Abstract
THE losses due to air friction when machines are rotating is often an appreciable fraction of the total working losses. The losses can be considerably reduced by running the machines in hydrogen. As the thermal conductivity of hydrogen is much greater than that of air, the temperature rise of the machine is further reduced and so it can be run at a heavier load and can therefore be rated as a more powerful machine. In the Electrician of March 1, there is a description of a 30,000 kilovolt ampere synchronous condenser which has been built for the French Midi Railway. The outer casing is built up of steel plates bolted together and designed to withstand the force of any internal explosion which might occur owing to a mixture of hydrogen and air. The machine is started by a special type of transformer which only takes a quarter of full load current. Tests carried out on the machine with hydrogen and air as cooling media show that the heating of the machine with hydrogen-cooling was thirty per cent less than when it was run in air.
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Hydrogen Cooling. Nature 135, 427 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135427c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135427c0