Damper Bars and Their Influence in Operating Homopolar Inductor Alternators for Aerospace Supplies?Part II: Subtransient Reactances of Saturated Homopolar Inductor Alternators with Damper Windings

The general differential equations for the circuits of a homopolar inductor alternator are established. The system of equations is modified for the case of nonsymmetrical subtransient operation. The Runge-Kutta and Adams-Moulton methods are used to solve the system of differential equations with variable coefficients. The solution is obtained for different initial conditions. Several damper winding designs are analyzed. A step-by-step correction method in the time domain is used to improve the approximate initial value of the subtransient reactance. This method takes care of saturation, which changes greatly during a subtransient. The analysis of the most advantageous design of the axial damper winding located in the armature slots is given in this paper. All calculations were carried out for the same alternator as used in the companion paper [1].     

Damper Bars and Their Influence in Operating Homopolar Inductor Alternators for Aerospace Supplies?Part I: Determination of Saturated Time-Dependent Reactances

The commutating impedance of homopolar alternators of medium frequency, as described by Trutt and Erdélyi [1], has to be kept at a low value in order to enable the various arrangements made up from solid-state elements to convert frequencies of 3500 Hz to the usual 400 or 60 Hz used in aerospace supplies. This can be achieved by fitting damping devices into homopolar inductor alternators. To study theoretically the effect of these devices, the inductances of the various windings must be known. This problem is treated here. For this purpose, the two-dimensional model of the alternator and the vector potential analysis of the cross section (as shown by Schenk et al. [2]) is used. Because of the varying position of the stator winding with respect to the rotor teeth, these reactances are time-dependent, and the coefficients of the differential equations describing the commutating (subtransient) regime are time-varying. The calculations were carried out for a 95-kVA, 115/200 V, 5 rotor teeth, 3400-Hz homopolar inductor alternator. The air gap of the alternator was 0.030 inch. Detailed data of the homopolar inductor alternator are in [1] and [6].