Difference between Cylindrical and Salient Pole Rotor Synchronous Generator
We are quite familiar with Synchronous Generator or often called Alternator. There are mainly two types of Synchronous Generator from rotor construction point of view. The two main types of synchronous machine are Cylindrical Rotor and Salient Pole. Saliency simply means projection outward. Therefore from the literal meaning of Saliency one can guess that Salient Pole machines must have poles projecting outward. In general, the Cylindrical Rotor type machines are confined to 2 and 4 pole turbine generators, while salient pole types are built with 4 poles upwards and include most classes of duty. Both classes of machine are similar in Stator construction point of view. Each has a stator carrying a three-phase winding distributed over its inner periphery. Within the stator bore is the rotor which is magnetised by a winding carrying DC current. The main difference between the Cylindrical Rotor and Salient Pole classes of machine lies in the rotor construction. The cylindrical roto