Operating characteristics of Separately excited dc motor EXPT.

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Both in shunt wound dc motor and separately excited dc motor field is supplied from constant
voltage so that the field current is constant. Therefore these two motors have similar speed -
armature current and torque – armature current characteristics. In this type of motor flux is
assumed to be constant.
• Speed – armature current (N – Ia) characteristics: We know that speed of dc motor is
proportional to back emf / flux i.e Eb / φ . When load is increased back emf Eb and φ flux
decrease due to armature resistance drop and armature reaction respectively .However back emf
decreases more than φ so that the speed of the motor slightly decreases with load.
• Torque – armature current ( τ – Ia) characteristics : Here torque is proportional to the flux
and armature current . Neglecting armature reaction, flux φ is constant and torque is proportional
to the armature current Ia . τ – Ia characteristics is a straight lien passing through the origin.
From the curve we can see that huge current is needed to start heavy loads. So this type of motor
do not starts on heavy loads.

Speed control of separately excited DC motor

Speed of this type of dc shunt motor is controlled by the following methods:
I. Field control methods: Weakening of field causes increase in speed of the motor while
strengthening the field causes decreases the speed. Speed adjustment of this type of motor is
achieved from the following methods:
II. Field rheostat control: – Here a variable resistance is connected in series with the field coil.
Thus the speed is controlled by means of flux variation.
Reluctance control involving variation of reluctance of magnetic circuit of motor.
Field voltage control by varying the voltage at field circuit while keeping armature terminal
voltage constant.
III. Armature control methods: Speed adjustment of separately excited DC motor by armature
control may be obtained by any one of the following methods :
i. Armature resistance control: – Here, the speed is controlled by varying the source voltage to
armature. Generally, a variable resistance is provided with the armature to vary the armature
resistance.
ii. Armature terminal voltage control involving variation of variation of voltage in armature
circuit.

Applications OF DC Motors
Separately excited dc motors have industrial applications. They are often used as actuators. This
type of motors is used in trains and for automatic traction purposes.

Once started, a single phase induction motor will happily run in either direction. To reverse it,
we need to change the direction of the rotating magnetic field produced by the main and starter
windings. And this can be accomplished by reversing the polarity of the starter winding.
In case of a shunt wound DC motor or more specifically shunt wound self excited DC motor,
the field windings are exposed to the entire terminal voltage as they are connected in parallel to
the armature winding as shown in the figure below. To understand the characteristic of these
types of DC motor, lets consider the basic voltage equation given by,
[Where, E, Eb, Ia, Ra are the supply voltage,
back emf, armature current and armature resistance respectively]
[since back emf increases with flux φ and
angular speed ωω] Now substituting Eb from equation (2) to equation (1) we get,

The torque equation of a DC motor

resembles, This is similar to the equation of a
straight line, and we can graphically representing the torque speed characteristic of a shunt

wound self excited DC motor as The shunt

wound DC motor is a constant speed motor, as the speed does not vary here with the variation of
mechanical load on the output.

Characteristics of DC shunt motors

Torque vs. armature current (Ta-Ia)

In case of DC shunt motors, we can assume the field flux ɸ to be constant. Though at heavy
loads, ɸ decreases in a small amount due to increased armature reaction. As we are neglecting
the change in the flux ɸ, we can say that torque is proportional to armature current. Hence, the
Ta-Ia characteristic for a dc shunt motor will be a straight line through the origin.
Since heavy starting load needs heavy starting current, shunt motor should never be started on
a heavy load.

Speed vs. armature current (N-Ia)

As flux ɸ is assumed to be constant, we can say N ∝ Eb. But, as back emf is also almost
constant, the speed should remain constant. But practically, ɸ as well as Eb decreases with
increase in load. Back emf Eb decreases slightly more than ɸ, therefore, the speed decreases
slightly. Generally, the speed decreases only by 5 to 15% of full load speed. Therefore, a shunt
motor can be assumed as a constant speed motor. In speed vs. armature current characteristic
in the following figure, the straight horizontal line represents the ideal characteristic and the
actual characteristic is shown by the dotted line.