DC Motor

DC motor

 

A DC motor is a mechanically commutated electric motor powered from direct current (DC). The stator is stationary in space by definition and therefore the current in the rotor is switched by the commutator to also be stationary in space. This is how the relative angle between the stator and rotor magnetic flux is maintained near 90 degrees, which generates the maximum torque.

DC motors have a rotating armature winding (winding in which a voltage is induced) but non-rotating armature magnetic field and a static field winding (winding that produce the main magnetic flux) or permanent magnet. Different connections of the field and armature winding provide different inherent speed/torque regulation characteristics. The speed of a DC motor can be controlled by changing the voltage applied to the armature or by changing the field current. The introduction of variable resistance in the armature circuit or field circuit allowed speed control. Modern DC motors are often controlled by power electronics systems called DC drives.

The introduction of DC motors to run machinery eliminated the need for local steam or internal combustion engines, and line shaft drive systems. DC motors can operate directly from rechargeable batteries, providing the motive power for the first electric vehicles. 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.

 

 

Brush

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 electrical magnets.

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 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 made of conductors.

Brushless

Typical brushless DC motors use a rotating permanent magnet in the rotor, and stationary electrical current/coil magnets on the motor housing for the stator, but the symmetrical opposite is also possible. A motor controller converts DC to AC. This design is simpler than that of brushed motors because it eliminates the complication of transferring power from outside the motor to the spinning rotor. 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 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.

Permanent magnet stators

A 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. Compensating 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

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 diffent 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 I^2 (current) squared behavior[citation needed]. 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.

With no mechanical load on the series motor, the current is low, the counter-EMF 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 over speed. 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 (substantially) the same time, torque continues to be produced in the same direction. 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 power frequency are usually small, 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.[3] 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.[4] 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

External links

References

  1.  
  1. Jump up ^ Herman, Stephen. Industrial Motor Control. 6th ed. Delmar, Cengage Learning, 2010. Page 251.
  2. Jump up ^ Ohio Electric Motors. DC Series Motors: High Starting Torque but No Load Operation Ill-Advised. Ohio Electric Motors, 2011. Archived 20 July 2011 at WebCite
  3. Jump up ^ Laughton M.A. and Warne D.F., Editors. Electrical engineer's reference book. 16th ed. Newnes, 2003. Page 19-4.
  4. Jump up ^ William H. Yeadon, Alan W. Yeadon. Handbook of small electric motors. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2001. Page 4-134.
Author:Bling King
Published:Dec 23rd 2013
Modified:Dec 23rd 2013
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