The Electric Generator
A generator is a device that transforms mechanical energy into electrical energy, typically by electromagnetic induction via Faraday’s Law (Section 8.3). For example, a generator might consist of a gasoline engine that turns a crankshaft to which is attached a system of coils and/or magnets. This rotation changes the relative orientations of the coils with respect to the magnetic field in a time-varying manner, resulting in a time-varying magnetic flux and subsequently induced electric potential. In this case, the induced potential is said to be a form of motional emf, as it is due entirely to changes in geometry as opposed to changes in the magnitude of the magnetic field. Coal- and steam-fired generators, hydroelectric generators, wind turbines, and other energy generation devices operate using essentially this principle.
Figure 8.7.1 shows a rudimentary generator, which serves as to illustrate the relevant points. This generator consists of a planar loop that rotates around the
axis; therefore, the rotation can be parameterized in
. In this case, the direction of rotation is specified to be in the
direction. The frequency of rotation is
; that is, the time required for the loop to make one complete revolution is
. We assume a time-invariant and spatially-uniform magnetic flux density
where
and
are both constants. For illustration purposes, the loop is indicated to be circular. However, because the magnetic field is time-invariant and spatially-uniform, the specific shape of the loop is not important, as we shall see in a moment. Only the area of the loop will matter.

Figure 8.7.1: A rudimentary single-loop generator, shown at time
.
The induced potential is indicated as
with reference polarity as indicated in the figure. This potential is given by Faraday’s Law:
Here
is the magnetic flux associated with an open surface
bounded by the loop:
As usual,
can be any surface that intersects all magnetic field lines passing through the loop, and also as usual, the simplest choice is simply the planar area bounded by the loop. The differential surface element
is
, where
is determined by the reference polarity of
according to the “right hand rule” convention from Stokes’ Theorem. Making substitutions, we have
where
is the area of the loop.
To make headway, an expression for
is needed. The principal difficulty here is that
is rotating with the loop, so it is time-varying. To sort this out, first consider the situation at time
, which is the moment illustrated in Figure 8.7.1. Beginning at the “
” terminal, we point the thumb of our right hand in the direction that leads to the “
” terminal by traversing the loop;
is then the direction perpendicular to the plane of the loop in which the fingers of our right hand pass through the loop. We see that at
,
. A bit later, the loop will have rotated by one-fourth of a complete rotation, and at that time
. This occurs at
. Later still, the loop will have rotated by one-half of a compete rotation, and then
. This occurs at
. It is apparent that
as can be confirmed by checking the three special cases identified above. Now applying Faraday’s Law, we find
For notational convenience we make the following definition:
which is simply the time derivative of
divided by
so as to retain a unit vector. The reason for including a change of sign will become apparent in a moment. Applying this definition, we find
Note that this is essentially the definition of the radial basis vector
from the cylindrical coordinate system (which is why we applied the minus sign in Equation 8.7.6). Recognizing this, we write
and finally
If the purpose of this device is to generate power, then presumably we would choose the magnetic field to be in a direction that maximizes the maximum value of
. Therefore, power is optimized for
polarized entirely in some combination of
and
, and with
. Under that constraint, we see that
varies sinusoidally with frequency
and exhibits peak magnitude
It’s worth noting that the maximum voltage magnitude is achieved when the plane of the loop is parallel to
; i.e., when
so that
. Why is that? Because this is when
is most rapidly increasing or decreasing. Conversely, when the plane of the loop is perpendicular to
(i.e.,
)
is maximum but its time-derivative is zero, so
at this instant.
Exercise
EXAMPLE 8.7.1: RUDIMENTARY ELECTRIC GENERATOR
The generator in Figure 8.7.1 consists of a circular loop of radius
cm rotating at 1000 revolutions per second in a static and spatially-uniform magnetic flux density of 1 mT in the
direction. What is the induced potential?
From the problem statement,
kHz,
mT, and
. Therefore
. The area of the loop is
. From Equation 8.7.9 we obtain
Finally, we note that it is not really necessary for the loop to rotate in the presence of a magnetic field with constant
; it works equally well for the loop to be stationary and for
to rotate – in fact, this is essentially the same problem. In some practical generators, both the potential-generating coils and fields (generated by some combination of magnets and coils) rotate.
Additional Reading
- “Electric generator” on Wikipedia.
Ellingson, Steven W. (2018) Electromagnetics, Vol. 1. Blacksburg, VA: VT Publishing. https://doi.org/10.21061/electromagnetics-vol-1 CC BY-SA 4.0
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