Output voltage control of synchronous generator for ships using a PMG type digital AVR

In order to provide a constant output voltage at the generator terminal, the field current of a synchronous generator is controlled by automatic voltage regulator (AVR). For most of AVR in the synchronous generator for ships, it uses the way of phase control thyristor. The period of this method, however, is slower than a converter composed of MOSFET or IGBT, thereby having difficulties to implement rapid response control. In addition, regarding to the existing analogue AVR, there is a demerit that it is difficult to monitor the system so it may not provide convenience for the user. Therefore, this paper implemented a PMG type digital AVR using MOSFET on a synchronous generator for ships. Besides, the digital AVR implemented was improved for user convenience by building a monitoring system using the Labview software. The system studied was verified its validity through a 10 kVA prototype experiment, instead of using an actual generator for ships.