Unit II

Basic characteristics of D.C. motor, Torque

equation. Starting and braking of Electrical
D.C. motors, comparison of mechanical and
electrical braking methods. Introduction,
Principle, construction and working of Servo
motors, stepper motors, Brushless D.C.
motors.
 Introduction
• The Dc machines are of two types namely DC
generators and DC motors.
• A DC generators converts mechanical energy into
electrical energy whereas a DC motor converts
the electrical energy into mechanical energy.
• In order to understand the operating principle of a
DC motor, it is necessary to understand how does
a current carrying conductor experience a force,
when kept in a magnetic field.
Fig.(2):Fleming’s left hand rule thumb
Construction of DC Motor

Fig.(1): construction of DC motor

• Important parts of DC motor:
1.Yoke 4. Armature
2.Field winding 5. Commutator
3.poles 6. Brushes

4.Yoke:
⮚ It acts as the outer support of a DC motor.
⮚ It provides mechanical support for the poles.
2. Poles:
⮚ pole of a dc motor is an electromagnet.
⮚ The field winding is wound over the poles.
⮚ Poles produces magnetic flux when the filed winding is
excited.
3. Field winding:
⮚ The coils wound around the pole are called field coils and
they are connected in series with each other to form field
winding.
⮚ When current passing through the field winding, magnetic
flux produced in the air gap between pole and armature.
4. Armature:
⮚ Armature is a cylindrical drum mounted on shaft in
which number of slots are provided.
⮚ Armature conductors are placed in these slots.
⮚ Theses armature conductors are interconnected to form
the armature winding.
5. Commutator:
⮚ A commutator is a cylindrical drum act as mechanical
rectifier.
⮚ It collects the current from the armature conductors and
passed it to the external load via brushes.
6. Brushes:
⮚ Commutator is rotating. So it is not possible to
connect the load directly to it.
⮚ Hence current is conducted from the armature
to the external load by the carbon brushes
which are held against the surface of
commutator by springs.
 Windings in DC Machine
• In any dc machines, there are two windings:
1. Field winding 2. Armature winding
• Out of these, the field winding is stationary which
does not move at all and armature winding is
mounted on a shaft. So it can rotate freely.
• Connection of windings for operation as motor:
⮚ To operate the dc machine as a motor, the field
winding and armature winding is connected
across a dc power supply.
 DC Motor
• Principle of operation:
⮚ When current carrying conductor is placed in
a magnetic field, it experienced a force.
⮚ In case of DC motor, the magnetic field us
developed by the field current i.e. current
flowing in field winding and armature winding
plays the role of current carrying conductor
⮚ So armature winding experienced a force and
start rotating.
 Types of DC Motors
• Depending on the way of connecting the
armature and field windings of a d.c. motors
are classified as follows:
DC Motor

DC series Shunt motor Compound Separately

motor motor excited
motor

Short shunt Long shunt

compound compound
 DC Shunt Motor
• In DC shunt type motor, field and armature
winding are connected in parallel as shown in
fig.(1), and this combination is connected
across a common dc power supply.
Fig.(1):DC shunt motor schematic diagram
 DC Series Motor
• In DC series motor, the armature and field
windings are connected in series with each
other as shown in fig.(1).
Fig.(1):DC series motor schematic diagram
 DC Compound Motor
1. Long Shunt Compound Motor:
• As shown in fig.(1), in long shunt dc motor,
shunt field winding is connected across the series
combination of the armature and series field
winding.
2. Short Shunt Compound Motor:
• In short shunt compound motor, armature and
field windings are connected in parallel with
each other and this combination is connected in
series with the series filed winding. This is
shown in fig.(2).
Fig.(1): Long shunt compound dc motor fig.(2):Short shunt compound dc motor
DC MOTOR: SHUNT, SERIES AND COMPOUND
 Characteristics of DC Motors
The performance of a DC motor can be judged from
its characteristic curves known as motor
characteristics, following are the three important
characteristics of a DC motor:

•Torque and Armature current characteristic

(Ta/Ia) (Electrical Characteristics)
•Speed and armature current characteristic
(N/Ia)
•Speed and torque characteristic (N/Ta)
(Mechanical Characteristics)
CHARACTERISTICS OF DC SHUNT MOTOR
1. Ta/Ia Characteristic
The flux in a shunt motor is
approximately constant since, the
field current Ish is constant as the
field winding is directly connected
to the supply voltage V, which is
assumed to be constant.

We know that in a d.c. motor,

Since the motor is operating from a constant supply voltage, flux
is constant.

Hence Ta/Ia characteristic is a straight line passing through the

origin as shown in Fig.
 2. N/Ia Characteristic
The speed N of a. DC motor is given by;

The flux and back e.m.f. in a

shunt motor are almost constant under
normal conditions. Therefore, speed of a
shunt motor will remain constant as the
armature current varies (dotted line AB
in Fig.). Strictly speaking, when load is
increased,
Eb = (V- IaRa), armature current increses & IaRa drop increses
which decrese the Eb & hence speed N decreases. As the value of
Ra is small the drop IaRa is small & hence reduction in speed is
not significantly large.So the Characteristics is slightly dropping
shown by (line AC).
 3. N/Ta Characteristic
The Speed torque characteristics of a
DC shunt motor is shown in fig. As
the torque is proportional to the
armature current the nature of this
characteristics is same as that of
speed-armature current characteristics.

Conclusions:
Following two important conclusions are drawn from the above
characteristics:
(i) There is slight change in the speed of a shunt motor from no-
load to full-load.
Hence, it is essentially a constant-speed motor.
(ii) The starting torque is not high because
 APPLICATION OF DC SHUNT MOTOR
• Blowers and Fans
• Centrifugal Pumps and Reciprocating Pumps
• Lathe machines
• Machine tools
• Milling Machines
• Drilling Machines
Blowers
& Fans
Centrifugal
Pumps
Lathe
machine
Drilling
Machine
CHARACTERISTICS OF DC SERIES MOTOR
Ta/Ia Characteristic
We know that:

Upto magnetic saturation, so that

After magnetic saturation, is constant so that

Thus upto magnetic saturation, the armature torque is

directly proportional to the square of armature current.
Therefore, Ta/Ia curve upto magnetic saturation is a
parabola (portion OA of the curve in Fig.). However, after
magnetic saturation, torque is directly proportional to the
armature current. Therefore, Ta/Ia curve after magnetic
saturation is a straight line (portion AB of the curve).
Starting torque of a d.c. series motor will be very high as
compared to a shunt motor
 N/Ia Characteristic
The speed N of a series motor is given by

Due to small value of Ra & Rse, back

emf Eb is approximately equal to
voltage V, which is contant.

Upto Magnetic Saturation

Thus, upto magnetic saturation, the N/Ia curve follows the

hyperbolic path as shown in Fig.
After saturation, the flux becomes constant and so does the
speed.
 N/Ta Characteristic
The N/Ta characteristic of a
series motor is shown in Fig.
It is clear that series motor
develops high torque at low
speed and vice-versa. It is
because an increase in torque
requires an increase in
armature current, which is
also the field current. The
result is that flux is
strengthened and hence the
speed drops.
 Conclusions
Following three important conclusions are drawn from the above characteristics
of series motors:
(i)It has a high starting torque because initially
(ii) It is a variable speed motor (From N/Ia curve in Fig.) i.e., it
automatically adjusts the speed as the load changes. Thus if the
load
decreases, its speed is automatically raised and vice-versa.
(iii) At no-load, the armature current is very small and so is the
flux. Hence, the speed rises to an excessive high value .

This is dangerous for the machine which may be destroyed due to

centrifugal forces set up in the rotating parts. Therefore, a series
motor should never be started on no-load. However, to start a
series motor, mechanical load is first put and then the motor is
 Application of DC Series Motor
• Cranes
• Hoists, Elevators
• Trolleys
• Conveyors
• Electric Locomotives
Crane
s
Hoist
s
Trolley
s
Conveyo
rs
 Characteristics of DC Compound
Motor
A compound motor has both series field and shunt field.
Compound motors are of two types:
(i) Cumulative-compound motors in which series field aids
the shunt field.
(ii) Differential-compound motors in which series field
opposes the shunt field.
Differential compound motors are rarely used due to their
poor torque characteristics at heavy loads.
 Ta vs
Ia
As the load increases, the series field
increases but shunt field strength
remains constant. Consequently, total
flux is increased and hence the
armature torque.

It may be noted that torque of a

cumulative-compound motor is greater
than that of shunt motor for a given
armature current due to series field.
 N Vs
Ia
As the load increases, the flux per
pole also increases. Consequently,
the speed of the motor falls as the
load increases. It may be noted that
as the load is added, the increased
amount of flux causes the speed to
decrease more than does the speed of
a shunt motor. Thus the speed
regulation of a cumulative compound
motor is poorer than that of a shunt
motor.
 N Vs Ta

Fig. shows N/Ta characteristic

of a cumulative compound
motor. For a given armature
current, the torque of a
cumulative compound motor is
more than that of a shunt motor
but less than that of a series
motor
 CONCLUSION
A cumulative compound motor has characteristics
intermediate between series and shunt motors.
(i) Due to the presence of shunt field, the motor is
prevented from running away at no-load.
(ii) Due to the presence of series field, the starting
torque is increased.
Applications of Compound Motor

Differential-compound motors are rarely used because

of their poor torque characteristics. However,
cumulative-compound motors are used where a fairly
constant speed is required with irregular loads or
suddenly applied heavy loads.

Industrial use: Presses, shears, reciprocating machines

etc.
 Starter
⮚ Starter is an additional external device which is required
to be connected along with a dc motor, in order to start
the motor in a safe manner.
⮚ It means that starting a dc motor without a starter is not
safe for the motor.
 Need of Starter/Necessity of
We know that, Starter
V = Eb + IaRa…………………For DC Shunt
Motor
V = Eb + Ia (Ra+Rse)……….For DC Series Motor
Hence the expression for Ia are as follows
Ia = (V-Eb)/Ra………………..For DC Shunt
Motor
Ia = (V-Eb)/(Ra+Rse)………For Dc Series Motor
At the time of the starting the motor, Speed N = 0 and hence the
back emf Eb = 0.Hence the armature current at the time of starting is
given by
Ia(Starting) = V/Ra………….For DC Shunt Motor
Since the value Ia(Starting)
of Ra and =Rse are small, theDC
V/(Ra+Rse)…For starting
Series current
Motor will
tremendously large if the rated voltage V is applied at the time of
starting. The starting current of the motor can be 15 to 20 times higher
than full load current. So in order to avoid this high current, starter is
used in DC motor.
 Types of Starter

1)Two Point Starter

2)Three Point Starter
3)Four Point Starter
Three Point Starter
Four Point Starter
 BRAKING

1.MECHANICAL BRAKING
2.ELECTRICAL BRAKING

DISADVANTAGES OF MECHANICAL BRAKING:

3.It requires frequent maintenance and replacement of

brake shoe
4.Braking Power is wasted as Heat.

TYPES OF ELECTRICAL BRAKING

5.REGENERATIVE BRAKING
6.DYNAMIC OR RHEOSTATIC BRAKING
7.PLUGGING OR REVERSE CURRENT BRAKING
 ADVANTAGES OF ELECTRICAL
BRAKING
1. No brake shoe replacement is required
2. No cost of maintenance
3. In some cases, a part of energy is returned to the supply which
is not possible in case of Mechanical braking
4. By employing electrical braking capacity of system increases.
5. Heat produced in electrical braking is not harmful to braking
system where as in Mechanical braking, it leads to failure of
brakes.
6. Mechanical braking produces metal Dust which is not
produced in case of electrical braking
7. Electrical braking is smooth and without mechanical shocks,
where as in mechanical braking incorrect adjustments of
brakes leads to shocks and jerks.
In electric braking, the kinetic energy of the moving
parts (i.e., motor) is converted into electrical energy
which is dissipated in a resistance as heat or
alternatively, it is returned to the supply source
(Regenerative braking).
Plugging (Reverse Current Braking) of DC
Shunt Motor
In this method, connections to the armature are reversed so that motor
tends to rotate in the opposite direction, thus providing the necessary
braking effect. When the motor comes to rest, the supply must be cut
off otherwise the motor will start rotating in the opposite direction.
Fig. (ii) shows plugging of a d.c. shunt motor. Note that armature
connections are reversed.As a result the current in the armature
reverses. During the normal running of the motor [See Fig. (i)], the
back e.m.f. Eb opposes the applied voltage V. However, when
armature connections are reversed, back e.m.f. Eb and V act in the
same direction around the circuit. Therefore, a voltage equal to V +
Eb is impressed across the armature circuit. Since Eb ~ V, the
impressed voltage is approximately 2V. In order to limit the current
to safe value, a variable resistance R is inserted in the circuit at the
time of changing armature connections.

We now investigate how braking torque depends upon the speed of

the motor. Referring to Fig. (ii),
Armature current

Braking torque

where

For a shunt motor, φ is constant.

∴ Braking torque, TB = k5 + k6N

Thus braking torque decreases as the motor slows down. Note that
there is some braking torque (TB = k5) even when the motor speed is
zero.
Rheostatic Braking of DC Shunt
Motor
In this method, the armature of the running motor is disconnected
from the supply and is connected across a variable resistance R.
However, the field winding is left connected to the supply. The
armature, while slowing down, rotates in a strong magnetic field
and, therefore, operates as a generator, sending a large current
through resistance R. This causes the energy possessed by the
rotating armature to be dissipated quickly as heat in the resistance.
As a result, the motor is brought to standstill quickly.
Fig. (ii) shows dynamic braking of a shunt motor. The braking
torque can be controlled by varying the resistance R. At a low
value of speed, the braking torque becomes small and the final
stopping of the motor is due to friction.

APPLICATION: This type of braking is used extensively in

connection with the control of elevators and hoists and in other
applications in which motors must be started, stopped and reversed
frequently.
Regenerative Braking of DC Shunt
Motor
In the regenerative braking, the motor is run as a generator. As a
result, the kinetic energy of the motor is converted into electrical
energy and returned to the supply. Fig. (i & ii) shows two
methods of regenerative braking for a shunt motor.

(a) In one method, field winding is disconnected from the supply

and field current is increased by exciting it from another source
[See Fig. (i)].
As a result, induced e.m.f. E exceeds the supply voltage V and
the machine feeds energy into the supply. Thus braking torque is
provided upto the speed at which induced e.m.f. and supply
voltage are equal. As the machine slows down, it is not possible
to maintain induced e.m.f. at a higher value than the supply
voltage. Therefore, this method is possible only for a limited
range of speed.
(b) In a second method, the field excitation does not change
but the load causes the motor to run above the normal speed
(e.g., descending load on a crane). As a result, the induced
e.m.f. E becomes greater than the supply voltage V [See Fig.
(ii)]. The direction of armature current I, therefore, reverses
but the direction of shunt field current If remains unaltered.
Hence the torque is reversed and the speed falls until E
becomes less than V.
Comparison of Mechanical and Electrical
Braking