New Aspects of Winding Faults in the Rotor of a Large Synchronous Generator

M. Klocke, M. Daneschnejad
University of Dortmund
Institute of Electrical Machines, Drives and Power Electronics *)
Emil-Figge-Str. 70, D 44221 Dortmund, Germany
Abstract The effects of rotor winding faults on the behaviour of a synchronous generator are of interest for the
development of reliable protection equipment.
The paper in hand describes the numerical transient field
and network calculation for the sudden occurrence of rotor
winding turn to turn short circuits.
For a 2-pole 760 MVA generator five different locations of
short circuits varying in depth below the rotor surface and
angle towards the pole-axis are investigated. Transient
currents in the short-circuited windings as well as in the
remaining rotor coils are calculated. Additionally, the unbalanced magnetic pull and the slip are determined and output as
functions of time. Saturation is taken into account.
The results of the calculations show that even in case of a
sudden occurrence of a winding fault such an event can hardly
be observed by monitoring external machine quantities since
their transient fluctuations are quite small compared to their
rated values in undisturbed steady state operation.

II. FINITE-DIFFERENCE SCHEME COUPLED TO

NETWORK ANALYSIS
The common finite-difference equations (1) are set up
for each unknown vector potential on a polar grid of the
machine cross-section. They connect the central vector
potential A0 of the node under consideration to the values of
the nodes in immediate neighbourhood A1 ... A4 according
to Fig. 1.

) The Institute of Electrical Machines, Drives and Power Electronics,

University of Dortmund, Germany, is held by Prof. Dr.-Ing. S. Kulig.

pi

i+1

A2 J
i,k
k+1

qk

rk+1
k

rk

A0

A3
qk-1

Fig. 1.
Detail from a polar finite-difference grid with angular width and
radial spacing, material properties
in the cells and five-point-star
consisting of central point 0 and
its neighbours [9,11].

i,k
i,k

A1

A4

k-1
rk-1

Index TermsElectrical machine, rotor winding fault,

finite-difference scheme, coupled problems.

I. INTRODUCTION
Rotor winding faults are of great importance in large
synchronous generators since they can consequently cause
severe rotor damage unless discovered and eliminated in
time. Common reasons for these faults are material fatigue
of the insulation conditioned by mechanical stresses as well
as thermal influences. Accumulation of copper powder in
the slots due to repeated pounding of the copper bars during
low gear operation of the machine is mentioned as a reason
for short circuits in [1].
Until now a sure diagnosis of a rotor winding fault is
only possible for the synchronous machine in dismantled
state or by installation of additional equipment like pick-up
coils inside the machine [2, 3], thus causing high costs.
Other methods require parallel branches in the stator
windings of the machine in order to measure circulating
currents, which are induced in them by the asymmetric
magnetic field arising from a rotor winding fault [4,5].
An on-line analysis of the rotor windings of the
machine in operation would be desirable for economic
reasons. For the development of a reliable on-line detection
and protection the transient machine behaviour to be
expected due to a rotor winding fault has to be predicted.
Therefore the transient numerical field and network calculation appears to be an adequate and advantageous tool [6].
In this paper a finite-difference scheme with coupling to
an analysis of an arbitrary circuit containing windings and
lumped elements is presented, verified and applied to a
2pole-760 MVA generator.

p i-1

i-1

i =1

i Ai + A0

4
i =1

i I0 = 0

(1)

The former right hand side of the spatially discretized

form of Poisons equation, i.e. the total current I0 belonging
to the node may consist of eddy-current components in
massive conductors as well as winding currents.
Mere eddy-currents e.g. in damper bars assumed to be
short-circuited in the front-end and back-end side of the
machine result in an additional expression including the
first derivative of A0, but providing no coupling to external
network equations. By contrast, the winding currents
appear as additional unknowns also taken into account in
external network equations. Also a squirrel cage with
nonzero resistances in the end winding zone requires the
introduction of gradient field strenghts Ea along the bars as
additional unknowns as well as the consideration of
network equations for the cage. The time discretized form
of a finite-difference field equation including winding
currents i and eddy currents as well as gradient fields Ea in
massive bars is given by (2), where denotes a parameter
of integration to be chosen between 0 and 0.5 [10]:
F ,0

(1 ) h
=

F ,0

+ 0 A0

(1 ) h

4
i =1

i Ai F ,0 E a

0 A0 +
+

4
i =1

F ,0 E a +

( )

= 1

i Ai

FN , 0 i
t +h

+
t

2
= 1

( )

FN ,0 i
t

(2)

The factors FN, F and depend on the discretization,

the material properties and the winding distribution, the
number of turns and the winding cross-section and are given
in [9,11].
Coil or coil groups contribute a voltage equation of the
following type to the system of equations:

j(+)

FN, j A j
+

j()

t +h

(1 ) h u
l Fe

FN, j A j
j(+)

FN, j A j

LS,
l Fe

(1 )h R
l Fe

i
t +h

FN, j A j
j()

h
l Fe

LS,
l Fe

hR
l Fe

i
t +h

(3)
Voltage and current of the -th coil group are denoted u
and i, resp. LS, denotes the end zone leakage inductance
and R the ohmic resistance of the coil group under
consideration with an ideal iron lenght of the machine lFe.
In the program used in this context the stator is usually
related to fixed topologies and winding arrangements, i.e.
star and delta connection of an m-phase winding with all
coil groups of a phase connected in series or in parallel.
The stator windings are therefore coupled to the FDanalysis via output line to ground voltages of the external
network lying between the rigid power grid and the
machine. So, the mathematical description of the network
and the FD-analysis can be separated since network meshes
close via output voltages and the machine voltage equations
are handled as formerly with the only change of using the
network output voltages instead of rigid grid voltages.
The treatment of arbitrary rotor winding circuitry and
topology requires a more flexible approach. The rotor
windings are declared network two-pole elements participating arbitrarily in the topological description of the
network. However, the voltage equations for the rotor
windings (3) are taken out of the network subsystem and
appended at the end of the complete equation system
because of positioning the coupling coefficients to the field
equations in a block-matrix with a number of right hand
side columns of the system matrix as small as possible. It
should be mentioned that all network equations are
explicitly taken into account without the use of reductive
methods like node potential or loop current formulations,
the advantage of which would be negligible in the presence
of thousends of field equations. Each branch described by
the two unknowns, voltage and current, contributes a twopole integral or differential equation of first order like e.g.
u j = R j i j + Lj

or

di j
dt

1
Cj

i j d + U C,0 .

M j ,l

d il
dt

(4a)

(4b)

=0

The discretization in time is carried out according to the method as described in [9]. The main difference of branches described by (4) to those described by (3) is that the
former do not provide any coupling to the field problem.
An additional relation for the branches is given by the
network topology, which is described by Kirchhoffs laws
(C ) (i ) = (0) and (B ) (u ) = (0) with incidence matrices (C)
and (B) and vectors of branch currents (i) and voltages (u).
This approach in conjunction with a locally applied total
pivot search solution is more robust against irregular
network configurations like short-circuited nodes (R=0) and
interrupted loops (G=0) and provides complete network
state information for the iterative adaption of nonlinear
voltage-current relations e.g. of semiconductor valves.
III. TEST-EXAMPLE
A simple test arrangement consisting of a split winding
coil in a slot surrounded by ideal ferromagnetic material as
shown in Fig. 2a is investigated. On the one hand the
program is checked by this example, on the other hand the
basic behaviour of the current in a winding after the sudden
occurrence of a shirt circuit is demonstrated. The arrangement consists of a winding split up into two parts with
resistance R1 and self inductance L1 for part one and R2, L2
for part two, both coupled by the mutual inductance M. The
winding is fed with direct current and assumed to be in
steady state. Part two is suddenly short-circuited at instant
of time t = tsc. After that the resulting current increases to a
new stationary level according to two characteristic
exponential functions, whereas the current through the
short-circuited winding part decreases to zero with the same
characteristic. This can be shown analytically by solving
the differential equation, is confirmed by numerical
network analysis with lumped parameters and is also
calculated for a single slot cross section using the finitedifference scheme. The characteristic transient currents
slightly modified also occur in the real machine as shown
later on.
u1

lz = 0.13 m

i1

-1

R1
U0

-2
Nwdg = 50
28 mm
Nwdg = 50
+2

+1
1 10 mm

N
l =1, l j

uj = Rjij +

L1
M

i2
L2

R2

sc
u2

R1 = R2 = 5
L 1 = 1.77 mH
L 2 = 0.75 mH
M = 0.92 mH
U0 = 10 V

Fig. 2a. Cross-section with FD-grid and lumped element scheme of a

winding coil in a slot to be partially short-circuited.

The analytical solution is carried out for the voltage

equations of the short-circuited arrangement, which are:
R1 i1 + L1
M

di1
di
+ M 2 = U0
dt
dt

i1 (t ) = 2.000 0.6949 exp 24.03

+ ( 0.3051) exp 2.163

(5)

di1
di
+ L2 2 + R2 i 2 = 0
dt
dt

i2 (t ) = 1.1797 exp 24.03

The initial values of the currents are given by the steady

state condition before short-circuiting:
i1 (t = tsc ) = i2 (t = tsc ) = U 0 / (R1 + R2 )
Equation (5) can be solved by applying the Laplacetransformation. From the algebraic system of equations in p
the transformed unknowns I1(p) and I2(p) can be
determined. The transient process after short-circuiting
turns out to be governed by two characteristic eigenvalues,
which can be written as:
p1, 2

1
1
1
1
=
+
2
2 1 k 1 2

4(1 k 2 )

1 2

(6)

k < 1 holds for every practical system consisting of two

inductively coupled coils and the time constants 1,2 are
always positive, p1,2 are merely real and always negative,
thus excluding oscillating or unstable behaviour as
expected.
The solutions for i1 and i2 deduced from the backward
transformation are:

1
1

+
R1 p1 p 2

(L + M ) R 2
R
p1
1
2 + L2 + 1
+

2
p1
R1 + R2
R1 + R2
L1 L2 M
exp( p1 (t t sc )) +

(L + M ) R 2
R
p2
1
2 + L2 + 1

R1 + R2
R1 + R2
L1 L2 M 2 p 2
exp( p 2 (t t sc ))
(7)

i2 (t ) =

U0

(R1 + R2 )( p1 p 2 )

R1 L2 R2 M
+ p1 exp ( p1 (t t sc )) +
L1 L2 M 2

R1 L2 R2 M
p 2 exp ( p 2 (t t sc ))
L1 L2 M 2

1
(t 2.05 ms )
ms

1
(t 2.05 ms ) +
ms

+ ( 0.1797) exp 2.163

1
(t 2.05 ms )
ms

A
(9)

The curves obtained by (9) for t > 2.05 ms are quite

congruent to those resulting from numerical analysis shown
in Fig. 2b.
2

i1

Herein, 1 and 2 are the time constants L1/R1 and L2/R2 and
k is the coupling coefficient given by M / L1 L2 . Since

i1 (t ) = U 0

1
(t 2.05 ms ) +
ms

i 1

0
tsc
0

With the values given by Fig. 2a the following time

functions of the currents i1(t) and i2(t) for t > tsc = 2.05 ms
can be quantitatively determined:

ms

t
Fig. 2b. Winding currents from FD-analysis and numerical lumped
parameter calculation (congruent curves) before and after short circuit at
part 2.

IV. APPLICATION TO A SYNCHRONOUS

GENERATOR
A rotor circuitry including five possible locations for
turn to turn short circuits is set up according to Fig. 3a and
Fig. 3b. The undisturbed operation is modelled by Rsc =
1012 . At the instant of short circuit, tsc = 12.3 s for the
present example, this value is reduced to Rsc = 0 for the
winding under consideration. So as an advantage only one
time consuming calculation has to be carried out for
reaching steady state operation of the machine, for the
present example over a simulated time of 12.3 s.
On the other hand as a disadvantage six rotor voltage
equations instead of two have to be solved. The crosssection of the machine is discretized by a grid with about
19,000 nodes as shown in Fig. 3c. The time-step h is
0.1111 ms for all calculations.
Rsc,1

(8)

i2

i1,2

i1
turns:

Rsc,5
i5

Rsc,23 Rsc,41 Rsc,47

i23

i41

i47

1
5
23
41
47
2..4, 6..22, 24..40, 42..46, 48..94
iexc
Uexc

Fig. 3a. Network arrangement of rotor windings.

The locations for the winding faults under consideration

are shown in Fig. 3b and are also marked in Fig. 3c. They
differ in the angle towards the rotor pole-axis and in the
distance to the rotor surface. Fig. 3c additionally shows the
rotor reference frame axis d and q. This coordinate system
is used for measuring forces on the rotor later on.

observed during the transient process. Therefore, under

practical operating conditions the observable current of
excitation can hardly be a criterion for the detection of a
turn to turn short circuit.

5
1
23
41

47

Fig. 3b. Rotor of synchronous generator under investigation with cross

sections of windings to be short-circuited.
Fig. 4. Current in excitation windings after sudden occurrence of short
circuit at turns 1, 5, 23, 41 and 47 [8].

Fig. 3c. Finite-difference polar grid of machine cross-section, locations

of turns to be short-circuited and direct and quadrature axis of rotor
reference frame.

V. RESULTS
The currents in excitation windings not directly affected
by short circuit as well as the currents in the turns shortcircuited mainly follow a double exponential characteristic.
However, due to electromechanical interaction and iron
saturation the courses of the exciting currents differ from
the ideal case of the test example described before.
Furthermore, overshots of iexc occur for short circuits of turn
23, 41 and 47, see Fig. 4. As a further difference to the test
example the currents in short-circuited turns decrease to
zero without reaching negative transient values as shown in
Fig. 5. The new stationary value of iexc is only about 1 %
greater than the former one and so is the maximum value

Fig. 5. Currents in short-circuited turns 1, 5, 23, 41 and 47 [8].

Caused by transient variations of the magnetic field in

the airgap damped electromechanical oscillations, however
of negligibly small amplitude, are provoked as e.g. can be
seen from the slip in Fig. 6. The amplitude of the slip
oscillations does not exceed about 410-4 %. The maximum
slip reached during the transient process is ca. 6.410-4 %.
Both values are far away from measurability.
Also the root mean square value of the stator current
oscillates slightly, but with far too low amplitude for
monitoring under actual operating conditions, see Fig. 7.
The stator current rms-value totally increases by only about
0.08 %. Its superposed oscillations start with a maximum
amplitude of about 6 A, i.e. less than 0.4 % of the rated
steady state current.

Fig. 6. Slip after sudden occurrence of short circuit at turn 1 [8].

Fig. 8. Field map on cross-section of investigated synchronous generator

1.6 s after occurrence of sudden short circuit in turn 1.

Fig. 7. Stator current rms-value after sudden occurrence of short circuit at

turn 1.

The field map on the cross-section of the investigated

machine taken 1.6 s after short-circuiting turn 1 in Fig. 8
shows no obvious irregularities. By contrast it seems to be
rather symmetrical and undisturbed. The rotor is rotating
clockwise and from the orientation of the fieldlines in the
airgap it can be seen that the machine is operated as a
generator since the electromagnetic moment is oriented
against the direction of motion.
In spite of the quite symmetrical field map strong
effects of asymmetry can be observed concerning the
unbalanced magnetic pull. Fig. 9a,b show the components
of the magnetic force exerted on the rotor in the d,q-frame.
There is an average force at rest in the rotor reference frame
as expected. The force does not straightly act in the direct
axis but has also got a component in the quadrature
direction. But the d-component is about four times stronger
and thus dominant. Since the flux density at the pole with
the shorted turn is lower than at the opposite pole, the
magnetic pull is reduced here. Hence the magnetic force
resulting from both poles acts in the direction of the
undisturbed pole, i.e. mainly in negative d-direction.

Fig. 9a. Force components in d- and q-axis on rotor in rotor reference

frame after sudden occurrence of short circuit at turn 5 [8].

Fig. 9b. Trajectory of force vector on rotor in rotor reference frame after
sudden occurrence of short circuit at turn 5.

Concerning the average forces it can be seen that

winding faults with great inherent asymmetry cause the
largest values, whereas short circuits close to the diameter,
the q-axis of the rotor, have less effect. The extreme cases
of the winding faults investigated here are shown in Fig. 9
and 10, where the force after short-circuiting turn 41 is only
a tenth of that resulting from a short circuit in turn 5.
Besides the expected average force on the rotor
oscillating components occur. They form an elliptically
counter-clockwise rotating force wave with a frequency of
360 Hz = 6fN. The trajectories of the force vectors measured in the d,q-rotor reference frame are shown in Fig. 9b
and 10b. Although the forces are apparently quite strong, it
seems to be doubtful because of the high mass of the rotor,
whether they can cause measurable vibration, which could
be monitored for the detection of a winding fault.

The exciting current only increases by about 1 %. The

effects of a rotor turn to turn short circuit on stator
quantities is even less.
Calculated field maps hardly show an observable asymmetry. Nevertheless the mechanical effects of a rotor
winding fault appear to be quite strong concerning the
unbalanced magnetic pull and its oscillations with six times
the power grid frequency. However, the calculated forces
have to be related to the rotor mass in order to judge their
effect and measurability, resp.
REFERENCES
[1] El-Sharkawi, M. A.; Marks II, R. J.; Seho Oh,; Huang,
S. J.; Kerszenbaum, I.; Rodriguez, A. Localization of
Winding Short Using Fuzzified Neural Networks IEEE
Trans. on Energy Con., vol. 10, No. 1, March 1995.
[2] Drubel, O.; Rist, M.; Sedlazeck, K. Detection of turn to
turn short-circuits in the field winding of turbogenerators
by the measurement of the air-gap flux density
Proceedings of ICEM, Istanbul, 1998.
[3] Albright, D. R. Interturn Short-Circuit detection for
turbine-generator rotor windings IEEE Trans. on Power
and Apparatus Systems, vol. PAS-90, 1971, pp. 478-483.
[4] Mulhaus, J. W.; Ward, D. M.; Lodge, I. The Detection
of Shorted Turns in Alternator Rotor Windings by
Measurement of Circulating Stator Currents IEE
Conference Publications, Vol. 254, 1985, pp. 100-103.
[5] Wood, J. W.; Hindmarch, R. T.; Rotor Winding Short
Detection IEE Proceedings, Vol. 133, Pt. B, No. 3, May
1986, pp. 181-189.

Fig. 10a. Force components in d- and q-axis on rotor in rotor reference

frame after sudden occurrence of short circuit at turn 41 [8].

[6] Kulig, S. Anwendung der numerischen Feldberechnung zur Modellierung elektrischer Drehstrom-Maschinen
mit inneren Fehlern Bulletin SEV/VSE(1990)7.
[7] S. Kulig, Die innere Unsymmetrie von Synchronmaschinen, PhD thesis AGH, Krakau 1974.
[8] M. Daneshnejad, Erfassung von Windungsschlssen in
der Erregerwicklung eines Turbogenerators, PhD thesis,
University of Dortmund, Institute of Electrical Machines,
Drives and Power Electronics, to be published in 2001.
[9] M. Klocke, Zur Berechnung dynamischer Vorgnge bei
von einem Drehstromsteller gespeisten Antrieben mit Asynchronmaschinen und mehreren gekoppelten Massen mittels
Finite-Differenzen-Zeitschrittrechnung, PhD thesis, University of Dortmund, Institute of Electrical Machines, Drives
and Power Electronics, 1999.

Fig. 10b. Trajectory of force vector on rotor in rotor reference frame after
sudden occurrence of short circuit at turn 41.

VI. CONCLUSION
Even the sudden occurrence of a turn to turn short
circuit only causes transient phenomena of hardly
observable effect. Therefore any prediction or localization
of winding faults from monitoring these phenomena seems
to be excluded.

[10] A. Krawczyk, J.A.Tegopoulos, Numerical Modelling

of Eddy Currents, Oxford:Clarendon Press, 1993.
[11] R. Gottkehaskamp, Nichtlineare Berechnung von
Asynchronmaschinen mit massiveisenem Rotor und zustzlichem Dmpferkfig im transienten Zustand mittels Finiter
Differenzen und Zeitschrittrechnung, PhD thesis, University
of Dortmund, Institute of Theoretical Electrical Engineering and Electrical Machines, 1992.