EE15-1604 ELECTRIC DRIVES

Department of Electrical Engineering

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What are Drives?
● Systems employed for motion control are called DRIVES
● Motion control is required in large number of industrial and domestic applications like
transportation systems, rolling mills, paper machines, textile mills, machine tools, fans,
pumps, robots, washing machines etc.
● DRIVES may employ any of prime movers such as diesel or petrol engines, gas or
steam turbines, steam engines, hydraulic motors and electric motors, for supplying
mechanical energy for motion control.

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Electric Drives_Dr. K. Vinida
What are electric drives?
● Drives employing electric motors are known as ELECTRICAL DRIVES.
● An ELECTRIC DRIVE can be defined as an electromechanical device for
converting electrical energy into mechanical energy to impart motion to
different machines and mechanisms for various kinds of process control.

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Merits of electric drives
 They have flexible control characteristics when power electronic converters are employed
 The steady state and dynamic characteristics of electric drives can be shaped to satisfy the load
requirements.
 Drives can be provided with automatic fault detection systems. Programmable logic controller and
computers can be employed to automatically control the drive operations in a desired sequence.
 They are available in wide range of torque, speed and power.
 They are adaptable to almost any operating conditions such as explosive and radioactive
environments
 It can operate in all the four quadrants of speed-torque plane
 They can be started instantly and can immediately be fully loaded
 Control gear requirement for speed control, starting and braking is usually simple and easy to
operate.
 High efficiency –low no load losses
 Low noise
 Low maintenance requirements, cleaner operation
 Electric energy can be easily transported

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Comparison of AC and DC drives

DC DRIVES AC DRIVES

The power circuit and control circuit The power circuit and control circuit are

is simple and inexpensive complex

It requires frequent maintenance Less Maintenance

The commutator makes the motor These problems are not there in these motors

bulky, costly and heavy and are inexpensive, particularly squirrel cage

induction motors

Fast response and wide speed range In solid state control the speed range is wide
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Historical Background
● Group drive or Line shaft Drives: The oldest type of drives. A single motor
drives equipment through a common line shaft or belt. It is inflexible and
inefficient as you can not change the speed of each load alone.
● Advantages
● A single large motor can be used instead of number of small motors
● Disadvantages
● There is no flexibility. If the single motor used develops fault, the whole
process will be stopped.

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● Individual drive or Single motor single load drive: Most common drive. A
single motor is dedicated to each load. Applications include hard disk drives,
washers, dryers, fans.

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● Multi-motor drives: Several motors are used to drive a single mechanical load.
This type is usually complex such as paper making machines, robotics,
airplanes. The multimotor drive consist of several individual motor which
serve to one of many motions or mechanism in some production unit. For
example, in travelling crane, there are three motors used. One for hoisting,
other for long travel motion and third for cross travel motion

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● In the PAST: ● The present:
• 3 machines • Use of a single converter for speed control
• Motor-generator-motor • Sophisticated design and control
set • Built in options such as overcurrent
• Expensive protection (reduces size considerably)
• Inefficient • More precise applications such as position
• Complex control
• Requires frequent
maintenance

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Choice of electric drives
 Steady State Operating conditions requirements
● Nature of speed torque characteristics, speed regulation, speed range, efficiency, duty
cycle, quadrants of operation, speed fluctuations if any, ratings etc
 Transient operation requirements
● Values of acceleration and deceleration, starting, braking and reversing performance.
 Requirements related to the source
● Types of source and its capacity, magnitude of voltage, voltage fluctuations, power
factor, harmonics and their effect on other loads, ability to accept regenerative power
 Capital and running cost, maintenance needs life.
 Space and weight restriction if any.
 Environment and location.
 Reliability.

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Basic components of an electric drive

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● Mechanical load: Depends on the customer needs and the industrial process
● Motor: selected according to the power level, environmental factors and
performance required by the load. Ex: if load requires high starting torque so
dc series motor is better than induction motor
● Power Source: Provides the energy to the drive system. Very low power
drives are generally fed from single phase sources. Rest of the drives is
powered from a 3 phase source. Low and medium power motors are fed from
a 400V supply. For higher ratings, motors may be rated at 3.3KV, 6.6KV and
11 KV. Some drives are powered from battery.

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● Power modulator
● Functions:
 Modulates flow of power from the source to the motor in such a
manner that motor is imparted speed-torque characteristics
required by the load
 During transient operation, such as starting, braking and speed
reversal, it restricts source and motor currents with in permissible
limits.
 It converts electrical energy of the source in the form suitable to
the motor
 Selects the mode of operation of the motor (i.e.) Motoring and
Braking.
● In the electric drive system, the power modulators can be any one
of the following
● Controlled rectifiers (ac to dc converters) Inverters (dc to ac
converters)
● AC voltage controllers (AC to AC converters) DC choppers (DC to
DC converters)
● Cyclo converters (Frequency conversion) 15
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● Controller: Supervises the operation of the whole system to ensure stability
and enhance the overall performance. Control unit for a power modulator is
provided in the controller. It matches the motor and power converter to meet
the load requirements.
● Sensing unit: Speed Sensing, Torque Sensing, Position Sensing, Current
sensing and Voltage Sensing from Lines or from motor terminals,
Temperature Sensing

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