DC

MOTOR
 Introduction
• The Dc machines are of two types namely DC
generators and DC motors.
• A DC generators converts mechanical energy into
electrical energy whereas a DC motor converts
the electrical energy into mechanical energy.
• In order to understand the operating principle of a
DC motor, it is necessary to understand how does
a current carrying conductor experience a force,
when kept in a magnetic field.
• Force on current carrying conductor:
 If a straight conductor is placed in the
magnetic field produced by a permanent
magnet, the current flowing through a
conductor in anti clockwise direction.
 Due to the presence of two magnetic fields
simultaneously, an interaction between them
will take place as shown in fig.(1).
Fig.1(a): Interaction of the fields Fig.1(b):Resultant field
 As shown in fig.(1), the flux lines produced by
the magnet and the conductor are in opposite
direction to each other at left side and hence
cancel each other. Therefore the no of flux lines
at left side will reduced.
 At the right side, the individual fields are in the
same direction, hence will add or strengthen
each other. Therefore the no. of flux lines at
right side will increase.
• Magnitude of Force:
 The magnitude of the force experienced by the
current carrying conductor placed in the
magnetic field is given by,
F = BIl Newton
Where B = Flux density produced by Magnet
I = current flowing through conductor
l = Length of the conductor
• Direction of force:
 The direction of rotation of a motor depends on the direction of force
exerted on the the armature winding and the direction of force
experienced by a current carrying conductor is given by Fleming’s left
hand rule.
 Statement of Fleming’s left hand rule:
It states that if the first three fingers of the left hand are held mutually
at right angles to each other and if index finger indicates the direction
of the magnetic field, and if middle finger indicates the direction of
current flowing through the conductor, then thumb indicates the
direction of force exerted on the conductor. This is shown in fig (2).
Fig.(2):Fleming’s left hand rule thumb
 Windings in DC Machine
• In any dc machines, there are two windings:
1. Field winding 2. Armature winding
• Out of these, the field winding is stationary which
does not move at all and armature winding is
mounted on a shaft. So it can rotate freely.
• Connection of windings for operation as motor:
 To operate the dc machine as a motor, the field
winding and armature winding is connected
across a dc power supply.
 DC Motor
• Principle of operation:
 When current carrying conductor is placed in a
magnetic field, it experienced a force.
 In case of DC motor, the magnetic field us
developed by the field current i.e. current
flowing in field winding and armature winding
plays the role of current carrying conductor
 So armature winding experienced a force and
start rotating.
Construction of DC Motor

Fig.(1): construction of DC motor

• Important parts of DC motor:
1. Yoke 4. Armature
2. Field winding 5. Commutator, brushes & gear
3. poles 6. Brushes

4. Yoke:
 It acts as the outer support of a DC motor.
 It provides mechanical support for the poles.
2. Poles:
 pole of a dc motor is an electromagnet.
 The field winding is wound over the poles.
 Poles produces magnetic flux when the filed winding is
excited.
3. Field winding:
 The coils wound around the pole are called field coils and
they are connected in series with each other to form field
winding.
 When current passing through the field winding, magnetic
flux produced in the air gap between pole and armature.
4. Armature:
 Armature is a cylindrical drum mounted on shaft in which
number of slots are provided.
 Armature conductors are placed in these slots.
 Theses armature conductors are interconnected to form the
armature winding.
5. Commutator:
 A commutator is a cylindrical drum mounted on the shaft along
with the armature core.
 It collects the current from the armature conductors and passed
it to the external load via brushes.
6. Brushes:
 Commutator is rotating. So it is not possible to
connect the load directly to it.
 Hence current is conducted from the armature
to the external load by the carbon brushes
which are held against the surface of
commutator by springs.
 Back EMF
• When the armature winding of a dc motor starts
rotating in the magnetic flux produced by the field
winding, it cuts the lines of magnetic flux.
• Hence according to the faraday’s laws of
electromagnetic induction, there will be an induced
emf in the armature winding.
• As per the Lenz’s law, this induced emf acts in
opposite direction to the armature supply voltage.
Hence this emf is called as the back emf and denoted
by Eb.
• Significance of back emf:
 The presence of back e.m.f. makes the d.c. motor a
self -regulating machine i.e., it makes the motor to
draw as much armature current as is just sufficient to
develop the torque required by the load.
1. When the motor is running on no load, small torque
is required to overcome the friction and windage
losses. Therefore, the armature current Ia is small and
the back e.m.f. is nearly equal to the applied voltage.
2. If the motor is suddenly loaded, the first effect is to
cause the armature to slow down. Therefore, the speed
at which the armature conductors move through the field
is reduced and hence the back e.m.f. Eb falls. The
decreased back e.m.f. allows a larger current to flow
through the armature and larger current means increased
driving torque. Thus, the driving torque increases as the
motor slows down. The motor will stop slowing down
when the armature current is just sufficient to produce
the increased torque required by the load.
3. If the load on the motor is decreased, the driving torque
is momentarily in excess of the requirement so that
armature is accelerated. As the armature speed increases,
the back e.m.f. Eb also increases and causes the armature
current Ia to decrease. The motor will stop accelerating
when the armature current is just sufficient to produce
the reduced torque required by the load. It follows,
therefore, that back e.m.f. in a d.c. motor regulates the
flow of armature current i.e., it automatically changes the
armature current to meet the Load requirement.
Voltage Equation of a DC Motor

Fig.(1):Equivalent circuit of DC motor

• As shown in fig.(1), the armature supply voltage
V has to overcome the opposition posed by the
back emf Eb and some other voltage drops such
as brush drop and the voltage drop across Ra.
• From fig.(1), we can write that,
V = Eb + Ia Ra + Vb …….(1)
• But voltage drop across brushes is negligible.
∴ V = Eb + Ia Ra ……(2)
 Types of DC Motors
• Depending on the way of connecting the
armature and field windings of a d.c. motors
are classified as follows:
DC Motor

DC series Shunt motor Compound Separately

motor motor excited motor

Short shunt Long shunt

compound compound
 DC Shunt Motor
• In DC shunt type motor, field and armature
winding are connected in parallel as shown in fig.
(1), and this combination is connected across a
common dc power supply.
• The resistance of shunt field winding (Rsh) is
always much higher than that of armature
winding (Ra).
• This is because the number of turns for the field
winding is more than that of armature winding.
• The field current Ish always remains constant. Since
V and Rsh both are constant. Hence flux produced
also remains constant. Because field current is
responsible for generation of flux.
∴ ø ∝ Ish
• This is why the shunt motor is also called as the
constant flux motors.
Fig.(1):DC shunt motor schematic diagram
 DC Series Motor
• In DC series motor, the armature and field windings are
connected din series with each other as shown in fig.(1).
• The resistance of the series field winding (R s) is much
smaller as compared to that of the armature resistance
(Ra).
• The flux produced is proportional to the field current. But
in series motor, the field current is same as armature
current.
∴ ø ∝ Ia or
∴ ø ∝ Is
• The armature current Ia and hence field current
Is will be dependent on the load.
• Hence in DC series motor the flux does not
remains constant.

Fig.(1):DC series motor schematic diagram

 DC Compound Motor
1. Long Shunt Compound Motor:
• As shown in fig.(1), in long shunt dc motor, shunt field
winding is connected across the series combination of the
armature and series field winding.
2. Short Shunt Compound Motor:
• In short shunt compound motor, armature and field windings
are connected in parallel with each other and this
combination is connected din series with the series filed
winding. This is shown in fig.(2).
 The long shunt and short shunt compound motors are further
classified as cumulative and differential compound motors
Fig.(1): Long shunt compound dc motor fig.(2):Short shunt compound dc motor
 Torque & Speed Equations
• Torque equations:
 Torque produced by a motor will always be proportional to the air gap flux
ø and the current flowing through the armature winding (Ia).
 That means T ∝ ø Ia
 The flux is produced by the field current hence ø will be proportional to
field current. That means,
ø ∝ Ifield
 hence torque produced by a dc motor is proportional to the product of I a
and Ifield. That means,
T ∝ Ia Ifield ………..(1)

 For various types of dc motors the expression for field current will be
different. We will substitute them into eq.(1) to get the torque equations .
1. Torque equation of DC shunt motor:
 For DC shunt motor Ifield = V/ Rsh = constant
 Hence the flux ø is constant.
∴ T ∝ Ia ……..(2)
 Hence in dc shunt motor, torque is proportional to only to the
armature current.
2. Torque equation DC series motor:
 For DC series motor, the field current is equal to the armature current
i.e. Ifield = Ia.
 Hence T ∝ Ia Ia
∴ T ∝ Ia2 ………(3)
 Hence in dc series motor, torque is proportional to the square of
armature current.
• Speed Equations:
 We know that the expression for the back emf is,

 But P, Z and 60A are constants. Therefore we can write that,

Eb ∝ ø N ……(4)
 Therefore the speed can be expressed as,
N ∝ E b/ ø …….(5)
N = k Eb/ ø ………(6)
 But V = Eb + Ia Ra
∴ Eb = V - Ia Ra ………..(7)
 Substituting eq.(7) into eq.(5) we get,
N ∝ (V - Ia Ra) / ø …….(8)
 Since ø ∝ Ifield , we can write,
N ∝ (V - Ia Ra) / Ifield …….(9)
1. DC shunt motor:
 For dc shunt motor, the flux ø is constant.
∴ N ∝ (V - Ia Ra) …..(10)
2. DC series motor:
 For dc series motor Ifield = Ia. Therefore
N ∝ (V - Ia Ra - Is Rs) / Ia …….(11)
where Eb = V - Ia Ra - Is Rs
 Torque-speed characteristics
1. DC shunt motor:
• The torque-speed characteristics of dc shunt
motor is as shown in fig.(1).
• At no load, the torque produced by the motor is
Ta0 and the motor rotates at the no load speed N0.
• As the load increased, the torque requirement
also increase. To generate the required amount of
torque, the motor has to draw more armature
current.
• And more armature current can be drawn if the
more speed decreases.
• Therefore, as the load increases, torque will
also increase and the speed decreases.
• However the reduction in speed is not
significant as the load is increased from no load
to full load. Therefore practically the dc shunt
motor is called as a constant speed motor.
speed

Constant speed
(ideal)

Practical

No load
Ta0

Increase Torque
in load
Fig.(1):speed-torque characteristics of dc shunt motor
2. DC series motor:
• The speed –torque characteristics of DC series
motor is as shown in fig.(2).
• We know that
N ∝ 1/ Ia and T ∝ Ia2
N ∝ 1/√T and Ia ∝ √T
• This shows that the speed decreases with
increase in the value of torque.
 N ∝ (1/√T)

Fig.(2): speed-torque characteristics of dc series motor

3. DC compound motor:
• The torque- speed characteristics of the DC
compound motor is as shown in fig.(3).
• It is combination of characteristics of DC
series and DC shunt motor.
• The exact shape of these characteristics is
dependent on the precise effects of series and
shunt field winding.
Fig.(3): speed torque characteristics of dc compound motor
 Applications of DC Motor
1. Shunt motor applications:
i. Various machine tools such as lathe
machines, drilling machines, milling
machines etc.
ii. Printing machines
iii. Paper machines
iv. Centrifugal and reciprocating pumps
v. Blowers and fans etc.
2. Series motor applications:
i. Electric trains
ii. Diesel-electric locomotives
iii. Cranes
iv. Hoists
v. Trolley cars and trolley buses
vi. Rapid transit systems
vii. Conveyers etc.
3. Cumulative compound motor applications:
i. Elevators
ii. Rolling mills
iii. Planers
iv. Punches
v. Shears
4. Differentials compound motors applications:
 The speed of these motors will increase with increase in the
load, which leads to an unstable operation.
 Therefore we can not use this motor for any practical
applications
 Specifications of DC Motor
• Some of important specifications of a DC motor:
1. Output power in horse power(H.P.)
2. Rated voltage
3. Type of field winding
4. Excitation voltage
5. Base speed in RPM
6. Current
7. Frame size
8. Rating
• Typical specifications of DC series motor:
Sr. Specifications/Rating Value
No.
1. Output power in horse power 3HP
2. Rated voltage 230V
3. Type of field winding Series
4. Excitation voltage 230V
5. Insulation B
6. Base speed 1000RPM
7. Current 11Amp
8. Frame size 132 S
9. Rating Continous
10. S.R.Number 840858