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Problems with commutation
There two major effects occur in commutation
i. Armature reaction
ii. L di/dt voltages
Armature Reaction
Magnetic field windings of a dc machine are connected to a power
supply
The rotor of the machine is turned by an external source of mechanical
power
Then a voltage will be induced in the conductors of the rotor
DC output voltage will be found by the action of the machine’s
commutator
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Armature Reaction
At No load:
o Initially the pole flux is uniformly
distributed, and the magnetic neutral
plane is vertical
o The effect of the air gap on the pole
flux distribution
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Armature Reaction
At load:
o Initially the pole flux is
uniformly distributed, and the
magnetic neutral plane is
vertical
o The effect of the air gap on the
pole flux distribution
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Armature Reaction
After load connected:
o A current will flow in its armature
windings and produce a magnetic
field of its own.
o Which distort the original magnetic
field from the machine’s poles.
This distortion of the main field
flux in a machine as the load is
increased is called armature
reaction.
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Armature Reaction
Effect of Armature reaction:
o It causes two serious problems in
real dc machines
i. Neutral-plane shifting
ii. Flux weakening
The magnetic neutral plane is defined as the plane within the
machine where the velocity of the rotor wires is exactly parallel to
the magnetic flux lines, so that eind in the conductors in the plane
is exactly zero.
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Armature Reaction
Neutral-plane shifting:
o After load connected:- This rotor magnetic field affects the original
magnetic field from the poles that produced the generator’s voltage in the
first place.
Subtracts from the pole flux
Adds to the pole flux
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Armature Reaction
Neutral-plane shifting:
o After load connected:- The overall result is that the magnetic
flux in the air gap of the machine is skewed as shown in Figure
Subtracts from the pole flux
The place on the rotor
Addswhere the induced
to the pole flux voltage in a conductor would be
zero has shifted.
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Armature Reaction
In the case of generator
Neutral-plane shifting: the magnetic
neutral plane shifted in the direction of
rotation.
In the case of motor
o The current in its rotor would be reversed and the
flux would bunch up in the opposite comers from
the bunches shown in the figure.
Neutral-plane shifting: As a result,
In general, the neutral plane shifts in
the magnetic neutral plane would
the direction of motion for a generator
shift the other way.
and opposite to the direction of motion
for a motor.
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Armature Reaction
Neutral-plane shifting:
o In general, the neutral plane shifts in
the direction of motion for a
generator and opposite to the
direction of motion for a motor.
o the amount of the shift depends on
the amount of rotor current and
hence on the load of the machine.
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Armature Reaction
Effect of Neutral-plane shifting:
o The commutator must short out
commutator segments just at the
moment when the voltage across
them is equal to zero.
o If the brushes are set to short out
conductors in the vertical plane, then
the voltage between segments is
indeed zero until the machine is
loaded.
o When the machine is loaded, the
neutral plane shifts, and the brushes
short out commutator segments
with a finite voltage across them.
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Armature Reaction
Effect of Neutral-plane shifting:
o The result is a current flow circulating
between the shorted segments and
large sparks at the brushes when the
current path is interrupted as the brush
leaves a segment.
o The end result is arcing and sparking at
the brushes.
o This is a very serious problem, since it
leads to drastically reduced brush life,
pitting of the commutator segments,
and greatly increased maintenance
costs.
o Notice that this problem cannot be fixed
even by placing the brushes over the
full-load neutral plane, because then
they would spark at no load
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Armature Reaction
flux weakening.
o Most machines operate at flux
densities near the saturation
point.
o Therefore, at locations on the
pole surfaces where the rotor
magnetomotive force adds to
the pole magnetomotive force,
only a small increase in flux
occurs.
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Armature Reaction
flux weakening.
o Flux weakening causes problems in both generators and motors. In
generators, the effect of flux weakening is simply to reduce the
voltage supplied by the generator for any given load.
o In motors, the effect can be more serious. When the flux in a
motor is decreased, its speed increases.
o But increasing the speed of a motor can increase its load, resulting
in more flux weakening. It is possible for some shunt dc motors to
reach a runaway condition as a result of flux weakening, where the
speed of the motor just keeps increasing until the machine is
disconnected from the power line or until it destroys itself.
o
.
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flux kome gele torque bere jay...speed bere jay...load bere jay...armature current
bere jay...flux aro weaken hoy
Armature Reaction
L di/dt Voltages (inductive
kick )
Assuming that the machine is turning at
800 r/min and that there are 50
commutator segments each commutator
segment moves under a brush and clears
it again in t = 0.0015 s.
Therefore, the rate of change in current
with respect to time in the shorted loop
must average
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Armature Reaction
L di/dt Voltages (inductive
kick )
With even a tiny inductance in the
loop, a very significant inductive
voltage kick v = L di/dt will be
induced in the shorted commutator
segment.
This high voltage naturally causes
sparking at the brushes of the
machine, resulting in the same arcing
problems that the neutral-plane shift
causes.
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Remedy of Armature reaction
The armature reaction has a demagnetizing effect on the machine.
The reduction in the flux due to armature reaction suggests a
substantial loss in the applied mmf per pole of the machine and
have a devastating effect on the machine's performance under
full load.
Therefore, techniques must be developed to counteract its demagnetization
effect and L di/dt voltages below:
a) Brush shifting
b) Commutating poles or interpoles
c) Compensating windings
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Brush shifting
The first attempts to improve the process of commutation in real dc
machines started with attempts to stop the sparking at the brushes
caused by the neutral-plane shifts and Ldi/dt effects. The process is
very simple, and shift the brushes from their neutral position at no
load (geometrical neutral axis) to the new neutral plane under load.
This measure is the least expensive. However, it is useful only for
constant-load generators.
In addition, shifting the brushes may have stopped the brush sparking,
but it actually aggravated the flux-weakening effect of the armature
reaction in the machine.
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Brush shifting
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Commutating poles or interpoles
The basic idea behind this new approach is that if the voltage in the
wires undergoing commutation can be made zero, then there will be
no sparking at the brushes.
A small poles, called commutating
poles or interpoles, are placed midway
between the main poles.
These commutating poles are located
directly over the conductors being
commutated.
By providing a flux from the
commutating poles, the voltage in the
coils undergoing commutation can be
exactly canceled.
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Commutating poles or interpoles
The commutating poles do not change the operation of the machine,
because they are so small that they affect only the few conductors
about to undergo commutation.
This is done by simply connecting the
interpole windings in series with the
windings on the rotor.
As the load increases and the rotor
current increases, the magnitude of the
neutral-plane shift and the size of the
L di/dt effects increase as well.
Both these effects increase the voltage
in the conductors undergoing
commutation.
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Commutating poles or interpoles
• For motor?
• What polarity must the flux
in the interpoles be?
The interpoles must induce a voltage
in the conductors undergoing
commutation that is opposite to the
voltage caused by neutral-plane shift
and L di/dt effects.
• In the case of a generator, the
neutral plane shifts in the direction
of rotation, meaning that the
conductors undergoing commutation
have the same polarity of voltage
as the pole they just left.
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Commutating poles or interpoles
• What polarity must the flux in the interpoles be?
To oppose this voltage, the
interpoles must have the
opposite flux, which is
the flux of the upcoming pole.
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Commutating poles or interpoles
• What polarity must the flux in the interpoles be?
Therefore,
i) the interpoles must be of the
same polarity as the next
upcoming main pole
in a generator.
ii) The interpoles must be of the
same polarity as the previous
main pole in a motor.
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generator e porer tar moto....karon armature e flux hoy ager pole er dike tai
cancel korte opposite ta dite hoy
Commutating poles or interpoles
The use of commutating
poles or interpoles is very
common, because they
correct the sparking
problems of dc machines at a
fairly low cost.
It is important to realize,
though, that they do nothing
for the flux distribution
under the pole faces, so the
flux-weakening problem is
still present.
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Compensating windings
The third technique involves
placing compensating windings
in slots carved in the faces of
the poles parallel to the rotor
conductors, to cancel the
distorting effect of armature
reaction.
These windings are connected in
series with the rotor windings,
so that whenever the load
changes in the rotor, the current
in the compensating windings
changes, too.
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Compensating windings
The third technique involves
placing compensating windings
in slots carved in the faces of
the poles parallel to the rotor
conductors, to cancel the
distorting effect of armature
reaction.
These windings are connected in
series with the rotor windings,
so that whenever the load
changes in the rotor, the current
in the compensating windings
changes, too.
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Compensating windings
The mmf due to the
compensating windings is
equal and opposite to the
mmf due to the rotor at
every point under the pole
faces.
The resulting net mmf is just
the mmf due to the poles, so
the flux in the machine is
unchanged regardless of the
load on the machine.
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Disadvantage of compensating windings
The major disadvantage of
compensating windings is
that they are expensive,
since they must be
machined into the faces
of the poles.
Any motor that uses
them must also have
interpoles, since
compensating windings
do not cancel Ldi/dt
effects.
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Compensating windings
Interpoles
Compensating windings
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Thank You
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