DCmotors and their representation:

• The basic principle of a DC motor is the

production of a torque as a result of the
flux interaction between a “field” produced
on the STATOR (either produced by a
permanent magnet, or a field winding) and
the current circulating in the “armature”
windings on the ROTOR.
 excitation

FA
Ff
In order to produce a torque of constant sign, the
armature winding loops are connected to a set of
“brushes” which commutate the current
appropriately in each loop according to their
geometric position. The commutator is a
MECHANICAL RECTIFIER.
Basic Equations of a DC Machine

Vf  Rf I f field winding

E  K vI f counter emf

Va  Ra I a  E  Ra I a  K vI f armature voltage

Te  K f I f I a  A  B  Tload electrical torque

Pd  Te developed power

 Speed control:

• For control problems, Linear

characteristic at

one assumes that the E no load output

rated speed

back emf’s magnetizing

characteristic, E(If) is
Magnetisation
linear characteristic at
rated speed

i field excitation
 Va  Ra I a

Kv I f

Va “Voltage Control”

If “Field Control”

Ia (with If fixed) “Demand Torque”

In practice, for speeds less than the base
speed (rated), the armature current and field
currents are maintained at fixed values (hence
constant torque operation), and the
armature voltage controls the speed.
For speeds higher than the base speed, the
armature voltage is maintained at rated value,
and the field current is varied to control the
speed. However, this way the power
developed Pd is maintained constant. This
mode is referred to as “field weakening”
operation.
 Case of Series Motor (or
Universal Motor)
Va  ( Ra  R f ) I a
 If and Ia are equal
Kv I f
 Operating Modes of DC Motors:
• Motoring:
• The back emf E < Va both Ia and If are
positive. The motor develops a torque to meet
the load torque
 Dynamic Breaking:
• The voltage source is removed, and the
armature is shorted. The kinetic energy
stored in the rotor of the motor is
dissipated in the armature resistance since
the machine now works as a generator.
Note here that theoretically, since the armature voltage is proportional to the
speed, the motor would never stop... (windage
 Regenerative Breaking:

• The back emf E > Va , the machine acts

as a generator, and the armature current
flows towards the source, hence energy
stored in the machine rotor is fed back to
the source. Note however that this will
cause the machine to slow down usually
until E=Va and then revert to mode 1.
 Plugging:

• Plugging is when the field current is

reversed, hence the back emf changes
sign, and the equation of the machine
becomes:

Va   E  Ra I a
Va  E
Ia 
Ra
a very high torque generated in the opposite direction of rotation
Two Transistor control of
regenerative operation
When the main switch
opens, the armature current
I(a1) has to be dissipated
through the freewheeling
diode.
 Then if one closes switch T1, the
machine behaves as a generator
with the energy stored in its inertia.
Therefore the armature current
I(a2)will start flowing and follows
I(1).

After a certain time one opens the switch

T1, and the current I(a2) has to be
redirected via diode D2 back to the
source with I(2).
•The chopping rate of switch T1 can be set in order to control the average current
(Ia2), usually 1.5 times rated value.

•This is possible only if the speed is fast enough to provide terminal voltage.

•When the emf E reaches E=Ra.I(rated), the switch T1 remains closed for
maximum breaking possible with the given emf.
Four Quadrant Operation:
 CONTROL FEEDBACK LOOPS

• Assume that the source is a rectifier. We

are controlling the DC motor with the
voltage control of the armature (separate
excitation).
The rectifier can be considered as a power amplifier
controlled by the firing angle . The open loop system can
be pictured as
• If one uses a tacho-generator to monitor
the speed a closed loop controller can be
built:
• The difference between input setting and the
feedback signal is the error signal.

• However, with SCR drives, any change in motor

speed will immediately give rise to excessive
motor and thyristor currents. Hence a current
limiter must be added to the control loop.

• This is obtained by a second feedback loop.

Induction Motor Control

Induction machines are the

“workhorse” in industry
The squirrel cage machine is of rugged construction, low
production cost, low maintenance and environmental
properties (for example explosion proof).

The advent of power electronics have made it possible to

match the induction machine performance to that of DC
machines, in fact practically supplanting DC machines in
industries, since the price of a single DC machine is much
higher than the equivalent induction machine with full
control.
Adjustable Speed Drives are used in
process control for fans, compressors,
pumps, blowers etc...

Servo drives are becoming more and more

common using very sophisticated control
schemes, for instance in computer
peripherals, machine tools and robotics
applications. These are usually lower power
ratings though.
 Example: Centrifugal Pump
• The induction motor driving the centrifugal
pump will work at quasi constant speed
Throttle valve
Output flow

Line Input Induction

Motor
Input flow

(a) Pump

there is energy loss through the throttle

 Output flow

Line Input Adjustable

Speed Drive
Input flow

(b) Pump

Setting the speed which will provide the desired flow rate.
Hence considerable energy savings. In this case, the pump
performance is
T (centrifugal ) k1 ( speed )
2

Power  k2 (speed ) 3
Induction Motor Principle
Stator

Fs Fs rotates at
vs
vr
rotor

v s v r
s
vs
 The simplified equivalent circuit is:

Rs jXs jXr
Rr

Rm jXm 1  s 
Rr
s
Vs

It can be shown that the power developed by the shaft is equal to the power that would
be dissipated in the equivalent resistance
1  s 
Rr
s
Hence the POWER DEVELOPED in a 3
phase motor is:
1 s
Pd  3I r Rr
2

developed torque is
Pd
Td 
vs
 3Rr Vs 
2

Td 
 Rr  2
2

sv s  Rs     X s  X r  
 s  
STATOR VOLTAGE CONTROL
Torque (pu)

1 B=1

B=voltage in pu

B=0.9

B=1

B=0.7 B=0.8

B=0.6

B=0.5

Load
Torque

Speed (pu) 1
Constant Voltage Inverter Drive

Note that the source capacitor maintains a constant voltage

Constant Current Inverter Drive:
 Speed Control with Rotor Resistance
3Rr Vs 
2

Td 
 Rr  2
2

sv s  Rs     X s  X r  
 s  
The only inconvenience here is of course the loss of power in the
external resistance.

Automatic control can be achieved by using a chopper in the rotor

circuit.
Kramer Drive
 Frequency Control of the Drive

• Intuitively one can see that the rotor will

rotate at speed slightly lower than the
stator frequency (slip), hence a speed
control is achieved when the stator
frequency is changed.

3Rr Vs 
2

Td 
 Rr  2
2

sv s  Rs     X s  X r  
 s  
 Torque

Control of vsynch Speed

If we want to have both speed control and still maintain a high torque, the
maximum torque at base speed (synchronous rated) is given by:
This is equivalent to the DC machine. Tmax-base remains
constant. In this region
the control is done by the Voltage, maintaining the flux at its
maximum.

Then the region called the “field weakening” as for the DC

machine.

In order to maintain the flux constant, the ratio V/f must be

maintained constant. However, due to losses in the machine,
at low speeds, one must have a boost voltage at low speeds
to compensate for losses.
 VECTOR CONTROL of
INDUCTION MOTORS
• The production of torque in a d.c. or cage
induction motor is a function of the position or
vector relationship in space of the air-gap
magnetic flux to the rotor current. The flux and
armature current are always ideally positioned
by virtue of the switching action of the
commutator; hence control of the armature
current gives immediate control of the torque, a
feature which makes both the steady state and
transient control of the torque in a d.c. motor
relatively easy.
The torque developed is related to the in-phase component of I2
shown as Iq, and the flux is related to the current Im modified
by the reactive component of I2 to give the component shown as
Id.
The object of vector control, sometimes
referred to as “field orientation control”, is
to separately control the magnitude of
the two components Id and Iq, such that
the flux is proportional to Id and the
torque is proportional to Iq.

This is referred to as DECOUPLING the

control (we need 2 degrees of freedom).
In the d.c. motor the flux is stationary, with the armature
current fixed in space by the commutator action, but in the
induction motor both the flux and rotor currents rotate
together. We have only 1 degree of freedom in the 3 phase
source currents.

The instantaneous values of the three-phase currents in

the stator determine the angle of the flux in space and
that of the rotor current, so we must have a shaft
encoder (2nd degree of freedom) which measures the
rotor angular mechanical position relative to the
instantaneous stator currents.
To implement vector control the motor parameters must be known and
values put into a highly complex set of mathematical equations developed
from generalized machine theory.
The basic tools used in calculations is the use of “Parker’s Model” which allows to
transform a 3 phase rotating vector system into a 2 phase rotating vector system
(which is the same as of a DC machine with a direct; in line with the flux, and
quadrature axis; perpendicular to it).

The phase command currents (*) are triggering the inverter to produce the real line
currents (a,b,c). An acquisition system must sample the line currents, filter and
condition these quantities and presents them to an ABC to DQ transformation
block. The calculated (c) direct and quadrature quantities must now be positioned in
such a way that the direct axis aligns with the stator axis. Hence the block which
computes this alignment must also receive the absolute position of the rotor using
the rotor angle q. We now obtain the (D-Q) components aligned with the real rotor
position, and feed this into the Model Block.
The components (*DQ) have to be realigned to the stator axis (e), and fed
to an inverse transformation module which calculates the line control
vector currents (ABC*) feeding the inverter, and the loop is closed.
The main difficulty here is that the stator frame reference is used in
calculations of the model, and that I(ds) must be aligned with the rotor
flux. However this rotor flux depends upon the SLIP, and of course
varies in time (this is why it is called Asynchronous!). The trick in the
method is to establish the rotor flux axis at each sample.
 INDIRECT VECTOR CONTROL

The flux vectors are computed from the terminal quantities of

the motor (stator currents, voltages and measured air gap
flux). It uses the motor slip frequency to compute the desired
flux vector.

The amount of DECOUPLING is dependant upon the motor

parameters in the indirect method. Without a good knowledge
of the motor parameters an ideal decoupling is not possible.
 DIRECT VECTOR CONTROL
• determine directly the air gap flux by
measurement, and from there derive the
rotor flux and stator flux linkages.

excellent low-speed
performance
Indirect Vector Control (indirect field
oriented control) or IFOC
• In this method the feedback uses the rotor slip.

The first equation tries to make sure that we have a constant flux

(magnitude of ids* ), while iqs* controls the torque.

The speed is integrated in order to obtain the position and
hence obtain the unit vectors for the transformation
cos  s , sin  s

If the motor parameters change during operating conditions, the

model is not accurate and the model predictions will not align exactly
the rotor flux with the direct axis, and the control is not adequately
decoupled.
(Indirect field oriented control )