GICHURA ROBERT

F17/ 10663/ 2006

UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND

ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

3RD YEAR 2ND SEMESTER LABS.

MACHINES LAB.
LOAD CHARACTERISTICS OF A SHUNT GENERATOR
 EXPERIMENT: LOAD CHARACTERISTICS OF A SHUNT GENERATOR

Objective:
To determine the characteristics of a separately excited shunt generator and to determine
the armature resistance using the d.c drop test.

Apparatus:
Crempton Parkinson Motor Generator set
0 – 150V D.C voltmeter
0 – 10A D.C ammeter
0 – 30A D.C ammeter
5 kw loading resistance
Variable resistors
Shorting switch
D.C power source

Theory:
To obtain dc electricity, one may prefer an available ac source with an electronic rectifier
circuit. Another possibility is to generate dc electricity directly. Although the latter method is
becoming obsolete, it is still important to understand how a dc generator works. This section
provides a brief discussion of the basic issues associated with dc generators.

Characteristics of D.C generators

The following are the three most important characteristics of d.c shunt generators;
1.) External characteristic, V/I
Also called the voltage regulating curve, which gives the relationship between the
terminal voltage, V and the load current, I.
2.) Internal or Total characteristic, E/Ia
Which gives the relationship between the e.m.f E actually induced in the armature and the
armature current, Ia.
3.) No-load saturation characteristic, E0/If
Also known as the open-circuit characteristic (O.C.C) or the magnetic characteristic. It
shows the relationship between the no-load generated e.m.f in armature, E0 and the field
or exciting current If at a given fixed speed.
A generator can be self or separately excited. In this experiment, a separately excited generator is
used.

Separately-excited generator
a. Internal and External characteristics
For a separately excited generator giving its rated no-load voltage of E0 for a certain
constant field current, if there were no armature reaction and armature voltage drop, then this
voltage would remain constant. But when the generator is loaded, the voltage falls due to
these two causes thus giving slightly dropping characteristics.
b. No-load saturation characteristic, E0/If
The circiut diagram below can be used to obtain the experimental data for the test;

The exciting or field current If can be obtained from an external independent source. It
can also be varied from zero upwards by use of a potentiometer and its value read by an
ammeter connected in the field circuit as shown above.
The voltage equation for a d.c generator is;
Eg = ΦZN/60 * P/A [V] so that for a constant speed the relation above can be written as E
= kΦ. When If is increased from its initial small value, the flux, Φ and hence the
generated e.m.f. increases directly as current as long as the poles are unsaturated.

Load saturation curve, V/If

The load saturation curve refers to a curve that shows the relation between the terminal
voltage and the field current when the generator is loaded. The curve can be deduced
from the no-load saturation curve provided the values of the armature reaction and
armature resistance are known. While considering this, account is taken of the
demagnetizing effect of armature reaction and the voltage drop in armature which are
practically absent under no-load condition.

Critical Resistance for Shunt Generator

The field windings are connected back to the armature and the machine run. Due to
residual magnetism, some initial e.m.f and hence current would be generated. This current
while passing through the field coils will strengthen the magnetism of the poles. This will
increase the pole flux which will further increase the generated e.m.f. increased e.m.f means
more current which further increases flux and so on.
The mutual reinforcement of e.m.f and flux proceeds on till equilibrium is reached at
some point like p. the point lies on the resistance line OA of the field winding. The voltage
OL corresponding to the point p represents the maximum voltage to which the machine will
build up with R as the field resistance. OB represents a smaller resistance and the
corresponding voltage OM is slightly greater than OL.
 In case the
field resistance is
increased, the
slope of the
resistance line
increases hence
the maximum
voltage to which
the generator will
build up at a
given speed
decreases. If R is
increased so
much that the resistance line does not cut the O.C.C at all then the machine will obviously
fail to excite i.e. there will be no “build up” of the voltage. If the resistance line just lies
along the slope, then with the value of field resistance the machine will just excite. The value
of the resistance represented by the tangent to the curve is known as the critical resistance Rc
for a given speed.

Procedure:
The circuit was connected as shown below;

The motor was then started with field initially at minimum resistance position and its
speed adjusted to 1500rpm. The speed was kept constant throughout the experiment. With the
field connected in the build up position, the generator was switched on with the field resistance
at maximum resistance position.
The generator was setup up at 110V at no load by adjusting the field resistance and left at
this position through out the experiment. The load was then switched on, adjusting the current to
a low value. The voltage, field and line currents were noted.
The load was increased in steps while taking down the parameters. At maximum load, the
variable resistance was adjusted to maximum resistance and the load switched on. More readings
were taking for output voltage, field current and line current, cutting the resistance in stages
down to a complete short.

To the set the variable resistance was first switched off, then the other loads gradually
switched off and finally shorted down

Results:
 Table1: Terminal voltage, line current and field current and varying values of load
power for a d.c shunt generator
Load power Voltage Line current Field current
[Kw] [V] [A] [A]
0 110 0 1.7
0.5 102 3.8 7.3
1.0 92 7.3 1.4
1.5 95 11 1.4
2.0 88 14.5 1.3
2.5 82 16.5 1.2
3.0 80 19.8 1.2
3.5 75 21.6 1.1
4.0 72 23.7 1.1
4.5 67 25.2 1.0
5.0 65 26.8 1.0

Table2: Terminal voltage, line current and field current with shorting resistances
Voltage [V] 13 15 9 5 0
Line current [A] 11 13. 11. 10. 9.5
8 6 5
Field current [A] 0. 0.2 0.2 0.1 0
2

The armature resistance Ra for the D.C drop test was Ra = 0.477Ω

Discussion:
External characteristics
A plot of terminal voltage against line current was made from the results in Table1 to
establish the external characteristics.

Internal characteristics
This was determined by plotting a graph of generated voltage, E against armature
current.
The following relations were used to obtain the values of armature current
Ia = I + I f
E = V + IaRa

Table3: Internal characteristics

E [V] 111. 10 96 101 96 90 90 86 84 80 78
5 5
Ia [A] 1.7 5.4 8. 12. 15. 17. 21. 22. 24. 26. 27.0
7 4 8 7 0 7 8 2

The armature resistance obtained from the d.c drop test was Ra = 0.488Ω

Conclusion:
The objective of the experiment was achieved because the characteristics of a separately
excited shunt generator were determined. The terminal voltage/ line current characteristics were
found to be linear whereas the generated e.m.f / armature current characteristics were found to be
non-linear with increasing armature currents, reasons of which were cited in the theory section as
being due to armature reaction and armature voltage drop. The armature resistance was
graphically determined as Ra = 0.488Ω.

References:
1. G. McPherson, An Introduction to Electrical Machines and Transformers, New York:
Wiley, 1981.
2. S. J. Chapman, Electric Machinery Fundamentals, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991.
3. Edward Hughes, Electrical Technology; 4th Edition
4. University of Nairobi “Machines lab. Manual”, Dept. of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering, 2005.