breakshift
Member
It makes perfect sense. However, it is only constant where the magnetic field is fixed. Any alternator that is intended to be used to generate mains will have some sort of automatic voltage regulator that will vary the magnetic field over a wide range.
Yep that's what I've been told - and I've opened up the AVR in the generator. Unfortunately the AVR box is filled with some kind of permanent dielectric - there are a couple capacitors sticking out but the circuit board is hidden and there's no way of getting to it. But, I do have a wiring diagram of the generator which I've used to work out what I think is the wire that's delivering the field current to the rotor - and so I should be able to hijack that and keep the current constant, and hence the magnetic flux constant, right? That's my current thinking.
Perhaps I should upload the wiring diagram? It's in pdf form... how can I share this with you? Rapidshare or something?
It would be good to get a better idea of what's going on in the wiring diagram.
Regarding a torque sensor, would it be possible to mount the generator so that its frame could freely rotate in operation? Then just mount an arm to the frame with a spring scale to measure the force on the arm. Simple multiplication of the arm length from the shaft to the scale times the measured force gives you torque.
The mechanical guys have looked at that and decided it's not possible. I'm afraid I can't explain why, but they are confident that it's not an option. In fact they're confident that it's not possible to measure the torque mechanically before the generator is decoupled from the engine.
Thanks.