Unit -4

Control of DC Drives
Introduction to Electric Drives
Mayank Goyal
Introduction
Industries are increasingly demanding process automation.
The variable speed drives are essential controlling elements
in automation systems.
With the advent of power electronics, today variable electric
drive systems are smaller in size, efficient, reliable and meets
all stringent demands of the various industries of modern
era.
DC motors have been extensively used in variable speed
drives and position control due to their versatile control
characteristics.
DC motors can provide high starting torques, large range of
speed control and their speed control methods are simpler
and less expensive than those of ac motors.
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Dc motors have inherent disadvantages in that they need
regular maintenance, they are tailor-made hence not readily
available for replacements and are bulky in size. Added to
this, due to commutator sparking, they are simply not
suitable in hazardous areas like chemical and petrochemical
plants or mines.
Separately excited dc motors controlled by thyristor
converters are the most widely used motor drive systems in
industry. The thyristor converter provides variable armature
voltage for the drive motor.
Basic Machine Equations
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The dc machine consists of a stationary field winding and a
rotating armature winding as shown in figure below.
Steady state equivalent circuit of
armature
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Commonly Used DC Motors
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Speed Control
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Speed of DC motors can be controlled by any of the
following methods:
Armature voltage control
Field flux control
Armature resistance control
Speed torque curves
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Speed Torque Curves (Contd)
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Speed Torque Curves (Contd)
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Armature voltage control is preferred because of high
efficiency, good transient response and good speed
regulation. But it can provide speed control only below base
(rated) speed because the armature voltage cannot be allowed
to exceed rated value.
For speed control above base speed, field flux control is
employed. In a normally designed motor, the maximum
speed can be allowed up to twice rated speed and in specially
designed machines it can be six times rated speed.
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In separately excited motor, flux is controlled by varying
voltage across field winding and in a series motor it is
controlled either by varying number of turns in the field
winding or connecting a diverter resistance across the field
winding.
In armature resistance control, speed is varied by wasting
power in external resistors that are connected in series with
the armature. Since it is an inefficient method of speed
control, it was used in intermittent load applications where
the duration of low speed operation forms only a small
proportion of total running time, for example in traction. It
has, however, been replaced by armature voltage control in
all applications.
Braking
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Electric drive operates in all the four quadrants.
Mechanical braking has a number of disadvantages: frequent
maintenance and replacement of brake shoes, lower life,
braking power is always wasted as heat.
These disadvantages are overcome by the use of electrical
braking in which the motor is made to work as a generator
converting mechanical energy to electrical energy and
producing torque in a direction so as to oppose the motion.
Electric Braking
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In electric braking, the motor is made to work as a generator
converting mechanical energy to electrical energy and
producing torque in a direction so as to oppose the motion.
It is of three types:
Regenerative Braking
Dynamic or rheostatic braking
Plugging or reverse voltage braking
Regenerative Braking
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In regenerative braking, generated energy is supplied back to the
source. For this to happen, following condition should be satisfied:
E
b
> E and negative I
a

For a source of fixed voltage of rated value, regenerative braking is
possible only for speeds higher than rated and with a variable
voltage source it is also possible below rated speeds.

Regenerative Braking (Contd)
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In series motor as speed increases, armature current and
therefore flux decreases. Consequently, condition of
regenerative braking cannot be achieved. Thus, regenerative
braking is not possible.
Regenerative braking should only be used when there are
enough loads to absorb the regenerated power.
Dynamic Braking
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In dynamic braking, motor armature is disconnected from the source and
connected across a resistance R
B
.
The generated energy is dissipated in R
B
and
R
A
.
Plugging
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For Plugging, the supply voltage of a separately excited motor is
reversed so that it assists the back emf in forcing armature current in
reverse direction. A resistance R
B
is also connected in series with
armature to limit the current.
For plugging of series motor armature alone is reversed.
Schemes for D.C. Motor Speed Control
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The most common form of variable speed d.c. drive is
based on the control of armature voltage. The speed of a d.c.
motor has to be controlled from an a.c. or d.c. source.
The two basic schemes of d.c. motor speed control are:
Controlled rectifier fed-drive
Armature voltage control using d.c. chopper.
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Single Phase Separately Excited Drives
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In phase controlled d.c. drives, an a.c. to d.c. phase
controlled converter is used to control the d.c. drive motor.
Controlled rectifier for d.c. drives are widely used in
applications requiring a wide range of speed control and/or
frequent starting, braking and reversing.
Some applications are in rolling mills, paper mills, printing
presses, machine tools, mine winders, etc.
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The basic circuit arrangement for a single phase separately
excited d.c. motor is shown below.
Single Phase Half Wave converter Drives
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In this circuit the motor current is always discontinuous, resulting in
poor motor performance.
This type of converter is employed only for motors below 400 W.
Single Phase Semiconverter Drives
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Semi Converters are one quadrant converters, that is, they have one
polarity voltage and current at d.c. terminals.
In drive system using semiconverters, regeneration or reverse power flow from
motor to a.c. supply is not possible
(i) Continuous armature current
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(ii) Discontinuous Armature Current
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The armature current becomes discontinuous for large values of firing angle,
high speed and low values of torque.
If the armature current is discontinuous, the no-load speeds will be higher and
the speed regulation will be poor in region of discontinuous armature current.
Single Phase Full Converter Drives
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A full converter is a two quadrant converter in which the voltage polarity of the
output can reverse, but the current remains unidirectional because of the unidirectional
thyristors.
It is limited to applications up to 20 HP.
(i) Continuous Armature Current
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For firing angle greater than 90
o
, E
a
is negative. If the motor back emf E
b
is reversed, it
will behave as dc generator and will feed power back to the a.c. supply. This is known as
the inversion operation of the converter and this mode of operation is used in the
regenerative braking of the motor.
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(ii) Discontinuous Armature Current
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Effect of Armature Circuit Inductance
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Addition of inductance in the motor armature circuit has
significant effects on the performance of the converter motor
system.
It reduces the region of discontinuous motor current.
If a large inductor is used, the motor will operate essentially at
constant speed for a particular firing angle over a wide range of
torque. This significantly improves the speed regulation of the
drive.
Braking Operation of Rectifier Controlled
Separately Excited Motor
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The reversal of the motor emf with respect to the rectifier
terminal can be done by any one of the following changes:
An active load coupled to the motor shaft may drive it in the
reverse direction. In this case no changes are required in the
armature connection with respect to the rectifier terminals.
The field current may be reversed with the motor running in
the forward direction. In this case also, no changes are required
in the armature connection.
The motor armature connection may be reversed with respect
to the rectifier output terminals, with the motor running in the
forward direction.
Single Phase Series D.C. motor Drives
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Series motors are particularly used for applications that
require high starting torque such as cranes, hoists, elevators,
vehicles, etc.
Single Phase Semiconverter Drives
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Single Phase Full Converter Drives
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Power Factor Improvement
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Phase controlled rectifiers are widely used because these
converters are simple, less expensive, reliable, and do not
require any commutation circuit. However, the supply power
factor in phase controlled converters is low when the
output voltage is less than the maximum, i.e. when the firing
angle is large. The displacement angle between the supply
voltage and current increases as the firing angle increases and
the converter draws more lagging reactive power, thereby
decreasing the power factor.
The power factor operation is a major concern in variable
speed drives and in high power applications.
Power Factor Improvement (Contd)
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The various techniques to improve power factor in phase
controlled converters are:
Phase Angle Control (PAC)
Semiconverter operation of full converters
Asymmetrical Firing
Extinction angle control (EAC)
Symmetrical angle control (SAC)
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
Phase Angle Control
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Phase angle control is achieved by varying the firing angle.
In both semiconverter and full converter systems, power
factor and the displacement factor decreases as the output
voltage decreases (or as the firing angle increases).
The semiconverter provides some improvement in power
factor, displacement factor and lower order harmonics.
In this section, mathematical analysis done in the topic
Performance measures for two pulse converters has to be
repeated.
Semiconverter operation of full converters
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A full converter system is commonly used where regeneration is
required. However, a semiconverter is used where regeneration is
not required.
It is possible with some complexity in the control logic circuit to
operate a full converter as semiconverter in both rectifying mode
and inverting mode in order to exploit the better performance
characteristics of semiconverter.

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This control scheme, although it improves power factor in
both single phase and three phase converters, is not
recommended for three phase converters because of three
major disadvantages:
Even harmonic currents are present in the supply line current.
Third harmonic ripple is present in the output.
There is a danger of commutation failure.
Asymmetrical Firing
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The improvement in power factor can also be achieved by a
technique known as asymmetrical firing.
In this scheme thyristors are triggered at different angles,
whereas in the symmetrical firing scheme thyristors are
triggered at same firing angle.
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Asymmetrical firing produces several disadvantages:
It generates dc and even harmonic currents in the supply line
current.
If sufficient inductance is not present in the motor armature
circuit, asymmetrical firing makes the motor current very
peaky and discontinuous.
The disadvantages outweigh the advantages of minor
improvement in power factor and therefore, asymmetrical
firing is only of theoretical interest.
Extinction Angle Control
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In a semiconverter system, performance of the converter
under extinction angle control is similar to that of phase
angle control, with the exception that displacement factor is
leading in extinction angle control, whereas it is lagging in
phase angle control.
Symmetrical Angle Control
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In this control scheme, the supply current pulse is placed
symmetrically with respect to the supply voltage peak and
therefore, the fundamental current is in phase with the
supply voltage. This makes the displacement factor unity and
improves the power factor.
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) Control
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In phase angle control, extinction angle control and symmetrical
angle control schemes, the supply current consists of one pulse
per half cycle and the lowest order harmonic is the third. It is
very difficult to filter out the lowest order harmonic current,
especially third.
The lowest order harmonics can be eliminated and/or reduced if
the supply current has more than one pulse per half cycle.
In a sinusoidal PWM control, the displacement factor is unity and
the power factor is improved.
The lowest order harmonic is the fifth for four pulses per half
cycle and the seventh for six pulses per half cycle. Therefore,
lower order harmonics that are difficult to filter out are eliminated
or reduced by selecting the appropriate number of pulses per half
cycle.
Three Phase Separately Excited Drives
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Three phase drives are used for high power applications, up
to megawatts power level. The three phase controlled
rectifiers provide power to these large horse power drives.
Three phase drive is better as compared to single phase
drive because the output ripple is small, the ripple frequency
is large and filtering requirement is less.
Moreover, in a three phase drive, the armature current is
mostly continuous and therefore, the motor performance is
better as compared to that of single phase drives.
Three phase half wave converter drives
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This drive is impractical for most industrial applications because the supply
currents would contain harmonics.

=
3 3
2

cos


Where Em is the peak phase voltage of a star connected 3 phase a.c. supply
Three Phase Semiconverter Drives
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It is a one-quadrant drive and is limited to applications in the range of 15 150 HP.
The field converter will be single phase or three phase.
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Three Phase Full Converter Drives
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It is a two quadrant drive and is limited to applications in the range of 100 150 HP.
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D.C. Chopper Drives
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Control of a d.c. motors speed by a chopper is required
where the supply is d.c. (or from a battery) or an a.c. voltage
that has already been rectified to a d.c. voltage.
The most important applications of choppers are in the speed
control of d.c. motors used in industrial or traction drives.
Choppers are used for the control of d.c. motors because of a
number of advantages, such as high efficiency, flexibility in
control, light weight, small size, quick response and
regeneration down to very low speeds.
Chopper controlled d.c. drives have also applications in
servos in battery operated vehicles such as forklift trucks,
trolleys, and so on.
D.C. Chopper Drives (Contd)
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Because of the flexible control characteristics, separately
excited dc motors are used in servo applications.
Earlier, only dc series motors were used for traction. But
now separately excited dc motors are also employed in
traction system.
The high starting torque was the main reason for using dc
series motor but it has certain limitations:
The field current control is not static.
Regenerative braking is difficult.
Because of the limitations of series motors, separately excited
motors are now preferred even for traction applications.
Chopper fed D.C. Series Motor
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