Chapter 9

DC Motors and
Generators
DC Motors and Generators
• Dc motors are dc machines used as motors, and DC generators are
dc machines used as generators.

• The same physical machine can operate as either a motor or a

generator by reversing the direction of the power flow through it.

• DC motors are, of course, driven from a dc power supply, the input

voltage to a dc motor is assumed to be constant, to simplifies the
analysis of motors and the comparison between different types of
motors.
 Equivalent circuit of a DC motor
• The armature circuit (the entire rotor structure including rotor coils,
interpoles, and compensating windings, if present) is represented by an ideal
voltage source EA and a resistor RA.

• A battery Vbrush in the opposite to a current flow in the machine direction

indicates brush voltage drop.

• The field coils producing the magnetic flux are represented by inductor LF
and resistor RF.

• The resistor Radj represents an

external variable used to control the
amount of current in the field circuit.

The equivalent circuit of a dc motor

 Equivalent circuit of a DC motor
• There are a few variations and simplifications of this basic equivalent
circuit.

1- the brush drop voltage is often only a very tiny fraction of the
generated voltage in a machine. Therefore the brush drop voltage may
be left out or approximately included in the value of RA.

2- the internal resistance of the field coils is sometimes lumped

together with the variable resistor, and the total is called RF

3- generators have more

than one field coil, all of which
will appear on the equivalent circuit.

A simplified equivalent circuit of a dc motor

DC Motor types

• There are five major types of dc motors in

general use:

1- the separately excited dc motor

2- the shunt dc motor
3- the permanent-magnet dc motor
4- the series dc motor
5- the compounded dc motor
 Equivalent circuit of a DC motor

The internal generated voltage in the machine is

EA  K
The induced torque developed by the machine is

ind  K  I A

• Here K is the constant depending on the design of a particular DC machine

(number and commutation of rotor coils, etc

• These two equations, the Kirchhoff 's voltage law equation of the armature circuit
and the machine's magnetization curve, are all the tools necessary to analyze
the behavior and performance of a dc motor
 Magnetization curve of a DC machine
• The internal generated voltage EA is directly proportional to the flux in the
machine and the speed of its rotation. E A  K

• The field current in a DC machine produces a field mmf  = NFIF, which

produces a flux in the machine according to the magnetization curve.

or in terms
of internal
voltage vs.
field
current for
a given
speed 0
.

• To get the maximum possible power per weight out of the machine, most motors
and generators are operating near the saturation point on the magnetization curve.
Therefore, when operating at full load, often a large increase in current IF may be
needed for small increases in the generated voltage EA.
Separately excited and Shunt DC motors

Note: when the

voltage to the
field circuit is
assumed
constant, there
is no difference
between them…

Separately excited DC motor:

Shunt DC motor:
A field circuit is supplied from a
a field circuit gets its power from the
separate constant voltage power source.
armature terminals of the motor.

The Kirchhoff 's voltage law (KVL) equation for the armature circuit of these

VT  EA  I A R A
motors is:
 Shunt motor: terminal characteristic
• A terminal characteristic of a machine is a plot of the machine’s
output quantities vs. each other.
• For a motor, the output quantities are shaft torque and speed. Therefore,
the terminal characteristic of a motor is its output torque vs. speed.

• If the load on the shaft increases, the load torque load will exceed the
induced torque ind, and the motor will slow down. Slowing down the motor
will decrease its internal generated voltage (since EA = K ), so the
armature current increases (IA = (VT – EA )/RA). As the armature current
increases, the induced torque in the motor increases (since ind = KIA ),
and finally the induced torque will equal the load torque at a lower
mechanical speed of rotation .
Shunt motor: terminal characteristic
• The output characteristic of a shunt dc motor can be derived from the
induced voltage and torque equations of the motor plus Kirchhoff's voltage law.
(KVL)
• The KVL equation for a shunt motor is:

• This equation is just a straight line with a negative slope

 Shunt motor: terminal characteristic
• Assuming that the terminal voltage and other terms are constant, the
motor’s speed vary linearly with torque.

Torque-speed characteristic of a shunt or separately excited dc Torque-speed characteristic of the motor with armature
motor with compensating windings to eliminate armature reaction. reaction present.

• However, if a motor has an armature reaction, flux-weakening reduces the flux when
torque increases. the effect of a reduction in flux is to increase the motor's speed

• if a motor has compensating windings so its the flux is constant and the motor’s speed
and armature current are known for any value of load, it’s possible to calculate the
speed for any other value of load.
 Shunt motor: terminal characteristic
– Example
Example 9.1: A 50 hp, 250 V, 1200 rpm DC shunt motor with compensating windings
has an armature resistance (including the brushes, compensating windings, and
interpoles) of 0.06 . Its field circuit has a total resistance Radj + RF of 50 , which
produces a no-load speed of 1200 rpm. The shunt field winding has 1200 turns per
pole. a) Find the motor speed when its input current is 100 A.
b) Find the motor speed when its input current is 200 A.
c) Find the motor speed when its input current is 300 A.
d) Plot the motor torque-speed characteristic.
 Shunt motor: terminal characteristic
– Example
The internal generated voltage of a DC machine (with its speed expressed in rpm):

EA  K’𝑛
Since the field current is constant (both field resistance and VT are constant) and
since there are no armature reaction (due to compensating windings), we
conclude that the flux in the motor is constant. The speed and the internal
generated voltages at different loads are related as
EA2 K’2 n2
 
EA1 K’1 n1
EA2
Therefore: n2  n1
E A1
At no load, the armature current is zero and therefore EA1 = VT = 250 V. while
the speed n1 = 120O r/min.
 Shunt motor: terminal characteristic
– Example
a) Since the input current ( IL ) is 100 A, the armature current is
VT 250
I A  IL  IF  I L   100   95 A
RF 50
Therefore: EA  VT  I A R A  250  95 0.06  244.3V
and the resulting motor speed is:

EA2 244.3
n2  n1  1200  1173 rpm/min
E A1 250
 Shunt motor: terminal characteristic
– Example

(b) If IL= 200 A, then the armature current in the motor is:

VT 250
I A  IL  IF  I L   200  1 95 A
RF 50
Therefore: EA  VT  I A R A  250  195 0.06  238.3V
and the resulting motor speed is:
EA2 238.3
n2  n1  1200  1144 rpm/min
E A1 250
 Shunt motor: terminal characteristic
– Example

(c) If IL= 300A, then the armature current in the motor is:

VT 250
I A  IL  IF  I L   200  2 95 A
RF 50
Therefore: EA  VT  I A R A  250  295 .0.06  232.3V
and the resulting motor speed is:
EA2 232.3
n2  n1  1200  1115 rpm/min
E A1 250
 Shunt motor: terminal characteristic
– Example
d) To plot the output characteristic of the motor, we need to find the torque corresponding
to each speed. At no load, the torque is zero.

the induced torque at any load is related to the power converted in a DC motor:
Pconv  E A I A  ind
EAIA
the induced torque is
 ind 

 Shunt motor: terminal characteristic
– Example
The torque-speed
characteristic of the motor is: