming that there is not backward precession, i.e. V in (3) equals zero, the shape of the orbit can be reconstructed using data from TABLE II if (3) is written in a slightly different form, i.e.
Shaft displacement in y direction,m

225 rad/s -12.63+j78.30 m Uy, m 24.242 ayn,m 1.674 1.171 0.883 0.690 0.243 0.112 0.048 0.276 0.139

ss
Ux, m 22.415 n 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 axn, m 2.483 0.707 0.935 0.263 0.293 0.241 0.108 0.233 0.180

Ux, rad
0.763

Uy, rad
2.059

axn, rad
-2.708 -3.087 2.900 2.644 0.012 3.042 -0.286 -0.878 0.398

ayn, rad
0.825 -1.420 -0.302 0.730 2.109 -0.288 2.275 0.332 -0.899

K = ss + U x cos t + U x + jU y cos t + U y
k

) )

110

+ axn cos n t + axn + ja yn sin n t + ayn n=2

(4)

Measured shaft orbit Reconstructed shaft orbit using first 10 harmonic components

100 90 80 70 60 50 -40

where ss , Ux, Uy, Ux, Uy, axn, ayn, axn and ayn are given in TABLE II. Only first 10 harmonic components of the Fourier series are given, i.e. k = 10. According to Fig. 9, the first 10 components are sufficient for good reconstruction of the shaft orbit. The eccentric motion for one revolution of the rotor is modeled as a sequence of 200 parameterized problems in which the position of the rotor axis for each problem is set according to Fig. 8. At the same time the rotor is rotated about its axis. The time needed for the rotor axis to go through one full eccentric orbit is the same as the time it takes the rotor to make one full revolution about its axis at the speed of 1500 rpm. In this simulation it is assumed that the generator exhibits parallel precession, i.e. the rotor axis is always parallel to the stator axis. The FE model of the generator is shown in Fig. 10.

-30 -20 -10 0 10 Shaft displacement in x direction, m

20

Fig. 9. Measured and reconstructed shaft orbit for no-load condition

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centerline of the pole shoe, kc is the Carter factor, l is the axial length of the stator core, s(t) is the instantaneous displacement of the rotor (Fig. 8) and B1 is the fundamental component of the air-gap flux density. The geometric parameters D, l and 0 are given in TABLE I. The Carter factor is used to take into account the presence of stator slots and obtain the effective air gap size. The air gap flux density can be calculated from
E phase = 1 2 2 fwf d 1 f p1 B 1 Dl p

(6)

(a) Meshed model

where Ephase is the rms value of the induced no-load phase voltage, f is the rated frequency, w is the number of stator winding turns connected in series, p is the number of pole pairs, fd1 and fp1 are the winding distribution and pitch factors for fundamental component. The no-load FE simulation has in this particular case been carried out using measured rated no-load field current. The calculated waveform of the phase voltage and its fundamental component are shown in Fig. 12. The calculated rms value of the induced phase voltage in that case equals 5747 V, which is 5.2 % smaller than rated voltage of 6062 V measured for that same field current. The distribution and pitch factors are given by
100 sin q sin 6 2= 2 = 0.9561 kd 1 = 0 q sin 6sin 10 2 2
y 14 = sin k p1 = sin = 0.9397 2 18 2 p

(7)

(8)

(b) Flux lines and flux density plot in no-load operation Fig. 10. FE model of the salient-pole synchronous generator

where q is the number of slots per pole and phase and y/p is the coil pitch to pole pitch ratio. The air-gap flux density is then
B 1 = = E phase 2 p 2 fwf d 1 f p1 Dl

V. SIMULATION RESULTS The results of the simulation for no-load condition are x and y components of unbalanced electromagnetic forces given as a function of time which are shown in Fig. 11 in the form of a trace of the force vector. The maximum radial force occurs at t = 12.4 ms and equals 2320 N. This time instant corresponds to the maximum average shaft displacement of 100.2 m. In addition, due static displacement of the shaft, which equals (-12.6, 78.3) m, constant average forces Fx = 279 N , Fy = 1693 N will appear. In order to establish a link between the harmonic content of the total unbalanced force on the rotor and the shape of the shaft orbit, a simple analytical model for calculation of forces is employed. The instantaneous single sided magnetic pull at eccentric rotor position can be calculated according to [12]

5747 2 2 2 50 96 0.9561 0.9397 0.8 0.82 = 0.9144 T

(9)

The Carter factor follows from the standard equation

kc =

2 2d o do 0 do s ln 1 + atan (10) 2 0 d o 2 0 = 1.1597

F (t ) =

Dr l s ( t ) 2 B 1 4 0 kc 0

(5)

where Dr = D-20 is the rotor outer diameter (D is the stator inner diameter), 0 is the air gap size along the

where s = (D)/(Ns) is the slot pitch, Ns is the number of stator slots and do is the width of the slot opening. Since all parameters in (5), except s(t), are constant, it appears that the waveform of the unbalanced magnetic pull will be directly proportional to the shape of the shaft orbit, which is determined by s(t). The calculation of force in (5) assumes that iron is infinitely permeable, so comparison with FE simulation is possible if the same

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assumption is made in the FE model as well. This is accomplished by setting the relative permeability of the stator and rotor core to 109 to simulate an infinitely permeable material. However, in order to obtain valid results, the field current had to be reduced to obtain the same fundamental component of the induced phase voltage as in the case when the actual B-H curves of the stator and rotor core are taken into account. The waveforms of the total unbalanced force on the rotor calculated analytically using (5) and numerically using FEM with saturation and with infinitely permeable iron are shown in Fig. 13. The small oscillations that are superimposed on the basic waveforms are due to slotting effect and due to discretization errors which occur because the shifts of the rotor are small relative to the size of the FE mesh in the air gap. The waveforms indicate that fundamental frequency is 25 Hz. Burakov and Arkkio [4] showed that the fundamental frequency of the force in the case of whirling motion is equal to the frequency of precession . Since in our case is equal to the angular speed of rotation of the shaft around its center, in a four pole machine at 1500 rpm this corresponds to the frequency of 25 Hz. There is a very good agreement between analytically and numerically calculated waveforms with infinitely permeable iron. This result clearly indicates that the shape of the shaft orbit is the dominant factor which determines the waveform of the unbalanced magnetic pull. The strong influence of saturation in the stator and rotor core on the magnitude of force is also apparent. The peak value of force is reduced by a factor of 2.36 when saturation is taken into account. The correlation with the shaft orbit is also visible in Fig. 14 which compares harmonic content of the shaft orbit and of the total unbalanced force on the rotor (without the average component). The magnitudes are normalized with respect to their fundamental components. VI. CONCLUSION The calculation of unbalanced magnetic pull in a 5 MVA, 4 pole synchronous generator based on known geometry of the machine, finite-element method and measured shaft orbit in no-load operation at 10500 V, 50 Hz, 1500 rpm has been presented. The maximum radial force that emerges due to precession of the shaft equals 2320 N. The fundamental frequency of the calculated force variation is equal to the frequency of precession (25 Hz), which corresponds to the basic theory. The correlation between harmonic contents of the shaft orbit and of the unbalanced magnetic pull has been confirmed by means of FEM and analytical calculation. This analysis could be further expanded by calculation of unbalanced magnetic pull for the shaft orbit recorded in a loaded condition in which case the interaction between the armature winding field and the rotor field would be taken into account.

2500

2000 Force in y direction [N]

1500

1000

500

0 -1500

-1000

-500 0 500 Force in x direction [N]

1000

Fig. 11. Trace of the force vector in no-load condition calculated using FEM

1 0.8 No-load phase voltage, V 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 -0.2 -0.4 -0.6 -0.8

x 10

Complete waveform Fundamental component

-1 0

0.005

0.01 Time, s

0.015

0.02

Fig. 12. Calculated no-load phase voltage and its fundamental component

5500 5000 4500 4000 Force, N 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 0 0.01 0.02 Time, s 0.03 0.04
FEM: with saturation FEM: Fe= Analytical

Fig. 13. Waveforms of the total unbalanced magnetic pull calculated analytically and numerically using FEM

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1
Force: FEM with saturation (F1=512.7 N)

0.8 F/F1 and s/s1 0.6 0.4 0.2 0

Force: FEM with Fe= (F1=1230.5 N) Force: Analytical (F1=1230.2 N) Shaft orbit (s1=23.21 m)

25

50

75 100 125 150 175 200 225 250 Frequency, Hz

Fig. 14. Comparison of normalized harmonic content of the shaft orbit and of the total unbalanced magnetic pull calculated numerically and analytically

ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors wish to thank KONAR Generators and Motors Inc., the manufacturer of the studied 5 MVA salient-pole synchronous generator, for providing us the results of measured vibrations and the valuable design data required for FE simulations. REFERENCES
[1] T.P. Holopainen, A. Tenhunen, A. Arkkio, Electromechanical Interaction in Rotor Vibrations of Electric Machines, Proceedings of the 5th World Congress on Computational Mechanics, 10 p., Vienna, Austria, 7-12 July, 2002

N. Lundstrm, Dynamic Consequences of Shape Deviations in Hydropower Generators, Licentiate Thesis, Lule University of Technology Sweden, August 2006.; http://epubl.luth.se/14021757/2006/39/index.html [3] H. A. Toliyat, A. A. N. Nabil, Simulation and Detection of Dynamic Air-gap Eccentricity in Salient-Synchronous machines, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 8693, Jan. 1999. [4] A. Burakov, A. Arkkio, Low-Order Parametric Force Model for Eccentric-Rotor Electrical Machine Equipped With Parallel Stator Windings and Rotor Cage, IET Electric Power Applications, Vol. 1, Issue 4, pp. 532-542, 2007 [5] R. Perers, U. Lundin, M. Leijon, Saturation Effects on Unbalanced Magnetic Pull in a Hydroelectric Generator With an Eccentric Rotor, IEEE Trans. Mag., Vol. 43, No. 10, pp. 38843890, October 2007 [6] Lin Wang, R.W. Cheung, Zhiyun Ma, Jiangjun Ruan, Ying Peng, Finite-Element Analysis of Unbalanced Magnetic Pull in a Large Hydro-Generator Under Practical Operations, IEEE Trans. Mag, Vol. 44, No. 6, pp. 1558-1561, June 2008 [7] S. Salon, S. Bhatia, D. Burow, Some Aspects of Torque Calculations in Electrical Machines, IEEE Trans. Mag, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 2018-2021, March 1997 [8] VDI 2059-1, Shaft Vibrations of Turbosets; Principles for Measurement and Evaluation, Guidelines of The Association of German Engineers (VDI), November 1981 [9] F.M. Dimentberg, Izgibnye kolebanija vraajuihsja valov, Akademija nauk USSR, Moscow, 1959 [10] Agnieszka Muszyska, Rotordynamics, Taylor & Francis, 2005 [11] P. T. Pedersen,On forward and backward precession of rotors, Archive of Applied Mechanics, Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 26-41, January, 1972 [12] A. Binder, Large Generators & High Power Drives, Technische Universitt Darmstadt, Institut fr Elektrische Energiewandlung, Darmstadt, Germany, Internet (http://www.ew.e-technik.tudarmstadt.de/cms/fileadmin/pdf/GGHL/Folie_GGHL_7.pdf)

[2]

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