Concept of Subtransient, Transient & Steady State
The concept of Subtransient, Transient and Steady State arises in case of fault in an Alternator. Let us assume a sudden short circuit in three phase of alternator. The fault current will flow in all the three phases of alternator and its waveform will be as shown in figure below. When the alternator is short-circuited, the currents in all the three-phases rise rapidly to a high value of about 10 to 18 times of full load current, during the first quarter cycle. The flux crossing the air gap is large during a first couple of cycles. The reactance during these first two or three cycle is least and the short circuit current is high. This reactance is called subtransient reactance and is denoted by X". The first few cycles come under sub-transient state. After a first few cycles, the decrement in the r.m.s. value of short circuit current is less rapid than the decrements during the first few cycles. This state is called the Transient State and the reactance in th...