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Dynamo

Dynamos were early electrical generators that produced direct current using a commutator. They were important as they delivered power for industry and were the basis for later electric devices like motors and alternators. While no longer used for power generation due to the dominance of alternating current, dynamos introduced key concepts like electromagnetic induction and commutation that enabled electric power systems.

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306 views

Dynamo

Dynamos were early electrical generators that produced direct current using a commutator. They were important as they delivered power for industry and were the basis for later electric devices like motors and alternators. While no longer used for power generation due to the dominance of alternating current, dynamos introduced key concepts like electromagnetic induction and commutation that enabled electric power systems.

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purendu220
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Dynamo

A dynamo, originally another name for an electrical generator, now means a generator that produces direct current with the use of a commutator. Dynamos were the first electrical generators capable of delivering power for industry, and the foundation upon which many other later electric-power conversion devices were based, including the electric motor, the alternatingcurrent alternator, and the rotary converter. They are rarely used for power generation now because of the dominance of alternating current, the disadvantages of the commutator, and the ease of converting alternating to direct current using solid state methods. The word still has some regional usage as a replacement for the word generator. A small electrical generator built into the hub of a bicycle wheel to power lights is called a Hub dynamo.

Description
The dynamo uses rotating coils of wire and magnetic fields to convert mechanical rotation into a pulsing direct electric current through Faraday's law. A dynamo machine consists of a stationary structure, called the stator, which provides a constant magnetic field, and a set of rotating windings called the armature which turn within that field. n small machines the constant magnetic field may be provided by one or more permanent magnets! larger machines have the constant magnetic field provided by one or more electromagnets, which are usually called field coils. The commutator was needed to produce direct current. "hen a loop of wire rotates in a magnetic field, the potential induced in it reverses with each half turn, generating an alternating current. However, in the early days of electric e#perimentation, alternating current generally had no $nown use. The few uses for electricity, such as electroplating, used direct current provided by messy li%uid batteries. Dynamos were invented as a replacement for batteries. The commutator is a set of contacts mounted on the machine's shaft, which reverses the connection of the windings to the e#ternal circuit when the potential reverses, so instead of alternating current, a pulsing direct current is produced.

Historical milestones
The first electric generator was invented by &ichael Faraday in '()', a copper dis$ that rotated between the poles of a magnet. This was not a dynamo because it did not use a commutator. However, Faraday's dis$ generated very low voltage because of its single current path through the magnetic field. Faraday and others found that higher, more useful voltages could be produced by winding multiple turns of wire into a coil. "ire windings can conveniently produce any voltage desired by changing the number of turns, so they have been a feature of all subse%uent generator designs, re%uiring the invention of the commutator to produce direct current.

Jedlik's dynamo
*n '(+,, Hungarian Anyos -edli$ started e#perimenting with electromagnetic rotating devices which he called electromagnetic self-rotors. *n the prototype of the single-pole electric starter, both the stationary and the revolving parts were electromagnetic. He formulated the concept of the dynamo about si# years before .iemens and "heatstone but did not patent it as he thought he was not the first to reali/e this. His dynamo used, instead of permanent magnets, two electromagnets opposite to each other to induce the magnetic field around the rotor.

Pixii's dynamo
The first dynamo based on Faraday's principles was built in '()+ by Hippolyte 0i#ii, a French instrument ma$er. *t used a permanent magnet which was rotated by a cran$. The spinning magnet was positioned so that its north and south poles passed by a piece of iron wrapped with wire. 0i#ii found that the spinning magnet produced a pulse of current in the wire each time a pole passed the coil. However, the north and south poles of the magnet induced currents in opposite directions. To convert the alternating current to D1, 0i#ii invented a commutator, a split metal cylinder on the shaft, with two springy metal contacts that pressed against it.

Pacinotti dynamo
These early designs had a problem2 the electric current they produced consisted of a series of 3spi$es3 or pulses of current separated by none at all, resulting in a low average power output. Antonio 0acinotti, an *talian physics professor, solved this problem around '(45 by replacing the spinning two-pole a#ial coil with a multi-pole toroidal one, which he created by wrapping an iron ring with a continuous winding, connected to the commutator at many e%ually spaced points around the ring! the commutator being divided into many segments. This meant that some part of the coil was continually passing by the magnets, smoothing out the current.

Siemens and Wheatstone dynamo (1867)


The first practical designs for a dynamo were announced independently and simultaneously by Dr. "erner .iemens and 1harles "heatstone. n -anuary ',, '(4,, .iemens announced to the 6erlin academy a 3dynamo-electric machine3 7first use of the term8 which employed a self-powering electromagnetic armature. n the same day that this invention was announced to the 9oyal .ociety 1harles "heatstone read a paper describing a similar design with the difference that in the .iemens design the armature was in series with the rotor, but in "heatstone's design it was in parallel. The use of electromagnets rather than permanent magnets greatly increases the power output of a dynamo and enabled high power generation for the first time. This invention led directly to the first ma:or industrial uses of electricity. For e#ample, in the '(,5s .iemens used electromagnetic dynamos to power electric arc furnaces for the production of metals and other materials.

ramme rin! dynamo


;<nobe =ramme reinvented 0acinotti's design in '(,' when designing the first commercial power plants, which operated in 0aris in the '(,5s. Another advantage of =ramme's design was a better path for the magnetic flu#, by filling the space occupied by the magnetic field with heavy iron cores and minimi/ing the air gaps between the stationary and rotating parts. The Gramme dynamo was the first machine to generate commercial %uantities of power for industry. Further improvements were made on the =ramme ring, but the basic concept of a spinning endless loop of wire remains at the heart of all modern dynamos.

Disco"ery o# electric motor principles


"hile not originally designed for the purpose, it was discovered that a dynamo can act as an electric motor when supplied with direct current from a battery or another dynamo. At an industrial e#hibition in >ienna in '(,), =ramme noticed that the shaft of his dynamo began to spin when its terminals were accidentally connected to another dynamo producing electricity. Although this wasn't the first demonstration of an electric motor, it was the first practical one. *t was found that the same design features which ma$e a dynamo efficient also ma$e a motor efficient. The efficient =ramme design, with small magnetic air gaps and many coils of wire attached to a many-segmented commutator, also became the basis for the design of all practical D1 motors. ?arge dynamos producing direct current were problematic in situations where two or more dynamos are wor$ing together and one has an engine running at a lower power than the other. The dynamo with the stronger engine will tend to drive the wea$er as if it were a motor, against the rotation of the wea$er engine. .uch reverse-driving could feed bac$ into the driving engine of a dynamo and cause a dangerous out of control reverse-spinning condition in the lower-power dynamo. *t was eventually determined that when several dynamos all feed the same power source all the dynamos must be loc$ed into synchrony using a :ac$shaft interconnecting all engines and rotors to counter these imbalances.

Dynamo as $omm%tated D$

enerator

After the discovery of the A1 =enerator and that alternating current can in fact be useful for something, the word dynamo became associated e#clusively with the commutated DC electric generator, while an A1 electrical generator using either slip rings or rotor magnets would become $nown as an alternator. An A1 electric motor using either slip rings or rotor magnets was referred to as a synchronous motor, and a commutated D1 electric motor could be called either an electric motor though with the understanding that it could in principle operate as a generator.

&otary $on"erter De"elopment


After dynamos were found to allow easy conversion bac$ and forth between mechanical or electrical power, the new discovery was used to develop comple# multi-field single-rotor devices with two or more commutators. These were $nown as a rotary converters. These devices were usually not burdened by mechanical loads, but watched :ust spinning on their own. The rotary converter can directly convert, internally, any power source into any other. This includes direct current 7D18 into alternating current 7A18, +@ cycle A1 into 45 cycle A1, or many different output currents at the same time. The si/e and mass of these was very large so that the rotor would act as a flywheel to help smooth out any sudden surges or dropouts. The technology of rotary converters ruled until the development of vacuum tubes allowed for electronic oscillators. This eliminated the need for physically spinning rotors and commutators.

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