Transformers

Although not an electromechanical device, the transformer is a common and indispensable component of ac systems where it is used to transform voltages, currents, and impedances to appropriate levels for optimal use. For the purposes of our study of electromechanical systems, transformers serve as valuable examples of the analysis techniques which must be employed. They offer us opportunities to investigate the properties of magnetic circuits, including the concepts of mmf, magnetizing current, and magnetizing, mutual, and leakage fluxes and their associated inductances.
In both transformers and rotating machines, a magnetic field is created by the combined action of the currents in the windings. In an iron-core transformer, most of this flux is confined to the core and links all the windings. This resultant mutual flux induces voltages in the windings proportional to their number of turns and is responsible for the voltage-changing property of a transformer. In rotating machines, the situation is similar, although there is an air gap which separates the rotating and stationary components of the machine. Directly analogous to the manner in which transformer core flux links the various windings on a transformer core, the mutual flux in rotating machines crosses the air gap, linking the windings on the rotor and stator. As in a transformer, the mutual flux induces voltages in these windings proportional to the number of turns and the time rate of change of the flux. A significant difference between transformers and rotating machines is that in rotating machines there is relative motion between the windings on the rotor and stator.
This relative motion produces an additional component of the time rate of change of the various winding flux linkages. As will be discussed in Chapter 3, the resultant voltage component, known as the speed voltage, is characteristic of the process of electromechanical energy conversion. In a static transformer, however, the time variation of flux linkages is caused simply by the time variation of winding currents; no mechanical motion is involved, and no electromechanical energy conversion takes place. The resultant core flux in a transformer induces a counter emf in the primary which, together with the primary resistance and leakage-reactance voltage drops, must balance the applied voltage. Since the resistance and leakage-reactance voltage drops usually are small, the counter emf must approximately equal the applied voltage and the core flux must adjust itself accordingly. Exactly similar phenomena must take place in the armature windings of an ac motor; the resultant air-gap flux wave must adjust itself to generate a counter emf approximately equal to the applied voltage. In both transformers and rotating machines, the net mmf of all the currents must accordingly adjust itself to create the resultant flux required by this voltage balance. In any ac electromagnetic device in which the resistance and leakage-reactance voltage drops are small, the resultant flux is very nearly determined by the applied voltage and frequency, and the currents must adjust themselves accordingly to produce the mmf required to create this flux.

In a transformer, the secondary current is determined by the voltage induced in the secondary, the secondary leakage impedance, and the electric load. In an induction motor, the secondary (rotor) current is determined by the voltage induced in the secondary, the secondary leakage impedance, and the mechanical load on its shaft. Essentially the same phenomena take place in the primary winding of the transformer and in the armature (stator) windings of induction and synchronous motors. In all three, the primary, or armature, current must adjust itself so that the combined mmf of all currents creates the flux required by the applied voltage. In addition to the useful mutual fluxes, in both transformers and rotating machines there are leakage fluxes which link individual windings without linking others. Although the detailed picture of the leakage fluxes in rotating machines is more complicated than that in transformers, their effects are essentially the same. In both, the leakage fluxes induce voltages in ac windings which are accounted for as leakagereactance voltage drops. In both, the reluctances of the leakage-flux paths are dominanted by that of a path through air, and hence the leakage fluxes are nearly linearly proportional to the currents producing them. The leakage reactances therefore are often assumed to be constant, independent of the degree of saturation of the main magnetic circuit.
Further examples of the basic similarities between transformers and rotating machines can be cited. Except for friction and windage, the losses in transformers and rotating machines are essentially the same. Tests for determining the losses and equivalent circuit parameters are similar: an open-circuit, or no-load, test gives information regarding the excitation requirements and core losses (along with friction and windage losses in rotating machines), while a short-circuit test together with dc resistance measurements gives information regarding leakage reactances and winding resistances. Modeling of the effects of magnetic saturation is another example:
In both transformers and ac rotating machines, the leakage reactances are usually assumed to be unaffected by saturation, and the saturation of the main magnetic circuit is assumed to be determined by the resultant mutual or air-gap flux.





1 Magnetic Circuits and Magnetic Materials
2 Transformers
3 Electromechanical-Energy-ConversionPrinciples
4 Introduction to Rotating Machines
5 Synchronous Machines
6 Polyphase Induction Machines
7 DC Machines
8 Variable-Reluctance Machines and Stepping Motors
9 Single- and Two-Phase Motors
10 Introduction to Power Electronics
11 Speed and Torque Control
Appendix A Three phase circuits
Appendix B Voltages, Magnetic Fields, and Inductances of Distributed AC Windings
Appendix C The dq0 Transformation
Appendix D Engineering Aspects of Practical Electric Machine Performance and Operation
Appendix E Table of Constants and Conversion