UNIT-2

Solid State Control of DC Drives

 Syllabus
• DC Motor Drives:-DC motor and their performance

• Braking - Transient analysis – Ward Leonard drives

• Transformer and uncontrolled rectifier control - controlled

rectifier fed DC drives

• Chopper controlled DC drives - Time ratio control and current

limit control

• Single, two and four quadrant operations - Effect of ripples on

the DC motor performance
 DC DRIVES VS AC DRIVES

 DC drives:

 Advantage in control unit

 Disadvantage in motor performance

 AC Drives:

 Advantage in motor performance

 Disadvantage in control unit

 DC DRIVES Overview
• DC DRIVES: Electric drives that use DC motors as the
prime movers.
• DC motor: industry workhorse for decades. Fractional
horsepower dc motors are widely used as servo motors
for position and tracking.
• In earlier days, it is being predicted that ac drives will
replace dc drives.

• The variable applications are dominated by dc drives

because lower cost, reliability and simple control.
 DC Motors Overview

 Widely used in adjustable speed, good speed regulation

and frequent starting, frequent braking and reversing.

 DC motors provide smooth speed control over a wide

range and variable speed drives like rolling mills, paper
mills, hoists, machine tools, traction, cranes, excavators.

 Main disadvantage is presence of mechanical

commutator, which limits maximum power rating and
speed of the drive.
 DC Motors Overview

• Advantage: simple torque and speed control without

sophisticated electronics.

• Limitations:

• Regular Maintenance • Expensive motor

• Heavy motor • Sparking
Commonly used DC motors
 Steady state equivalent circuit of the armature

 The basic equations

applicable to all dc motors.

 The applied dc voltage

to the motor is

 The emf developed in the armature is

 The torque developed in the dc is motor is

 The speed of machine based on applied

voltage, emf generated and torque developed
 Shunt and separately excited motors
In case of Shunt and separately excited motors, with a
constant field current, the flux can be assumed to be constant.
 So flux will be,

 The applied dc voltage

to the motor is

 The emf developed in the armature is

 The torque developed in the dc is motor is

 The speed of machine based on applied

voltage, emf generated and torque developed
 Series motor
In Series motor, the flux is a function of
armature current. The flux is directly
proportional to arm. Current is,

 The torque developed in the dc is motor is

 The speed of machine based on applied voltage, emf generated

and torque developed
Performance curves of dc motors
DC motor equivalent circuit

12
DC motor equivalent circuit

13
 Starting
 If a dc motor is started with full supply voltage across terminals, a
very high current will flow, which may damage the motor due to heavy
sparking at commutator and heating of the winding.

 Motor accelerates and back emf rises, one section of the resistor is cut
out of a time, by manually or mechanically with help of contactors. So
current can maintain within specified limit.
 Braking

• The main theme is to stop the motion or oppose the

motion. In braking the motor works as a generator
developing a negative torque which opposes the
motion.
• Dynamic or rheostatic braking
• Plugging
• Regenerative braking
 Electric breaking for shunt motors
Rheostatic or dynamic breaking
• Dynamic Braking is the deceleration of the motor by converting
the energy stored in the moving masses into electrical energy
and dissipating it as heat via resistors. Also called resistive
braking.
• The armature of the shunt motor is disconnected from the
supply and it is connected across a variable resistor R.
• The field winding is kept undisrupted and this breaking is
controlled by varying the series resistor R.
• This method used generator action.
Replace the supply voltage
with a resistor.
Power dissipated in the
resistor rather than given back
to the source.
Normal Operation

Closed

Open

ECE 441 17
Dynamic - Braking

Open

Closed

ECE 441 18
 Electric breaking for shunt motors
Plugging or Reverse Breaking

• the armature terminals are reversed to rotate the motor

in the reverse direction
• VT and the back Eb start acting in the same direction.

 Ia is reversed, producing “braking” torque

Normal Operation

ECE 441 20
Plugging

ECE 441 21
 Electric breaking for shunt motors
Regenerative Breaking

Motor acts as a Generator

Eg becomes > supply Voltage Va
Ia becomes negative
 DC motor speed control
the speed of a motor is given by the relation

Flux Control Method

Armature resistance Control Method
Armature Voltage Control Method
 Armature voltage control

Mostly prepared for high efficiency, good speed regulation,

good transient response.
It able to provide speed control below rated speed because the
armature voltage cannot be allowed to exceed the rated value.
For above rated speed, field flux control is employed.
 Field flux control
Speed is inversely proportional to flux. So by varying flux we
can change the speed of the motor. In this method a variable
resistance (known as shunt field rheostat) is placed in series
with shunt field winding.
The field rheostat reduces the shunt field current Ish. So the
flux also get reduced.
 Armature resistance control

 This method is used when speeds below the no-load speed are
required. As the supply voltage is normally constant, the voltage
across the armature is varied by inserting a variable rheostat in series
with the armature circuit.
 As controller resistance is increased, voltage across the armature is
decreased, thereby decreasing the armature speed. For a load
constant torque, speed is approximately proportional to the voltage
across the armature.
Armature voltage control method

• Ward Leonard Scheme

• Uncontrolled rectifier bridge

• Controlled rectifier fed DC drives

 Ward Leonard Scheme
motor serving as a prime mover for a dc generator, which in turn is
used to supply a dc voltage to a dc motor by changing the field
resistance.
Controlling the field current of the dc generator armature voltage can
be controlled.
This allows the motor's speed to be smoothly varied between a very
small value and the base speed.
Higher speed can be achieved by reducing the motor's field current
 THE WARD-LEONARD SPEED CONTROLLER
• if the field current of the generator is reversed, polarity of
generated voltage also reversed.
• This reverse the motor's direction of rotation.
• If the torque or the speed alone of the motor reverses while
the other quantity does not, then the machine serves as a
generator.

The operating range

of a Ward-Leonard
motor-control system
 Advantages of Ward Leonard System
• It is a very smooth speed control system over a very wide range
• The speed can be controlled in both the direction of rotation of the
motor easily.
• The motor can run with a uniform acceleration.
• Speed regulation of DC motor is very good.

Disadvantages of Ward Leonard System

• The system is very costly because two extra machines (motor-
generator set) are required.
• Overall efficiency of the system is not sufficient especially it is
lightly loaded.

Application of Ward Leonard System

• used where a very wide and very sensitive speed control is of a DC
motor in both the direction of rotation is required.
• mainly used in colliery winders, cranes, electric excavators, mine
hoists, elevators, steel rolling mills and paper machines etc.
 Uncontrolled rectifier bridge

• Good power factor is maintained.

• Use of diode-not possible for regeneration
Controlled rectifier single phase fed DC drives
Controlled rectifier single phase fed DC drives
Single phase Full converter fed DC separately excited drive

(a)

(b) (c )
Fig. (a) 1-PHASE THYRISTOR BRIDGE WITH R-L-E LOAD
(b) CONTINUOUS CONDUCTION RECTIFICATION (Mode-A)
(c ) DISCONTINUOUS CONDUCTION RECTIFICATION (Mode-B) 34
Continuous mode
Discontinuous
mode
Speed vs torque curve
Single phase half controlled converter fed DC
separately excited drive
Single-Phase Dual-Converter Drives

Dual converter can operate in all four quadrants

Output voltage and current can be positive or negative
ECE 442 Power Electronics 48
 3 Phase Controlled Rectifiers
• They provide higher dc output voltage & Higher dc
output power.

• Higher output voltage ripple frequency.

• Filtering requirements are simplified for smoothing

output load voltage and load current.
• Extensively used in high power variable speed industrial
dc drives.
• Three single phase half-wave converters can be
connected together to form a three phase half-wave
converter.
Three Phase Full Converter fed DC separately
excited drive
 Speed and torque Relations

So speed of the drive is

3 Phase Half Controlled Bridge Converter
 Speed and torque Relations
The average output voltage
 Drawbacks of rectifier fed DC drives

• Distortion of supply

• Low power factor

• Ripple in motor Current

• Increase in harmonic content

 DC chopper Drives
 Static device that converts fixed dc input voltage to a
variable dc output voltage.

 High speed on/off semiconductor switch which connects

source to load.

 Used self commutated devices like MOSFET’s, Power

Transistors, IGBT’s, GTO’s.
 Advantages of chopper Circuits
 Ripple content in the output is small.

 Improves commutation and decreases the harmonic level.

 The problem of power factor does not occur at all.

 Current drawn by the chopper is smaller than in phase

controlled converter.

 The circuit is simple and can modified to provide

regeneration and control circuit is also simple.
 Control strategies
• In DC-DC converters, the average output voltage is controlled
by varying the alpha (α) value.

• This is achieved by varying the Duty Cycle of the switching

pulses. Duty cycle can be varied usually in 2 ways:

1. Time Ratio Control

2. Current Limit Control

 Duty Cycle is the ratio of ‘On Time’ to ‘Time Period of a pulse’.

 Time Ratio Control
• Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)

• Frequency Modulation Control (FMC)

Pulse Width Modulation (PWM): In this technique, the time period

is kept constant, but the ‘On Time’ or the ‘OFF Time’ is varied. Using
this, the duty cycle ratio can be varied.
 Frequency Modulation Control (FMC)

• ‘Time Period’ is varied while keeping either of ‘On Time’ or ‘OFF

time’ as constant. In this method, since the time period gets
changed, so the frequency also changes accordingly.
 Current Limit Control
• current is allowed to fluctuate or change only between 2 values,
maximum current (I max) and minimum current (I min). When the
current is at minimum value, the chopper is switched ON. After this
instance, the current starts increasing, and when it reaches up to
maximum value, the chopper is switched off allowing the current to
fall back to minimum value.
Chopper control of separately excited DC motor

• High speed on/off semiconductor switch which connects

source to load and disconnects the load from source at a fast
speed.

• Control of DC drives contains the process of,

 Motoring control
 Regenerative Braking
 Dynamic Braking
 Motoring control

 The transistor Tr is operated periodically with period T and

remains ON for a duration ton.
 Motoring control
Duty interval
 Transistor ON period ( ), the motor terminal voltage is V. so
the equation is,

Free Wheeling Interval

 The transistor Tr is turned off at t=ton, the motor current free
wheels through the diode Df & the terminal voltage is 0. the period
is . so the equation is,
 Motoring control
The average output voltage and speed

The duty cycle is,

average output voltage is,

Then,

The speed of the drive is

The armature current ia,

 Regenerative Braking

In regenerative mode, the energy of the load fed to the supply
system. DC motor works as a generator during this mode, increases
the stored magnetic energy in armature circuit.
When chopper is off, load voltage is greater than the supply voltage
and energy stored in the inductance is fed back to the supply system.
  The energy storage interval is
 Duty interval is
 The average output voltage Va is

 The speed of drive is,

The armature current ia,

 Dynamic Braking

In this mode, the motor disconnected from the source and
connected across the resistor Rb. The generated energy is
dissipated in Rb and Ra.
A part of energy stored in inductance and rest is dissipated in Ra.

The energy generated and stored in inductance and

dissipated in braking resistance Rb and Ra.
The armature current is ripple less, the energy consumed by the
resistance Rb,

Then the power is,

Effective resistance value Rbe,

 Types of Chopper fed DC drive

 TYPE-A chopper fed drive (or) First quadrant drive

 TYPE-B chopper fed drive (or) second quadrant drive

 Two quadrant drive

 TYPE-C chopper fed drive

 TYPE-D chopper fed drive

 Four quadrant drive (or) TYPE-E chopper fed drive

TYPE-A chopper fed drive (or) First quadrant drive
TYPE-B chopper fed drive (or) second quadrant drive
Two quadrant chopper drive
TYPE-C chopper fed drive
TYPE-D chopper fed drive
Two quadrant chopper drive
 Closed loop control of DC drives

 The feedback in an electrical drive developed for the

requirement of,

(1). Production to the drive system.

(2). To improve the steady state accuracy.

(3). To improve the speed response of the drive.

Current limit control scheme
Closed loop torque control
Closed loop speed control
Factors for evaluation of DC drive Performance
 Torque- speed characteristics

 Nature of motor current

 Average motor current

 RMS value of motor current

 Peak value of motor current

 Commutating capability of the motor

 Input power factor

 Harmonic factor

 Input displacement factor

 Limitations of DC drives
 The sparking at the brushes limits the highest speed of
operation.
 Power / weight ratio is small.
 The commutator is a sensible part and increases the cost of
the system.
 It cannot be used in Hazardous environment.
 The operating voltage and armature current to be
commutated have upper limits.