Transient Conditions in Electric Machinery

The vector method is just as useful in solving problems involving transient conditions in electric circuits as it has proved to be when the currents and potentials are steady sinusoids. As far as the writer is aware, the vector method for determining transients in rotating electric machines was first used by L. Dreyfus. Previously the method had been applied to fixed combinations of resistances, inductances and capacitances by Kennelly and others. By making certain assumptions that are, however, quite reasonable in many cases, the transient currents in nearly all of the common types of electric machinery are damped sinusoids. Fortunately the damping is exponential and is thus readily accounted for. It is interesting to trace the development of the method. In the solution of all problems in direct currents the potentials, currents, and circuit constants are real numbers. In the corresponding problem in which the applied potentials are steady sinusoids, these quantities are all represented by complex numbers. In all other respects the working out of the solution is identical with that followed in the direct-current case. When the currents are damped sinusoids, they and the potentials and the circuit constants can still be represented by complex numbers. There is this difference, however; the vectors which represent the currents and potentials shrink exponentially as they rotate and the values of the circuit constants depend not only upon the frequency of the current, but also upon its rate of shrinking. Again the solution of any problem follows the same procedure that would the corresponding one in which the currents are steady sinusoids. In both the steady and damped sinusoidal cases the circuit constants depend upon the angular velocity of the vectors which represent the currents. In the former, the angular velocity is purely imaginary while in the latter it is complex, the real part being the rate at which the current vector shrinks and the imaginary portion, its angular velocity. In electric machinery in which rotating magnetic fields are produced, these fields shrink exponontially as they rotate when the currents are damped sinusoids. If these rotating magnetic fields are represented by vectors, the vectors will have a complex angular velocity just as do the currents. The e. m. f. which is produced by a steady sinusoidal variation of flux lags the flux by 90 degrees, whereas if the flux variation is a damped sinusoid, the angle of lag is less than 90 degrees, depending upon the damping. The mathematical relation, however, is the same, vis., the e. m. f. is proportional to the negative of the product of the flux and its angular velocity. It is then readily appreciated that the form of the solution for the transient state is the same as that which is used for the steady state. Before the method can be expected to give as accurate results as are obtained when predicting the steady operation, considerable experimental data must be obtained in order to determine the best methods of measuring the necessary constants, for these may be somewhat different during the transient period than during steady operation.