Control Arrangements for DC Drives The most common arrangement, which is used with only minor variations from small drives of say 0.5 kW up to the largest industrial drives of several megawatts, is the so-called two-loop control. This has an inner feedback loop to control the current (and hence torque) and an outer loop to […]

Operation of Thyristor DC Drives The thyristor d.c. drive remains an important speed-controlled industrial drive, especially where the higher maintenance cost associated with the d.c. motor brushes is tolerable. The controlled (thyristor) rectifier provides a low-impedance adjustable ‘d.c.’ voltage for the motor armature, thereby providing speed control. Until the 1960s, the only really satisfactory way

Four Quadrant Operation and Regenerative Braking of DC Motor The beauty of the separately excited d.c. motor is the ease with which it can be controlled. Firstly, the steady-state speed is determined by the applied voltage, so we can make the motor run at any desired speed in either direction simply by applying the appropriate

Characteristics of DC Motor Before variable-voltage supplies became readily available, most d.c. motors were obliged to operate from a single d.c. supply, usually of constant voltage. The armature and Weld circuits were therefore designed either for connection in parallel (shunt), or in series. As we will see shortly, the operating characteristics of shunt and series

Current Surges in DC Motor The steady-state armature current depends on the small difference between the back e.m.f. E and the applied voltage V. In a converter-fed drive it is vital that the current is kept within safe bounds, otherwise the thyristors or transistors (which have very limited overcurrent capacity) will be destroyed. In order

Base Speed and Field Weakening of DC Motor When the field flux is at its full value the speed corresponding to full armature voltage and full current (i.e. the rated full-load condition) is known as base speed (see Figure 1). The motor can operate at any speed up to base speed, and at any torque

Motional EMF of DC Motor When the armature is stationary, no motional e.m.f. is induced in it. But when the rotor turns, the armature conductors cut the radial magnetic flux and an e.m.f. is induced in them. As far as each individual coil on the armature is concerned, an alternating e.m.f. will be induced in

Until the 1980s the conventional (brushed) d.c. machine was the automatic choice where speed or torque control is called for, and large numbers remain in service despite a declining market share that reflects the move to inverter-fed induction motors. Applications range from steel rolling mills, railway traction, to a very wide range of industrial drives,