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Saturable Inductor

Saturable Inductor

Saturable Inductor

(OP)
Has anyone heard of using a saturable inductor in grounding a power distribution transformer? Better yet, anyone know what a saturable inductor is?

The application is serving a very sensitive laboratory experiment. One of the scientist recommended using a saturable inductor at the power distribution transformer, which is 2MVA and shielded,dry type  to help mitigate "noise" issues.

Refernce to technical papers or products would be helpful.

Thanks.
b

RE: Saturable Inductor

A saturable inductor (reactor) was a widely used method of getting an adjustable AC voltage, for example, for controlling heating elements in smaller electric furnaces. It was made obsolete by thyristors (controlled rectifiers) in the early 1960s, or thereabouts. It is related to the magnetic amplifier, also obsolete.

In this technology, a DC magnetizing voltage is applied to the center leg of a 3-legged core, the other two legs carry the AC reactor windings. Varying the DC voltage varys the amount of flux saturation of the cores, thereby changing the reactance of the AC windings, and therefore the current in the AC circuit.

The usual control voltage was something like 0...75VDC, usually, in fact, the output of a magnetic amplifier system, which was the regulator type widely used at that time.

Probably findable on Google...

rasevskii



  

RE: Saturable Inductor

I think he may be thinking of what's called a Petersen Coil (note the spelling), a neutral grounding reactor that is put in to limit fault currents and prevent high voltages in the ungrounded phases and capacitance build up that can cause arcing damage in the event of a ground fault. Petersen Coils need to be tuned to the capacitance in the system, so some are saturable reactors in case the system changes often and the coil inductance needs to be adjustable.

I'm not sure how that would help in terms of "noise" however. It's mostly used to limit damage to equipment from ground faults, just like a Neutral Grounding Resistor system.

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RE: Saturable Inductor

(OP)
From a very rough sketch from the scientist, it looks the the saturable inductor is conneted to the shield of the transformer and connected into a ufer ground.

 

RE: Saturable Inductor

Never heard of that. But this isn't really my area of expertise, I know they do a lot of things in the radio and microwave transmission  industry that are very different from what we need to worry about normally.

"Dear future generations: Please accept our apologies. We were rolling drunk on petroleum."
— Kilgore Trout (via Kurt Vonnegut)
  
For the best use of Eng-Tips, please click here -> FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies  

RE: Saturable Inductor

Leg pulling or unknowledge?

Gunnar Englund
www.gke.org
--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.

RE: Saturable Inductor

(OP)
UNKNOWLEDGE.

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