Additional Losses in the Damper Winding of Large Hydrogenerators at Open-Circuit and Load Conditions

Large salient-pole synchronous machines are typically equipped with a damper winding. At steady-state conditions, parasitic voltages are induced in the damper bars which lead to a current flow with associated power losses. This paper describes an analytical algorithm for the calculation of currents and corresponding losses in the damper winding. The presented method is based on an equivalent network of the damper winding containing all the bars of a repetitive section of the machine. The inductances are calculated with an air-gap permeance model. Contrary to similar existing approaches, the induced damper-bar voltages are computed using a numerical integration. This allows more precise results when it comes to higher harmonics. In order to validate the analytical computation, the results are compared with the results of 2-D transient finite-element studies and with a conventional analytical method based on the d-and q-axis equivalent circuits of the machine.