Generator

It is a device which converts mechanical into electrical or one form of energy to

the other.
It can be AC or DC type.
Purpose of a generator
To provide power on board ships, this can be used to run machineries
Specialty of AC over DC
1. Provide increased power for same size of DC
2. Maintenance is low for AC type
3. Can be converted to DC if required and inverse is not possible.
Construction of Generator
1. Stator and rotor
2. Rotor can be salient pole and non-salient pole type. It is defined based on
their speed and no of poles.
3. Lower speed (<=1500) and more poles (>=6) are salient type with larger
dia and reduced length.
4. Higher speed (>=1800) and fewer poles (2 or 4) are non-salient pole type
with larger length and small dia.
5. They can be a permanent magnet or electro magnet type
6. Permanent magnet type stator can lose its power on repeated usage and
cost is more
7. Its weight is comparatively high and balancing becomes a huge problem.
8. We prefer electromagnetic type construction.
Based on excitation of the stator or rotor (field),
They can be self-excited, indirectly self-excited and separately excited. In a
self-excited system the supply is reduced by a step down transformer and
rectified. It is fed to the field.
BRUSHLESS TYPE

In an indirect type or brushless type, a mini or small generator system is used; it

is rotated by a common shaft.
And the supply is fed into field of small generator. The rotating armature
generates power and is fed to the rotating field of main alternator. The stationary
armature produces ac power. The entire system avoids usage of brushes and
rings. It avoids spark and it is mainly used on board ship.
Separately excited system
In this system instead of using an electro magnet in mini or exciter side the field
with permanent magnet is used here. By using this system the magnetic flux is
readily available and when current is applied in the field, it cuts the magnetic flux
and rotor armature generated emf which is rectified and supplied to the main
generator field and it cuts the armature which in turn produces ac supply.
In ships mainly when no supply is there the residual magnetism in the
electromagnet cant be used because due to longer time or re winding it cant be
used. To overcome that a small excitation can be used using a battery supply but
its a tedious job. So we make use of separately excited system.
Stator construction
The stator can be an armature or field type and based on winding. It is classified
as single layer type and double layer type. It consists of slots and core and it
should be insulated to avoid leakage of supply on the casing. The winding is
placed in the slots.
Slots type
Open
Closed
Semi closed

In open construction fitting is easy and certain air gap provided also ensures
cooling of the core. But on board ships it may fail due to pitch, roll etc. due to
which the winding comes out.
In closed it is vice versa where cooling is not possible.
The semi closed construction is used normally where it combines advantages of
both open and close type.
The winding construction is single layered or double layered double layer is
further classified into
Lap winding and waveform winding
In lap winding the coil rotation is made one over the other in the slots whereas in
waveform it can be pole pitch or short pole pitch type
Where pole pitch= no: of slots on stator/ no: of poles on rotor
Short pole pitch= 1-pole pitch

Paralleling of generators
It is the most important and essential job on board ships to share the load.
Generally a single generator should be designed to withstand total load of the
ship. But its not advisable to connect entire loads on a single generator. So
paralleling is mandatory. It can be made with any number of generator, certain
parameters has to be fulfilled for paralleling or synchronizing
The generated voltage should be same with respect to bus bar voltage
The frequency should be same (change in freq. = 0)
The phase sequence should coincide

This can be made by use of synchroscope which consist of slow and fast
calibrations to denote the frequency of the generator which is to be paralleled
with other. The slow position indicates the frequency of the generator to be
paralleled is low with respect to bus bar/ generator on load, and vice versa if the
needle is in fast position. To synchronize we have to adjust the jack strip to
provide the change in frequency as required. When the needle is in 11o clock
position (normally its 12o clock) i.e. its approaching 12. The breaker is engaged
and it takes the load from the generator on load.

Supply on board
Generally the supply generated is used for two systems
Important systems
Essential systems
Though the important systems are predominant as the name indicates, but the
primary supply is fed continuously to the essential items (day and night) it is the
one which takes majority of load and preference is given to them in case of
emergency and also during overload i.e. preferential tripping

Protection equipment for electrical items on board ship

Overload relay
Short circuit trip
Reverse power trip
Preferential tripping
Low voltage trip relay
Low frequency trip relay

The reverse power trip function,

This can be defined with the motoring effect of generator, where the generator
when synchronized before it is not producing the rated voltage and frequency,
the current will travel from higher potential to the lower potential so the current
from bus bar travel to the low potential generator i.e. producing voltage less than
rated voltage, this causes motoring effect of the generator.
The generator rotate in anti or counter clockwise direction whereas the motor
rotate in clockwise direction, the motoring effect twist the shaft and subjected to
breakage and further the system fails. So we use a reverse power trip relay to
trip the supply of generator to be paralleled and it is isolated. So the system is
protected.

Causes for motoring of generators

1. No excitation voltage in exciter side, so there is absence of excitation in
main generator
2. Prime mover fails to rotate
3. Low fuel oil level and lube oil pressure
4. JCW temperature increases due problem in heat exchanger or pump
failure