Characteristics of DC Motor: 1. Torque-Armature Current Characteristics
Characteristics of DC Motor: 1. Torque-Armature Current Characteristics
Characteristics of DC Motor: 1. Torque-Armature Current Characteristics
Generally, three characteristic curves are considered important for DC motors. They are:
(i) Torque vs. armature current,
(ii) Speed vs. armature current and
(iii) Speed vs. torque.
These are explained below for each type of DC motor. These characteristics are determined
by keeping the following relations in mind.
1. Ta ∝ ɸ.Ia and
PNZ
2. Eb = = V - IaRa [for shunt motor] = V - Ia (Ra+Rse) [for series motor]
60 A
E V I a Ra
3. N b [for shunt motor]
Eb V I a Ra I a Rse
4. N [for series motor]
In case of a series motor, the series field winding carries the entire armature current. So the
flux produced is proportional to the armature current.
The torque in case of a series motor is proportional to the square of the armature current. This
relation is parabolic in nature as shown in the figure.
As load increases, armature current increases and torque produced increases proportional to
the square of the armature current up to a certain limit. As the entire armature current passes
through the series field, there is a property of an electromagnet called saturation, may
occur. Saturation means though the current through the winding increases, the flux produced
remains constant. Hence after the saturation, the characteristics take the shape of the straight
line as flux becomes constant.
These types of motors can produce high torque for a small amount of armature current hence
series motor is suitable for the applications which demand high starting torque.
2. Speed–Armature current Characteristics
Hence,
Now the values of Ra and Rse are so small that the effect of change in Ia is neglected. So,
Eb V I a Ra I a Rse V and can be assumed constant. So speed equation reduces to:
3. Speed–Torque Characteristics
In case of series motors,
Thus as torque increases when load increases, the speed decreases. On no load, torque is very
less and hence speed increases to dangerously high value.
Thus the nature of the speed-torque characteristics is similar to the nature of the speed–
armature current characteristics.
Why Series motor is never started on No load?
It is seen earlier that motor armature current is decided by the load. On light load or no load,
the armature drawn by the motor is very small hence flux produced is also very small.
In case of a dc series motor,
In case of DC shunt motors, we can assume the field flux ɸ to be constant. Though at heavy
loads (high armature current), ɸ decreases in a small amount due to increased armature
reaction. As we are neglecting the change in the flux ɸ, we can say that torque is proportional
to armature current. Hence, the Ta-Ia characteristic for a dc shunt motor will be a straight line
through the origin as shown in the figure.
It is seen that armature current is decided by the load. So as load increases, armature current
increases and hence increase the torque linearly with armature current.
To generate high starting torque, this type of motor requires a large value of armature
current at the start. This may damage the motor hence DC. Since heavy starting load needs
heavy starting current, shunt motor should never be started on a heavy load.
2. Speed–Armature current Characteristics
E b V I a Ra
N
Constant
N Eb V I a Ra
So as load increases, the armature current increases and hence drop IaRa also increases. Hence
for constant supply voltage V- IaRa decreases and hence speed reduces. But as Ra is very
small, for change of Ia from no load to full load, drop IaRa is very small and hence drop in
speed is not significant from no load to full load.
In d.c. shunt motor >> Speed regulation is order of 5 to 10 % from no load to full load >>
That’s why d.c. shunt motor is also called as a constant drive motor.
3. Speed–Torque Characteristics
Constant. So,
N V I a Ra
Again,
So from these two equations, we can conclude that Speed and Torque both has
a linear relationship. This characteristic is similar to speed–armature current characteristics.
This curve shows that the speed almost remains constant through torque changes from no
load to full load conditions.
Characteristics of DC Compound Motor
Compound motor characteristics basically depend on the fact whether the motor is
cummulatively compound or differential compound. All the characteristics of the compound
motor are the combination of the shunt and series characteristics.
In cummulative compound motor: Ta sh se I a
In a differential compound motor, as two fluxes oppose each other, the resultant flux
decreases as load increases, thus the machine runs at a higher speed with an increase in
load. This property is dangerous as on full load, the motor may try to run with dangerously
high speed. So the differential compound motor is generally not used in practice.
The exact shape of these characteristics depends on the relative contribution of series and
shunt field windings. If the shunt field winding is more dominant then the characteristics take
the shape of the shunt motor characteristics. While if the series field winding is more
dominant then the characteristics take the shape of the series characteristics.
N NL N FL
% SR 100%
N FL
During electric braking when the motor works as a generator, the kinetic energy stored in the rotating
parts of the motor and a connected load is converted into electrical energy. It is dissipated as heat in
the braking resistance Rb and armature circuit resistance Ra.
The effective voltage across the armature will be (V + Eb) which is almost twice the supply voltage.
As the armature current is reversed and a high braking torque is produced.
It is a form of braking in which the kinetic energy of the motor is returned to the power supply
system. This type of braking is possible when the driven load forces the motor to run at a speed
higher than its no-load speed with a constant excitation.
It is very interesting to note that regenerative braking cannot be used to stop a motor but to control its
speed above the no-load speed of the motor driving the descending loads.