10-Feb-20

DC MACHINERY FUNDAMENTALS I
IR. DR. DAVID BONG

INTRODUCTION

• DC machines are:
• Generators that convert mechanical energy to dc electric energy
• Motors that convert dc electric energy to mechanical energy

• Most DC machines have a mechanism exists that converts the internal AC

voltages to DC voltages at their terminals.
• This mechanism is called a commutator. DC machinery is also known as
commutating machinery.

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SIMPLE ROTATING LOOP BETWEEN CURVE POLE

FACES
• The simplest rotating DC machine is shown here.
• The DC machine has a single loop of wire rotating about a
fixed axis.
• The rotating part of this machine is called the rotor, and the
stationary part is called the stator.
• The magnetic field for the machine is supplied by the
magnetic north and south poles on the stator.
• The iron rotor, together with the curved shape of the pole
faces, provides a constant-width air gap between the rotor
and stator.
• Since the air gap is of uniform width, the magnetic flux
density is constant everywhere under the pole faces.

• If a rotor is rotated, a voltage will be induced

in the wire loop.
• The magnetic field is constant and
perpendicular to the surface of the rotor
everywhere under the pole faces, and rapidly
falls to zero beyond the edges of the poles.
• The total voltage in the loop is the sum of all
the resulting voltages from the segments of the
loop.

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• Further derivation:

• In general, the induced voltage

will depend on 3 factors:
1. The flux in the machine
2. The speed of rotation
3. A constant representing the
construction of the machine.

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• The voltage out of the loop is alternately a constant

positive value and followed by a constant negative
value.
• To produce a DC voltage, two semicircular
conducting segments are added to the end of the
loop so that every time the voltage of the loop
switches direction, the contacts also switch
connections, and the output of the contacts is always
built up in the same way. This process is known as
commutation.
• The rotating semicircular segments are called
commutator segments, and the fixed contacts are
called brushes. Commutator segments are typically
made of copper bars and brushes are made of
graphite mixture with low friction.

• Calculate the torque:

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COMMUTATION IN A SIMPLE FOUR-LOOP DC

MACHINE
• Commutation is the process of converting AC to DC in a machine.
• Consider a 4 loop, 2 pole DC machine and the machine winding’s connections to
the commutator as below:
• The induced
voltage on any
one side of a
loop is e=vBl.
• The total
voltage is E=4e.

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• There are 2 parallel paths for current through the machine. (current paths)
• At ωt=45°, loop 1 and 3 have rotated into the gap between the poles, so the
voltage across each of them is zero. (shorted out)
• The brushes of the machine are shorting out commutator segments ab and cd.
The terminal voltage E = 2e.

• At ωt=90°, E = 4e. Notice

that the voltages on the
loops have reversed
compare to ωt=0°. But
since their connections have
also reversed, the total
voltage is still being built
up in the same direction.

• The resulting output

voltage:
• This is a better
approximation to a
constant dc level than a
single loop machine.

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COMMUTATION AND ARMATURE CONSTRUCTION

IN REAL DC MACHINES
• In real dc machines, there are several ways in which the armature winding can
be connected to its commutator segments.
• These different connections affect:
• The number of parallel current paths within the rotor
• The output voltage of the rotor
• The number and position of the brushes

THE ROTOR COILS

• Most of the rotor windings are diamond-shaped
preformed coils.
• Each coil consists of a number of turns of wire.
• Each turn of wire is taped and insulated from the other
turns of wire.
• Each side of a turn is called a conductor.
• The number of conductors on a machine’s armature is

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• The relationship between the electrical angle and mechanical angle in a given
machine is given by

• Most rotor windings are two-layer windings – one side of each coil will be at
the bottom of its slot, and the other side will be at the top of its slot.

CONNECTIONS TO THE COMMUTATOR SEGMENTS

• The rotor windings can be connected to the commutator segments in a number

of ways.
• The distance between the commutator segments to which the two ends of a
coil are connected is called the commutator pitch yc.
• Progressive vs Retrogressive windings:

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• A simplex rotor winding is a single, complete, closed winding wound on a

rotor.
• A duplex rotor winding is a rotor with two complete and independent sets of
rotor windings. There are also other multiplex windings (such as triplex, etc).

• Armature windings are classified according to the sequence of their

connections to the commutator segments:
1. Lap winding: a simplex lap winding has two ends of each coil coming out at adjacent
commutator segments. It can be progressive lap winding yc = 1 or retrogressive lap
winding yc = -1.

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A four-pole progressive lap-wound dc motor

2. Wave winding: a simplex wave winding has every other rotor coil connects back to a
commutator segment adjacent to the beginning of the first coil.

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3. Frog-leg winding: a combination of lap winding and wave winding. Also called as self-
equalizing windings.

PROBLEM WITH COMMUTATION IN REAL MACHINES

• Two major effects occur to disturb the commutation process:

• Armature reaction
• L di/dt voltages

• Armature reaction:
• The current flow in the armature windings will produce a magnetic field of its own.
• This magnetic field will distort the original magnetic field from the machine’s poles. This is
called armature reaction.
• Armature reaction causes:
• Neutral-plane shift
• Flux weakening

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ARMATURE REACTION: NEUTRAL-PLANE SHIFT

• For generator, the magnetic neutral plane shifted in the direction of rotation.
• For motor, the current in its rotor would be reversed. As a result, the magnetic
neutral plane would shift the other way.
• The amount of the shift depends on the amount of rotor current and the load.
• Neutral-plane shift causes the brushes short out commutator segments with a
finite voltage across them. The result is a current flow circulating between the
load segments and large sparks at the brushes when the current path is
interrupted as the brush leaves a segment. This causes arcing, sparking and
even flashover at the brushes and leads to reduced brush / commutator life.

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ARMATURE REACTION: FLUX WEAKENING

• The armature reaction causes small increase in flux at locations when rotor
mmf adds to the pole mmf. However, at locations when rotor mmf subtracts
from the pole mmf, there is a large decrease in flux.
• Hence, total average flux under the entire pole face is decreased due to
armature reaction.

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• Flux weakening causes the following problems:

• In generators, the supplied voltage is reduced.
• In motors, the speed increases and possibly reach runaway condition.

L di/dt Voltages

• L di/dt voltage occurs in commutator segments when shorted out by the

brushes. This is also called as inductive kick.
• L di/dt voltage can be very high and causes sparking / arching at the brushes
of the machine.

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SOLUTIONS TO COMMUTATION PROBLEMS

• To partially or completely correct the problems of armature reaction and L di/dt

voltages, the following could be done:
• Brush shifting – to match with the neutral-plane shift. This approach was already obsolete and
only used in very small motors.
• Commutating poles or interpoles – small poles are placed midway between main poles. The
flux from the commutating poles will induce opposite voltage to cancel the voltage in the
armature underdoing commutation.
• Compensating windings – for heavy motors with serious flux-weakening problem. This method
completely cancel armature reaction and eliminate neutral-plane shift and flux weakening by
placing compensating windings. They are placed in slots carved in the faces of the poles
parallel to the rotor conductor, and connected in series with the rotor windings,

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