UNITED INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY (UIU)

ENERGY CONVERSION LABORATORY

COURSE NO. EEE206

EXPT. NO. 3

Name of the Experiment: STUDY OF SEPARATELY EXCITED DC

GENERATOR
OBJECTIVES

• To study the properties of the separately-excited dc shunt generator under no-

load and full-load conditions.

• To obtain the saturation curve (OCC Curve) of the generator.

• To observe the variation of open circuit voltage with speed.

• To obtain the armature voltage versus armature current load curve (terminal
characteristics) of the generator

THEORY

A DC Motor/Generator can run either as a motor or as a generator. A motor converts

electrical power into mechanical power while a generator converts mechanical power into
electrical power. A generator must, therefore, be mechanically driven in order to produce
electricity.

Since the field winding is an electromagnet, current must flow through it to produce magnetic
field. This current is called the excitation current, and can be supplied to the field winding in
one of two ways; it can come from a separate, external DC source, in which case the
generator is called a separately-excited generator; or it can come from the generator's own
output, in which case the generator is called a self-excited generator.

Assume that the shunt field is excited by a DC current, thereby setting up a magnetic flux in
the generator. If the rotor (or more correctly, the armature) is rotated by applying mechanical
effort to the shaft, the armature coils will cut the magnetic flux, and a voltage will be induced
in them. This voltage is alternating and in order to get DC out of the generator, a rectifier
must be employed. This role is carried out by the commutator and the brushes.

For a given machine the voltage induced in the coils (and, therefore, the do voltage at the
brushes) depends only on two things — the speed of rotation, and the strength of the magnetic
field. The armature induced voltage is given by,

Zp
EA = φn
60a
 here, p is the pole number.
Z is the total number of conductors in the armature
a is the number of parallel paths for the armature conductors,
for lap winding, a=p
for wave winding, a=2
φ is the flux per pole
n is the rotation of the armature or the shaft in rpm

Although separate excitation requires a separate dc power source, it is useful in cases where a
generator must respond quickly and precisely to an external control source, or when the
output voltage must be varied over a wide range.

With no electrical load connected to the generator, no current flows and only a voltage
appears at the output. But if a resistance load; connected across the output, current will flow
and the generator will begin to deriver electric power to the load.

The machine which drives the generator must then furnish additional mechanical power to the
generator. This is often accompanied by increased noise and vibration of the motor and the
generator, together with a drop in speed.

SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM OF DC MACHINE

Armature

Series Field

Shunt Field

CONNECTION DETAILS

A DC machine when operated as a DC generator should be rotated by a prime mover. Any

one among Synchronous Motor, DC Motor or Induction Motor can be used as the prime
mover. However, Synchronous motor is more preferable as it can be used as constant speed
motor. If the other movers are used their rotational speed decreases with the increase in the
DC generator’s electrical load.

In this experiment, the DC generator under experiment will be rotated by motors using
sidewise coupling with belts. Belts should be of exact measurement. The initial jerk exerted
by the machines is minimized by the heavy basement of both the machines.

A variable DC supply should be applied to the to the shunt field coil in order to attain
controllable field current (I F ). To attain variable DC supply, a rectifier is used to rectify the
variable AC output from a variac.

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INSTRUMENTS AND COMPONENTS

 DC Motor/Generator
 Synchronous/Induction motor
 Rheostats (100Ω) at least 3 units
 1 multimeter
 1 analog DC ammeter (1 A)
 1 Variac
 1 Rectifier
 Connecting Leads
 Coupling Belt

THE OPEN CIRCUIT CHARACTERISTICS OF DC GENERATOR

The Saturation Curve:

 Couple the motor (Synchronous or Induction) with the generator with coupling belt

Armature

Shunt
IF Field
Coil
A

Variable DC
Voltage (up to
220V)

 Construct the above circuit diagram.

 Switch on the supply of the mover.

 A very small voltage(around 10V) should show at the armature output

 Now slightly increase the DC voltage. The value of armature voltage (E A ) should
increase. If the value decreases interchange the DC supply connection

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 I F (A) EA

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35

Table 1

 Fill up the Table 1.

 Now, decrease the field current to zero. Interchange the connection. Now, slight
increase in the I F will cause a decrease in E A Note the value of E A for I F =0.05A

E A = .. …. …. … (for I F =0.05A)

Variation Of Armature Voltage With The Rotation:

 Vary the DC voltage across the field coil and set the voltage at 220V. Note the value
of I F . Also note the armature voltage. This is the highest achievable output voltage.

I F = .. …. …. … (for V F =220V)

E A = .. …. …. … (for V F =220V)

 Here, you have to investigate the change in the open circuit armature voltage with
variation of the armature rotation.

 The change in the armature rotation will be performed by varying the rotation of the
prime mover (may be Synchronous motor or Induction motor). The speed of the
motor will be changed by varying its input voltage with a variac.

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  Fill up the Table 2.

n (in rpm) E A (in volts)

250

500

750

1000

1250

1500
Table 2
THE LOAD (OR TERMINAL) CHARACTERISTICS OF DC GENERATOR

 Construct the circuit diagram shown below.

Armature

Shunt
Field
Coil

220V DC

 Vary the DC voltage across the field coil and set the voltage at 220V. Note the value
of I F . Also note the armature voltage. This is the highest achievable output voltage.

I F = .. …. …. … (for V F =220V)

E A = .. …. …. … (for V F =220V)

 Change the resistance of the output load and fill up the table 3. n is the rotation of the
armature which you have to measure with a tachometer.

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 I L (in A) V T (in volts) n (in rpm)

0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

0.5

REPORT

1. Draw two OCC curves of the DC generator used in 2 different graph papers. The
second one will be used the following experiments of your DC Generator.

2. Note that the curve bends over as the field current increases. Explain this
phenomenon in brief.

3. You observed armature voltage even there was no I F . Explain this.

4. After performing the OCC experiment you interchanged the terminals of the field
connection. With such connection E A decreases with I F . Why this happens?

5. Draw a separate curve for the variation of armature voltage with the rotation.

6. Calculate the value of the slope from the curve. The slope of the curve is equal to
Zp
φ.
60a

7. Draw the load (or terminal) characteristic curve in another graph paper. Speed should
be kept constant.

8. From the graph, calculate the regulation from no load to full load (1.5 A DC). (Note:
if induction motor is used as prime mover, then the speed cannot be kept constant. In
such case ignore this test)