The present invention generally relates to field current discharge and, more specifically, to systems and methods for discharging current to eliminate damage caused by generator overvoltage when a load is removed.
The output of a generator or alternator may be regulated by comparing the voltage at a point of regulation (POR) with a reference voltage and using a voltage regulator to maintain the output voltage at a desired level. Some systems now require generators that limit overvoltage to about 150V rms for 115 V AC electrical systems and to about 300 V rms for 230 V AC electrical systems.
A conventional approach to overvoltage protection is to monitor voltage levels and disconnect the generator or alternator from the power supply when an overvoltage is detected. This approach, however, is too slow to provide effective control and protection against overvoltage conditions.
For synchronous alternator applications, fast field current discharge is required to eliminate the damages caused by overvoltage that occurs during load removal. Voltage regulator circuitry and the field winding exist to regulate the terminal voltage of the generator to meet the predetermined specifications. During the load removal, the generator terminal voltage increases due to reduced losses. Therefore, the voltage regulator is engaged to reduce the field current. The field power supply is unidirectional, so the stored energy in the form of the field current has to be dissipated in the field resistance. Since the field resistance is very small, the recovery time is large and it takes a long time to reduce the field current and, consequently, a longer overvoltage appears on the generator terminals.
One conventional approach to overvoltage protection uses a discharge resistance to dissipate the field current energy. The larger the discharge resistance, the shorter the recovery time. Discharging the field current through a high resistance value results in high voltage across the discharge resistance, which could exceed the aircraft and components safe working voltage. In addition, a special resistor, with high pulse energy rating, is required, which adds to the circuit cost.
Although discharging the field current through a resistance can be fast, the discharge time is limited by the voltage across the given resistance. For ideally fast discharge time, a prohibitively large resistance may be necessary. Therefore, due to the inability to use such large resistances, the discharge time would not be as fast as required. Additionally, a large electromagnetic interference pulse is produced during a resistive discharge which could disturb surrounding electronic equipment.
Referring to
Referring to
As can be seen, there is a need for a field current discharge circuit and method that may quickly reduce the field current without requiring a large resistance which may emit electromagnetic interference pulses.
In one aspect of the present invention, a resonance field discharge circuit comprises a field discharge transistor switching between an ON position and an OFF position; a storage device for receiving and storing field energy when the field discharge transistor is in the OFF position; and a discharge resistor for discharging the field energy stored in the storage device.
In another aspect of the present invention, a method for reducing the duration and the level of an overvoltage condition in a generator comprises determining that an overvoltage condition exists; turning OFF a field discharge transistor to allow field current to be transferred to a storage device; and turning ON the field discharge transistor to allow for the discharge of the energy stored in the storage device.
In a further aspect of the present invention, a field discharge circuit for reducing the duration and the level of an overvoltage condition of a generator comprises a field discharge transistor switching between an ON position and an OFF position; capacitor for receiving and storing field energy when the field discharge transistor is in the OFF position; and discharge resistor for discharging the field energy stored in the capacitor, wherein the discharge resistor discharges the field energy stored in the capacitor when the field discharge transistor is in the ON position.
These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following drawings, description and claims.
The following detailed description is of the best currently contemplated modes of carrying out the invention. The description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but is made merely for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the invention, since the scope of the invention is best defined by the appended claims.
Broadly, the present invention provides a resonance field discharge circuit for rapidly reducing the field current of a generator, thereby avoiding an overvoltage condition. The present invention may use a storage device, such as a capacitor, to quickly transfer the field current energy thereto and then slowly dissipate the transferred energy after the event (such as removal of a load) has passed. By transferring this energy to a storage device and subsequently slowly discharging this energy through a resistor, electromagnetic interference caused by a conventional resistive discharge can be reduced.
Conventional field discharge circuits may rely upon discharge resistance to dissipate the field current energy. In these conventional systems, however, the specifications for field current discharge may require the use of a large resistor in order to handle the desired field current discharge. Moreover, a large electromagnetic pulse may be produced during a resistive discharge. The field discharge circuit of the present invention avoids or minimizes electromagnetic pulses by transferring the energy stored in the field inductance to a storage device, such as a capacitor. After the field current is reduced, the energy in the storage device of the present invention may be slowly dissipated by a bleed resistor, thereby avoiding the need for large wattage or large resistance features in the discharge resistor as well as avoiding large electromagnetic interference by conventional rapid resistive discharge.
Referring to
Referring to
The field discharge circuit 42 may sense the voltage at the POR 66 and control a switching signal 68 to a field discharge transistor 70 as discussed below. A hyertsis control 80 may be used to avoid multiple triggers of the field discharge circuit 42. The hyertsis control 80 may have two limits, an upper limit and a lower limit. When the voltage at the POR 66 is less than the lower limit, the output of the hyertsis control 80 will be high and consequently, the transistor 70 is ON. If the signal at the POR 66 is higher than the upper limit, the hyertsis control 80 output is low, which may turn the transistor 70 OFF to engage the field discharge circuit 42. The other signals shown in
wherein LField is the field inductance, CR is the capacitance of the capacitor 72 and TR is the time-base of the resonance.
During this time period, the energy stored in the field inductance (in terms of current) will be stored in the capacitor 72 (in terms of voltage). After this time period
the field discharge transistor may be turned ON, allowing the field current 64 to build up again while discharging the energy stored in the capacitor 72 through a discharge resistor 76. The discharge time constant, τD may be determined by
τD=CRRFD
wherein CR is the capacitance of the capacitor 72 and RFD is the resistance of the discharge resistor 76.
Since the discharge time does not affect the field current 64 or the voltage at the POR 66, the time constant is chosen to be long, therefore the energy rating of the discharge resistor 76 may be dramatically smaller than conventional discharge resistors, which must dissipate the field current in a relatively short period of time. To avoid multiple triggers of the field discharge circuit 42, the integral part of the voltage regulator 56 may be RESET via a reset signal 78 after each trigger of the field discharge circuit 42.
Referring now to
An aircraft generator was suffering from frequent trips and damage to its power pass. Analysis and tests showed that the root cause of such trips and damage was mainly due to the overvoltage which occurred after a large load was removed. The conventional fast field discharge circuit may use a 120 ohm resistor. Based on the field inductance of 100 mH, the time constant was 1 ms, with a total discharge time of about 5 ms. This conventional improvement reduced the overvoltage spikes by more than about 40% and reduced the overvoltage duration by greater than 50%.
Using the same conditions and the above provided equations, the present invention would provide a solution to the aircraft generator problem by using a 6.4 uf capacitor. This would give a TR (field discharge time) as 1.5 ms. Because the field discharge time is reduced from 5 ms to 1.5 ms with the present invention, the overvoltage will be less and of a shorter duration. RFD is chosen to be 3.1K ohm, or any appropriate value, as τD does not affect the field current. For example, for a slow field discharge time, the discharge resistor may be chosen to be about 100K ohm. A larger resistor may more be able to dissipate larger voltages over longer periods of time. While the above example describes the use of 3.1K ohm and 100K ohm resistors as the discharge resistor, the above example is meant as non-limiting a example. Specific resistances may be chosen depending on the application.
It should be understood, of course, that the foregoing relates to exemplary embodiments of the invention and that modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
5642033 | Bartol et al. | Jun 1997 | A |
5932993 | Kouwa et al. | Aug 1999 | A |
6072301 | Ashtiani et al. | Jun 2000 | A |
6233165 | Irissou et al. | May 2001 | B1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
19935260 | Feb 2000 | DE |
58015466 | Jan 1983 | JP |
2002272135 | Sep 2002 | JP |
2007097261 | Apr 2007 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20080259509 A1 | Oct 2008 | US |