Engineers from the US Naval Surface Warfare Center carderock division – ship systems engineering station (NSWCCD-SSES) have developed and successfully conducted full scale testing of a new 14MW high-speed generator (HSG) at the land based test site.
The 7,000rpm, 6,600v HSG has been designed to provide six times more power than lower speed, conventionally cooled, similar sized currently available generators.
The initial operation testing validated the six-phase automatic voltage regulator prototype’s ability to provide steady voltage output from the generator under various load conditions.
NSWCCD-SSES electric power research and development branch lead test engineer Eric Manna said the team tested the most powerful high speed generator ever built.
"This design is a significant step forward in advancing state-of-the-art HSGs with advanced cooling systems in order to achieve the power density levels necessary for future ship designs," Manna said.
The HSG features a high-speed advanced rotor coil cooling system to enable safe operation at the high speeds and high voltage.
In late 2012, NSWCCD-SSES successfully completed initial testing of the HSG for durations of an hour.
The HSG has been modified to reduce vibration and demonstrated its operation for a period of eight hours with an output at full load.
Naval Innovation for Science and Engineering (NISE)-funded HSG research intends to develop the power plant for the next generation cruiser CG(X) platform.
Machinery research and engineering department chief technologist, Dr Michael Golda, said: "Through this NISE-funded work force development project, we were able to increase our technical knowledge for the installation, troubleshooting and operation of high speed generators and will be able to apply what we learned developing high speed naval machinery for future classes of navy ships."
The NISE programme provides the capability for the US Department of Defense (DoD) science and engineering organisations to develop the workforce and enhance laboratory facilities and equipment as well as to develop and transition technology.
