Developing of an experimental set for parallel connection of alternators for education purposes and evaluation of it?s effectiveness

In this thesis a microcontroller based experimental unit for parallel connection of alternators for education purposes has been designed and implemented. This experimental set designed detects the incorrect phase order firstly, which is one of the conditions of parallel connection, and corrects it automatically. The other three conditions of parallel connection, the equality of voltages, frequencies and phase angles of two alternators are then obtained by the experimental set. All these measurements are processed numerically by 16F877 microprocessor and the parallel connection is achieved automatically. As a consequence, students can see the faults of parallel connection which occurred during the application in the laboratory studies. Since all the processes of parallel connection of two alternators are visualized, students can find solutions for the faults and prevent them. In addition, the experiment unit developed can be used as an alarm circuit for industrial purposes at the conditions of phase disconnections. The experiment set developed can also be used as a protection or a caution unit in the industry when alternators are unbalance loaded or a collapse occured in phases or a fault occured in the caution circuit. A questionnaire including 14 multiple choice type questions carried out to investigate effects of the experiment set on education. The questionnaire performed through 83 students taking the courses of synchronous machines, DC motor and their controls automatic control and parallel operation of alternators. According to the result of the questionnaire, the system has affirmative effects on education as a rate of 94 percent.