POWER FLOW AND LOSSES IN DC MACHINES
• DC generators take in mechanical power and produce
electric power, while dc motors take in electric power and
produce mechanical power. In either case, not all the
power input to the machine appears in useful form at the
other end-there is always some loss associated with the
process.
• The efficiency of a dc machine is defined by the equation:
1
• The difference between the input power and the output
power of a machine is the losses that occur inside it.
Therefore:
The Losses in DC Machines
• The losses that occur in dc machines can be divided into five
basic categories:
1. Electrical or copper losses ( losses)
2. Brush losses
3. Core losses
4. Mechanical losses
5. Stray load losses
2
ELECTRICAL OR COPPER LOSSES
• Copper losses are the losses that occur in the armature and
field windings of the machine. The copper losses for the
armature and field windings are given by:
3
BRUSH LOSSES: The brush drop loss is the power lost across
the contact potential at the brushes of the machine. It is
given by the equation:
the brush voltage drop is usually assumed to be about 2 V.
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• CORE LOSSES: The core losses are the hysteresis losses and
eddy current losses occurring in the metal of the motor.
• MECHANICAL LOSSES: The losses associated with
mechanical effects. There are two basic types of
mechanical losses: friction and windage. Friction losses are
losses caused by the friction of the bearings in the machine,
while windage losses are caused by the friction between the
moving parts of the machine and the air inside the
motor's casing. These losses vary as the cube of the speed
of rotation of the machine.
• STRAY LOSSES : Stray losses are losses that cannot be
placed in one of the previous categories. No matter how
carefully losses are accounted for, some always escape
inclusion in one of the above categories. All such losses are
lumped into stray losses. For most machines, stray losses
are taken by convention to be 1 percent of full load.
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The Power-Flow Diagram
One of the most convenient techniques for accounting for
power losses in a machine is the power flow diagram. A
power flow diagram for a dc generator is shown in Figure . In
this figure, mechanical power is input into the machine.
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In the case of dc motors , this power-flow diagram is simply
reversed. The power-flow diagram for a motor is shown in Figure.