Ateneo de Naga University

College of Science and Engineering

ECE and CpE Department
Energy Conversion Laboratory

SERIES DC GENERATOR
(DIRECT TEST)

Lab. Act. 9
CUADERNO, Allen Angelo
DELLAGAS, Adrian Aristotle P.
DY, AnjelieMaila B.
ORALLO, Joel A.
REGANIT, Myra Rochel P.
TORRES, Levi Ford B.
GE41
Date of Experiment: August 10, 2015

Objectives
- To be familiarized on how the series DC Generator works
- To observe the relationship of the current and voltage by the changing
load in the series DC Generator

Introduction/Theory
Series-wound generator
In the series-wound generator, shown in figure, the field windings are connected
in series with the armature. Current that flows in the armature flows through the
external circuit and through the field windings. The external circuit connected to
the generator is called the load circuit.
A series-wound generator uses very low resistance field coils, which consist of a
few turns of large diameter wire.
The voltage output increases as the load circuit starts drawing more current.
Under low-load current conditions, the current that flows in the load and through
the generator is small. Since small current means that a small magnetic field is
set up by the field poles, only a small voltage is induced in the armature. If the
resistance of the load decreases, the load current increases. Under this
condition, more current flows through the field. This increases the magnetic field
and increases the output voltage. A series-wound dc generator has the
characteristic that the output voltage varies with load current. This is undesirable
in most applications. For this reason, this type of generator is rarely used in
everyday practice.

Materials

4 multimeters
Connecting wires
Variable DC output
Variable DC output (excitation)
Overspeed protection
Starting rheostat
Optical speed transducer
Electronic tachometer
Series DC generator

Method of Experiment

1. Preset the module:

VARIABLE DC OUTPUT:

Switch open
Output with about 50V

VARIABLE DC OUTPUT:
(excitation)

Switch open
Variac at 50%

STARTING RESISTANCE:

Max. resistance

LOAD RESISTANCE:

No load

2. Set the main switch on.

3. Acting on the variac, adjust the voltage supply to a value higher that the value
shown on the motor plate.
4. Gradually switch Ra off.
5. Acting on the motor excitation adjust the speed exactly the rated value of DC
generator.
6. Set the load resistance step by step and at each step, take the multimeters
values shown. Check that the speed is always constant: eventually act on the
voltage supply or excitation of the driving motor.
7. Switch off the main switch to stop the motor.

Data Section
Load

0
1
2
3
4
5
6

Ammeter
A
Current(A
)
0
0.60
0.81
0.83
0.90
0.94
0.95

Voltmeter
V2
Voltage(V
)
0.461
2.19
1.25
1.13
0.938
0.785
0.773

Speed
(min-1)

1510
900
750
660
610
600
590

Analysis
In the introduction of this activity, it was stated that when the generator draws
small current (low load current conditions) , it will have a low voltage output, and this
will result to low magnetic field.
Low magnetic field means that the speed of the
generator is faster.
It is very evident in our data gathered that as the load increases, the current
being drawn also increases. With the increasing current, the output voltage also
increases. Since the magnetic field is increasing for the output voltage is increasing, the
speed decreases.

field

From this observation, we can therefore conclude that current drawn (low load
current conditions) is directly proportional to the voltage output and magnetic
produced, and inversely proportional to speed.