How an Alternator Works: The Ultimate Guide
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- čas přidán 28. 05. 2024
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⌚Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:40 - What is an alternator?
01:27 - Alternator vs. generator
01:55 - Major components
02:15 - Rotor
02:59 - Stator
05:15 - Rectifier
06:48 - Diode trio and voltage regulator
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In this video, we’re going to talk about a major component of many electrical power or charging systems, the Alternator. In particular, we’re going to look closely at a typical vehicle alternator.
We’ll look inside an alternator and examine all of its individual parts. Then we’ll discuss how these parts work together to do the work that the alternator is intended to do.
An alternator is a device that converts mechanical energy into AC electrical energy.
In a vehicle, the engine turns a drive belt that rotates a pulley attached to the alternator.
It’s probably safe to say that an alternator is a generator.
The alternator actually generates power for the vehicle. As the alternator rotates, it creates a DC voltage primarily to charge the vehicle battery. The battery provides the huge current required to start the vehicle engine.
Once the vehicle is running, the alternator assists by providing power to run the vehicle’s electrical systems.
There are differences in alternator construction and as such, there are a different number of components depending on the vendor.
Alternators have three major components and they are the Rotor, stator, and rectifier. There are more components and we’ll get to those as we progress through our discussion.
1. Alternator rotor
A drive belt pulley system spins the rotor on a shaft while the vehicle engine is running.
At the heart of the rotor is an electromagnet often referred to as field windings.
An electromagnet consists of a length of conductive wire wrapped around a piece of magnetic metal. Voltage is applied to the coiled wire creating a current in it. This creates a magnetic field around the coiled wire.
Much like a permanent magnet, there is a North and a South pole.
A rotor also has a series of alternating North and South finger pole pieces placed around the field windings that wrap around the iron core on the rotor shaft.
2. Alternator stator
The rotor fits inside the Stator. The stator is a stationary part of the alternator. The rotor spins inside the stator without physically touching it. On each end of the shaft sits a brush and a slip ring.
The Stator consists of three separate coil windings with one end of each winding connected together. The stator coil windings are evenly spaced at intervals of 120 degrees around the iron shaft.
There will be a voltage induced in each stator winding. The induced voltages will be AC because of the electromagnetic pole changing during the rotor rotation.
3. Alternator rectifier
How do we convert AC to DC? By using a Rectifier.
More often than not, the alternator rectifier has six diodes. The six diodes are mounted in a heatsinking material to protect them from burning up.
The diodes are configured in such a way that we rectify and convert both half-cycles of every stator voltage AC voltage.
A DC voltage is applied via the slip rings from two different sources.
The first source is from the battery when the engine is started. The second source is from the alternator itself once the rotor is spinning via a component called the diode trio.
Exactly like the rectifier, the diode trio input terminals are connected to each stator voltage output. The output terminal of each diode is connected together.
The diode trio converts part of the stator output voltages to a DC voltage.
The diode trio output is fed to the voltage regulator and becomes the energizing voltage for the rotor electromagnet once the engine has been started and is running.
The purpose of the voltage regulator is to adjust the electromagnet energizing voltage so that the stator output voltages are held relatively constant regardless of the rotational speed of the rotor.
The stator voltage is rectified and then used to charge the battery.
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#RealPars #Alternator #generator
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Can you give more imformation about the relation between alternator and starter on the video. But thanks alot for the info.
When the first starting initially needed battery voltage to drive the rotor, but when started, the alternator produced rectified dc voltage to charge the battery voltage. Then the selector switch turns off itself not provide a voltage to the rotor? Please answer
Hi @Babar Ishaque. Thanks for reaching out. You are correct. Our circuit is drawn in a very simplified form. The Start selector switch will engage the battery to kick-start the rotor and then disengages or shuts off as you describe.
@@realpars Thanks for your kind reply.
What does it mean by (the rectifier output battery charge voltage rises) ?
Hello @tur, Thanks for reaching out. I'll rephrase to hopefully clear up any misunderstanding. "The battery charge voltage at the rectifier output rises". Does that help?
Excellent video but contains a major discrepancy. 0:44 and 1:32 defines an alternator as a device that converts mech energy to "AC" electrical energy. 9:38 defines it as a device that converts mech energy to "DC" electrical energy. Which is it?
The formal definition of an alternator is "mechanical to electrical energy". But the case exposed in the video is about the alternator of a vehicle, where it must feed the electrical system in DC.
Good morning John, at the begining of the process, an alternator convert mech energy to AC electrical energy, later the AC electrical energy is converted to DC electrical energy thanks to a rectifier and/or Diode trio. So both definitions are right in the case of vehicules. But I prefere the second one because it is more complete.
Alternators are ac generators, while generators are machines those can convert mechanical energy in electrical energy (ac/dc) by the help of electromagnetic energy conversion.
Before 1962, automobiles used a "generator" which produced a dc output with a commutator and brushes, much like what is inside a starter motor. These dc generators did not put out much amperage at low speeds. The "alternator" will produce amperage at lower speeds, alternator meaning "alternating current" but which has to be rectified into "direct current" or dc to charge the battery and power everything as explained above. An alternator requires dc to produce Ac, then rectifies it back into dc. Hope this helps
thanks
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number of rotor poles should be as same as stator poles for generator ?
Hi GameLover. What are you referring to as poles? The stator has 3 windings and the rotor has only one.
The number of magnetic rotor poles in an alternator can vary between vendors. Some rotors can contain as many as 20 poles
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Why do we call alternator as doubly excited machine. Do we give 2 supplies, one ac to stator and dc to rotor as here rotor is producing voltage in stator.
Hello Sssa. An alternator doesn't really have 2 supplies. There is one DC supply to excite the rotor. There is an AC output created by the spinning rotor interacting with the 3 windings of the stator. That AC voltage is rectified and becomes a pulsating DC voltage.
Doubly excited machine means we give 2 types of input. One is mechanical (rotation/kinetic energy) and second is field excitation (dc electrical energy). Same thing can easily be explained in case of synchronous motors (which is just opposite of alternators) there we give AC input to stator and dc input to rotor and in the expense of these two excitation we get mechanical rotation.
A singly excited machine is Induction motor. Where we only give one supply that is to the stator (ac supply to create RMF) which alone is enough to produce the rotation of the machine, i.e., mechanical power output.
We obviously give dc to rotor but we don't give AC to stator in case of alternators. Actually we extract ac from stator while giving mechanical rotation to the shaft. What you're saying is exactly the principle of synchronous motor. Both alternator and synchronous motor are doubly excited machines
I have a problem
When measuring the voltage on the battery terminals while the engine is running, it gives 14 volts, which means that the generator is working properly??? However, when I disconnect the battery cable, the car stops. What is the reason?
Hi there........ A reading of 14 volts, while the engine is running, is normal and means the alternator is working just fine.
I’m not sure why you would disconnect the battery while the car is running, but I wouldn’t worry about the engine quitting. The alternator supplies power to the car, but some vehicles do so via the battery. Best to check with the dealership and ask if your car fits into this category. But, if it was me, I wouldn’t worry about it, and I wouldn’t disconnect the battery while the engine is running.
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But there is a problem in understanding the electrical power. We give tension from the battery to the coil and then recover it from the second coils. So, where does the excess energy come from, knowing that the physics principle requires maintaining the amount of energy?
Hi there! Thanks for your question. As you say, the battery provides the initial field voltage. Once the engine is running, the alternator belt keeps the rotor spinning thus producing the continuing field voltage. I hope that answers your question.
Correction: when the engine isn't running, the battery is the source of electrical power. Once the engine starts, the Alternator is the takes over as the source of electrical power and recharges the battery.
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