DC motor
A DC motor is an electrical motor that uses direct current (DC) to produce mechanical force. The
most common types rely on magnetic forces produced by currents in the coils. Nearly all types of
DC motors have some internal mechanism, either electromechanical or electronic, to periodically
change the direction of current in part of the motor.
Workings of a brushed electric
motor with a two-pole rotor
(armature) and permanent magnet
stator. "N" and "S" designate
polarities on the inside axis faces
of the magnets; the outside faces
have opposite polarities. The +
and - signs show where the DC
current is applied to the
commutator which supplies
current to the armature coils
The Pennsylvania Railroad's class
DD1 locomotive running gear was
a semi-permanently coupled
pairing of third rail direct current
electric locomotive motors built
for the railroad's initial New York-
area electrification when steam
locomotives were banned in the
city (locomotive cab removed
here).
DC motors were the first form of motors to be widely used, as they could be powered from existing
direct-current lighting power distribution systems. A DC motor's speed can be controlled over a wide
range, using either a variable supply voltage or by changing the strength of current in its field
windings. Small DC motors are used in tools, toys, and appliances. The universal motor, a
lightweight brushed motor used for portable power tools and appliances can operate on direct
current and alternating current. Larger DC motors are currently used in propulsion of electric
vehicles, elevator and hoists, and in drives for steel rolling mills. The advent of power electronics
has made replacement of DC motors with AC motors possible in many applications.
Electromagnetic motors
A coil of wire with a current running through it generates an electromagnetic field aligned with the
center of the coil. The direction and magnitude of the magnetic field produced by the coil can be
changed with the direction and magnitude of the current flowing through it.
A simple DC motor has a stationary set of magnets in the stator and an armature with one or more
windings of insulated wire wrapped around a soft iron core that concentrates the magnetic field.
The windings usually have multiple turns around the core, and in large motors there can be several
parallel current paths. The ends of the wire winding are connected to a commutator. The
commutator allows each armature coil to be energized in turn and connects the rotating coils with
the external power supply through brushes. (Brushless DC motors have electronics that switch the
DC current to each coil on and off and have no brushes.)
The total amount of current sent to the coil, the coil's size, and what it is wrapped around decide the
strength of the electromagnetic field created.
The sequence of turning a particular coil on or off dictates what direction the effective
electromagnetic fields are pointed. By turning on and off coils in sequence, a rotating magnetic field
can be created. These rotating magnetic fields interact with the magnetic fields of the magnets
(permanent or electromagnets) in the stationary part of the motor (stator) to create a torque on the
armature which causes it to rotate. In some DC motor designs, the stator fields use electromagnets
to create their magnetic fields which allows greater control over the motor.
At high power levels, DC motors are almost always cooled using forced air.
Different number of stator and armature fields as well as how they are connected provide different
inherent speed and torque regulation characteristics. The speed of a DC motor can be controlled by
changing the voltage applied to the armature. Variable resistance in the armature circuit or field
circuit allows speed control. Modern DC motors are often controlled by power electronics systems
which adjust the voltage by "chopping" the DC current into on and off cycles which have an effective
lower voltage.
Since the series-wound DC motor develops its highest torque at low speed, it is often used in
traction applications such as electric locomotives, and trams. The introduction of DC motors and an
electrical grid system to run machinery starting in the 1870s started a new second Industrial
Revolution. DC motors can operate directly from rechargeable batteries, providing the motive power
for the first electric vehicles and today's hybrid cars and electric cars as well as driving a host of
cordless tools. Today DC motors are still found in applications as small as toys and disk drives, or in
large sizes to operate steel rolling mills and paper machines. Large DC motors with separately
excited fields were generally used with winder drives for mine hoists, for high torque as well as
smooth speed control using thyristor drives. These are now replaced with large AC motors with
variable frequency drives.
If external mechanical power is applied to a DC motor it acts as a DC generator, a dynamo. This
feature is used to slow down and recharge batteries on hybrid and electric cars or to return
electricity back to the electric grid used on a street car or electric powered train line when they slow
down. This process is called regenerative braking on hybrid and electric cars. In diesel electric
locomotives they also use their DC motors as generators to slow down but dissipate the energy in
resistor stacks. Newer designs are adding large battery packs to recapture some of this energy.
Commutation
Brushed
A brushed DC electric motor
generating torque from DC power
supply by using an internal
mechanical commutation. Stationary
permanent magnets form the stator
field. Torque is produced by the
principle that any current-carrying
conductor placed within an external
magnetic field experiences a force,
known as Lorentz force. In a motor,
the magnitude of this Lorentz force (a
vector represented by the green
arrow), and thus the output torque, is
a function for rotor angle, leading to a
phenomenon known as torque ripple)
Since this is a two-pole motor, the
commutator consists of a split ring,
so that the current reverses each half
turn ( 180 degrees).
The brushed DC electric motor generates torque directly from DC power supplied to the motor by
using internal commutation, stationary magnets (permanent or electromagnets), and rotating
electromagnets.
Advantages of a brushed DC motor include low initial cost, high reliability, and simple control of
motor speed. Disadvantages are high maintenance and low life-span for high intensity uses.
Maintenance involves regularly replacing the carbon brushes and springs which carry the electric
current, as well as cleaning or replacing the commutator. These components are necessary for
transferring electrical power from outside the motor to the spinning wire windings of the rotor inside
the motor.
Brushes are usually made of graphite or carbon, sometimes with added dispersed copper to
improve conductivity. In use, the soft brush material wears to fit the diameter of the commutator,
and continues to wear. A brush holder has a spring to maintain pressure on the brush as it shortens.
For brushes intended to carry more than an ampere or two, a flying lead will be molded into the
brush and connected to the motor terminals. Very small brushes may rely on sliding contact with a
metal brush holder to carry current into the brush, or may rely on a contact spring pressing on the
end of the brush. The brushes in very small, short-lived motors, such as are used in toys, may be
made of a folded strip of metal that contacts the commutator.
Brushless
Typical brushless DC motors use one or more permanent magnets in the rotor and electromagnets
on the motor housing for the stator. A motor controller converts DC to AC. This design is
mechanically simpler than that of brushed motors because it eliminates the complication of
transferring power from outside the motor to the spinning rotor. The motor controller can sense the
rotor's position via Hall effect sensors or similar devices and can precisely control the timing, phase,
etc., of the current in the rotor coils to optimize torque, conserve power, regulate speed, and even
apply some braking. Advantages of brushless motors include long life span, little or no
maintenance, and high efficiency. Disadvantages include high initial cost, and more complicated
motor speed controllers. Some such brushless motors are sometimes referred to as "synchronous
motors" although they have no external power supply to be synchronized with, as would be the case
with normal AC synchronous motors.
Uncommutated
Other types of DC motors require no commutation.
Homopolar motor – A homopolar motor has a magnetic field along the axis of rotation and an
electric current that at some point is not parallel to the magnetic field. The name homopolar
refers to the absence of polarity change. Homopolar motors necessarily have a single-turn coil,
which limits them to very low voltages. This has restricted the practical application of this type of
motor.
Ball bearing motor – A ball bearing motor is an unusual electric motor that consists of two ball
bearing-type bearings, with the inner races mounted on a common conductive shaft, and the outer
races connected to a high current, low voltage power supply. An alternative construction fits the
outer races inside a metal tube, while the inner races are mounted on a shaft with a non-
conductive section (e.g. two sleeves on an insulating rod). This method has the advantage that
the tube will act as a flywheel. The direction of rotation is determined by the initial spin which is
usually required to get it going.
Permanent magnet stators
A permanent magnet (PM) motor does not have a field winding on the stator frame, instead relying
on PMs to provide the magnetic field against which the rotor field interacts to produce torque.
Compensation windings in series with the armature may be used on large motors to improve
commutation under load. Because this field is fixed, it cannot be adjusted for speed control. PM
fields (stators) are convenient in miniature motors to eliminate the power consumption of the field
winding. Most larger DC motors are of the "dynamo" type, which have stator windings. Historically,
PMs could not be made to retain high flux if they were disassembled; field windings were more
practical to obtain the needed amount of flux. However, large PMs are costly, as well as dangerous
and difficult to assemble; this favors wound fields for large machines.
To minimize overall weight and size, miniature PM motors may use high energy magnets made with
neodymium or other strategic elements; most such are neodymium-iron-boron alloy. With their
higher flux density, electric machines with high-energy PMs are at least competitive with all
optimally designed singly fed synchronous and induction electric machines. Miniature motors
resemble the structure in the illustration, except that they have at least three rotor poles (to ensure
starting, regardless of rotor position) and their outer housing is a steel tube that magnetically links
the exteriors of the curved field magnets.
Wound stators
A field coil may be connected in
shunt, in series, or in compound with
the armature of a DC machine (motor
or generator)
There are three types of electrical connections between the stator and rotor possible for DC electric
motors: series, shunt/parallel and compound (various blends of series and shunt/parallel) and each
has unique speed/torque characteristics appropriate for different loading torque
profiles/signatures.[1]
Series connection
A series DC motor connects the armature and field windings in series with a common D.C. power
source. The motor speed varies as a non-linear function of load torque and armature current; current
is common to both the stator and rotor yielding current squared (I^2) behavior. A series motor has
very high starting torque and is commonly used for starting high inertia loads, such as trains,
elevators or hoists.[2] This speed/torque characteristic is useful in applications such as dragline
excavators, where the digging tool moves rapidly when unloaded but slowly when carrying a heavy
load.
A series motor should never be started at no load. With no mechanical load on the series motor, the
current is low, the counter-Electro motive force produced by the field winding is weak, and so the
armature must turn faster to produce sufficient counter-EMF to balance the supply voltage. The
motor can be damaged by overspeed. This is called a runaway condition.
Series motors called universal motors can be used on alternating current. Since the armature
voltage and the field direction reverse at the same time, torque continues to be produced in the
same direction. However they run at a lower speed with lower torque on AC supply when compared
to DC due to reactance voltage drop in AC which is not present in DC.[3] Since the speed is not
related to the line frequency, universal motors can develop higher-than-synchronous speeds, making
them lighter than induction motors of the same rated mechanical output. This is a valuable
characteristic for hand-held power tools. Universal motors for commercial utility are usually of small
capacity, not more than about 1 kW output. However, much larger universal motors were used for
electric locomotives, fed by special low-frequency traction power networks to avoid problems with
commutation under heavy and varying loads.
Shunt connection
A shunt DC motor connects the armature and field windings in parallel or shunt with a common D.C.
power source. This type of motor has good speed regulation even as the load varies, but does not
have the starting torque of a series DC motor.[4] It is typically used for industrial, adjustable speed
applications, such as machine tools, winding/unwinding machines and tensioners.
Compound connection
A compound DC motor connects the armature and fields windings in a shunt and a series
combination to give it characteristics of both a shunt and a series DC motor.[5] This motor is used
when both a high starting torque and good speed regulation is needed. The motor can be connected
in two arrangements: cumulatively or differentially. Cumulative compound motors connect the
series field to aid the shunt field, which provides higher starting torque but less speed regulation.
Differential compound DC motors have good speed regulation and are typically operated at
constant speed.
See also
Cogging torque
Ward Leonard control
Torque and speed of a DC motor
Armature Controlled DC Motor
References
1. Herman, Stephen. Industrial Motor Control. (https://books.google.com/books?id=E9nP3VBRO6
AC&dq=shunt+series+compound+dc+motor+connections&pg=PA251) 6th ed. Delmar,
Cengage Learning, 2010. Page 251.
2. Ohio Electric Motors. DC Series Motors: High Starting Torque but No Load Operation Ill-
Advised. (http://www.ohioelectricmotors.com/dc-series-motors-high-starting-torque-but-no-loa
d-operation-ill-advised-595) Ohio Electric Motors, 2011. Archived (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20111031180253/http://www.ohioelectricmotors.com/dc-series-motors-high-starting-torque
-but-no-load-operation-ill-advised-595) October 31, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
3. "Universal motor" (http://www.electricaleasy.com/2014/02/universal-motor-construction-worki
ng.html?m=1) , Construction and working characteristics, Retrieved on 27 April 2015.
4. Laughton M.A. and Warne D.F., Editors. Electrical engineer's reference book. (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=5jOblzV5eZ8C&dq=shunt+dc+motor&pg=SA19-PA4) 16th ed. Newnes,
2003. Page 19-4.
5. William H. Yeadon, Alan W. Yeadon. Handbook of small electric motors. (https://books.google.
com/books?id=TsXEHPofiAYC&dq=compound+dc+motor&pg=SA4-PA134) McGraw-Hill
Professional, 2001. Page 4-134.
External links
Make a working model of dc motor (http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/electro/electro.html#mot
or) at sci-toys.com
How to select a DC motor (https://web.archive.org/web/20130327130238/http://www.micromo.c
om/how-to-select-a-dc-motor.aspx#) at MICROMO (archived page)
DC motor model in Simulink (http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/11587-dc-
motor-model-simulink) at File Exchange - MATLAB Central
