DC MOTORS AND GENERATORS

CHAPTER # 9

9.1: Introduction to DC Motors

• DC motors are machines used as motors, and dc
generators are dc machines used as generators.
However, the same physical machine can be operated as
either a motor or a generator---it is simply a questions
of direction of the power flow through it.
• There were several reasons for continued popularity of
dc motors:
1. DC power systems are still common in cars, trucks,
and aircrafts. Thus when a vehicle has dc power
system, it makes sense to consider using dc motors.
2. The other reason for the application of DC machines
was a situation in which wide variations in speed are
needed.

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9.1: Introduction to DC Motors
• DC Motors Past and Present:
• Before the wide spread use of power electronics rectifier
inverters, dc motors were unexcelled in speed control
applications. Even if no dc power source were available,
solid state rectifiers and chopper circuits were used to
create the necessary dc power, and dc motors were used
to provide the desired speed control.
• Today, induction motors with the solid-state drive
package are preferred choice over dc motors for the most
speed control applications.
• DC motors are often compared by their speed regulation.
The speed regulation (SR) of a motor is defined by:

An Introduction to DC Motors
• The speed regulation is a rough measure of the shape of a
motor’s torque-speed characteristics.
• A positive speed regulation means that a motor’s speed
drop with increasing load, and a negative speed
regulation means a motor’s speed increases with
increasing load.
• The magnitude of the speed regulation tell approximately
how steep the shape of torque-speed curve is.
• There are five major types dc motors:
1. The separately excited dc motor
2. The shunt dc motor
3. The permanent magnet dc motor
4. The dc series motor
5. The compound dc motor
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9.2: The Equivalent Circuit of a DC Motor
• The armature circuit of a dc
machine is represented by
an ideal voltage source EA
and resistor RA.
• The brush voltage drop is
represented by a small
battery Vbrush opposing the
direction of current flow in
the machine.
• The field coils, which produce
the magnetic flux are
represented by LF and RF.
• The separate resistance Radj
represents an external
variable resistor used to
control the amount of
current in the field circuit.
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9.3: The Magnetization Curve of a DC Motor

• The internal generated voltage EA
of a dc motor or generator is given
by Eq.
• Thus EA is directly proportional to the flux in the machine
and the speed of the machine.
• The field current in a DC machine produces
magnetomotive force which produces a flux in the
machine according the magnetization curve.
• Since field current is directly proportional to the mmf,
and EA is directly proportional to the flux, It is customary
to present the magnetization curve as a plot EA versus
field current for a given speed ωo.

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9.3: The Magnetization Curve of a DC Motor
• It is worth noting that, to
get the maximum possible
power per pound of weight
out of machine, most
motors and generators are
designed to operate near
the saturation point on the
magnetization curve (at
knee point).
• This implies that a fairly
large increase in field
current is often necessary
to get a small increase in
EA when operation is near
full load.

9.4: Separately Excited and Shunt DC Motors

• A separately excited motor is

a motor whose field circuit is
supplied from a separate
constant-voltage power
supply.
• A shunt motor is a motor
whose field circuit gets its
power directly across the
armature terminals of the
motor.
• When the supply voltage is
assumed constant, there is
no practical difference in the
behavior of these machines.
• KVL for these motors is:
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The Terminal Characteristics of a Shunt DC Motor
• The terminal characteristics of a
motor is the plot of its output
torque versus speed.
• When the load on the shaft of shunt
DC motor is increased, then the
load torque will exceed the torque
induced in the machine, and the
motor will slow down.
• When the motor slows down, its
internal generated voltage drops
which will increase the armature
current.
• The increase in the armature
current increases the induced
torque, and finally the induced
torque will be equal to the load
torque at a lower mechanical speed.
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The Terminal Characteristics of a Shunt DC Motor

• The final equation is just a

straight line equation with a
negative slope.
• Another effect internal to the
motor that can effect the
torque-speed curve is the
armature reaction.
• If the motor has armature
reaction, then as the load
increases, the flux-weakening
effect reduces its flux.
• The effect of reduction in the
flux is to increase motor’s
speed at any given load over
the speed it would run without
armature reaction. 10

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The Terminal Characteristics of a Shunt DC Motor

• If a shunt motor has a compensating windings so that its

flux is constant regardless of load, and the motor speed
and armature reaction are known at any one value of the
load, then it is possible to calculate its speed at any other
value of load, as long as armature current at that load is
known or can be determined.

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Speed Control of Shunt DC Motors

• There are two common and one less common

method in use for the speed control of shunt DC
motors:
1) Adjusting the field resistance RF, and thus the field
flux.
2) Adjusting the terminal voltage applied to the
armature.
3) Inserting resistance in series with the armature
circuit (less common).

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Changing the Field Resistance

• Analyze the effect of Increasing

RF on the speed.
• Notice that as the flux in the
machine decreases, the no-load
speed of the motor increases,
while the slope of the torque
speed curve becomes steeper.

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Example on Changing the Field Resistance

• Consider the DC motor with the internal resistance of 0.25
Ω. It is currently operating with a terminal voltage of 250 V
and an internal generated voltage of 245 V. Now reduce
the flux by 1% and see its effect on the armature current.
• Let us suppose that machine is operating at a slower
speed, where the induced voltage is say 50 V. Again reduce
the flux by 1 % and analyze its effect on the armature
current and then the Torque. Compare the above two
cases.

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A Warning About Field Resistance Speed Control

• From the torque speed curve

equation it is obvious that the
no load speed is proportional to
the reciprocal of the flux in the
motor, while the slope of the
curve is proportional to the
reciprocal of the flux squared.
• Therefore, a decreases in the
curve causes the slope of the
torque-speed curve to become
steeper.
• It is apparent from the figure that at very low speed an
increase in the field resistance will actually decrease the
speed of motor.
• The applications which require the dc motors to run to run at
low speed, this method of speed control is not preferable.
Instead Armature Voltage method of speed control is used.15

Changing The Armature Voltage

• This method involves changing
the voltage applied to the
armature of the motor without
changing the voltage applied to
the field.
• To realize this either the motor
must be separately excited or
variable voltage controller needs
to be included.

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Inserting a Resistor in Series with the Armature Circuit

• A very wasteful method of speed control, since the

losses in the inserted resistance are very large. For this
reason it is rarely used.

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AC Induction Motor for an Elevator

Motor Rating 3.7 kW, 280 V, 11 A,

P.F. 0.85

Parameters Rs=2.2 Ω, Xs=8 Ω

Elevator Speed 1 m/sec, 95 r/min

Elevator Weight 270 Kg

Pay load 630 kg

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Class Activity 1

• Example 9-1: A 50 hp, 250-V,

1200 r/min dc shunt motor
with compensating windings
has an armature resistance
(including the brushes,
compensating windings, and
inter-poles) of 0.06 Ω.

Its field circuit has a total resistance Radj+RF of 50 Ω, which

produces no load speed of 1200r/min. There are 1200 turns
per pole on the shunt field winding.
a) Find the speed of this motor when its input current is 100 A.
b) Find the speed of this motor when its input current is 200 A.
c) Find the speed of this motor when its input current is 300 A.
d) Plot the torque speed characteristics of this motor.
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Class Activity 1

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9.5: The Permanent Magnet DC Motor
• A permanent magnet DC motor is a motor whose poles
are made of permanent magnets.
• Permanent magnet DC motors offer number of benefits
compared with the shunt DC motors in some
applications.
1. Since these motor do not require field circuit, they
don’t have the field circuit copper losses associated
with the shunt DC motors.
2. Because no field windings are required they can be
smaller than the corresponding shunt dc motors.
3. PMDC motors are especially common in smaller
fractional and sub fractional horse power size,
where the expense and space of separate field
circuit can not be justified.

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9.5: The Series DC Motor

• A DC series motor is a dc
motor whose field
winding consist of a
relatively few turns
connected in series with
the armature circuit.
• In a series motor, the
armature current, field
current and line current
are all the same.

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Induced Torque in DC Series Motor
• The basic behavior of the a series dc motor is due to the fact
The picture can't be display ed.

that the flux is directly proportional to the armature current,

at least until the saturation is reached.
• As the load on the motor increases, its flux increases too.
However, as seen earlier, an increase in the flux of the motor
causes a decrease in the speed.
• The result is that motor has sharply dropping torque-speed
characteristics.
• The induced torque in the machine is given by:
• The flux in the machine is directly proportional
to the its armature current at least until the
metal saturates.
• It is easy to see that a series motor gives more
torque per ampere than any other motor. It is
therefore used in the application requiring very
high starting torque. E.g. starter motors in the
cars, elevators motors, and tractor motors in
locomotive. 23

The Terminal Characteristics of a DC Series Motor

• Notice that for an

unsaturated series
motor, the speed of the
motor varies as the
reciprocal of the square
root of the torque. This
is quite an usual
relationship.
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The Terminal Characteristics of a DC Series Motor

• One disadvantage of series motor can be seen

immediately from this equation. When the torque on
this motor goes to zero, its speed goes to infinity.
• In practice, the torque can never go entirely to zero
because of mechanical, core, and stray losses that
must be overcome.

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9.7: The compound dc motor

• A compound dc motor is a
motor with both a shunt
and a series field.
• A current flowing into a
dot produces positive
magnetomotive force.
• If the current flows into
the dots on both coils, the
resulting magnetomotive
force adds to produce a
larger magnetomotive
force. This situation is
known cumulative
compounding. Cumulatively and
Differentially Compound
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