Documentation on DC Machines

Contents:

Principle of operation of DC machines
DC Motors
o Principle of operation
o Commutation
o Armature reaction
o Types of DC Motors and their defining equations
o Power flow
o Losses and efficiency
o Torque-speed characteristics
o Starters
DC generators
o Principle of operation
o Types of generators and their defining equations
o Magnetization characteristics
o Losses and Efficiency


Principle of operation of DC machines:

An Electric machine is a device which converts mechanical energy to electrical energy or
vice versa.

Electric motor converts electrical energy to mechanical energy.
Electric generator converts mechanical energy to electrical energy.

DC motors take DC input, whereas, DC generators give DC output, by means of a
mechanism that converts the internal AC voltage to DC voltage.

DC machines operate on the following three basic principles.
(1) A current-carrying conductor produces a magnetic field in the area around it.
(2) A current-carrying conductor in the presence of a magnetic field has a force
induced on it (motor action).
(3) A moving conductor in the presence of a magnetic field has a voltage induced
in it (generator action).

DC Machine is most often used as a motor. The major advantages of dc machines are
their speed control and torque regulation. DC motors find applications mainly in
automobiles.


DC Motors:

DC motors operate on the principle that when a current-carrying conductor in the
presence of a magnetic field has a force induced on it.

Principle of operation:
The principle of operation of dc motor is explained as follows:
It consists of field winding called stator and an armature winding called rotor, to which
the dc voltage is fed.



In dc motor, the stator poles are supplied by dc excitation current, which produces a dc
magnetic field. The rotor is supplied by the dc current through the brushes, commutator
and coils. The interaction of the magnetic field and the rotor current generates a force that
drives the motor.



The magnetic field lines enter into the rotor from the North Pole and exit toward the
South Pole. The poles generate a magnetic field that is perpendicular to the current
carrying conductors. The interaction between the field and the current produces a Lorentz
force; the force is perpendicular to both the magnetic field and conductor.




The force which is generated turns the rotor until the coil reaches the neutral point in
between the poles of the rotor. At this point, the magnetic field in the rotor becomes zero
along with the force generated. However, the moment of inertia of the motor drives the
motor beyond the neutral zone which changes the direction of the magnetic field reverses.
To avoid this reversal of the direction of force and magnetic reversal, the commutator
changes the current direction, which maintains the anticlockwise rotation.
Before the neutral zone is reached , the current enters in segment 1 of the motor and
come out form segment 2, Therefore, current enters the coil end at slot a and exits from
slot b during this stage. After passing the neutral zone, the current enters segment 2 and
exits from segment 1, this reverses the current direction through the rotor coil, when the
coil passes the neutral zone. The result of this current reversal is the maintenance of the
rotation.

Commutation:
Commutation is the process of converting the AC voltages and currents in the rotor of a
DC machine to DC at its terminals.
In case of generator, the commutator acts as an uncontrolled rectifier which converts the
generated alternating voltage to a direct voltage.
In case of a motor, the commutator acts as an inverter which converts the input DC to AC
to be fed to the motor.

Armature reaction:
Armature reaction is the effect of the magnetic field set up by the armature current on the
distribution of flux under the main poles of the machine.

The effects of armature reaction are,
Cross magnetizing
De-magnetizing

The effect of cross magnetizing effect is distortion of air gap flux, which causes sparking
at the brushes.
The effect of de-magnetizing effect is reduction of main field flux.

Types of DC Motors and their defining equations:
The following is the classification of DC motors:
Separately excited DC motor
Shunt DC motor
Series DC motor
Compound DC motor
o Cumulatively compound
o Differentially compound
Permanent-magnet DC motor

Separately excited DC motor: A separately excited DC motor is a motor whose field
winding is supplied from a separate constant-voltage power supply.



Shunt DC motor: A Shunt DC motor is a motor whose field winding gets its power
directly across the armature terminals of the motor.


a sh
I I +I =

Series DC motor: A series DC motor has its field winding connected in series with the
armature winding.

a sh
I I I = =







Compound DC motor: A compound DC motor has both series and shunt field
windings. If the series field aids the shunt field, it is cumulatively compound, and if the
series field opposes the shunt field, it is differentially compound.
Another classification of Compound DC motor includes,
- Long shunt
- Short shunt



Long Shunt Short shunt

a sh
I I +I =
se a sh
I I I I = = +

Permanent-magnet DC motor: Permanent magnet DC motor has permanent magnets in
place of field winding.

Defining equations:
The applied voltage to the motor is,
b a a brushdrop
V E I R V = + +

2
m a a
P VI I R =
Condition for maximum mechanical power developed is,
a
V
I
2R
=

The back emf at maximum power condition is,
b
V
E
2
=
The maximum power developed is,

2
m(max)
a
V
P
4R
=

Power flow:
The power diagram of DC motor is shown in Figure below.



Losses and efficiency:
There are five categories of losses occurring in DC machines.

1. Electrical or copper losses the resistive losses in the armature and field windings of
the machine.
Armature loss:
2
A A A
P I R =
Field loss:
2
F F F
P I R =
Where I
A
and I
F
are armature and field currents and R
A
and R
F
are armature and field
(winding) resistances usually measured at normal operating temperature.

2. Brush (drop) losses the power lost across the contact potential at the brushes of the
machine.
BD BD A
P V I =
Where I
A
is the armature current and V
BD
is the brush voltage drop. The voltage drop
across the set of brushes is approximately constant over a large range of armature
currents and it is usually assumed to be about 2 V.
Other losses are exactly the same as in AC machines

3. Core losses hysteresis losses and eddy current losses. They vary as
2
B (square of
flux density) and as
1.5
n (speed of rotation of the magnetic field).

4. Mechanical losses losses associated with mechanical effects: friction (friction of the
bearings) and windage (friction between the moving parts of the machine and the air
inside the casing). These losses vary as the cube of rotation speed
3
n .

5. Stray (Miscellaneous) losses losses that cannot be classified in any of the previous
categories. They are usually due to inaccuracies in modeling. For many machines, stray
losses are assumed as 1% of full load.

The efficiency of a DC machine is,
100%
100%
out
in
in loss
in
P
P
P P
P
q
| |
=
|
\ .
| |
=
|
\ .


Torque-speed characteristics:
Assuming that the terminal voltage and other terms are constant, the motors speeds vary
linearly with torque. However, if a motor has an armature reaction, flux-weakening
reduces the flux when torque increases. Therefore, the motors speed will increase. If a
shunt (or separately excited) motor has compensating windings, and the motors speed
and armature current are known for any value of load, its possible to calculate the speed
for any other value of load.



Starters:
The purpose of starters is,
- To protect the motor against damage due to short circuits in the equipment
- To protect the motor against damage from long-term overloads.
- To protect the motor against damage from excessive starting currents (the starting
current of motors is 20 times greater than the motors rated full load current).
- To provide a convenient manner of controlling the operating speed of the motor.


DC generators:

Generators operate on the principle that a moving conductor in the presence of a
magnetic field has a voltage induced in it.

Principle of operation:
The principle of operation is same as that of the motor, except that in case of generator,
the conductors are rotated by mechanical input, and the output is electrical.

Types of generators and their defining equations:
The following is the classification of DC generators:
Separately excited
Self-excited
o Shunt generator
o Series generator
o Compound generator
Cumulatively compound
Differentially compound

Separately excited DC generators use a separate DC source for excitation of their field
winding.

Self-excited DC generators are excited by the voltage generated by itself.



Shunt generator Series generator

L a sh
I I I = +
L a se
I I I = =

Compound Generator
Another classification of Compound DC generator includes,
- Long shunt
- Short shunt



Short shunt Long shunt


For Short shunt,
Series field current
se L
I I =
Shunt field current
se se
sh
sh
V I R
I
R
+
=
Terminal voltage
g a a se se
V E I R I R =
g a
L
Power developed in armature E I
Power delivered to the load VI
=
=





For long shunt,
Series field current
se a L sh
I I I I = = +
Shunt field current
sh
sh
V
I
R
=
Terminal voltage
( )
g a a se
V E I R R =
g a
L
Power developed in armature E I
Power delivered to the load VI
=
=


Magnetization characteristics:
The induced emf in the armature winding of a dc machine is directly proportional to flux
and speed of rotation. Let us assume that the field winding is connected to a variable dc
source that is capable of supplying a desired field current. If the armature terminals are
left open and the armature is rotated at constant speed, then the induced emf in the
armature is
1
E K | = where
1
K is a constant. In other words the induced emf is directly
proportional to the air gap flux. Flux depends on the magneto-motive force (MMF)
provided by the current in the field winding. That is,
f f
K I | = , where
f
K depends on
the operating flux density. Therefore induced emf can now be written as,
1 f f
E K K I =

The magnetic circuit of a dc machine consists of both linear (airgap) and non-linear
(magnetic material of the stator and rotor) parts. Hence,
f
K changes (it decreases as the
magnetic circuit gets saturated) with the change in flux density in the machine. The
relationship between E and If can be determined by measuring the open circuit voltage
(voltage across armature terminals) at different values of
f
I at a constant speed. This
curve is known as open circuit characteristics (OCC). Since E is an indirect measure of
air gap flux (at constant speed of rotation), the curve is similar to the B-H curve of the
magnetic material. For this reason, OCC can also be referred to as the magnetization
curve. It should be noted that E does not start at zero when the field current is zero but at
some value (of the order of 8-10 V). This is due to residual magnetism.

Losses and Efficiency:
Losses in a dc generator are same as that of a dc motor.

The efficiency of a DC generator is,
out
in
out
out
100%
100%
losses
P
P
P
P
q
| |
=
|
\ .
| |
=
|
+
\ .