Electrical Machinery (UEE413)

Presentation 6
Speed control of DC Motors

Course Instructor- Dr. Prasenjit Basak

Associate Professor, Electrical and Instrumentation Engineering Department
 Speed Control of DC Motor
The dc motors are in general much more adaptable speed drives than ac motors which are associated with a constant-speed
rotating field. Indeed one of the primary reasons for the strong competitive position of dc motors in modem industrial
drives is the wide range of speeds afforded.

Since the armature drop is small, it can be neglected. Therefore -

This equation gives us two methods of effecting speed changes, i.e. the variation of field excitation, If and that of terminal
voltage, Vt. The first method causes a change in the flux per pole, and is known as the field control and the second
method is known as the armature control.
Base Speed It is the speed at which the motor runs at rated terminal voltage and rated field current. It is indeed the name
plate speed of the motor.

Speed Regulation

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 Speed Control of DC Motor
Field Control - For fixed terminal voltage,

which for linear magnetization implies

Certain limitations of the field control method are:

● Speeds lower than the rated speed cannot be obtained because the field can not be made any stronger; it can only be
weakened.
● Since the speed is inversely proportional to the flux/pole while the torque is directly proportional to it for a given
armature current, it can cope with constant kW drives only where the load torque falls with speed.
● For motors requiring a wide range of speed control, the field ampere-turns are much smaller than the armature ampere-
turns at high speeds causing extreme distortion of the flux density in the air-gap. This leads to unstable operating
conditions or poor commutation. Compensating winding can be used to increase the speed range which can be 2 to 1
for large motors, 4 to 1 for medium sized ones and 8 to 1 for small motors. Even then the field control is restricted to
small motors.
● This control method is not suited to applications needing speed reversal; since the only way to reverse speed is to
disconnect the motor from the source and reverse the field/armature polarity. The field circuit being highly inductive, it
is normally the armature which is reversed.
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 Speed Control of DC Motor
Shunt Motor
Figure (a) illustrates the field control for shunt motors; the control being achieved by means of a rheostat (regulator) in the
field circuit. Reproducing Eq. -

The speed-torque characteristic which has a small linear drop due to the second term (Ra effect) and translates upwards as
the field is weakened due to the armature reaction is shown in Fig.(b). The demagnetizing effect of the armature reaction
causes the characteristics to somewhat bend upwards with increasing torque (increasing load current). The working range
of the speed-torque characteristic reduces with increasing speed in order for the armature current not to exceed the full-load
value with a weakening field.

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 Speed Control of DC Motor
Series Motor - Speed control is achieved here by adjusting the field ampere-turns. There are three ways of changing them:

Diverter Field Control Tapped Field Control Series Parallel Control

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 Ward-Leonard Control (Voltage Control)
● It is combined armature and field control and is therefore,
operationally the most efficient method of speed control with
a wide range. The DC motor armature is fed from a variable
voltage and adjustable polarity supply whose current rating
must be somewhat higher than that of the motor.
● The field (shunt) of the motor is separately excited from an
independent DC source (low current rating). The variable
voltage DC supply in older installations is obtained from a
DC generator driven by a 3-phase squirrel-cage motor. The
field circuit of the generator is separately excited from a
small rectifier unit or by an exciter coupled to an extension of
the motor shaft.
● The complete arrangement is shown in the connection
diagram of Fig.(a). The connection of the potentiometer (Pot
1) makes it possible to easily reverse the generator excitation,
thereby reversing the voltage polarity for reversal of the
direction of rotation of the motor. This type of speed control
is known as Ward-Leonard speed control.
● Modem installations use SCR circuitry for variable-voltage
DC supply drawing power from AC mains through a
transformer.
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 Ward-Leonard Control (Voltage Control)
● Though expensive, this arrangement is neat and relatively free from maintenance problems. It is also easily adopted to
feedback schemes for automatic control of speed.
● At the base speed nb the motor armature is fed at rated voltage and its field current is adjusted to the maximum value,
i.e. the field is excited at rated voltage.
● Reducing the armature voltage provides a constant torque speed control where the speed can be reduced below the base
value, while the motor has full torque capability (as If= max and Ia can have rated value).
● For obtaining speeds above nb, the field is gradually weakened maintaining armature voltage at rated value. The motor
torque therefore reduces as its speed increases which corresponds is to constant-kW (or hp) drive.
● The kind of control over torque-speed characteristic achieved is illustrated in Fig. (b) where the nature of power-speed
characteristic is also revealed.

Some of the attractive features of the Ward-Leonard system are listed below in addition to the advantages mentioned for
armature control in general:
● The absence of an external resistance considerably improves the efficiency at all speeds. Another feature which
enhances the efficiency is that when the generator emf becomes less than the back emf of the motor, electrical power
flows back from motor to generator, is converted to mechanical form and is returned to the mains via the driving ac
motor. The latter aspect makes it an ideal choice if frequent starting, stopping and reversals are required.
● No special starting gear is required. As the generator induced voltage is gradually raised from zero, the motor starts up
smoothly.
● Speed reversal is smoothly carried out.
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 Ward-Leonard Control (Voltage Control)
Fundamental relationships are reproduced below:
Electromagnetic power

Electromagnetic torque

Back emf

Armature circuit equation

Constant torque operation

Constant power operation

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 References
[1] Bimbhra PS, Electrical Machinery, Khanna Publishers 2008
[2] Nagrath IJ and Kothari DP, Electrical Machines, Tata Mcgraw Hills 2004.

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 THANK YOU

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