Course in

Electrical Machines and Systems

Year 2

2004 J D Edwards
 ELECTRICAL MACHINES AND SYSTEMS COURSE NOTES

These notes were prepared for a Year 2 course module in the Department of Engineering and
Design at the University of Sussex. The module runs for ten weeks, and absorbs 25% of student
time.

This introductory course in electrical machines follows on from the Year 1 course
Electromechanics, with a similar philosophy. It avoids the traditional mathematical derivation of
the theory of AC and DC machines, and makes extensive use of field plots generated with MagNet
to explain the principles. With this physical background, the theory is developed in terms of circuit
models and phasor diagrams.

Field plots are particularly useful for explaining armature reaction and compensating windings in
DC machines, and for demonstrating the action of variable-reluctance and hybrid stepper motors.
They also show the essential unity of the conventional rotating machines; there are similar plots for
the stator and rotor field components and the resultant field in DC, synchronous and induction
machines.

Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes Copyright 2004 J D Edwards

 CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION 1 7 STEPPER MOTORS 56

7.1 Introduction 56
2 TRANSFORMERS 2
7.2 Variable-reluctance principle 56
2.1 Introduction 2
7.3 Variable-reluctance stepper motors 58
2.2 Types of power transformer 3
7.4 Hybrid stepper motors 59
2.3 Ideal transformer properties 4
7.5 Stepper motor characteristics 61
2.4 Circuit model of a transformer 6
7.6 Stepper motor control 64
2.5 Parameter determination 7
2.6 Transformer performance 9 8 POWER ELECTRONIC CONTROL 66
2.7 Current transformers 11 8.1 AC/DC Converters 66
2.8 Transformer design 12 8.2 DC motor control 68
8.3 DC/AC Inverters 68
3 DC MACHINES 15
8.4 AC motor control 70
3.1 Introduction 15
3.2 DC machines in practice 16 9 REFERENCES 76
3.3 Characteristics and control 18
10 APPENDICES 77
3.4 Series motors 21
10.1 Induction motor 2-axis equations 77
4 INTRODUCTION TO AC MACHINES 24 10.2 List of formulae 80
4.1 Review of 3-phase systems 24
4.2 Rotating magnetic field 25
4.3 Multi-pole fields 28

5 SYNCHRONOUS MACHINES 30
5.1 Introduction 30
5.2 Characteristics 31
5.3 Salient-pole machines 35
5.4 Linear synchronous motors 37

6 INDUCTION MACHINES 39
6.1 Introduction 39
6.2 Characteristics 40
6.3 Losses and efficiency 46
6.4 Parameter determination 48
6.5 Single-phase induction motors 50
6.6 Dynamic conditions 52
6.7 Linear induction motors 54
1 INTRODUCTION
This course follows on from the Term 3 course Magnetic field plots
Electromechanics. Its purpose is to explore in
greater depth the AC and DC machines that were A magnetic field plot is often a useful way of
introduced in the earlier course. The approach is picturing the operation of an electromagnetic
that of the application engineer rather than the device. Numerous plots have been specially
machine designer, concentrating on the basic prepared for these notes, using the MagNet
principles, characteristics, and control. Since electromagnetic simulation software, to develop
induction motors account for more than 90 per cent the basic concepts with a minimum of
of the motors used in industry, the course gives mathematics.
particular emphasis to these machines.
References
Course components References to books are listed in section 10, and
The course has three closely linked components: cited in the text of the notes with the reference
lectures, problem sheets and laboratories. In number in square brackets.
addition, there is a design assignment, which
introduces some of the basic ideas and problems of
Background material
design by considering a very simple device: an
electromagnet. The course assumes a familiarity with the contents
Lectures will use video presentation and of the Term 3 course Electromechanics, so the
practical demonstrations. These notes provide basic principles covered in that course will not be
support material for the lectures, but they are not a repeated. Students are expected to have a copy of
substitute. Regular lecture attendance is essential. the printed notes for Electromechanics [1], and
Problem solving is a vital part of the course. further information will be found in references [2]
Problem sheets will be issued at the first lecture to [4].
each week, and methods of solving the problems
will be discussed in each lecture.
The laboratory runs from week 4 to week 9,
with three 3-hour experiments:
EMS1: Speed control of induction motors.
EMS2: Characteristics of a power transformer.
EMS3: Control of a stepper motor.
Experiment EMS1 is a sequel to the simple DC
motor-control experiment in Electromechanics.
EMS2 introduces some important electrical
measurement techniques as well as exploring the
properties of a transformer. EMS3 explores a
stepper motor and controller of the kind widely
used in industry.

Introduction 1
2 TRANSFORMERS Sinusoidal operation

If the voltage source is sinusoidal, then the core

flux will also be sinusoidal, so we may put:
m sin t
2.1 Introduction
(2-6)
Basic transformer principles were covered in
Electromechanics [1], and the main results are Substituting this expression in equation 2-3 gives:
d
N 1 m cos t V1m cos t
given below. Figure 2-1 is a schematic
representation of a single-phase transformer with v1 N 1 (2-7)
dt
two coils on a magnetic core, where the magnetic
coupling is assumed to be perfect: the same flux Thus the maximum primary voltage is:
passes through each turn of each coil. V1m N 1 m 2 fN 1 m 2 fN 1 ABm (2-8)
i1 i2 where A is the cross-sectional area of the core and
Bm is the maximum flux density in the core. A
+ + + + typical value for Bm is 1.4 T for the silicon steel
v1 ~ e1 R1 R2 e2 Z v2 characteristic in figure 2-2.

2
1.8
1.6
Flux density B, T
primary secondary 1.4
N1 turns N2 turns 1.2
1
Figure 2-1: Transformer with source and load 0.8
0.6
0.4
Voltage relationships 0.2
Kirchhoffs voltage law applied to the two 0
windings gives: 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

d
Magnetic intensity H, kA/m
v1 e1 R1i1 N 1 R1i1 (2-1)
dt
Figure 2-2: Silicon transformer steel.
d
v 2 e 2 R2 i 2 N 2 R2 i 2 (2-2)
dt
Current relationships
If the resistances R1 and R2 are negligible, then
equations 2-1 and 2-2 become: The relationship between the primary and
secondary currents can be found by considering the
d
v1 N 1 (2-3) magnetic circuit of the transformer. From the basic
dt magnetic circuit equation, we have:

d F N 1i1 N 2 i2 R (2-9)
v2 N 2 (2-4)
dt In a well-designed transformer, the reluctance R is
Dividing these equations gives the important result: small, so equation 2-9 becomes:
N 1i1 N 2 i2 0 (2-10)

v1 N 1
(2-5)
v2 N 2 This gives the counterpart of equation 2-5 for
voltage:

i1 N 2
(2-11)
i2 N 1

2 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

If sinusoidal voltages and currents are represented
by phasors, the corresponding forms for the basic
voltage and current equations are:
V1 N 1
(2-12)
V2 N 2
I1 N 2
(2-13)
I 2 N1
Transformer rating
The maximum voltage at the primary terminals of a
transformer is determined by equation 2-8, and is
independent of the current. The maximum primary
current is determined by the I2R power loss in the
resistance of the transformer windings, which
generates heat in the transformer. This power loss
is independent of the applied voltage.
Consequently, for a given design of transformer,
there is a maximum value for the product V1I1 at
the primary terminals. To a first approximation,
this is also equal to the product V2I2 at the
secondary terminals. This maximum value does not
depend on the phase angle between the voltage and
the current. Transformer ratings therefore specify
the apparent power VI (volt-amperes, VA) rather
than the real power VI cos (watts, W).
2.2 Types of power transformer
In addition to the ordinary single-phase power
transformer, two other types are in common use:
auto-wound transformers, and 3-phase
transformers.
Auto-wound transformers
A transformer can have a single coil with an output
taken from a portion of the coil, as shown in figure
2-3. This is known as an auto-wound transformer
or auto-transformer.
I1
+ +
ZL V1
VS
IL +
I2 V2
Figure 2-3: Auto-wound transformer.
Unlike the normal transformer with two windings,
known as a double-wound transformer, the auto-
wound transformer does not provide electrical
isolation between the primary and the secondary,
However, an auto-wound transformer can have a
much larger apparent power rating than a double-
wound transformer of the same physical size.
Let N1 be the number of turns on the upper part
of the winding in figure 2-3, and N2 the number of
turns on the lower part. The conventional
transformer equations 2-12 and 2-13 apply to these
parts of the winding, since they are equivalent to
two separate windings with a common connection.
Applying Kirchhoffs law to this circuit gives:
VS V1 V2
(2-14)
I L I1 I 2 (2-15)
As an example, suppose that N1 = N2. If the
transformer is regarded as ideal (see section 2.3),
then I1 = I2 and V1 = V2. Equations 2-14 and 2-15
give:
VS V1 V2 2V2 2VL (2-16)
I L I1 I 2 2I1 2I S (2-17)
where VL is the voltage across the load and IS is the
current supplied by the source. This auto-wound
transformer behaves as a step-down transformer
with a ratio of 2:1, and the current in each winding
is equal to half of the load current.
An elegant application of the auto-wound
transformer principle is the variable transformer,
which has a single-layer coil wound on a toroidal
core. The output is taken from a carbon brush that
makes contact with the surface of the coil; the
brush can be moved smoothly from one end of the
coil to the other, thus varying the output voltage.
Examples of variable transformers are shown in
figure 2-4.
Transformers 3
 a m cos t
b m cos( t 120) (2-18)
c m cos( t 240) m cos( t 120)
Figure 2-7 shows flux plots for the transformer at
the instants when t = 0, 120 and 240.

(a)

Figure 2-4: Variable transformers.

(RS Components Ltd)

3-phase transformers

In 3-phase systems (see section 4.1), it is common

practice to use sets of three single-phase (b)
transformers. It is also possible, however, to make
3-phase transformers with three sets of windings
on three limbs of a core, as shown in figure 2-5.

(c)

Figure 2-5: 3-phase transformer model.
The corresponding fluxes are shown in figure 2-6.
a b c m
Figure 2-6: 3-phase transformer flux.
In a balanced system with sinusoidal phase
voltages, the fluxes will be given by:
Figure 2-7: 3-phase transformer flux plots:
(a) 0, (b) 120, (c) 240.
There is no requirement for another limb to form a
flux return path, because the fluxes a, b and c
sum to zero in a balanced 3-phase system. The
proof is as follows. From equation 2-18, the sum is
given by:
a b c
cos t cos( t 120) cos( t 120) (2-19)
cos t 2 cos t cos120
cos t cos t 0
Because the fluxes in the three limbs sum to zero at
all instants of time, there is no leakage of flux from
the core, as the flux plots in figure 2-7
demonstrate.

4 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

2.3 Ideal transformer properties I1 I2

If the primary and secondary windings have zero + +

resistance, and the magnetic core has zero V1 ZL V2
reluctance, then the approximate equalities in
equations 2-12 and 2-13 become exact equalities.
This leads to the concept of an ideal transformer N1:N2
element, to accompany the other ideal elements of
circuit theory. Figure 2-8 shows a circuit symbol Figure 2-9: Ideal transformer with a load.
for the ideal transformer element.
The secondary impedance is given by:
i1 i2
ZL
V2
(2-22)
+ + I2
v1 v2
At the primary terminals, the circuit presents an
impedance given by:
Figure 2-8: Ideal transformer element
N 1 V2
The voltage and current relationships in the time
Z in 1
V N2
and frequency domains are given in table 2-1. N
I1 2I2
Table 2-1: Ideal transformer relationships. N1 (2-23)

N V2 N 1
Time domain Frequency domain 2 2
1 Z L 2L
Z

v2 N 2
n
V2 N 2
n (2-20) N2 I2 N 2 n
v1 N 1 V1 N 1
Thus the combination of an ideal transformer of
ratio n and an impedance ZL can be replaced by an
n n
i1 N 2 I1 N 2 (2-21) equivalent impedance ZL / n2.
i2 N 1 I 2 N1
The following properties of the ideal transformer Referred impedances
may be deduced from equations 2-16 and 2-17:
The voltage transformation is independent of Figure 2-10(a) shows an ideal transformer with a
the current, and vice versa. load impedance ZL connected to the secondary.
If the secondary is short-circuited, so that
Another impedance Z2 is in series with ZL. The
input impedance of this circuit is:
v2 = 0, the primary terminals appear to be
Z2 ZL
Z in
short-circuited since v1 = 0.
(2-24)
If the secondary is open-circuited, so that n2
i2 = 0, the primary terminals appear to be open-
circuited since i1 = 0. The input impedance of the circuit in figure 2-
10(b) is:
The output power is equal to the input power,
Z in Z2
so there is no power loss in the element. ZL
(2-25)
n2
Impedance transformation The two expressions for Zin will be identical if:

Z2
The ideal transformer has the important property of Z2
(2-26)
transforming impedance values in a circuit. n2
Consider an ideal transformer with an impedance
ZL connected to its secondary terminals, as shown
in figure 2-9.

Transformers 5
 Z2 2.4 Circuit model of a transformer
In a practical transformer, the winding resistances
Zin and the core reluctance are not zero. In addition,
ZL there will be some power loss in the core because
of eddy currents and hysteresis in the magnetic
material. All of these effects can be represented by
N1:N2 (a) the equivalent circuit [3, 4] shown in figure 2-12.
I1 jx1 I2 = nI2 jx2 R2 I2
Z'2 R1
I0
+ I0m I0c +
Zin ZL
V1 jXm Rc V2

N1:N2 (b)
Figure 2-10: Referred impedance 1. N1:N2

The impedance Z'2 is termed the secondary Figure 2-12: Transformer equivalent circuit.
impedance Z2 referred to the primary.
This circuit is based on the ideal transformer
In a similar way, a primary impedance Z1 can
element, with additional circuit elements to
be referred to the secondary, as shown in figure
represent the imperfections. The resistances R1 and
2-11. In this case, the referred impedance is given
R2 represent the physical resistances of the
by:
windings, and Rc represents the power lost in the
Z1 n 2 Z1 (2-27) core. The reactance Xm, known as the magnetising
reactance, allows for the current required to
Z1 magnetise the core when the reluctance is not zero.
Reactances x1 and x2, known as leakage
reactances, represent the leakage flux that exists
Zin ZL when the magnetic coupling between the primary
and the secondary is not perfect. Figure 2-13 shows
the leakage flux when the core has an artificially
N1:N2 low relative permeability of 10, and one winding at
(a)
a time is energised. In practice, the leakage is much
less than this, so the leakage reactances are
Z''1 normally very much smaller than the magnetising
reactance Xm.
Zin ZL

N1:N2 (b)
Figure 2-11: Referred impedance 2.

The concept of referred impedance is often a useful

device for simplifying circuits containing (a)
transformers, as will be shown in the next section.
It is conventional to use a single prime (') to denote
quantities referred to the primary side, and a
double prime (") to denote quantities referred to
the secondary side.

6 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

 R1 jx1 jx2 R2

jXm Rc

(b)
N1:N2
Figure 2-13: Transformer leakage flux:
(a) left coil energised, (b) right coil energised.
(a)
In the circuit of figure 2-12, the current I2 is
the effective value of the secondary current as seen jx1 jx2
R1 R2
from the primary side of the transformer. It is also
known as the secondary current referred to the
primary.
The current I0 is the no-load current, which is jXm Rc
the current taken by the primary when there is no
load connected to the secondary. It has a
component I0m, known as the magnetising current,
which represents the current required to set up the N1:N2
magnetic flux in the core. The current I0c is the
core loss component of the no-load current. (b)

Re jxe
Approximate equivalent circuit

For power transformers with ratings above

100 VA, the values of the series elements R1 and x1 jXm Rc
are generally much smaller than the shunt elements
Rc and Xm. Under normal working conditions, the
voltage drop in R1 + jx1 is much smaller than the
applied voltage V1. Similarly, the no-load current I0 N1:N2
is much smaller than the load current I1. It follows
(c)
that the shunt elements can be moved to the input
terminals, as shown in figure 2-14(a), with very Figure 2-14: Approximate equivalent circuit.
little loss of accuracy.
The secondary elements R2 and jx2 can be
replaced by equivalent elements R2 = R2 / n2 and 2.5 Parameter determination
x2 = x2 / n2 on the primary side (see section 2.3),
giving the circuit shown in figure 2-14(b). Finally, The parameters of the approximate equivalent
the series elements can be combined to give an circuit (figure 2-14) can be determined
effective resistance Re and leakage reactance xe, as experimentally from two tests:
shown in figure 2-14(c), where the values are: An open-circuit test, where the secondary is
left unconnected and the normal rated voltage
Re R1 , x e x1 22
R2 x is applied to the primary.
(2-28)
A short-circuit test, where the secondary
2
n n
terminals are short-circuited and a low voltage
is applied to the primary, sufficient to circulate
the normal full-load current.

Transformers 7
Open-circuit test Short-circuit test

With the secondary unconnected, I2 = 0, so the If the secondary terminals are short-circuited, the
equivalent circuit reduces to the form shown in ideal transformer in figure 2-14 can be replaced by
figure 2-15. a short circuit, so the equivalent circuit takes the
form shown in figure 2-16(a). In a typical power
I1oc
transformer, the shunt elements Rc and Xm are at
least 100 times larger than the series elements Re
+
and xe. Consequently, the shunt elements can be
neglected, and the circuit reduces to the form
V1oc jXm Rc shown in figure 2-16(b).

Re jxe

Figure 2-15: Open-circuit test.

jXm Rc
To a very close approximation, the current I1oc
supplied to the primary is equal to the no-load
current I0 in figure 2-12. The values of the
elements Rc and Xm can be determined from (a)
measurements of the input voltage V1oc, current I1oc
and power P1oc as follows. The input power is I1sc jxe
Re
entirely dissipated in the resistance Rc, giving:
+
V2
Rc 1oc (2-29)
P1oc V1sc
The input impedance of the circuit is given by:

Z1oc
V1oc 1 (b)
(2-30)

I1oc 1 1
Figure 2-16: Short-circuit test.
Rc jX m
The values of the elements Re and xe can be
In terms of magnitudes, equation 2-30 becomes: determined from measurements of the input voltage
V1sc, current I1sc and power P1sc as follows. The
Z1oc
V1oc 1
(2-31) input power is entirely dissipated in the resistance

I 1oc 1 1 Re, giving:
Rc2 X m2
Re
P1sc
(2-34)
Re-arranging equation 2-31 gives the value of Xm: I12sc
Xm
1
(2-32) The input impedance of the circuit is given by:
I1oc
2
2
1
Z1sc Re jx e
V1sc
V1oc Rc (2-35)
I1sc
From figure 2-14(c), it follows that the turns ratio In terms of magnitudes, equation 2-35 becomes:
is given by:
Z1sc Re2 x e2
V1sc
(2-36)
n 2 2oc
N V
(2-33) I 1sc
N 1 V1oc

8 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

Re-arranging equation 2-36 gives the value of xe: Voltage regulation and efficiency

When a load is connected to the secondary of a

V
2
X e 1sc Re2 (2-37) transformer, there will be a voltage drop in the
I 1sc series elements Re and xe, so the secondary terminal
voltage will change. The voltage regulation is
In practice, the open-circuit test is usually defined as:
made on the low-voltage side of the transformer to
V2 nl V2 fl
minimise the value of Voc, and the short-circuit test
(2-38)
is made on the high-voltage side to minimise the V2 nl
value of Isc. The resulting parameter values are then
referred to the primary side of the transformer. where V2nl is the magnitude of the no-load
secondary terminal voltage, and V2fl is the
corresponding full-load voltage.
2.6 Transformer performance Power is lost as heat in the windings and core
of the transformer, represented by the resistance
Consider a transformer with an impedance ZL
elements Re and Rc in the equivalent circuit. The
connected to the secondary. With the approximate
efficiency is defined in the usual way as:
equivalent circuit, this may be represented by the

circuit diagram of figure 2-17. Pout
(2-39)
Re jxe Pin
where Pin is the power input to the primary and Pout
is the power output from the secondary. The power
ZL = lost as heat in the transformer is:
jXm Rc
Ploss Pin Pout
RL + jXL
(2-40)
so we have the following alternative forms of
N1:N2 equation 2-39:
Pout Pin Ploss
1 loss
Figure 2-17: Transformer with a load. P
The load impedance can be referred to the primary Pin Pin Pin
(2-41)
1
side of the ideal transformer element, giving the Pout Ploss
circuit shown in figure 2-18. Pout Ploss Pout Ploss
I1 Re jxe I2 = nI2 Large transformers are very efficient. Even a
I0 2 kVA transformer can have an efficiency of about
+ 95%. Above 25 kVA, the efficiency usually
V1
ZL = + exceeds 99%. It is very difficult to make an
jXm Rc ZL / n2 accurate measurement of efficiency by direct
V2 = V2 / n
measurement of Pout and Pin, since this would
require an accuracy of measurement of the order of
0.01%. Instead, the normal practice is to determine
the losses from measurements, and calculate the
Figure 2-18: Circuit with referred impedance. efficiency from one of the alternative expressions
This circuit is easily solved for the currents I0 and in equation 2-41. The losses can be calculated with
high accuracy from the equivalent-circuit
I2. The referred secondary voltage is given by
parameters determined from tests on the
V2 = ZLI2, and the secondary terminal quantities
transformer.
are given by V2 = nV2, I2 = I2 / n.

Maximum efficiency

The power loss in a transformer has two

components: the core loss, given by V12 / Rc, and
Transformers 9
the I2R loss, given by I'2Re. The core loss will be (b) the secondary terminal voltage magnitude,
constant if the primary voltage V1 is constant, but (c) the primary current magnitude,
the I2R loss will vary with the secondary current. (d) the voltage regulation,
When the current is low, the output power will be
(e) the efficiency of the transformer.
low, but the core loss remains at the normal value.
Consequently, the efficiency of the transformer (a) Secondary current
will be low under these conditions. It may be The load impedance referred to the primary is:
shown that the efficiency is a maximum when the
Z L 6 .0 j 2 .5
Z L 26.9 j11.2
secondary current is such that the variable I2R loss
is equal to the fixed core loss. This result also n2 ( 0.472) 2
applies to other devices where the losses have
fixed and variable components. Transformers are The secondary current referred to the primary is:
usually designed to have maximum efficiency at
I2
V1
the normal operating value of secondary current,
which may be less than the maximum rated current. Z e ZL
230 j 0

Power relationships ( 0.682 j 0.173) ( 26.9 j11.2)
230 j 0
When calculating the transformer performance, the 7.12 j 2.94 A
following power relationships can be useful. The 27.6 j11.4
complex power S is given by [2]: I 2 7.12 j 2.94 7.70 A
S = P + jQ = VI* (2-42)
The secondary current magnitude is:
I 2
where V is the voltage phasor, I* is the complex
I2 16.3 A
conjugate of the current, P is the real power, and Q 7.70
is the reactive power. If is the phase angle, then: n 0.472
P S cos VI cos Re( VI*) (2-43) (b) Secondary voltage

Q S sin VI sin Im( VI*) (2-44) The secondary voltage magnitude is:
V2 I 2 Z L 16.3 6.0 j 2.5
S VI P Q
2 2
(2-45) 16.3 6.5 106.0 V
If the voltage phasor V is chosen as the reference (c) Primary current
quantity, and defined to be purely real (V = V + j0),
then the power relationships take a simple form: The no-load current is:

P VI cos V Re( I ) 230 j 0 230 j 0

I0 1
(2-46) V1 V
Rc jX m 1080 j 657
Q VI sin V Im(I ) (2-47) 0.213 j 0.350 A
The primary current is:
Worked example 2-1 I1 I 0 I2
A 2 kVA, 50 Hz, power transformer has the (0.213 j 0.350) (7.12 j 2.94)
7.33 j 3.29 A
following equivalent-circuit parameter values
referred to the primary:
Re = 0.682 , xe = 0.173, Rc = 1080, I1 7.33 j 3.29 8.03 A
Xm = 657, N2 / N1 = 0.472.
If the primary is connected to 230 V 50 Hz supply, (d) Voltage regulation
and a load impedance (6.0 + j2.5) is connected On no load, the secondary voltage is:
V2 nV1 0.472 230 108.6 V
to the secondary, determine:
(a) the secondary current magnitude,

10 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

The voltage regulation is therefore: I1 R1 jx1 I2 = nI2 jx2 R2
V2 nl V2 fl 108.6 106.0
2.33% I0 I2
V2 nl 108.6
jXm ZL
(e) Efficiency
The output power is:
Pout I 22 R L (16.31) 2 6.0 1597 W N1:N2
The power loss is: Figure 2-19: Current transformer circuit model.
V12
Ploss I 22 Re
Only the relationship between currents is of
Rc interest, so the primary impedance (R1 + jx1) can be
disregarded. It is now convenient to refer the
(230.0) 2
(7.699) 2 0.682 primary quantities to the secondary side, giving the
1080 circuit model shown in figure 2-20.
89.4 W
I1
jx2 R2
The input power is therefore:
Pin Pout Ploss 1597 89.4 1686 W I0 = I0 / n I2

Alternatively, from equation 2-46 the input power jXm = jn2Xm ZL

is:
Pin V1 Re(I1 ) 230.0 7.330 1686 W
The efficiency is therefore:
Figure 2-20: Modified circuit model.

94.70%
Pout 1597
Pin 1686
2.7 Current transformers
The use of transformers for measuring current has
been introduced in Electromechanics [1], where
the danger of open-circuiting the secondary has
been explained. This section introduces the
important topic of measurement errors.
Current transformer errors
In a well-designed current transformer, the core
flux density is low and the core is made from a
high-quality magnetic material. Under normal
operating conditions, the core loss will be
negligibly small, so the core loss resistance Rc can
be omitted from the equivalent circuit. A circuit
model for a current transformer connected to a load
therefore takes the form shown in figure 2-19.
The circuit acts as a current divider, where the
current in the secondary branch is given by:
jX m I1
I2
Z 2 Z L jX m
(2-48)
where I1 is the primary current referred to the
secondary, and Z2 = R2 + jx2. In a well-designed
transformer, the secondary impedance Z2 is very
small in comparison with the referred magnetising
reactance Xm, so this term introduces very little
error. Equation 2-48 shows that it is desirable to
keep the load impedance ZL as small as possible if
the error is to be minimised.
In practice, current transformers are designed
for a specified maximum secondary voltage at the
rated secondary current. This defines a maximum
apparent power for the secondary load, or burden.
Typically, a small current transformer will have a
rated secondary burden of 5 VA. With the usual
secondary current rating of 5 A, this implies that
the maximum secondary voltage is 1 V, and the
maximum impedance magnitude is 0.2 .

Transformers 11
Worked example 2-2 2.8 Transformer design
A current transformer has 10 turns on the primary The majority of single-phase transformers use the
and 100 turns on the secondary. It has a rated shell type of construction shown in figure 2-21.
secondary current of 5 A, the magnetising
reactance referred to the secondary is 10 , and the
maximum burden is 5 VA. If the primary current is
50 A, determine the secondary current, and hence
the percentage error in the current measurement, if
the secondary load is (a) purely resistive, (b) purely
inductive. The transformer secondary impedance
may be neglected.
(a) Resistive load
Since the burden is 5 VA and the secondary current
is 5 A, the secondary voltage is 1 V, and the
resistance is 1 / 5 = 0.2 . The turns ratio is n =
100 / 10 = 10, so the primary current referred to the
secondary is 50 / 10 = 5.0 A. The secondary load
current is:
jX m I1 j10.0 5.0
I2
RL jX m 0.2 j10.0
Figure 2-21: Shell-type transformers.
(RS Components Ltd)

The magnitude is given by: Normally the core laminations are made in two
10.0 5.0 10.0 5.0
parts, termed E and I laminations, as shown in
I2 4.999 A figure 2-22.
0.2 j10.0 10.002
The percentage error is thus:
5.0 4.999
e 0.02%
5 .0
(b) Inductive load
Since the impedance magnitude is the same as
before, the load reactance is 0.2 . The secondary
current is now:
Figure 2-22: E and I laminations.
jX m I1 j10.0 5.0
I2
jX L jX m
The centre limb is twice the width of the outer
j 0.2 j10.0 limbs because it carries twice the flux, as shown by
The magnitude is given by: the flux plot in figure 2-23.

10.0 5.0
I2 4.902 A
0.2 10.0
The percentage error is thus:
5.0 4.902
e 1.96%
5 .0

Figure 2-23: Flux plot: shell-type transformer.

12 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes


The coils are wound on a bobbin that fits the centre
limb of the core, and the core is assembled by
inserting E laminations alternately from each side
and adding matching I laminations. Dimensions are
chosen so that two E and two I laminations can be
punched from a rectangular steel sheet without any
waste, as shown in figure 2-24.
Figure 2-24: Punching E and I shapes.
Current flowing in the resistance of the
transformer windings will produce heat, which
must escape through the surface of the windings. In
addition, there will be power loss in the core,
which also appears as heat.
The power output from a given size of
transformer is governed by the rate at which heat
can be removed. Large transformers are usually
cooled by circulating oil, but small transformers
rely on natural convection cooling in air. A simple
design approach for small transformers is given
below.
Thermal model
The rate of cooling depends on the exposed surface
area of the transformer and the temperature rise
above ambient. An exact calculation is complex,
since it needs to take account of temperature
gradients within the transformer as well as the
cooling conditions on different surfaces.
A simple thermal model ignores temperature
gradients, and the power loss in the core. It just
considers the I2R loss in the windings, and assumes
that this heat escapes through the exposed surfaces
of the windings. It is assumed that the temperature
rise is proportional to the power loss per unit area:
T
k c Pl
(2-49)
As
where T is the temperature rise above ambient, Pl
is the total power loss in the windings, As is the
exposed surface area, and kc is a cooling coefficient
with a typical value of 0.04 Km2/W.
Figure 2-25 shows the side view and top view
of a shell-type transformer.
b
2a
mean turn
6a
a
3a 5a
a a
a 2a a
Figure 2-25: Shell-type transformer dimensions
It is assumed that the core is made from
laminations punched as shown in figure 2-24. If a
is the width of each outer limb of the core, then the
width of the centre limb is 2a, and the other
dimensions are as shown in figure 2-25.
Winding resistance
The total cross-sectional area of the two windings
is the window area of height 3a and width a. Each
winding occupies half of this area, so the conductor
cross-sectional area for each winding is:
Ac 1.5k s a 2 (2-50)
where ks is the conductor space factor, which
allows for insulation and space between the turns.
For simplicity, it will be assumed that the
primary and secondary windings are placed side-
by-side on the core, and that they have the same
number of turns N. From figure 2-25, the mean turn
length of each winding is:
l m a 4a 2b ( 4)a 2b (2-51)
Transformers 13
If the winding has N turns, then the total length of Equation 2-55 gives:
wire is Nlm, and the cross-sectional area of the wire
3k s a 4 (5 2 )T
is Ac / N. The winding resistance is therefore: I2
k c N 2 {( 4)a 2b}
l Nl m N {( 4)a 2b}
2
R (2-52)
1.5k s a 2
3k s a 4 (5 2 ) T
A Ac / N
I
k c N 2 {( 4) a 2b}
Temperature rise 3 0.4 (10 10 3 ) 4 (5 2 )(90 30)

If the RMS current in one winding is I, the power 0.04 21.9 10 9 (1230 ) 2
{( 4) 10 10 3 2 30 10 3 }
loss is I2R. The cooling surface area of the
winding, from figure 2-25, is:
0.216 A
As 1.5a ( 4a 2 a ) 4a 2 a 2
(2-53) Thus, I = 216 mA, so the transformer rating is
a 2 (10 4 ) 230 0.216 VA = 49.7 VA.
Substituting in equation 2-49 gives:

k c Pl k c I 2 R k c N 2 I 2 {( 4)a 2b}
Rating and size
T (2-54)
As As 3k s a 4 (5 2 ) A relationship between the apparent power rating
of the transformer and the dimensions can be
Thus, the current is given by: obtained by substituting for N from equation 2-56
3k s a 4 (5 2 ) T
in equation 2-55:
I
2
2 Bm ba 3 3k s (5 2 ) T
(2-55)
k c N 2 {( 4)a 2b}
VI (2-57)
From equation 2-10, the number of turns is: k c {( 4)a 2b}

If it is assumed that the core depth b is proportional

N
Vm 2V
2fABm 4fabBm
(2-56) to the dimension a, and other quantities remain
constant, then equation 2-57 gives the following
relationship:

Worked example 2-3 VI a 3.5 (2-58)

A transformer has a primary wound for 230 V, and From equation 2-58, if the dimensions of the
the core measures 60 50 30 mm. The maximum transformer are doubled, the rating will increase by
winding temperature is 90C, the ambient a factor of 11.3. A similar result is obtained for the
temperature is 30C, the winding space factor is increase in the power output of a DC machine
0.4, the cooling coefficient is 0.04 Km2/W, and the when the dimensions are doubled see section 3.2.
resistivity of copper at 90C is 21.9 nm. If the
maximum flux density in the core is 1.4 T and the
frequency is 50 Hz, determine (a) the number of
turns on the primary, (b) the maximum current in
the primary.
Solution
From figure 2-26, a = 10 mm and b = 30 mm. From
equation 2-56, we have:

N
2V
4fabBm
2 230
1230
4 50 10 10 3 30 10 3 1.4
14 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes
3 DC MACHINES
350
300

Armature voltage (V)

3.1 Introduction 250
Basic DC machine principles were covered in 200
Electromechanics [1], and the main results are 150
given below. Brushless DC machines, which were
100
mentioned briefly in [1], are beyond the scope of
this course but are covered in the Year 3 course 50
Electrical Machine Drives. 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Basic equations Field current (A)

The generated voltage and the developed torque Figure 3-1: Magnetisation characteristic.
are given by:
ea K f r
In this example, the relationship is almost
[V] (3-1) linear up to the rated field current of 0.5 A, but
there is significant non-linearity above this value,
Td K f ia [Nm] (3-2) when parts of the magnetic circuit saturate. There
where K is the armature constant, f is the field
is also a small residual flux when the field current
is zero, giving a corresponding generated voltage.
flux, and ia is the armature current. Note that the
rotor angular velocity r must be in radians per
For the initial part of the magnetisation
characteristic, it is approximately true that f if.
second (rad/s) and not in rev/min. If the rotational
Equations 3-1 and 3-2 then become:
speed is nr rev/s or Nr rev/min, then:
ea K i f r
2 N r
(3-4)
r 2 n r [rad/s] (3-3)
Td K i f ia
60
(3-5)
In a permanent-magnet machine, the field flux
f is fixed, but in a wound-field machine, it is a
function of the field current if. Armature equation

Figure 3-2 shows a symbolic representation of

Magnetisation characteristic a DC machine, with the armature connected to a
From equation 3-1, if the speed r is held constant,
voltage source va.
the flux is proportional to the armature generated
r
ia
voltage ea. A graph of ea against if is known as the +
magnetisation characteristic of the machine, and a ea + va
typical curve is shown in figure 3-1 for a 3 kW if
motor.

Figure 3-2: DC machine with voltage source.

If the armature has a resistance Ra, then

Kirchhoffs voltage law gives the armature voltage
equation:
v a Ra ia ea Ra ia K f r (3-6)

DC Machines 15
3.2 DC machines in practice
Slotted armature
The elementary theory of DC machines assumes
that conductors are on the surface of the armature,
so that the simple expressions e = Blu and f = Bli
are applicable. In practice, the armature conductors
are placed in slots, as shown in figure 3-3.
Figure 3-3: DC motor armature.
Figure 3-4 shows a simple model of a machine
with a slotted armature, and figure 3-5 shows the
corresponding flux plot when there is no armature
current.
Figure 3-4: DC machine model.
16 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes
Figure 3-5: DC machine field flux.
This is similar to the flux plot when conductors are
on the surface, but with one important difference:
most of the flux lines pass between the conductors,
indicating that the flux density in the slots is very
low. Consequently the force on the conductor,
given by f = Bli, is very small. Most of the force is
exerted on the armature iron and not on the
conductors. The basic equations 3-1 and 3-2 are
not affected by the location of the conductors. In
particular, the generated voltage is not affected,
although a direct application of e = Blu appears to
contradict this. See reference [1] for a discussion
of induced voltage in such situations.
Armature reaction
Current flowing in the armature conductors will
also create a magnetic field in the machine, known
as the armature reaction field. Figure 3-6 shows a
flux plot of this field when the main field flux is
absent.
Figure 3-6: Armature reaction flux plot.
Note that the axis of the armature reaction field is field flux. This has important consequences for the
at right angles to the axis of the main field. When motor characteristics see section 3.3.
currents flow in the field and armature conductors,
the two component magnetic fields combine to
give a resultant field of the form shown in figure 3- Efficiency
6. The bending of the field lines indicates that the The efficiency of a motor is defined in the usual
stator exerts a counter-clockwise torque on the way:
rotor. Another way of picturing the

electromagnetic action is to consider the magnetic Pout
(3-7)
poles representing the field and armature flux Pin
components, as shown in figure 3-7.
where Pin is total electrical power input to the
motor terminals, and Pout is the mechanical power
output from the motor shaft. The power lost as heat
in the motor is:
Ploss Pin Pout (3-8)
N
S so we have the following alternative forms of
N
equation 3-7:
Pout Pin Ploss
S
1 loss
P
Pin Pin Pin
(3-9)
1
Pout Ploss
Pout Ploss Pout Ploss
Figure 3-7: Total flux plot. As with transformers (see section 2-5), the
efficiency of a large motor is not usually
An important effect of armature reaction, which is
determined from equation 3-7 by direct
evident in figure 3-7, is to increase the flux density
measurement of the input and output power.
at one side of a field pole and decrease it at the
Instead, losses are determined from several tests,
other side. Figure 3-8 shows a shaded plot of the
and the efficiency calculated from equation 3-9.
flux density magnitude, where the colour range
from blue to red represents the flux density range The output power is given by
from minimum to maximum. Pout r T r (Td Tl ) (3-10)

where Tl is the rotational loss torque. It follows that

the rotational power loss is rTl. The rotational loss
has two components: mechanical loss, which is
also known as the windage and friction loss, and
core loss in the armature and the field poles
resulting from the rotation of the armature.
The total power loss includes in addition the
I2R loss in the field and armature windings, and the
brush contact loss, which results from the voltage
drop between the brushes and the commutator
segments. For further information, see
references [3, 4].

Figure 3-8: Flux density magnitude.

High values of flux density may result in local

saturation of the steel, increasing the reluctance of
the magnetic circuit, and reducing the value of the

DC Machines 17
 P r Td 2 r Bav AV (3-14)

Power output and size Thus, the maximum power output of a DC motor is
roughly proportional to the product of the armature
The developed torque may be calculated from the volume and the armature speed.
equation f = Bli, even though the armature
In practice, the current loading A also increases
conductors are in slots. For this purpose, the
with size, so the power output of large machines is
machine will be represented by a simple model
further increased. To quantify this, assume that the
with the conductors on the surface, as shown in the
power dissipation per unit surface area is constant.
flux plot of figure 3-9.
Let d be the radial depth of a conducting layer
representing the armature conductors. The
resistance of an element ds of this layer is:
l
dR (3-15)
d ds
ds
r The cooling surface area of the element is dS =
l ds, so the power dissipation per unit area is:
l
( A ds ) 2
2
A2

dP ( di ) dR d ds
(3-16)
dS l ds l ds d

If dP / dS is constant, then A d, and if d r

then A r. For geometrically similar machines,
Figure 3-9: Model for torque calculation. the axial length l is proportional to the radius r. If
It is useful to define a current loading A as the the rotational speed r is constant, it follows from
current in amperes per metre length of equation 3-13 that the power output is proportional
circumference on the surface of the armature. The to r3.5. Thus, if the dimensions are doubled, the
current in an element of length ds is then di = A ds. power output will increase by a factor of 11.3. A
The force on this element is: similar result was obtained for transformers
(section 2.8), and it holds for other types of
df Bl di BlA ds (3-11) machine.
where l is the axial length of the armature. The
corresponding contribution to the torque is: 3.3 Characteristics and control
dTd r df rBlA ds (3-12)
Speed control
where r is the radius of the armature. If Bav is the
average value of the flux density at the armature In a large motor, the total power loss is small.
surface, then the total torque is just: Since the armature power loss Raia2 is only a part of
the total loss, this term must be small in
Td rBav lA.2 r 2 Bav Alr 2 2 Bav AV (3-13) comparison with the armature input power vaia. It
follows that:
where V is the volume of the armature.
The maximum value of Bav is limited by the Ra ia v a (3-17)
saturation of the magnetic material of the armature, So Raia may be neglected in equation 3-6, giving:
and the value of the current loading A is limited by
the I2R heating of the armature conductors. If it is va K f r (3-18)
assumed that the maximum value of A is
independent of the machine size, equation 3-13
shows that the developed torque is proportional to
the rotor volume. The treatment of the effects of
scale in reference [1] also gives this result.
The gross power output is given by:
18 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

The rotational speed is therefore:
r a
v
K f
(3-19)
Equation 3-19 shows that the speed is independent
of the torque, provided inequality 3-17 holds.
Equation 3-19 is the basis of speed control. If
the field flux f is constant, the rotational speed is
proportional to the applied voltage. The normal
values of va and f define the base speed r0, and
the speed can be reduced to zero by varying va.
Electronic controllers for DC motors deliver an
adjustable voltage to the motor armature by phase-
controlled rectification of the AC mains supply,
using thyristors: see section 8. This is the basis of
DC variable-speed drive systems, which are widely
used in industry.
In a wound-field motor, it is possible to
increase the speed above the base speed by
reducing f known as field weakening. Only a
limited speed increase is possible, for the following
reason. The torque is related to the armature
current through equation 3-2:
Td K f ia [3-2]
If f is reduced, there will be a compensating
increase in ia to maintain the torque, and there is a
risk of exceeding the current rating of the machine.
Small motors
In small motors, with power ratings below 1 kW,
inequality 3-17 does not hold, so it is not
permissible to neglect the Raia term. The rotational
speed then depends on the developed torque, as
may be seen by substituting for ia in terms of Td in
equation 3-6:
v a Ra ia K f r
K f r
Ra Td (3-20)
K f
Thus, the speed is given by:
r a d2
va R T
K f ( K f )
(3-21)
A graph of speed against torque is a straight line,
as shown in figure 3-10. The no-load speed, which
is the speed when the torque is zero, is given by:
r 0
va
K f
(3-22)
r
r
slope Ra
Td
Figure 3-10: Speed-torque characteristic.
Effect of armature reaction
In section 3.2, it was noted that the armature
reaction field could cause local saturation of the
field poles, thereby reducing the value of the field
flux f. This effect increases with the armature
current ia, and therefore with the developed torque
Td. From equation 3-19, a decrease in f will cause
the speed r to rise. Armature reaction therefore
has the opposite effect to armature resistance,
which causes r to fall with increasing torque load.
There is an important difference, however. The
effect of resistance is linear, as illustrated in figure
3-8, but the effect of armature reaction is non-
linear. At low values of armature current, the
uneven distribution of flux density in the field pole
is insufficient to cause saturation, so there is hardly
any reduction in the field flux. At high values of
current, on the other hand, there may be a
significant reduction.
It is possible, therefore, for the speed of a
motor to fall with increasing load when the
armature current is low, but to increase with load
when the current is high. This increase in speed
can be very undesirable, leading to instability with
some kinds of load. A large DC motor generally
includes some form of compensation for armature
reaction.
A simple method of compensation is to provide
a second winding on the field poles, connected in
series with the armature (figure 3-11), to increase
the field MMF when the armature current
increases. The resulting motor is known as a
compound motor [3, 4]. However, this cannot
DC Machines 19
compensate for the non-linear nature of the
armature reaction effect.

N
S N
S
Figure 3-11: DC compound motor.

A better method, which is frequently used in high-

power DC drives, is to use a compensating winding
[4]. This takes the form of conductors embedded in
slots in the field pole faces, connected in series
with the armature. These conductors carry current Figure 3-13: Total flux plot.
in the opposite direction to the armature
conductors, thereby cancelling the armature
reaction flux.

Compensating winding

Figure 3-12 shows a model of a DC machine with a

compensating winding, figure 3-13 shows the
resulting flux plot, and figure 3-14 shows a shaded
plot of the flux density magnitude. These plots
should be compared with figures 3-7 and 3-8 for
the machine without a compensating winding.

Figure 3-14: Flux density magnitude.

With a compensating winding, the flux distribution

in each field pole is symmetrical and uniform, so
the effect of the armature reaction has been
cancelled in this part of the machine. The torque
exerted on the armature is not affected, however,
because this depends on the interaction of the
armature currents and the field flux.

Starting of DC motors
Figure 3-12: Compensating winding model.
When the speed is zero, the armature generated
voltage is also zero. From equation 3-6, the
corresponding armature current is given by:

ia 0
va
(3-23)
Ra

20 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

This is the stalled armature current, which is much The solution of equation 3-26 is:

larger than the normal running current. In a small
r 1 e t / r 0 1 e t /
V
motor, it is permissible to connect the armature
K f
(3-27)
directly to a constant-voltage supply. The armature
where r0 is the no-load speed and the time
can withstand the stalled current for a short time,
constant is given by
and it will accelerate rapidly. As it does so, the
generated voltage will rise and the current will fall

to its normal value. Ra J
(3-28)
However, a large motor must not be started in ( K f ) 2
this way because the armature resistance Ra is very
low, and the stalled current would be large enough The armature current can be determined by
to cause serious damage. An electronic controller substituting for r in equation 3-6:
V Ra ia K f r
for speed control will limit the starting current to a
safe value. If this is not available, a variable (3-29)
resistance must be connected in series with the Ra ia V (1 e t / )
armature and the value progressively reduced to
zero as the armature accelerates. V t /
ia e ia 0 e t / (3-30)
Ra
Transient conditions Figure 3-15 shows graphs of the normalised current
When the voltage applied to a DC motor is ia / ia0 and the normalised speed r / r0 against the
changed, the speed will not change instantly normalised time t / .
because of the inertia of the rotating system. If J is
the moment of inertia and TL is the mechanical load 1

Speed r / r0
torque, Newtons second law gives:
0.8
d r
Current, Speed

J Td TL (3-24) 0.6
dt
Mechanical loss torque is assumed included with 0.4
TL. Substituting for Td in terms of ia from equation
3-2, and ia from equation 3-6, gives: 0.2 Current ia / ia0

d r K f ( v a K f r )
TL
0
J (3-25)
dt Ra 0 1 2 3 4 5
Time t /
The solution of equation 3-25 gives the speed as a
function of time after a change in the applied
voltage. It should be noted that the derivation of Figure 3-15: Starting performance.
equation 3-25 has neglected the inductance of the
armature circuit. See reference [10] for the
difference this makes to the transient behaviour.
As an example, suppose that TL = 0 and the
motor starts from rest with a suddenly applied
voltage va = V. Equation 3-25 becomes:
d r
r
Ra J V
K f
(3-26)
( K f ) 2 dt

DC Machines 21
3.4 Shunt and series motors
So far, it has been assumed that the field flux f is Series motor
independent of the conditions in the armature. This
is the case in a permanent-magnet motor, and in a Figure 3-16 shows the connection of a series motor
wound-field motor where the field winding is to a voltage source. The characteristics are readily
supplied from a separate voltage source. The latter deduced if the following assumptions are made:
is sometimes termed a separately excited motor. The field flux is proportional to the current.
There are two ways of introducing constraints The resistance of the windings is negligible.
between the armature and field of a wound-field
motor. In a shunt motor, the field winding is +
i
connected in parallel with the armature. In a series ea
motor, the field winding is designed to carry the
r
full armature current, and it is connected in series v +
with the armature.

Shunt motor Figure 3-16: Series motor.

If the field winding is connected to the same supply Equations 3-4 and 3-5 become:
voltage as the armature, the field current will be
proportional to the armature voltage. Usually, a Td K i 2 (3-33)
variable resistance is connected in series with the
field winding to provide some measure of control v ea K ir (3-34)
for the field current [3, 4, 13].
Eliminating i gives the relationship between speed
The characteristics of a shunt motor may be
and torque:
deduced from equation 3-19:
r
v v v
r
va (3-35)
K i K Td
K f
[3-19]
K d
T
K
Provided there is a linear relationship between the
A graph plotted from equation 3-33 for a small
field flux and the field current, we have:
motor is shown in figure 3-17.
k f va
f k f if (3-31)
Rf 200

where Rf is the total resistance of the field circuit

150
Speed, rad/s

and kf is a constant. Substituting in equation 3-19

gives:
100
Rf
r a
v
K f Kk f
(3-32)
50

Thus, the speed of a shunt motor is, to a first

approximation, independent of the applied voltage. 0
0 5 10 15 20 25
Developed torque, Nm

Figure 3-17: Speed/torque characteristic.

22 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

Two features of the graph should be noted:
The motor can develop a very large torque at
low speeds.
When the developed torque is low, the speed is
very high.
The high torque at low speeds is a useful feature,
but the high speed associated with low torque can
be dangerous.
Consider what happens if the external load
torque is removed. The developed torque then just
supplies the mechanical losses in the motor. In a
small motor, the mechanical losses are usually high
enough to limit the no-load speed to a safe value.
However, in motors with power ratings above
about 1 kW, the losses are proportionately smaller,
and the no-load speed would be dangerously high.
Such motors must never be run without a load.
Effect of saturation
From equations 3-2 and 3-5, the torque developed
by a series motor is given by:
Td K f i K i 2 (3-36)
This equation is valid only when the current is low
enough to avoid saturation of the magnetic circuit,
so that the flux is proportional to current. When the
current is very high, the field flux will tend
towards a constant value fm, and the torque is then
given by
Td K fm i (3-37)
Under these conditions, the torque is proportional
to i instead of i2. The performance of motors such
as car starter motors must therefore be measured
under actual operating conditions, where equation
3-36 would give very inaccurate results.
Applications
A correctly designed series motor will work on AC
as well as DC [1, 3, 4]. Such motors are termed
universal. They are widely used in products such
as portable power drills, and in domestic
appliances such as food processors and vacuum
cleaners. In applications such as power tools, the
speed/torque characteristic of the series motor is
advantageous.
An important reason for their use is the high
speeds that are possible with series motors: speeds
of up to 10 000 rev/min (1050 rad/s) are common
in small motors. It was shown in section 3.2 that
the maximum power output of a motor is roughly
proportional to the product of the rotational speed
and the armature (or rotor) volume. Thus, a small
motor can deliver a large amount of power if the
speed is high. Induction motors (see section 6) are
limited to speeds below 3000 rev/min (314 rad/s)
when operated from the 50 Hz mains supply. The
power per unit volume for a series motor is
therefore about three times the value for an
induction motor. Disadvantages include the higher
manufacturing cost, and the need for maintenance
of the commutator and brushes.
DC Machines 23
4 INTRODUCTION TO AC MACHINES 1
+ +
Va
V12
4.1 Review of 3-phase systems Vb
+
Industrial AC motors use 3-phase alternating + Vc 2
current to generate a rotating magnetic field from 3
stationary windings. The 3-phase supply may be
taken from the AC mains, or it may be generated Figure 4-1: 3-phase star connection.
electronically with an inverter. In either case, the
requirement is a symmetrical set of sinusoidal The corresponding voltage phasor diagram is
currents with relative phase displacements of 120. shown in figure 4-2.
Formally, 3-phase sets of currents and voltages
may be defined as follows in the time domain:
ia I m cos( t )
V31 Va V12
ib I m cos( t 120) Vb
ic I m cos( t 240)
(4-1)
Vc
I m cos( t 120) V23

v a Vm cos( t ) Figure 4-2: Star connection: voltage phasors.

vb Vm cos( t 120) Figure 4-3 shows the delta connection of a
v c Vm cos( t 240)
(4-2)
3-phase AC source to three lines, and figure 4-4
Vm cos( t 120) shows the corresponding current phasor diagram.

The quantities in equations 4-1 and 4-2 correspond 1

Ia
to a positive phase sequence, in which the
quantities reach their maximum values in the
sequence a b c. If the connections to any two Ib
phases are interchanged, the effect is to reverse the 2
phase sequence. For example, if b and c are Ic
interchanged, and primes denote the new phase 3
labels, we have:
v a va Vm cos( t )
Figure 4-3: 3-phase delta connection.

v b vc Vm cos( t 120) (4-3)

v c vb Vm cos( t 120)
I3 Ia I1
These quantities reach their maximum values in the
sequence c b a, corresponding to a negative Ib
phase sequence. Ic
Figure 4-1 shows the star connection of a 3- I2
phase AC source to three lines, where the time-
varying quantities of equation 4-1 are represented Figure 4-4: Delta connection: current phasors.
by complex (phasor) quantities in the usual way.

24 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

From these diagrams, we have the relationships The groups labelled a, b, c carry currents in the
between the magnitudes of line and phase positive direction, into the plane of the diagram,
quantities given in table 4-1: and the groups labelled a', b', c' carry currents in
the negative direction.
Table 4-1
All coils have the same shape, with one coil
Star Delta side at the bottom of a slot and the other side at the
top of a slot, as shown by the pair of circles in
Vline 3V phase Vline V phase figure 4-6.
If phase a is energised on its own with positive
I line I phase I line 3I phase
current, the resulting magnetic field pattern is
shown in figure 4-7(a). The corresponding patterns
for phases b and c are shown in figures 4-7(b) and
4.2 Rotating magnetic field 4-7(c).

In AC motors, the stationary part is termed the

stator, and the rotating part is the rotor. Figure 4-5
shows the stator of a small AC motor with a
3-phase winding.

(a)

Figure 4-5: 3-phase AC motor winding.

Coils are arranged in slots in a laminated steel

core, rather like the armature coils in a DC motor.
The function of the winding is to route currents to
slots from the three phases, as shown in the
simplified diagram of figure 4-6. This diagram also
shows a steel cylinder in the centre, representing (b)
the rotor of the motor.
a

c' b'

b c

(c)
a'
Figure 4-7: AC machine flux plots:
Figure 4-6: 3-phase conductor groups.
(a) phase a, (b) phase b, (c) phase c.

Introduction to AC machines 25
When all three phases are energised, the individual
phase fields combine to give a resultant field.
Consider the instant when t = 0. From equation
4-1, the currents in the three phases are:
ia I m , ib 1 2 I m , ic 1 2 I m

Since the currents in phases b and c are negative,

the component fields are in the directions shown in
figure 4-8. They combine to give a resultant in the
same direction as for phase a, so a flux plot of the
resultant field is the same as for phase a alone. As (b)
time advances, the currents in the phases change,
and the resultant pattern changes. Figure 4-9 shows
the patterns when t = 30, 60 and 90.

(c)

Figure 4-9: Flux plots for values of t:

a (a) 30, (b) 60, (c) 90.

Notice that the magnetic field pattern has rotated

c We have a rotating magnetic field, which makes
Figure 4-8: Component fields when t = 0.
by the same angle as the time phase of the currents.
one revolution for each cycle of the alternating
current. This field is capable of exerting a torque
on a suitably designed rotor.
Two kinds of AC motor exploit the rotating
field effect. In synchronous motors, the rotor has
magnetised poles, which lock in with the rotating
field, so that the rotor moves in synchronism with
the field. With induction motors, the rotating field
induces currents in conductors on the rotor, so the
rotor must move more slowly than the rotating
field.

(a)

26 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

Sinusoidal fields Equation 4-5 represents a sinusoidal field with a
The rotating magnetic field will induce voltages in constant maximum value, rotating in a counter-
the phase windings. These voltages should be as clockwise direction with a constant angular
nearly sinusoidal as possible, which implies that velocity r, illustrated in figure 4-10. The axis of
the flux density should vary sinusoidally with the field makes an angle t with the horizontal
angular position. This in turn requires that the axis. At an angle , the displacement from the field
currents producing the field should be distributed axis is t, so the magnitude of the flux density
sinusoidally. A sinusoidal distribution is also is Bm cos( t).
required if the resultant field is to rotate at a
uniform speed. The conductor distribution for each
phase shown in figure 4-6 approximates to a
sinusoidal distribution. It is a better winding than it
appears, because harmonics that are multiples of 3
are missing from the Fourier series for the t
waveform. This is one of the many advantages of
using three phases. Practical windings generally
use more slots than this simple model, and give a
better approach to the ideal sinusoidal distribution.
Assume that the three phases produce
component fields in the airgap with magnitudes Ba, Figure 4-11: Rotating magnetic field.
Bb and Bc as follows:
Ba kia cos
The rotating field represented by equation 4-5
will induce a sinusoidal voltage in any coil on the
Bb kib cos( 120) (4-4) stator. Consider a single-turn coil on the stator,
Bc kic cos( 120) with one side at = 0 and the other side at
= 180, as shown in figure 4-12.
where k is a constant and is the angle from a
reference axis, as shown in figure 4-10 for the
component field Ba.

Figure 4-12: Single-turn coil.

If the direction of the flux density in the airgap is

assumed radial, it may be shown that the magnetic
Figure 4-10: Angular position definition. flux through this coil is:

The total field is the sum of the component fields. 2lrBm sin t (4-6)
If the currents are given by equation 4-1, then where r is the radius and l is the axial length. The
substituting in equation 4-4 gives the result: induced voltage in the coil is thus:
B Ba Bb Bc 23 kI m cos( t ) d
(4-5) e 2 lrBm cos t
Bm cos( t )
(4-7)
dt
See references [3, 4] for further information about
sinusoidal fields.

Introduction to AC machines 27
Speed of the rotating field

At any instant, there are two effective magnetic

poles for the field shown in figure 4-8, so this is
termed a 2-pole field. It makes one revolution in
one AC cycle, giving the relationships between the
field and the current shown in table 4-2.
Table 4-2: 2-pole field properties.

Current waveform 2-pole field

Frequency f [Hz] Rotational speed ns = f [rev/s]
Rotational speed Ns = 60f [rev/min]
Angular frequency Angular velocity s = [rad/s] Figure 4-14: 4-pole flux plot.
As an example, if f = 50 Hz, ns = 50 rev/s,
Ns = 3000 rev/min and s = 2f 314 rad/s
For every 30 advance in the time phase of the
currents, the field pattern rotates 15. In one cycle
of the supply, the field pattern moves through two
pole pitches an angle corresponding to two poles.
4.3 Multi-pole fields
With any number of poles, the field moves
Coils in an AC machine winding can be arranged through two pole pitches in one cycle of the
to produce fields with more than two poles. For supply. If there are p pairs of poles, this
example, figure 4-13 shows the simple winding of corresponds to a fraction 1 / p of a revolution.
figure 4-6 re-arranged to give a 4-pole field, with Thus, the general expressions for the speed of the
the resulting field pattern shown in figure 4-14 at rotating field are:
the instant when t = 0.
2f
s [rad/s] (4-8)
a p p
c' b'
ns
f
b c [rev/s] (4-9)
p

Ns
60 f
a' a' [rev/min] (4-10)
p

c b Table 4-3 gives the field speeds at 50 Hz for

different numbers of poles.
b' c' Table 4-3: Field speeds at 50 Hz.
a

Figure 4-13: 4-pole winding.

Poles p s ns Ns
rad/s rev/s rev/min
2 1 314 50 3000
4 2 157 25 1500
6 3 105 16.7 1000
8 4 78.5 12.5 750
10 5 62.8 10 600

28 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

Reversing the direction of rotation

To reverse the direction of rotation, all that is

required is to interchange the connections to any
two of the three phases. For example, suppose that
the connections to phases b and c are interchanged.
Figure 4-15(a) shows the original current pattern
and figure 4-15(b) shows the new pattern.
a
c' b'
b c

a' a'

c b

b' c'
a

(a)

a
b' c'
c b

a' a'

b c

c' b'
a
(b)

Figure 4-15: Interchange of connections:

(a) original, (b) b and c interchanged.

The new pattern is a mirror image of the old,

so the resultant magnetic field will progress in the
opposite direction as time advances. It follows that
the direction of rotation depends on the phase
sequence of the 3-phase supply, since
interchanging any pair of phases has the effect of
reversing the phase sequence (see section 4-1).
Therefore, it is important to know the phase
sequence of the supply before connecting the
motor.

Introduction to AC machines 29
5 SYNCHRONOUS MACHINES the two axes. The flux plots in figure 5-2 show (a)
the field produced by stator currents at a particular
instant of time, (b) the field produced by the rotor
5.1 Introduction magnets, (c) the resultant field when both sources
are active.
In a synchronous machine, the rotor is magnetised
and it runs at the same speed as the rotating
magnetic field. Permanent-magnet rotors are
common in small machines, so the machine
structure is similar to that of the brushless DC
motor shown in figure 3-4. Figure 5-1 is a
simplified model of the structure of this type of
machine, where the rotor has surface-mounted
segments of permanent-magnet material. Other
forms of rotor with embedded magnets are also
possible.
(a)

Figure 5-1: 2-pole PM synchronous machine. (b)

In larger sizes, a synchronous machine has a field
winding on the rotor instead of permanent magnets.
Direct current for the rotor excitation can be
supplied through sliprings and brushes, but large
machines normally have a brushless excitation
system [3, 4].
The AC stator of a synchronous machine is
termed the armature. It handles the main electrical
power, so it has a similar function to the rotating
armature of a DC machine.

Motors and generators (c)

As with DC machines, there is no fundamental Figure 5-2: Synchronous motor flux plots:
difference between a synchronous motor and a (a) stator field, (b) rotor field, (c) resultant field.
synchronous generator. In a motor, the magnetic
axis of the rotating magnetic field is ahead of the
magnetic axis of the rotor, resulting in a positive
torque that depends on the displacement between

30 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

In this example, the displacement angle is 90,
which gives the maximum torque for a given
current. The current has been chosen so that the
axis of the resultant field is at approximately 45 to
the magnetic axis of the rotor.
In a synchronous generator, the displacement is
reversed: the magnetic axis of the rotor is ahead of
the magnetic axis of the rotating field, so the
torque is negative. This is illustrated in figure 5-3.
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 5-3: Synchronous generator flux plots:
(a) stator field, (b) rotor field, (c) resultant field.
Most of the AC generators in electric power
systems are synchronous machines. High-speed
turbine generators normally have two poles. The
rotor is made from a cylindrical steel forging, with
the field winding embedded in slots machined in
the steel. Apart from the slots for conductors, the
active surfaces of the stator and rotor are
cylindrical, so these are uniform-airgap or non-
salient machines.
Low-speed hydro generators have many poles.
These are salient-pole machines, where the poles
radiate like spokes from a central hub.
Synchronous generators will not be considered in
detail in this course, but will be studied in the
context of power systems in year 3.
Large synchronous motors are widely used as
high-efficiency constant-speed industrial drives,
where they can also be used for plant power factor
correction: see section 5.2. These are normally
salient-pole machines, and they generally have four
or more poles.
The main features of synchronous machine
operation can be deduced from the simple theory of
non-salient machines. An introduction to salient-
pole machines is given in section 5.3.
5.2 Characteristics
Circuit model
A non-salient synchronous machine can be
represented by a simple equivalent circuit [3, 4],
shown in figure 5-4.
I jXs
Ra
+ +
+
V V E
Figure 5-4: Equivalent circuit.
This circuit represents one phase of a 3-phase
machine. The voltage V is the phase voltage at the
machine terminals, and the current I is the
corresponding phase current. Other elements in the
circuit have the following significance.
Synchronous Machines 31
 The voltage E is termed the excitation voltage.
It represents the voltage induced in one phase
by the rotation of the magnetised rotor, so it E
corresponds to the magnetic field of the rotor I
shown in figure 5-2(b) or 5-3(b).
The reactance Xs is termed the synchronous
jXsI

reactance. It represents the magnetic field of
the stator current in the following way: the V
voltage jXsI is the voltage induced in one phase
by the stator current. This voltage corresponds
to the magnetic field of the stator shown in I
figure 5-2(a) or 5-3(a).
Figure 5-6: Phasor diagram: generator.
The voltage V = E + jXsI represents the
voltage induced in one phase by the total In power system studies, it is customary to reverse
magnetic field shown in figure 5-2(c) or 5-3(c). the reference direction for the current, so the
current is then represented by the phasor I in
The resistance Ra is the resistance of one phase figure 5-6.
of the stator, or armature, winding. For operation as a motor, V leads E by an
The resistance Ra is usually small in comparison angle , as shown in figure 5-7. The phase angle
with the reactance Xs, so it may be neglected in is now less than 90, indicating a flow of electrical
most calculations from the equivalent circuit. The power into the machine.
resulting approximate equivalent circuit is shown
in figure 5-5, described by the equation: V
N
V jX s I E (5-1)
jXsI
jXs E
I I
M
+ +
E
V
Figure 5-7: Phasor diagram: motor.

Figure 5-5: Approximate equivalent circuit.

Torque characteristic

Consider the line MN in figure 5-7, which is

Phasor diagram perpendicular to V. The length of MN can be
Figure 5-6 shows a phasor diagram corresponding expressed in terms of E and from the left-hand
to the equivalent circuit of figure 5-5, for the triangle, and in terms of XsI and from the right-
machine operating as a generator. The terminal hand triangle. We have:
MN E sin X s I cos
voltage V lags the excitation voltage E by an angle
. This is known as the load angle, because it
(5-2)
varies with the torque load. In terms of the Multiplying both sides of equation 5-2 by the
magnetic field, represents the angle between the voltage magnitude V and dividing by Xs gives:
VE sin
axis of the rotor field in figure 5-3(b) and the axis
of the resultant field in figure 5-3(c). The phase VI cos (5-3)
angle is greater than 90, so the power given by Xs
VI cos is negative, indicating a flow of electrical
power out of the machine.

32 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

The right-hand side of equation 5-3 is the electrical
power input to one phase of the motor. Since
energy is conserved, and there are no electrical
losses the resistance has been neglected the
total electrical power input must equal the work
done by the rotating magnetic field. If s is the
synchronous speed in rad/s and Td is the developed
torque, then:
loses synchronism with the rotating field, the load
angle will change continuously. The torque will be
alternately positive and negative, with a mean
value of zero. Synchronous motors are therefore
not inherently self-starting. Induction machines,
considered in section 6, do not have this limitation,
and the induction principle is generally used for
starting synchronous motors.

3VE sin
3VI cos Td s (5-4)
Excitation control
Xs
The developed torque is thus given by: In a wound-field synchronous machine, the
excitation voltage E can be controlled by varying
3VEsin
Td
the excitation current in the rotor field winding.
s X s
[Nm] (5-5)
This has consequences for the machine
characteristics, as will now be shown for the case
This has a maximum value when = 90, given by: of a synchronous motor.
If the torque load on a synchronous motor is
Td max
3VE
s X s
(5-6) held constant, the power output will be constant,
and if losses are neglected, there will be a constant
Equation 5-5 may therefore be written in electrical power input per phase given by:
normalised form: P VI cos (5-8)

sin
Td In normal operation the terminal voltage V is
(5-7)
Td max constant, so the quantity I cos must be constant.
In figure 5-9, the line AB is drawn parallel to the
A graph of this normalised torque is shown in imaginary axis, and its distance from the axis is
figure 5-8. Positive values of represent motor I cos. This line is the locus of the current phasor
operation; negative values represent generator I.
The length of the line MN is XsI cos, which is
operation.

1
also constant, so the line CD, parallel to the real
axis, is the locus of the excitation voltage phasor E.
Normalised torque

0.5 A
motor

N V
0

generator jXsI
-0.5 E
C I D
-1 M
-180 -90 0 90 180
Load angle, degrees

Figure 5-8: Synchronous machine torque.

B

If the mechanical load on a synchronous motor Figure 5-9: Locus diagram for constant load.
exceeds Tdmax, the rotor will be pulled out of
synchronism with the rotating field, and the motor
will stall. Tdmax is therefore known as the pullout
torque.
The torque characteristic shown in figure 5-8
has an important practical consequence. If the rotor
Synchronous Machines 33
If the value of E is progressively increased, by
increasing the current in the rotor field winding,
the point M will move towards D, and the angle
will decrease. Figure 5-10 shows the condition
where = 0. This is the unity power factor
condition, which gives the minimum value for I.
Let E0 be the value of E that gives this condition,
and 0 the corresponding value of .
A
I V N
jXsI
E0
C D
M
B
Figure 5-10: Unity power factor condition.
When E < E0, is negative, and > 0. The
machine takes a lagging current, as shown in figure
5-9. In this condition, the machine is said to be
under-excited. As the value of E is progressively
reduced, the values of I and increase, until the
limit of stability is reached when = 90. This
condition is shown in figure 5-11.
A V
V
E jXsI
C D
I
B
Figure 5-11: Stability limit.
When E > E0, is positive, and < 0. The
machine now takes a leading current, as shown in
figure 5-12. In this condition, the machine is over-
excited. If continuous operation at a leading power
factor is required, as in power factor correction
(discussed below), then the machine must be
34 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes
specially designed for the higher values of rotor
and stator current.
A
I
V N
jXsI
E
C D
M
B
Figure 5-12: Leading power factor condition.
If the mechanical load is removed from an
over-excited synchronous motor, then = 0, and
the phasor diagram takes the form shown in figure
5-13. The phase angle is now 90, so the machine
behaves as a 3-phase capacitor. In this condition, it
is known as a synchronous compensator. The
magnitude of the current, and hence the effective
value of the capacitance, depends on the difference
between E and V.
I
jXsI E
Figure 5-13: Synchronous compensator.
Power factor correction
The ability of a synchronous motor to operate at a
leading power factor is extremely useful. It will be
shown in section 7 that induction motors always
operate at a lagging power factor. Many industrial
processes use large numbers of induction motors,
with the result that the total load current is lagging.
It is possible to compensate for this by installing an
over-excited synchronous motor. This may be used
to drive a large load such as an air compressor, or it
may be used without a load as a synchronous
compensator purely for power factor correction.
 When a synchronous motor is used in this way,
the rotor excitation is normally controlled
automatically to keep the total current nearly in
phase with the voltage, so that the plant as a whole
operates at a power factor close to unity. It may not
be economic to give full correction, if this would
require a very large synchronous machine.
Figure 5-14 shows a phasor diagram for the
general case of power factor correction. The
synchronous machine current Is combines with the
load current Il from the rest of the plant to give a
total current It which is more nearly in phase with
the voltage V.
Is
V
It
Il
Figure 5-14: Power factor correction.
The relationships between the currents can be
expressed in terms of power, as follows. We have:
It Il I s
The complex power is given by:
S t VI *t V ( I l I s ) * VI *l VI *s S l S s (5-10)
Equating the real and imaginary parts of equation
5-10 gives:
Pt Pl Ps
Qt Ql Q s
For an over-excited synchronous machine, Qs will
be negative, so equation 5-12 shows that the
overall reactive power Qt will be less than the
reactive power Ql of the original plant. For
complete power factor correction, we require Qt =
0, and therefore Qs = Ql. If the synchronous
machine is run as a synchronous compensator,
without a mechanical load, then Ps 0, and the real
power demand of the plant is unchanged.
5.3 Salient-pole machines
The theory given in section 5.2 is only valid for
non-salient machines. This section gives a brief
introduction to salient-pole machines; for further
information, see references [3, 4].
When the rotor has salient poles, the airgap is
not uniform, and there is a preferred direction for
magnetic flux in the machine. Figure 5-15 shows a
simple model of a salient-pole machine, where part
of the rotor steel has been removed to
accommodate the field winding.
d-axis
q-axis
Figure 5-15: Salient-pole machine model.
The rotor has a path of easy magnetisation,
(5-9) known as the direct-axis or d-axis, where the
reluctance is low. This is also the axis of the
magnetic flux produced by the rotor field current.
An axis at right angles, known as the quadrature-
axis or q-axis, has a higher reluctance because of
the larger airgap.
Figure 5-16 shows the armature flux in a non-
(5-11) salient machine produced by a particular set of
currents in the armature (stator). The flux axis is at
(5-12) 45 to the rotor d-axis.
Figure 5-16: Non-salient armature flux.
Synchronous Machines 35
Figure 5-17 is a flux plot for same current pattern
in the salient-pole model. Saliency has the effect of
moving the axis of the armature flux towards the
d-axis.
However, if the windings are connected in delta
(figure 4-2), the third harmonic voltages will
accumulate round the delta:
v va vb v c

V1m cos t V3m cos 3 t ...

Figure 5-17: Salient-pole armature flux.
Voltage harmonics
In a non-salient machine, the flux distribution
shown in figure 5-16 is approximately sinusoidal
(see section 4.2). In a salient-pole machine,
however, figure 5-17 shows that the flux density
distribution is non-sinusoidal. It follows that the
voltages induced in the armature phases will also
be non-sinusoidal. The voltages may be
represented by Fourier series:
v a V1m cos t V3m cos 3 t V5m cos 5 t ...
v b V1m cos( t 120) V3m cos 3( t 120) ...
V1m cos( t 120) V3m cos 3 t ...
v c V1m cos( t 120) V3m cos 3( t 120) ...
V1m cos( t 120) V3m cos 3 t ...
(5-13)
V1m cos( t 120) V3m cos 3 t ... (5-15)
V1m cos( t 120) V3m cos 3 t ...
3V3m cos 3 t ...
This can result in a large third-harmonic circulating
current. Similar considerations apply to higher
harmonics where the harmonic number is a
multiple of 3; these are known as triplen
harmonics. Therefore, it is normal practice to
connect the windings of a synchronous machine in
star.
It is possible to eliminate any harmonic from
the voltage waveform by using short-pitched coils
in the stator winding. Short-pitched coils span less
than a pole pitch; the coils shown in figure 4-6 are
of this form. It may be shown that, if the coil is
short-pitched by a fraction 1/n of the pole pitch,
then the nth harmonic will be eliminated from the
voltage waveform. For example, in a 2-pole
machine, if the coils span 120 instead of 180, so
that they are short-pitched by 1/3, the third
harmonic will be eliminated. In this particular case,
it is permissible to connect the windings in delta. It
is more usual, however, to short-pitch by 1/6, as
shown in figure 4-6, since this reduces the fifth and
seventh harmonics to low levels. If the windings
are star connected, all the triplen harmonics are
eliminated, so the resulting voltage waveform is a
good approximation to a sine wave.

If the windings are connected in star (figure 4-1),

the third harmonics will cancel. For example, the
voltage between lines 1 and 2 is:
v12 va vb
V1m cos t V3m cos 3 t ...
V1m cos( t 120) V3m cos 3 t ...
(5-14)
V1m cos t V1m cos( t 120) ...
Salient-pole machine theory
It is possible to analyse the salient-pole machine by
resolving the armature flux into two components: a
component acting along the rotor d-axis, and a
component acting along the q-axis [3, 4]. This is
represented in the phasor diagram by resolving the
current I into components Id and Iq. The
component Id acts on the d-axis, where the low
reluctance gives a correspondingly high reactance
Xd. The component Iq acts on the q-axis, where the

36 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

high reluctance gives a low reactance Xq. The
resulting phasor diagram is shown in figure 5-18,
and the phasor equation is:
V E Ra I jX d I d jX q I q
V reluctance motor, or a synchronous reluctance
Reluctance motors
Since the reluctance torque is independent of the
field current, this torque component does not
(5-16) require the presence of a field winding. It is
therefore possible to make a form of synchronous
motor without a field winding. This is termed a
motor. With no field winding, equation 5-8
jXqIq
becomes:

1
2
1
sin 2
3V
Td
Iq E
Id Ra I jXdId 2 X q X d
I (5-18)
2
Xd
1 sin 2
3V

2X d X q

Figure 5-18: Salient-pole phasor diagram.
If the armature resistance Ra is neglected, the
torque developed by a salient-pole synchronous
machine is given by [4]:
VEsin V 2 1
1
Td sin 2
3
s X d 2 X q X d
(a) (b)
Term (a) in this equation represents the normal
synchronous torque, which may be identified with
equation 5-4. Term (b) represents a component of
torque due to the saliency of the rotor. This
component is termed the reluctance torque, which
vanishes when the rotor is cylindrical, for Xd is
then equal to Xq. See section 7.1 for a discussion of
reluctance torque. Figure 5-19 shows graphs of the
two torque components and the resultant torque.
1.25
Normalised torque
from which it follows that the ratio Xd / Xq should
be large for a good design. Say [5] describes
several different design techniques that have been
used to give high values of q-axis reluctance and
therefore low values of Xq to maximise the
reluctance torque.
Reluctance motors have many of the
(5-17) advantages of induction motors, with the added
property that the speed is locked to the frequency
of the AC supply. However, they are prone to
instability under certain operating conditions,
particularly at low frequencies when operated from
variable-frequency supplies for speed control [12].
5.4 Linear synchronous motors
Many applications require motion in a straight line
rather than rotary motion, for example in
automation systems. Linear motors provide this. In
concept, a linear motor is a rotary motor opened
out flat. Figure 5-20 shows the linear counterpart
of the rotating field model of figure 4-6, and figure

5-21(a)(e) show the field patterns when t = 0,

1 (c)
0.75 30, 60, 90 and 120 respectively.
(a)
0.5
0.25
0 (b)
-0.25
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 Figure 5-20: Travelling field model.

Load angle, degrees

Figure 5-19: Salient-pole machine torque:

(a) synchronous, (b) reluctance, (c) resultant (a)

Synchronous Machines 37
 A tubular linear motor can be derived from the
structure in figure 5-22 by rolling it up around the
longitudinal axis. Figure 5-24 shows an industrial
motor of this kind. Tubular motors have a
(b) particularly simple structure, since the primary
windings are circular coils that encircle the
secondary magnets.

(c)

(d)
Figure 5-21: Flux plots for travelling field:
(a) 0, (b) 30, (c) 60, (d) 90.

Figure 5-22 shows a linear synchronous motor

derived from the rotary model of figure 5-1. The
lower part with the windings is termed the primary,
and the upper part with the permanent magnets is
termed the secondary. Figure 5-23 shows the
corresponding flux plots for (a) the field produced
by primary currents at a particular instant of time,
(b) the field produced by the secondary magnets,
(c) the resultant field when both sources are active.
Figure 5-24: Tubular linear synchronous motor.
(Copley Motion Systems)
In addition to applications in industry, linear
synchronous motors are used in advanced ground
transport systems. The German Transrapid system,
for example, which was recently installed in
Shanghai, employs controlled electromagnets for
levitation and linear synchronous motors for
propulsion.

Figure 5-22: Linear synchronous motor.

(a)

(b)

(c)
Figure 5-23: Linear motor flux plots:
(a) primary, (b) secondary, (c) resultant field.

38 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

6 INDUCTION MACHINES same speed as the stator field. The flux plots in
figure 6-3 show (a) the field produced by stator
currents at a particular instant of time, (b) the field
produced by the rotor current, (c) the resultant field
6.1 Introduction
when both sources are active.
Induction motors exploit the rotating magnetic
field in quite a different way from synchronous
motors. Instead of a magnetised rotor, an induction
motor has a rotor with short-circuited conductors.
The motion of the rotating field induces currents in
the conductors, which in turn interact with the field
to develop a torque on the rotor.
Figure 6-1 shows a typical rotor for a small
induction motor, where conductors in the form of
aluminium bars are placed in slots in the laminated
steel core. At each end, the bars are connected to Figure 6-2: 2-pole induction motor model.
short-circuiting aluminium rings known as end-
rings. In this kind of rotor, the bars and end-rings
are made in a single operation by die-casting.

(a)

Figure 6-1: Induction motor cage rotor.

Currents will be induced in the rotor

conductors if there is a speed difference between
the rotor and the rotating magnetic field. In a
motor, the rotor runs more slowly than the rotating
field, and the resulting currents produce a torque
that tends to accelerate the rotor. Unlike
synchronous motors, induction motors are (b)
inherently self-starting. The rotor will accelerate
from rest until it is running just below the
synchronous speed, which is the speed of the
rotating field.
Figure 6-2 is a simplified model of the
structure of a 2-pole induction motor with 12 slots
in the rotor. In a practical motor, the airgap
between the stator and the rotor is made as small as
possible, but in the model the airgap has been
exaggerated for clarity. The stator rotating
magnetic field induces currents in the rotor (c)
conductors, which effectively form a 6-phase
Figure 6-3: Induction motor flux plots:
winding. These currents in turn produce a 2-pole
(a) stator field, (b) rotor field, (c) resultant field.
magnetic field that rotates in space at exactly the

Induction Machines 39
 The magnetic field produced by the rotor It is useful to define a quantity s, known as the
current in an induction motor is very similar to the fractional slip, as follows:
N N r s r
corresponding field in a synchronous motor, but
s s
the underlying mechanism is completely different. slip speed
s
(6-2)
Consequently, the motor characteristics are also synchronous speed Ns
completely different.
It follows that the slip varies in the opposite way to
If the rotor of an induction motor is driven the rotor speed. When the rotor is running at the
mechanically so that it runs faster than the rotating synchronous speed, so that Nr = Ns, the fractional
field, the direction of power flow reverses and slip is s = 0. When the rotor is stationary, so that
machine functions as a generator. Induction Nr = 0, the fractional slip is s = 1. From equation
generators are not widely used, but they have found 6-2, the slip speed and the rotor speed in terms of s
application in wind-powered generators. are given by:
Induction motors are simple and robust, and
their self-starting capability is a particular slip s r s s (6-3)
advantage. At least 90 per cent of industrial drives
are induction motors. A typical small motor is r s s s (1 s ) s (6-4)
shown in figure 6-4.
The frequency of the rotor currents is
proportional to the slip speed, and therefore
proportional to s. When the rotor is stationary,
s = 1, and the rotor frequency must be equal to the
stator supply frequency, so we have the important
result:
f r sf s (6-5)

where fr is the frequency of rotor currents and fs is

the stator supply frequency.

Figure 6-4: Small induction motor.

(Brook Crompton) Rotor power relationships

The rotating magnetic field exerts a torque Td on

6.2 Characteristics
An essential feature of induction motors is the
speed difference between the rotor and the rotating
magnetic field, which is known as slip. There must
be some slip for currents to be induced in the rotor
conductors, and the current magnitude increases
with the slip. It follows that the developed torque
varies with the slip, and therefore with the rotor
speed.
the rotor, and does work at the rate sTd. This
represents an input of power to the rotor. The rotor
revolves at a speed r, and therefore does work at
the rate rTd, which represents the mechanical
output power of the rotor. The difference between
these two powers represents power lost in the
resistance of the rotor. As in the DC motor, there
will be mechanical losses in the motor, so the shaft
torque T is less than Td. We have the following
rotor power relationships:
Rotor electromagnetic input: Pem s Td (6-6)

Rotor output: Pmech r Td (1 s ) s Td

Slip speed and fractional slip
(6-7)
The slip speed is given by:
Rotor loss: Ploss ( s r )Td s s Td
N slip N s N r , slip s r
(6-8)
(6-1)

40 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

Thus, a fraction (1 s) of the rotor electromagnetic
input power is converted into mechanical power,
and a fraction s is lost has heat in the rotor
conductors. The quantity (1 s) is termed the rotor
efficiency. Since there are other losses in the motor,
the overall efficiency must be less than the rotor
efficiency.
For high efficiency, the fractional slip s should
be as small as possible. In large motors, with power
ratings of 100 kW or more, the value of s at full
load is about 2%. For small motors, with power
ratings below about 10 kW, the corresponding
value is about 5%. It follows that the full-load
speed of induction motor is close to the
synchronous speed.
Induction motor model
When the rotor is stationary, the induction motor
behaves as a 3-phase transformer with a short-
circuited secondary. The equivalent-circuit model
of the transformer in figure 2-14 applies to this
condition. When the rotor moves, the voltage
induced in the rotor will depend on the relative
motion. It may be shown [3, 4] that this can be
represented by a simple change to the equivalent
circuit: the secondary resistance is not constant, but
depends on the fractional slip s. The circuit for one
phase takes the form shown in figure 6-5.
Is Rs jxs jxr Ir
I0
+ I0
Rr
Vs jXm Rc
s Rr
With a transformer, it is possible to simplify
the equivalent circuit by moving the shunt elements
to the input terminals see section 2.3. This is a
poor approximation with an induction motor,
however, because the magnetising reactance Xm is
much smaller in comparison with the leakage
reactances xs and xr. The reason for this is the
presence of an airgap between the stator and the
rotor, which increases the reluctance of the
magnetic circuit. Consequently, the no-load current
I0 in an induction motor is much larger than the no-
load current in a transformer of similar rating.
Performance calculation
The developed torque is obtained by equating the
power absorbed in the resistance Rr / s to the rotor
input power from equation 6-6, giving the result:
Td
3 2 Rr
s
Ir [Nm] (6-9)
s
It is necessary to solve the equations of the
equivalent circuit (figure 6-5) for the currents Is
and Ir, and hence determine the torque from
equation 6-9. This process is simplified by
transforming the equivalent circuit to the form
shown in figure 6-6. Here, the parallel combination
of Xm and Rc has been replaced by the series
combination of xm and rc.
jxs jxr
Is Rs Ir
+
rc
Vs s
jxm

Figure 6-5: Induction motor equivalent circuit.

Figure 6-6: Modified equivalent circuit.
This is the conventional form of the equivalent
circuit, first introduced by Steinmetz [6]. The The series elements in figure 6-6 are related to the
parameters have the same significance as in a parallel elements in figure 6-5 by the following
transformer: equations:
Rs is the stator winding resistance.
xs is the stator leakage reactance, representing X m2
rc Rc (6-10)
stator flux that fails to link with the rotor. Rc2 X m2
Rr is the rotor resistance referred to the stator.
xr is the rotor leakage reactance referred to the Rc2
xm Xm (6-11)
Rc2 X m2
stator.
Rc represents core loss, mainly in the stator.
Xm is the magnetising reactance.

Induction Machines 41
The corresponding inverse relationships are: and the rotor current is:

rc2 x m2 Z pIs
Rc (6-12) Ir (6-22)
rc Zr

rc2 x m2
Xm (6-13) Worked example 6-1
xm
A 4-pole 3 kW star-connected induction motor
If the core loss is small, so that Rc >> Xm, then
operates from a 50 Hz supply with a line voltage of
rc << xm, and we have the following approximate
400 V. The equivalent-circuit parameters per phase
relationships:
are as follows:
xm X m (6-14) Rs = 2.27 , Rr = 2.28 , xs = xr = 2.83 ,
Xm = 74.8 , rc = 3.95 .
X m2
rc (6-15) If the full-load slip is 5%, determine:
Rc
(a) the no-load current,
(b) the full-load stator current,
x m2
Rc (6-16) (c) the full-load rotor current,
rc
(d) the full-load speed in rev/min,
The value of rc depends on Xm, and therefore on the (e) the full-load developed torque.
frequency. When the speed of an induction motor Solution
is controlled by varying the frequency (see section
8-4), the resistance Rc is approximately constant. The phase voltage is:
Under these conditions, rc is proportional to the
Vs 231 V
Vline 400
square of the frequency, so the modified equivalent
circuit is less useful. In this section, however, the 3 3
frequency is assumed constant, so the modified The impedances are:
circuit will be used.
Values of the stator and rotor currents are Z s Rs jx s 2.27 j 2.83
easily determined by first defining impedances as
Zr jx r j 2.83 45.6 j 2.83
follows: Rr 2.28
Z s Rs jx s s 0.05
Z m rc xm 3.95 j 74.8
(6-17)

Zr jx r
Rr
(6-18) (3.95 j 74.8)( 45.6 j 2.83)
Zp
Zm Zr
s
Z m Z r ( 3.95 j 74.8) ( 45.6 j 2.83)
Z m rc jxm (6-19) 31.1 j 20.3
The parallel combination of the magnetising
branch and the rotor branch is: (a) The no-load current is:

Zp I0
ZmZr Vs 231
Zs Zm ( 2.27 j 2.83) (3.95 74.8)
(6-20)
Zm Z r

2.97 A
so the stator current is: 231 231
6.22 j 77.6 77.9
Is
Vs
Zs Z p
(6-21)

42 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

(b) The full-load stator current is: The maximum torque is known as the breakdown
torque. If a mechanical load torque greater than
Is
Vs Vs this is applied to the motor, it will stall. Also
Z s Z p ( 2.27 j 2.83) (31.1 j 20.3) shown in figure 6-7 is the full-load operating point,
and the starting torque when the speed is zero. The
4.68 j 3.23 A
231 torque is zero at the synchronous speed of 1500
33.4 j 23.1 rev/min.
I s I s 4.68 j 3.23 5.69 A When the rotor is stationary, the fractional slip
is s = 1. When the rotor is running at the
synchronous speed, the fractional slip is s = 0.
(c) The full-load rotor current is: Since the frequency of the rotor currents is sfs
Z pIs ( 31.1 j 20.3)( 4.68 j 3.23) where fs is the supply frequency (equation 6-6), the
Ir
45.6 j 2.83
frequency varies from 50 Hz when the rotor is
Zr stationary to 0 at the synchronous speed. At the
211 j5.89

full-load slip of 5%, the frequency is 0.0550 =
45.6 j 2.83 2.5 Hz.

211 j 5.89
Figure 6-8 shows the input current as a
I r Ir 4.62 A
211 function of slip for the same motor. Observe that
45.6 j 2.83 45.7 the starting current, when the rotor is stationary, is
about six times the full-load current of 5.69 A. This
(d) The synchronous speed is: ratio of starting current to full-load current is a
60 f 60 50 typical figure for induction motors.
Ns 1500 rev/min
p 2 Stator phase current, A 35
so the full-load speed is: 30
N r (1 s ) N s (1 0.05) 1500 25

1425 rev/min 20
15
(e) The full-load developed torque is:
10
3I r2 Rr 3 ( 4.62 ) 2.28
2
Td 18.6 Nm 5 full load
ss 2 50
0.05 0
2 0 300 600 900 1200 1500
Rotor speed, rev/min
Typical characteristics

Figure 6-7 shows the torque/speed characteristic Figure 6-8: Current/speed characteristic.
for the 3 kW motor used in the worked example.
Developed torque, Nm

70 Induction motor starting

60 breakdown
50 Most induction motors are started by connecting
40 them straight to the AC mains supply. This is
starting
30
20
known as direct on line starting, and as figure 6-8
full load shows, it will result in a large starting current.
10
0 Direct on line starting may be unacceptable, either
0 300 600 900 120 150 because the supply system cannot support such a
0 0 large current, or because the transient torque (see
section 6.6) could damage the mechanical system.
Rotor speed, rev/min
A simple method of reducing the starting current is
star-delta starting. With this method, the motor is
Figure 6-7: Torque/speed characteristic. designed for delta connection in normal running,
but for starting, the windings are connected in star.
Induction Machines 43
This reduces the starting current by a factor of 3,
with a corresponding reduction in the torque. After 60
the motor has reached its full speed, the windings

Developed torque, Nm
are re-connected in delta. This method has been 30
superseded by electronic soft starting (see section brake motor generator
0
8.4), where the applied voltage is gradually region region region
increased. -30

-60
Motor driving a load
-90
When a motor drives a mechanical load, the
operating point is given by the intersection of the -120
motor torque/speed characteristic with the -1500 0 1500 3000
corresponding load characteristic, as shown in
Rotor speed, rev/min
figure 6-9.
Figure 6-10: Extended torque characteristic.
70
60
50 motor Brake region of the characteristic
Torque, Nm

40
The rotor speed is negative in the brake region, so
30 we may put r = |r |. From equation 6-2, the
20 load fractional slip is given by:
10 s r s r
s
s s
0 (6-23)
0 300 600 900 1200 1500
Rotor speed, rev/min so s > 1. The gross mechanical power output given
by equation 6-7 is therefore negative:
Figure 6-9: Motor driving a load. Pmech (1 s ) s Td [6-7]

A negative mechanical output signifies an input of

Extended torque characteristic mechanical power to the rotor:

If the rotor of an induction motor is driven Pin ( s 1) s Td (6-24)

mechanically in the reverse direction, the
There is also an electromagnetic power input from
developed torque opposes the motion, so the
the stator, given by equation 6-6:
machine acts as a brake. Alternatively, if the rotor
is driven in the forward direction faster than the Pem s Td [6-6]
rotating field, the torque will reverse, and the
machine acts as a generator. Figure 6-10 shows the The power lost in the rotor resistance, given by
extended torque/speed characteristic that includes equation 6-8, is very large:
these conditions. Ploss s s Td [6-8]

This is equal to the sum of the mechanical power

input (equation 6-24) and the electromagnetic
power input (equation 6-6).
The machine can operate in the brake mode
only for very short periods, or the rotor will
overheat. This mode is sometimes used for
stopping an induction motor rapidly by reversing
the phase sequence of the supply, which merely
requires interchanging two of the connections to
44 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes
the motor terminals. The process is called plug
braking or plugging, illustrated in figure 6-11.
60
Developed torque, Nm
motor
30
curve
A
0 motor.
brake
curve B
-30
C magnetising current that creates the rotating
-60
-1500 -750 0 750 1500
Rotor speed, rev/min
Figure 6-11: Induction motor plug braking.
Suppose that the machine is operating at point A on
the blue motor curve when plug braking is
initiated. The direction of the rotating field
reverses immediately, giving a new torque/speed
characteristic shown as the red brake curve in
figure 6-11. Since the rotor speed cannot change
instantaneously, the operating point moves to B on
the brake curve, vertically below A. The resulting
negative torque will decelerate the rotor until it
reaches zero speed at C. At this point the supply
must be disconnected promptly, otherwise the rotor
will continue to accelerate in the reverse direction.
A better method of stopping the motor is by DC
dynamic braking, discussed in section 6.6.
Generating region of the characteristic
In the generating region of figure 6-10, the
machine torque is negative, so we may put Td =
|Td|. The fractional slip is also negative: s = |s|,
and the resistance Rr / s is negative in the rotor
branch of the equivalent circuit. It follows that the
electromagnetic and mechanical power values,
given by equations 6-6 and 6-7, both become
negative, but the power loss (equation 6-8) remains
positive:
Pem s Td s Td (6-25)
Pmech (1 s ) s Td (1 s ) s Td (6-26)
Ploss s s Td s s Td
(6-27)
Thus the direction of power flow has reversed, and
the rotor efficiency for generator operation is:
r
Pem 1
Pmech 1 s
(6-28)
It follows that an induction machine can operate as
a high-efficiency generator if the slip s is small.
This is the same condition for high efficiency in a
An induction machine must be connected to a
suitable AC source for it to function as a generator,
since a source of reactive power is required for the
magnetic field. If it is disconnected from any AC
source, an induction machine will not generate.
Usually induction generators are connected to an
AC supply system, but it is also possible to make
induction machines run as self-excited generators
by connecting capacitors to the terminals in a 3-
phase configuration [5]. Each capacitor effectively
forms a resonant circuit with the magnetising
reactance, thereby acting as an AC source to
supply the magnetising current.
Effect of parameter values
The stator resistance Rs is responsible for the lack
of symmetry between the motoring and generating
regions of the torque curve in figure 6-10. Figure
6-12 shows the result of setting Rs to zero.
90
Developed torque, Nm
60
30
0
-30
-60
-90
0 750 1500 2250 3000
Rotor speed, rev/min
Figure 6-12: Torque characteristic: Rs = 0.
In large machines, the stator resistance is a smaller
part of the total impedance, so the characteristic is
more symmetrical.
Induction Machines 45
 Figure 6-13 shows the effect on the motor
torque of halving the values of the leakage
reactances xs and xr. This has little effect on the
characteristic near to the synchronous speed, but it
increases the starting torque and the breakdown
torque significantly.
90
Developed torque, Nm
With this change in Rs, the full-load slip is
approximately halved, and therefore the full-load
rotor loss is halved. The penalty for this increased
efficiency is that the starting torque is much lower.
For operation from a fixed-frequency supply,
the design of an induction motor is a compromise.
A low value of Rs is desirable to give high
efficiency, but this also results in a low value of

80 starting torque.
70 (b)
An ingenious solution to this conflict between
60
efficiency and starting torque is to make the rotor
50
(a) with very deep slots, or even with two concentric
40
rotor cage windings [4, 5, 6]. These designs exploit
30
the fact that the frequency of the rotor currents is
20
sfs (equation 6-5), which is very low when the rotor
10
is running normally, but is equal to the supply
0
frequency when the rotor is stationary. Skin effect
0 300 600 900 1200 1500 in AC conductors [3, 4] causes current to flow near
Rotor speed, rev/min the surface at high frequencies, with a consequent
increase in the effective resistance. The special
Figure 6-13: Torque/speed characteristics: rotor windings have a low resistance at the full-
(a) original, (b) leakage reactance halved. load slip frequency, when the current is uniformly
distributed, but a high resistance when the slip
Figure 6-14 shows the effect of halving the rotor
frequency is high during starting.
resistance Rr. This has the effect of compressing
the characteristic towards the synchronous speed When the motor is supplied from a variable-
end, because the torque is a function of Rr / s, so frequency inverter (see section 8.4), the starting
the value of s must change in the same ratio as Rr condition is handled automatically without the
to give the same torque. Thus the value of the need for a high-resistance rotor, so a low resistance
breakdown torque is unchanged, but the slip at can be used for optimum efficiency.
which it occurs is halved.

70
6.3 Losses and efficiency
Developed torque, Nm

60 The efficiency of an induction motor is of great

50 importance to the user. It is defined in the normal
(a) (b) way as the ratio of useful mechanical output power
40 Pout to the total electrical input power Pin:
30

Pout
20 (6-29)
Pin
10
0 The difference between Pin and Pout is the total
0 300 600 900 1200 1500 motor power loss Ploss. We therefore have
alternative expressions for efficiency in terms of
Rotor speed, rev/min the power loss:
Pin Ploss

Figure 6-14: Torque/speed characteristics: Pout
(6-30)
(a) original, (b) rotor resistance halved. Pin Pout Ploss

46 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

Table 6-1 shows typical efficiency values for 4- the other four categories. It may be attributed to
pole induction motors ranging from 0.25 kW to departures from a purely sinusoidal winding
250 kW from one manufacturer, and the distribution, and to effects of the stator and rotor
corresponding power loss as a percentage of the slot openings on the magnetic field distribution in
input power. the machine [4, 5, 6].
Table 6-1: Induction motor efficiency
The efficiency of an induction motor can be
determined by the following methods.
Output power Efficiency Power loss Direct determination: measure Pin and Pout, and
0.25 kW 66% 34% use equation 6-29. This is the preferred method
2.2 kW 77% 23% for small machines, below about 10 kW, but it
22 kW 91% 9% is difficult to measure the powers with
250 kW 95% 5% sufficient accuracy in large high-efficiency
machines.
The importance of efficiency to the user can be Calorimetric: measure Pin and Ploss, and use
demonstrated from the following calculation. equation 6-30. The difficulty with this method
Suppose that a 250 kW motor runs continuously is accurate measurement of the loss from the
for 1 year, and that electrical energy costs 7p per heat dissipated by the motor, but it can be an
kWh. effective method for large machines with
Input power: 250 / 0.95 = 263 kW closed cooling systems.
Loss segregation: measure Pin, and calculate
Power loss: 0.05 263 = 13.2 kW
Ploss from its components. This is the most
Running cost: 263 24 365 0.07 = 161 000 widely used method.
Cost of loss: 13.2 24 365 0.07 = 8050
If the efficiency could be improved by a mere
0.1%, the cost saving per year would be 162.
Loss segregation method

Users comparing different motors need to know the The loss segregation method of determining
efficiency with high accuracy. efficiency is given in several national and
international test specifications [7, 8]. It requires
the following steps to determine all the losses
Loss components under specified load conditions (usually full load).
The motor losses are considered to have five 1. Determine the stator I2R loss PRs from equation
components as follows: 6-31, using the measured values of the stator
phase resistance Rs and phase current Is.
(1) Stator I2R loss: PRs 3 I s Rs
2
(6-31) 2. Determine the core loss Pcore and the friction
and windage loss Pfw from a no-load test (see
(2) Rotor I2R loss: PRr 3 I r Rr
2 below).
(6-32)
3. Determine the rotor I2R loss PRr as follows,
based on equation 6-32, using measured values
Pcore 3 I m rc
2
(3) Core loss: (6-33) of the input power Pin and the slip s:

PRr 3 | I r |2 Rr 3s | I r |2 sPem
Rr
(4) Friction and windage loss: Pfw (6-34)
s
(5) Stray load loss: Pstray Pem Pin PRs Pcore (6-35)
The total loss is the sum of items 1 to 5. Core loss where Pem is the electromagnetic power
is the eddy-current and hysteresis loss in the transferred to the rotor.
magnetic core of the machine, mostly in the stator, 4. Determine a value for the stray load loss Pstray.
which is represented by the resistance rc. Friction This is the least satisfactory part of the
and windage loss is the total mechanical power loss procedure, because of the uncertainty in this
within the motor, from bearing friction and quantity. As yet, there appears to be no
aerodynamic drag on the rotor. Stray load loss is an satisfactory test method for stray load loss. The
additional loss under load, which is not included in
Induction Machines 47
 American standard [8] specifies a special test,
known as the reverse-rotation test, but this has
been shown to give inaccurate results in many
cases. The IEC standard [7] avoids this
difficulty by assuming that Pstray is 0.5% of the
input power Pin, but this is too low for small
motors, and it fails to penalise badly designed
motors with a high value for Pstray.
No-load test
In the no-load test, the induction motor is run
without any mechanical load attached to the shaft.
The input power then just supplies the losses in the
motor, and the slip is negligibly small. Under these
conditions, the rotor current is very small, so the
rotor I2R loss is negligible, and we have:
Pin PRs Pcore Pfw (6-36)
By definition, the stray load loss is not included in
the no-load test. Stray no-load losses, if they are
significant, are considered included in Pcore and Pfw.
Re-arranging equation 6-36 gives
Pin Pin PRs Pcore Pfw
(6-37)
If the stator terminal voltage Vs is reduced, the
rotor speed will be virtually unchanged because the
slip remains small, so Pfw will remain constant.
Since Pcore varies approximately as Vs2, a graph of
P'in against |Vs|2 will approximate to a straight line
as shown in figure 6-15. Extrapolating this line to
zero volts gives the value of Pfw, and the core loss
is then given by
Pcore Pin PRs Pfw (6-38)
P'in
Pfw
|Vs|
Figure 6-15: No-load test graph.
48 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes
6.4 Parameter determination
The parameters of the equivalent circuit in figure
6-6 are usually determined from three tests:
A DC measurement of the stator phase
resistance
A no-load test, essentially as described above
for efficiency determination
A locked-rotor (or blocked-rotor) test, where
the rotor is prevented from revolving
These tests resemble the open-circuit and short-
circuit tests for determining the equivalent-circuit
parameters of the transformer.
DC resistance test
In small or medium-sized machines, up to about
100 kW, a DC measurement of the primary
winding phase resistance will give an accurate
value for Rs in the equivalent circuit. If the
machine is star connected, then a measurement
between any pair of line terminals will give 2Rs. If
it is delta connected, the corresponding
measurement will give 2Rs/3. The measurement
should be made for all three pairs of terminals and
the average taken.
In large machines, above about 100 kW, the
value of Rs at the normal operating frequency may
be significantly larger than the DC value because
of skin effect in the stator conductors.
No-load test continued
Since the rotor current is small in the no-load test,
the rotor branch may be removed from the
equivalent circuit of figure 6-6, giving the
simplified form shown in figure 6-16.
jxs
Is Rs
+
rc
Vs
jxm
Figure 6-16: No-load equivalent circuit.
This circuit will give accurate results if the input
power is corrected by subtracting the friction and
windage loss power Pfw, since this power is almost
equal to the power in the rotor branch. We then
have:
Pin Pfw | I s |2 ( Rs rc ) 2 (6-39)
where Pin is the input power per phase. Since the
stator phase resistance Rs is known, equation 6-39
gives the value of the core loss resistance rc. The
magnetising reactance xm is obtained from the
terminal voltage and current as follows:
Vs
| Z | ( Rs rc ) 2 ( x s x m ) 2 (6-40)
Is
This requires an estimate of the stator leakage
reactance xs, which can be obtained from the
locked-rotor test described below.
Locked-rotor (blocked rotor) test
If the rotor is locked (or blocked) to prevent
rotation, then r = 0 and s = 1. The impedance of
the rotor branch is low, and to a first
approximation the magnetising branch may be
ignored, giving the approximate equivalent circuit
of figure 6-17:
jxs jxr
Is Rs
+
Vs Rr
Figure 6-17: Locked-rotor equivalent circuit.
Only a low voltage is required to give the normal
full-load value of Is. As in the no-load test, the
resistance and reactance values are determined as
follows from the measured values of voltage,
current and power:
Pin | I s |2 ( Rs Rr ) 2 (6-41)
Vs
| Z | ( Rs Rr ) 2 ( x s x r ) 2 (6-42)
Is
This test can only determine the sum of the
leakage reactances, xs + xr, so it is necessary to
make an assumption about the ratio xs / xr. For most
purposes, it is sufficient to take this ratio to be 1,
but sometimes a different value is used based on
motor design values. In practice the ratio is
unimportant, because it may be shown that the
performance calculated from the equivalent circuit
is not affected by the ratio, if the parameters are
determined by test, using the same ratio. Therefore
the simplest assumption is generally used, namely
xs = xr .
A problem with the locked-rotor test is that the
rotor resistance Rr varies with the frequency of the
secondary current, due to skin effect. The practical
consequence is that the test should not be carried
out at the normal supply frequency, except in very
small (fractional kilowatt) motors. The two test
codes already cited [7, 8] specify a frequency of
not more than 25% of the normal supply frequency.
The value of xs determined from equation 6-42
should be used in equation 6-40 for the
magnetising reactance.
A more accurate calculation of the parameters
is possible by using the full equivalent circuit of
figure 6-6 for each test, and solving numerically for
the unknowns.
Worked example 6-2
Tests on a 3 kW 50 Hz star-connected cage
induction motor gave the following results:
DC stator resistance between lines: 4.54 .
No-load test: line current = 2.97 A,
line voltage = 400 V, input power = 214 W,
friction and windage loss = 50 W.
Locked-rotor test at 12.5 Hz: line current = 5.70 A,
line voltage = 44.5 V, input power = 422 W.
Load test: line current = 5.69 A,
line voltage = 400 V, input power = 3.29 kW,
fractional slip = 5.0%.
Determine:
(a) the parameters of the equivalent circuit,
(b) the efficiency of the motor at full load, using a
stray-load loss allowance of 0.5%.
Solution
(a) Equivalent circuit parameters.
Induction Machines 49
DC resistance test: Pcore Pnl Pfw 3I nl2 Rs
(2)
Rs
RDC 4.54
2.27 214 50 3 2.97 2.27 104 W
2 2
Pem Pfl PRs Pcore
Locked-rotor test:
3290 221 104 2965 W
Vs 25.7 V
Vline 44.5
3 3 (3) PRr sPem 0.05 2965 148 W

(4) Pstray 0.005Pfl 0.005 3290 16 W

Pin 141 W
Plr 422
3 3
Ploss PRs PRr Pcore Pfw Pstray
(5)
Rlr 4.33 221 148 104 50 16 540 W
Pin 141
I lr2 (5.70) 2
The efficiency is thus:
Rr Rlr Rs 4.33 2.27 2.06 Pfl Ploss 3290 540
83.59%
Pfl 3290
V 25.7
2 2
xlr s Rlr2 ( 4.33)
2

lr
I 5. 70
1.25 6.5 Single-phase induction motors

xr 2.51
xlr f 0 1.25 50
2 f lr 2 12.5 Single-phase operation of a 3-phase motor

No-load test: When one line is disconnected from a 3-phase

induction motor, the result is a single-phase
Vs 231 V
Vline 400 system. If the machine is a star-connected, as
3 3 shown in figure 6-18, two of the three phases are
connected in series to the single-phase supply, and
Pnl Pfw 214 50
Pin 54.7 W
the third phase carries no current.
3 3 Is
Pin
Rnl 6.20
54.7 sc
I nl2 ( 2.97 ) 2
Vs +
sb sa
rc Rnl Rs 6.20 2.27 3.93

V 231
2 2 Figure 6-18: Single-phase connection.
X nl s Rnl2 (6.20)
2

nl
I 2 . 97
77.5

x c X nl x s 77.5 2.51 75.0

(b) Efficiency.
(1) PRs 3I s2 Rs 3(5.70) 2 2.27 221 W

50 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

At standstill, the currents in the stator and the rotor The rotor current has two components: a positive-
will be sinusoidal alternating quantities if the sequence component Irp, associated with the
supply voltage is sinusoidal. The result is a forward rotating field, and a negative-sequence
magnetic field that pulsates instead of rotating, and component Irn, associated with the backward
the rotor remains stationary. However, a pulsating rotating field. Relative to the forward component,
field can be regarded as the resultant of two contra- the fractional slip s is given by equation 6-2:
Ns Nr
rotating fields: one positive and the other negative,
as shown by the red and blue phasors in figure s [6-2]
6-19. Ns
Relative to the backward component, the fractional
slip is:
Ns Nr
s 1 r 1 (1 s ) 2 s
N
(6-43)
Ns Ns
These two current components give corresponding
positive and negative torque components, so the
developed torque is:
Figure 6-19: Contra-rotating fields.
Td
1 2 Rr 1 2 Rr
s s s
I rp I rn (6-44)
When the rotor is stationary, the two rotating field 2s
components will produce equal and opposite
torques. If the rotor is made to revolve by any When the rotor is stationary, s = 1 = 2 s, so the
means, the two torque components are no longer two torque components cancel out. If the rotor
balanced, and there is a net torque tending to revolves in the positive direction, the positive
accelerate the rotor. torque term predominates; if it revolves in the
It can be shown [9] that the motor in figure negative direction, the negative term predominates.
6-18 may be represented by the equivalent circuit Figure 6-21 shows the two torque terms and the
of figure 6-20. resultant torque for the 3 kW motor used in
previous examples.
Is Rs jxs jxr
30
Irp Positive
+ rc 20
sequence
Rr
Torque, Nm

10
s
jxm 0 Total
torque
-10
Vs Negative
-20 sequence
jxm
-30
Rr -1500 -750 0 750 1500
2s
rc Speed, rev/min
Irn

Rs jxs jxr Figure 6-21: Single-phase torque characteristic.

Figure 6-20: Single-phase equivalent circuit.

Induction Machines 51
Losses

The I2R loss in the stator is given by: Vs +

PRs 2 Rs I s2
If skin effect in the rotor is negligible for the
negative-sequence component of rotor current, the
I2R loss in the rotor is given by:
PRr
2 2
Rr ( I rp I rn )
Danger of single-phase operation
If one stator line is accidentally disconnected from
a 3-phase motor, it will continue to run as a single-
phase motor. The motor slip will increase so that
the developed torque continues to match the load
torque, but the stator and rotor currents will be
abnormally high. Table 6-2 shows the computed
full-load performance of the example 3 kW motor,
(a) with a normal 3-phase supply, (b) with one line
disconnected.
Table 6-2: 3-phase and 1-phase operation.
(6-45)
Figure 6-22: Single-phase induction motor.
The phases of a 2-phase winding are displaced in
space by 90 (for a 2-pole machine), corresponding
(6-46)
to the 90 time-phase displacement between the
currents. As with a 3-phase winding, it may be
shown [3, 4] that a 2-phase winding with 2-phase
currents can produce a rotating magnetic field.
Once the motor has started, it is possible to
disconnect the capacitor, and the motor will
continue to run with a single winding, but the
performance is not as good.
The shaded-pole principle [3, 4] is used in very
small single-phase induction motors such as the
one shown in figure 6-23. They are widely used for
driving small cooling fans.

3-phase 1-phase
Full-load slip 0.05 0.082
Stator current magnitude 5.56 A 11.6 A
Rotor current magnitude 4.63 A 10.5 A +ve,
11.2 A ve
Stator I2R loss 211 W 611 W
Rotor I2R loss 147 W 538 W
Total I2R loss 358 W 1150 W
Figure 6-23: Shaded-pole induction motor.
This large increase in the I2R loss will cause the (RS Components Ltd)
motor to overheat very rapidly, resulting in serious
damage unless it is disconnected from the supply. This type of motor has a single winding on the
For this reason, it is essential for motor control stator, energising a pair of poles. A part of each
gear to detect single-phase operation and pole is enclosed by a ring of copper, known as a
disconnect the supply immediately. shading coil. Currents are induced in the rings,
giving the effect of a rudimentary 2-phase winding.

Single-phase induction motors

For domestic and light industrial applications,

induction motors need to operate from a single-
phase supply. Instead of a 3-phase winding, many
single-phase motors have a 2-phase winding and a
capacitor to give a phase shift of approximately 90
between the currents, as shown in figure 6-22
[3, 4].

52 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

6.6 Dynamic conditions
Dynamic model
The equivalent-circuit model of the induction
motor introduced in section 6.2 is valid only for
steady-state conditions, where the induction
machine runs at a constant speed. There are two
common situations where this does not give an
accurate representation of the machine
performance:
Starting, when the rotor is stationary and the
AC supply is suddenly switched on.
Sudden stopping, either by plugging or by DC
dynamic braking (discussed below).
The value of the peak current at switch-on
depends on the point in the AC cycle when the
switch is closed, and it will be different for each of
the three phases. Figure 6-24(a) shows the worst
case, where the peak current is a maximum.
The starting torque in figure 6-24(b) contains a
large oscillatory component at the supply
frequency of 50 Hz. This may have undesirable
effects on a mechanical system coupled to the
motor shaft. Electronic control, described in
section 8.4, can reduce this effect.
50
25

Current, A
For both of these conditions, a dynamic model is
required. The 2-axis theory of the induction motor 0
[4, 9, 10] treats the machine as a system of coupled
circuits described by differential equations. This
-25
model is valid for all conditions, transient as well
as steady state. Although the theory is beyond the
scope of this course, it is useful to consider some -50
of the results from this model obtained by 0 100 200 300
numerical solution of the differential equations. Time, ms
The equations of the 2-axis model are given in
Appendix 10.1. (a)

120
Starting transient
90
The torque/speed characteristics in section 6.2
Torque, Nm

show that the steady-state starting current is about 60

six times the full-load current in the example 3 kW
motor. This is typical of the ratio of currents in 30
most induction motors. When the motor is
suddenly switched on to the AC supply, the initial 0
current may be very high for a few cycles, and it is
-30
accompanied by a large oscillatory component of
0 100 200 300
torque.
Figure 6-24 shows the stator phase current and Time, ms
the developed torque when the motor is switched
on. The nature of the transient response will (b)
depend on the inertia of the rotating system. Here, Figure 6-24: Induction motor starting:
the motor has a moment of inertia of 0.011 kg m2, (a) phase current, (b) torque.
and it is assumed that the load has an inertia of four
times this value, giving a total of 0.055 kg m2.

Induction Machines 53
DC braking (a)

An induction motor can be stopped rapidly by 20

disconnecting the AC supply from the stator and

connecting a DC supply. The resulting stationary
magnetic field induces currents in the rotor that
oppose the rotation a process termed DC braking
or DC injection braking. A common
implementation with a star-connected induction
motor is to link two line terminals together, and
connect the DC source between this point and the
third terminal, as shown in figure 6-25.
+ (a) rotor speed, (b) torque.
V
Figure 6-25: DC braking connection.
When the speed of an induction motor is controlled
by an inverter (see section 9), DC braking can be
achieved without altering the connections to the
motor.
Figure 6-26 shows the rotor speed and the
developed torque for the example 3 kW motor
when DC braking is initiated from the full-load
speed of 1425 rev/min. The DC source voltage is
120 V, and total moment of inertia is 0.011 kg
1500
Speed, rev/min
Torque, Nm
0
-20
-40
-60
0 200 400
Time, ms
(b)
Figure 6-26: Induction motor DC braking:
Observe that the negative torque is maintained
for a short time after the rotor reaches zero speed,
because the rotor inductance forces current to
continue flowing, resulting in a brief speed
reversal. This in turn causes the rotor current to
change sign, and the torque goes positive, bringing
the rotor to rest.
6.7 Linear induction motors
As with synchronous motors, a linear form of the
induction motor can be derived by unrolling a
rotary motor, so the travelling-field model of figure
5-20 is applicable. Figure 6-27 shows the primary
of a small linear induction motor.

1000

500

-500
0 200 400
Time, ms
2
m.
Figure 6-27: Linear induction motor primary.

54 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

Figure 6-28 shows models of two forms of linear
induction motor. The primary has a 3-phase
winding, as in the linear synchronous motor, and
the secondary comprises a conducting plate on a
steel backing. The plate, which is normally made
from a good conductor such as copper or
aluminium, takes the place of the rotor conductors
of a rotary machine, and the steel backing provides
the flux return path.
(a)
(b)
Figure 6-28: Linear induction motor models:
(a) short primary, (b) short secondary.
A model of the active part of a linear induction
motor is shown in figure 6-29.
Figure 6-29: Linear induction motor model.
Figure 6-30(a)(e) show plots of the magnetic
flux in the motor and the currents in the conductors
when t = 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 respectively.
The current magnitude is represented by a colour
that ranges from blue for minimum to red for
maximum.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Figure 6-30: Linear induction motor flux and
current plots: (a) 0, (b) 30, (c) 60, (d) 90.
Like rotary induction motors, linear induction
motors are robust and self-starting. They have been
applied in airport baggage handling systems and
theme park rides, and in advanced transport
systems such as the magnetically levitated vehicle
shown in figure 6-31.
Figure 6-31: Maglev vehicle with linear
induction motor propulsion. (HSST Corporation)
The behaviour of a linear induction motor can
differ significantly from that of an equivalent
rotary motor [3, 4]. Linear motors usually have
large airgaps, so the magnetising current is larger
than in a rotary motor. In addition, a linear motor
has two ends that have no counterpart in a rotary
motor. In a short-primary machine, transient
currents can be generated as secondary conducting
material enters the active region at one end and
leaves it at the other end. These transient currents
can reduce the force on the secondary and increase
the losses, particularly at high speeds. Short-
secondary machines do not suffer from this
problem, because the secondary conducting
material is always in the active region.
Induction Machines 55
7 STEPPER MOTORS
7.1 Introduction
The conventional AC and DC machines are
designed for continuous rotation of a shaft. It is
often desirable to control the speed, but most
applications do not require precise control of the
angular position.
Specialised applications such as automation
systems do require this kind of control. Often it is
achieved with a feedback control system
incorporating a position sensor, a drive motor, and
a controller. The position measured by the sensor is
compared with the desired value, and the
difference used to control the motor until the error
is acceptably small. AC and DC motors used in this
way are termed servomotors, but they will not be
considered further in this course.
Another way of achieving position control is to
use a special type of motor known as a stepping
motor or stepper motor. These motors are not
designed primarily for continuous rotation,
although they can work in this way if required.
Instead, they are designed to turn the output shaft
through a precise angle whenever the currents in
the windings are switched in a particular way by an
electronic driver. Each switching action results in
one increment or step in the rotor position.
There are three basic types of stepper motor:
simple permanent-magnet, variable-reluctance, and
hybrid. Simple permanent-magnet stepper motors
are similar to permanent-magnet synchronous
motors, except that the stator currents are switched
instead of varying continuously. They are no
longer widely used, and they will not be considered
further.
Variable-reluctance stepper motors are simple
applications of the variable-reluctance principle
introduced in section 7.2. They do not contain
magnets, and they are easy to control, but they
have relatively large step angles. A variant of the
variable-reluctance stepper motor is the switched
reluctance motor, which is designed for continuous
rotation.
56 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes
Hybrid stepper motors make use of permanent
magnets to enhance the reluctance effect. They can
be made with very small step angles typically
1.8 and they can develop large values of torque.
Although they require a more complex type of
electronic driver, hybrid stepper motors are the
most popular variety.
7.2 Variable-reluctance principle
Consider an electromagnetic system of any kind,
energised by a coil carrying a current i. If the
displacement of any part of the system causes a
change in the reluctance R of the magnetic circuit,
the inductance L will also change. In the
Electromechanics course notes [1] it is shown that
the x-component of force on that part is:
L R
fx 12 2
1 2
2i (7-1)
x x
where is the magnetic flux through the coil.
Similarly, if rotation through an angle causes a
change in the reluctance and the inductance, then
the corresponding torque is:
L R
T 1 2
12 2
2i (7-2)
Equations 7-1 and 7-2 can be very useful for
determining forces and torques in devices where it
is possible to calculate the inductance or the
reluctance. These equations also explain the
principle of a variety of practical devices that
develop a force or a torque because the reluctance
of the magnetic circuit can change.
Alignment torque
Figure 7-1 shows a simple variable-reluctance
actuator, where a short steel bar can rotate between
the poles of an electromagnet.
Figure 7-1: Variable-reluctance actuator.
When the electromagnet is energised, there is a
torque on the bar, acting in a direction that would
rotate it into alignment with the poles, as can be
seen from the flux plot in figure 7-2.
Figure 7-2: Flux plot for actuator.
Figure 7-3 shows a graph of the alignment torque
as a function of the angular position of the rotor,
computed from the field solution. Note that the
torque opposes the rotation, so a positive
displacement results in a negative torque.
5 depth of 100 mm. The coil has 1000 turns and
2.5
Torque, Nm
0 (b) the maximum alignment torque.
-2.5
-5
-50 -25 0 25
Angle, degrees
Figure 7-3: Alignment torque.
The maximum torque can be calculated from
equation 7-2 as follows. Let r be the mean radius
of the airgap, lg the radial length of the airgap,
the angle of overlap between the stator and the
rotor, d the depth of the device perpendicular to the
plane of the diagram, and B the flux density in the
airgap.
If it is assumed that the flux is entirely
confined to the overlapping portion of the stator
and the rotor, then the flux is:
BA Bdr
The reluctance of each airgap is:
lg
Rg
l
0 dr
0 A
From equation 7-2, the torque is:
R 2l g
T 1 2 2 1 2 ( Bdr ) 2
0 dr
(7-5)
l g drB 2
2 ( Bdr )
2l g
1 2
0 dr 2 0
Note that the torque is independent of the angle .
This implies that the torque will be the same for
any angle of displacement from the aligned
position, whereas figure 7-3 shows that the torque
is considerably reduced as the displacement
approaches zero. The difference arises from the
simplifying assumption that the flux is entirely
confined to the overlap region.
Worked example 7-1
The actuator in figure 7-1 has an airgap length of
5 mm, a mean airgap radius of 42.5 mm, and a
carries a current of 5.0 A. If the reluctance of the
steel can be neglected, determine:
(a) the value of the flux density in the airgap,
Solution
From Ampres circuital law, we have:
0 Ni
B 0 H
50 2l g
4 10 7 1000 5.0
0.628 T
2 5.0 10 3
From equation 7-11, the maximum torque is:
l g drB 2 5.0 100 42.5 10 9 (0.628) 2
T
0 4 10 7
6.68 Nm
Comment
The maximum torque from the graph in figure 7-3
is only 4.72 Nm. Equation 7-11 over-estimates the
torque because it is based on the assumption that
the flux is confined to the overlap region. The flux
plot in figure 7-2 shows this to be a very rough
(7-3)
approximation. If the airgap is made much smaller
in comparison with the other dimensions, equation
7-5 gives a more accurate result.
(7-4)
Stepper Motors 57
7.3 Variable-reluctance stepper motors
Figure 7-4 shows a 3D model of a simple variable-
reluctance stepper motor with a 4-pole rotor and a
6-pole stator.

(a)

Figure 7-4: Stepper motor model.

Figure 7-5 shows a cross-section of the model.

Coils on opposite pairs of poles are connected (b)
in series to form one phase, so this is a 3-phase
motor.

a
c' b'

b c
a'
(c)

Figure 7-6: Stepper motor flux plots:

Figure 7-5: Model cross-section.
Figure 7-6(a) shows the flux plot when phase a is
energised, so that the rotor is held in alignment
with phase a. When current is switched from
phase a to phase b, the resulting flux plot is shown
in figure 7-6(b). Magnetic forces act on the
misaligned poles, and if the rotor is free to move it
will take up a new position of alignment with
phase b as shown in figure 7-6(c).
(a) phase a energised, (b) phase b energised,
(c) new rotor position.
Note that the field pattern has rotated 60
clockwise, but the rotor has moved 30 counter-
clockwise.
There is a similar effect when current is
switched from phase b to phase c, and then from
phase c to phase a. Each switching transition
causes the rotor to turn through the step angle of
30.
Variable-reluctance stepper motors are easy to
control, since the current in each phase merely has
to be turned on and off with semiconductor
switches such as MOSFETs [3, 4]. Hybrid stepper
motors (section 7-4) require more complex drive
circuits because the current has to be reversed.

58 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

Torque production
Equation 7-5 for the alignment torque is applicable
to the variable-reluctance stepper motor:
l g drB 2
T magnet to give a higher torque for a given current.
0
[7-5]
This is the maximum torque when the rotor and
stator poles are misaligned. The torque will vary
with the displacement angle, as shown in figure
7-3. Equation 7-5 may not be an accurate estimate
of the maximum value see worked example 7-1
but it shows that the torque depends on B2. If the
steel parts of the magnetic circuit are unsaturated,
B will be proportional to the coil current, and the
torque therefore varies as i2. In practice, there is
usually significant saturation of the steel parts, so
the torque cannot be calculated by elementary
methods.
7.4 Hybrid stepper motors
The hybrid stepper motor is the most important and
widely used type. It is essentially a variable-
reluctance motor with the addition of a permanent
Figure 7-7 shows the rotor and stator of a typical
commercial hybrid stepper motor.
Figure 7-8 shows the structure of a simple
model of a 2-phase motor with a 10 step angle.
The rotor comprises two toothed discs joined by a
cylindrical permanent magnet, which gives the
discs opposite magnetic polarities. The stator has
four poles, each bridging the two rotor discs.
Cross-sections of the rotor discs and stator
poles are shown in figure 7-9.
The phases are energised according to the
pattern in table 7-1 for successive steps
Table 7-1: Motor phase currents.

phase A +I 0 I 0 +I
Switched reluctance motors
phase B 0 +I 0 I 0
Although variable-reluctance stepper motors are
not very widely used, the same principle is As with the variable-reluctance motor, one phase at
exploited in a type of motor known as a switched a time is energised, but the current in each phase
reluctance motor [3, 4]. These are designed for has to change direction.
continuous rotation, with the electronic driver
controlled by a position sensor on the motor shaft
instead of using externally generated pulses.
Switched reluctance motors are very simple in
structure, and can be competitive with inverter-
controlled induction motors in some applications.
They suffer from the disadvantages of torque
pulsation at low speeds, and noise. Switched
reluctance motors are beyond the scope of this
course but are covered in the Year 3 course
Electrical Machine Drives.

Figure 7-7: Hybrid stepper motor

Stepper Motors 59
 Consider the situation when phase A is
switched off and phase B is switched on. Poles B1
and B2 are symmetrically positioned with respect to
the rotor teeth, but the flux densities in the two
gaps are very different. Pole B1 has S polarity, so
the flux density in the gap between this pole and
the rotor N disc is high. Since pole B2 has N
polarity, the flux density in this gap is low. The
converse holds for the S rotor disc. The result is
(a) that the rotor is pulled into a new alignment
position shown in figure 7-10.
It is not possible to show 2D flux plots for the
hybrid stepper motor because the field is
essentially 3D. Magnetic flux passes along the axis
from the permanent magnet to one rotor disc,
crosses the gap to the stator poles, then along the
poles to the other rotor disc, and returns to the
other end of the magnet. Figure 7-11 shows shaded
(b) plots of the flux density magnitude in the two discs
and the poles when phase B is energised, but the
rotor has not yet moved to the new alignment
Figure 7-8: Hybrid stepper motor model: position. This demonstrates the effect of the
(a) complete, (b) frame and two coils removed.
permanent magnet in concentrating the field in the
Figure 7-9 shows the situation when phase A is required gaps.
energised. Stator pole A1 has S polarity, so it aligns After one complete cycle of excitation, or four
with the N rotor disc; stator pole A2 has N polarity, steps, the rotor will have moved by one tooth pitch
so it aligns with the S rotor disc. from its original position. If there are n teeth on the
rotor, there will be 4n steps per revolution, so the
B1 step angle is 90 / n degrees. Practical hybrid
stepper motors usually have a large number of
teeth on the rotor, resulting in a small step angle. A
A2 typical step angle is 1.8, giving 200 steps per
N A1
revolution, with 50 rotor teeth.
The maximum torque can be estimated from
equation 7-5 as follows. Let Bm be the flux density
B2
in a gap due to the permanent magnet, and Be the
(a) flux density due an energised pole. If the magnetic
circuit is unsaturated, the total flux density in one
gap will be Bm + Be, and in the other gap it will be
B1 Bm Be. If p is the number of active pairs of teeth,
the resultant torque is thus:
pl g drB12 pl g drB22 pl g dr
Tm ( B12 B22 )
0 0 0
A2 S A1

pl g dr
{( Bm Be ) 2 ( Bm Be ) 2 }
B2 0
4 pl g drBm Be

(b)
0
Figure 7-9: Phase A energised:
(a) N polarity end, (b) S polarity end. (7-6)

60 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

 Equation 7-6 shows that the torque is directly
B1 proportional to Be, and therefore to the current in
the coil, provided that the magnetic circuit is
unsaturated. In contrast, the torque in a variable-
A2 N A1 reluctance motor is proportional to the square of
the current. As with the variable-reluctance motor,
however, there is usually significant magnetic
saturation in practical devices, so equation 7-6 may
B2
not be a good approximation.
(a) In equation 7-6, the term Bm shows the effect of
the permanent magnet. It is desirable to make this
B1 term large, and to avoid conditions that would
weaken the magnet. If Bs is the value of the flux
density at which the steel parts of the magnetic
circuit saturate, it may be shown that the greatest
A2 S A1 torque is obtained when the following relationship
holds between Be, Bm and Bs:

B2 Be Bm 1
2 Bs (7-7)
(b) It is possible to energise both phases at the
same time, giving the pattern of phase currents in
Figure 7-10: Phase B energised: table 7-2.
(a) N polarity end, (b) S polarity end. Table 7-2: Motor phase currents.

phase A +I +I I I +I
phase B I +I +I I I
This sequence gives a larger torque with the
same step angle, and is the normal mode of
operation. The current in each phase is a square
wave, and there is a phase shift of 90 between the
two currents. A combination of the patterns in table
7-1 and table 7-2 will give eight steps for each
(a) cycle of excitation, which is termed the half-step
mode. The normal mode is the full-step mode.

7.5 Stepper motor characteristics

Static torque characteristics

Consider a stepper motor with a constant current

(b)
Figure 7-11: Phase b energised:
(a) N polarity end, (b) S polarity end.
passed through one or more phase windings. The
rotor will be pulled into alignment, and any attempt
to move it will be opposed by a torque. To a first
approximation, the restoring torque is given by
[11]:
T Tm sin n (7-8)

where is the angular displacement of the rotor, n

is the number of teeth on the rotor, and Tm is the
peak static torque. This is a spring-like

Stepper Motors 61
characteristic, where the restoring force increases
with displacement.
The maximum restoring torque T = Tm occurs
when n = 90, corresponding to a displacement of
a quarter of a tooth pitch. If an external torque
exceeding Tm is applied, then the rotor will slip a
tooth it will move to the next equilibrium
position one tooth pitch away. The maximum
position error, just before tooth slipping occurs, is
therefore a quarter of a tooth pitch. This is equal to
the step angle in a hybrid stepper motor.
Multi-step operation
With each switching of the motor phase currents,
the rotor of a stepper motor will move to a new
step position. Since the rotor has inertia and the
restoring force has a spring-like characteristic, the
rotor will oscillate about its new equilibrium
position. If the currents are switched at a low rate,
the rotor will move in steps, but it will oscillate at
each step position. If the oscillation has not
decayed to a low level before the next switching
instant, resonance is possible, where the oscillation
amplitude increases at each step until the rotor
motion becomes erratic [11]. This can happen
when the time interval between steps is an integer
multiple of the oscillation period. If the stepping
rate is Sr steps per second, and the oscillation
natural frequency is fn hertz, the condition for
resonance is therefore:
k 1, 2, 3,
1 k
, (7-9)
Sr fn
The critical stepping rates for resonance are
therefore given by:
Sr k 1, 2, 3,
fn
, (7-10)
k the phase current waveform, so it varies with the
High-speed operation
When the stepping rate is higher than the
oscillation natural frequency, rotor motion is
continuous, and the small speed variation between
steps can be ignored. This mode of operation is
known as slewing. It resembles the steady-state
operation of a synchronous motor.
62 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes
The nature of the currents in the motor phases
will depend on the type of electronic driver see
section 7.6 as well as the speed and the properties
of the motor. At low speeds, a typical driver will
maintain constant currents in the motor phases for
the duration of each step, so the current waveform
approximates to a square wave.
At high speeds, however, the waveform may be
very different from a square wave, because the rate
of rise of current is limited by the phase
inductance. If the speed is high enough, the current
will not reach its desired value before the end of
the step period. The waveform is then
approximately triangular, decreasing in amplitude
as the stepping rate increases. There will be a
corresponding reduction in the motor torque.
Start/stop rate
If the stepping rate is not too high, a stepper motor
will start from rest and run in the slewing mode
when the winding currents are switched at a
constant rate. Similarly, if the rate is not too high,
the motor will stop suddenly when the current
switching stops. Above a critical stepping rate
the start/stop rate the motor may lose steps when
it starts, and over-run or gain steps when it stops.
As long as the start/stop rate is not exceeded, the
rotor moves by a number of steps equal to the
number of switching steps. The start/stop rate
depends on the total inertia of the rotating system
as well as the properties of the motor and driver.
Pullout torque
Like a synchronous motor, a slewing stepper motor
will stall when the applied torque exceeds the
pullout torque. The value of this torque depends on
stepping rate. At low stepping rates, when the
phase current waveform is almost a square wave,
the pullout torque is substantially constant. At
higher rates, as noted above, the mean current will
fall, and the pullout torque will be reduced.
Acceleration and deceleration
1400
Most stepper motors can run at a much higher
speed than the start/stop rate if the stepping rate is 1200

Stepping rate, steps/s

b
gradually increased. Similarly, a motor running at 1000
high speed can be stopped without gaining or 800
losing steps if the stepping rate is gradually
reduced. 600
a
Ideally, the acceleration or deceleration should 400
c
be related to the motor pullout torque 200
characteristic, since this indicates the maximum
0
torque available at any given speed. In practice,
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4
however, a simple pre-defined speed ramp is
generally used. There are three kinds of ramp in Time, s
common use:
Linear ramp: the stepping rate is increased at a Figure 7-13: Typical deceleration ramps:
uniform rate for acceleration, and decreased at (a) linear, (b) cosine, (c) inverse.
a uniform rate for deceleration. Most stepper motor drivers offer a linear speed
S-curve or cosine ramp: the linear ramp is ramp, and the better ones give the option of an
modified to give a smooth change from zero to S-curve or cosine ramp. Some low-cost drivers use
maximum acceleration and back to zero, to an inverse ramp, because it is easy to implement
avoid transients at the beginning and end of the with a counter. This is the least desirable form,
ramp. because the acceleration or deceleration is greatest
Inverse ramp: a curve resulting from a linear at high stepping rates when the available torque is
ramp of the time interval between steps. at its lowest. However, it is better than no ramp at
These ramps are illustrated in figure 7-12 for all.
acceleration, and figure 7-13 for deceleration.

1400
1200
Stepping rate, steps/s

b
1000
800
600
a c
400
200
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4
Time, s

Figure 7-12: Typical acceleration ramps:

(a) linear, (b) cosine, (c) inverse.

Stepper Motors 63
7.6 Stepper motor control
Electronic drive circuits
A driver for a stepper motor usually comprises
three sub-systems:
A power drive that supplies current to the
motor windings.
A logic sequencer that generates the required
control signals for the power drive, in response
to step demand pulses.
A controller that generates the required
sequence of step demand pulses.
These sub-systems may be combined in a single
unit. More commonly, the controller is a separate
item that may take the form of a plug-in card for a
computer, and the logic sequencer is combined
with the power drive to form a drive module.
Most hybrid stepper motors require a bipolar
power drive, which can reverse the direction of the
current through the winding. Some types of motor
can use a simpler unipolar drive, which turns the
current on and off without reversing its direction,
but this requires two coils on each pole. Bipolar
drives are the preferred choice. They usually
employ chopper action for controlling the current
magnitude, as described on the next page.
Figure 7-14 shows the essential part of a
bipolar power drive for one phase, with the gate
control circuits for the MOSFETs omitted. Similar
drive circuits are used for the other motor phases.
+Vd
Q1 Q3
D1 D3
T1 motor T2
phase
Q2 Q4
D2 D4
Rc
Vd
Figure 7-14: Bipolar power drive.
64 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes
The circuit operates as follows:
To supply positive current to the motor phase,
transistors Q1 and Q4 are turned on, connecting
terminal T1 to +Vd and terminal T2 to Vd.
When Q1 and Q4 are turned off, current can
continue to flow in diodes D2 and D3, returning
energy to the supply, until the current falls to
zero.
To supply negative current, transistors Q2 and
Q3 are turned on, connecting terminal T1 to
Vd and terminal T2 to +Vd.
When Q2 and Q3 are turned off, current can
continue to flow in diodes D1 and D4, returning
energy to the supply, until the current falls to
zero.
If transistors Q2 and Q3 are turned on before Q1
and Q4 cease to conduct, both arms of the bridge
will short-circuit the power supply. This
undesirable condition is known as shoot-through.
To ensure that it cannot happen, a delay is often
introduced between the positive and negative half-
cycles of the current waveform, as shown in figure
7-15.
100
Current, %
0
-100
0 90 180 270 360
Time phase, degrees
Figure 7-15: Phase current waveform.
Effect of winding inductance
The rise and fall of current is approximately
exponential, governed by the inductance and
resistance of the motor phase, but modified by the
voltage induced in the winding when the rotor
moves. At higher stepping rates, the time constant
represents a larger fraction of the waveform period,
so the current in one phase takes the form shown in
figure 7-16. In deriving these graphs, the motional
voltage has been ignored, and it is assumed that the
driver does not use chopper control. The mean
current falls progressively, with a corresponding
reduction in the motor torque.
Phase current, %
Let R be the resistance of the motor phase plus
any external resistance, L the motor phase
inductance, and Vd the supply voltage. The
maximum phase current is then Vd / R, and the time
constant is L / R. To improve the shape of the
waveform at high stepping rates, it is possible to
increase both Vd and R. This will reduce the time
constant but leave the maximum current
unchanged. However, it is very inefficient because
of the power loss in R. A better method is chopper
control.
Chopper control

100 With chopper control, the motor is supplied from a

high voltage source, but without a correspondingly
0 high phase resistance. The initial rate of rise of
current is given by Vd / L, so a high value of Vd
-100 gives a rapid rise of current. To limit the final
0 90 180 270 360 value of the motor current, chopper control works
Time phase, degrees as follows for positive current:
Transistors Q1 and Q4 are turned on.
(a) Current begins to rise.
When the current reaches an upper threshold
Phase current, %

100 value, Q1 and Q4 are turned off.

Current begins to fall.
0 When the current reaches a lower threshold
value, Q1 and Q4 are turned on.
-100 The cycle repeats.
0 90 180 270 360 A similar sequence applies for negative current,
Time phase, degrees using transistors Q2 and Q3. The voltage drop
across the current-sensing resistor Rc is used for
(b) controlling the transistors, and the resulting phase
current waveform takes the form shown in figure
Phase current, %

7-17. Here it is assumed that the transistors are

100
switched off when the current reaches 110% of the
0
desired value, and switched on again when the
current falls to 90%.
-100
0 90 180 270 360 110
Phase current, %

Time phase, degrees

0
(c)
Figure 7-16: Phase current waveforms at
-110
different stepping rates:
(a) low, (b) medium, (c) high. 0 90 180 270 360
Time phase, degrees

Figure 7-17: Waveform with chopper control.

Stepper Motors 65
8 POWER ELECTRONIC CONTROL If the diodes are replaced by thyristors, as
shown in figure 8-3, the output voltage can be
controlled by varying the firing angle the point
8.1 AC/DC Converters on the cycle where the thyristors are turned on by
applying a gate drive signal. The gate drive circuits
AC/DC converters convert alternating current or are not shown in figure 8-3.
voltage into direct current or voltage [3, 4]. In most
applications, the power flow is from the AC source U1 U3
to the DC load, and the process is called
R +
rectification. If the power flow reverses, the +
process is called inversion. vs vL

Single-phase AC/DC converters U2 U4

The simplest AC/DC converter is just a rectifier

bridge circuit using diodes. Figure 8-1 shows a Figure 8-3: Single-phase thyristor bridge.
single-phase bridge supplying a passive load.
Figure 8-4 shows the resulting waveform for a
firing angle of 30. The output goes negative for a
D1 D3 portion of each cycle before the next thyristor is
R fired, so the mean value of the waveform falls.
+ +
vs 100
Voltage, %
vL
50
L 0
-50
D2 D4 -100
0 180 360 540 720
Figure 8-1: Single-phase diode bridge. Time phase, degrees

When the source voltage vs is a sinusoidal
alternating quantity, the output voltage vL is
unidirectional. Figure 8-2 shows the output for two
cycles of the input voltage, as a percentage of the
maximum value of vs.
100
Voltage, %
Figure 8-4: Thyristor bridge output voltage.
The mean output voltage is now given by:
Vd Vd 0 cos (8-2)
where Vd0 is the diode bridge output given by
equation 8-1 and is the firing angle. Thus, the

output voltage can be varied from Vd0 to zero by

50 varying the firing angle from 0 to 90. Figure 8-5
shows the waveform when = 90, where the
0 mean output voltage is zero.
0 180 360 540 720
Time phase, degrees 100
Voltage, %

50
Figure 8-2: Diode bridge output voltage. 0
-50
The mean output voltage is given by:
-100

Vd 0 0.900V
2 2V 0 180 360 540 720

(8-1)
Time phase, degrees
where V is the RMS value of the AC input.
Figure 8-5: Output voltage when = 90.

66 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

Inverter action The output waveform is shown in figure 8-9. The
output is much smoother than for single phase, and
Equation 8-2 indicates that the output voltage will
reverse if the firing angle exceeds 90. Figure 8-6
the mean value is given by:
shows the output waveform when = 150, which
Vd 0 1.35V
3 2V

is an inversion of figure 8-4. (8-3)

100 where V is the RMS line voltage of the AC supply.

Voltage, %

50
0 100

Voltage, %
-50
-100 50
0 180 360 540 720
0
Time phase, degrees 0 180 360 540 720

Figure 8-6: Output voltage when = 90.

Time phase, degrees

Current cannot flow in the reverse direction Figure 8-9: 3-phase diode bridge output.
through the thyristors, so the circuit will not work
with a passive load if > 90. However, current
Figure 8-10 shows a 3-phase thyristor bridge, and
figure 8-11 shows the corresponding output voltage
can continue to flow in the forward direction if the
waveform when the firing angle is 30.
load contains a voltage source, such as a battery or
a DC motor armature, with the polarity shown in
figure 8-6. The DC source eL then supplies power U1 U3 U5
to the converter, which returns power to the AC
supply. In this mode, the converter is operating as a R +
an inverter.
b vL

U1 U3 eL c L

+
+ U2 U4 U6
vs R

Figure 8-10: 3-phase thyristor bridge.

L
U2 U4

100
Voltage, %

Figure 8-7: Inverter action.

50
3-phase AC/DC converters

A 3-phase diode bridge can be formed from a 0

single-phase bridge by adding just one extra pair of 0 180 360 540 720
diodes, as shown in figure 8-8. Time phase, degrees

D1 D3 D5 Figure 8-11: 3-phase thyristor bridge output.

a R +
The mean output voltage is given by:
b vL
Vd Vd 0 cos (8-4)
c L
D2 D4 D6 where Vd0 is the 3-phase diode bridge output given
by equation 8-3 and is the firing angle.
Figure 8-8: 3-phase diode bridge.

Power Electronic Control 67

8.2 DC motor control
In section 3.3 it was shown that the speed of a DC
motor could be controlled by varying the voltage
applied to the armature. A thyristor AC/DC
converter is a simple method of generating a
variable DC voltage from the AC mains supply, so
it provides an effective way of controlling the
speed of a DC motor [3, 4]. The combination of a
converter and a DC motor is the basis of variable-
speed drive systems that have dominated the
market for many years.
DC motors have several disadvantages in
comparison with induction motors:
High manufacturing cost
Maintenance of the commutator and brushes
Protection required in hostile environments
Until recently, the high cost of inverters for
variable-speed AC drives (see section 8.3) has
offset the disadvantages of the DC motor. This is
no longer the case. AC drives are now the preferred
choice in most applications. However, there is still
a market for large DC drives in specialised
applications such steel rolling mills and mine
winders.
When a DC motor is supplied from a thyristor
converter, the armature generated voltage can
affect the converter voltage waveform, so that the
mean output voltage varies with the load current
[13]. This results in poor speed regulation unless
some form of feedback control is used.
A particular problem with thyristor converters
is that the current cannot reverse. Special measures
are therefore required if the DC motor torque is
required to reverse, as can happen during braking
[3, 13].
An important function of a DC motor
controller is to provide a soft start by gradually
increasing the voltage applied to the armature.
8.3 DC/AC Inverters
The only way to control the speed of a
synchronous motor is to vary the frequency of the
AC supply. This is also the most effective way of
controlling the speed of an induction motor, so
there is a general requirement for a variable-
frequency AC source. An electronic system that
converts DC to variable-frequency AC is known as
an inverter.
68 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes
In section 8.2, it was observed that the power
flow through a DC/AC inverter could be reversed
if the firing angle exceeded 90 and a DC voltage
source of the correct polarity was connected to the
output. This is a known as a line-commutated
inverter, since the switching of current from one
device to another is determined by the alternating
voltages applied to the 3-phase input.
It is possible to use a line-commutated inverter
to drive a synchronous motor, since this machine
will generate the required voltage waveforms. This
approach is sometimes used with large
synchronous motors [12]. In general, however,
variable-frequency inverters for motor control use
forced commutation, where the switching of
current from one device to another is
predetermined, and not dependent on an AC source
connected to the output. These are more
complicated than line-commutated inverters, but
are more versatile.
The most common form of inverter for motor
control is the 3-phase bridge inverter [3, 4] shown
in figure 8-12, with the base drive components
omitted. The DC supply voltage Vd is connected to
the terminals labelled +Vd, Vd, and the AC
output is taken from the terminals labelled a, b, c.
Although the switching devices are shown as
transistors, other power electronic switching
devices are frequently used [3, 4]. The most
popular choice is the IGBT (insulated gate bipolar
transistor) for power ratings up to about 500 kW.
The circuit is effectively a 3-phase version of the
bipolar power drive for stepper motors, described
in section 7.6.
+Vd
D1 D3 D5
Q1 Q3 Q5
a
b
c
D2 D4 D6
Q2 Q4 Q6
Vd
Figure 8-12: 3-phase bridge inverter.
 This circuit is switched in a similar way to the
stepper motor drive circuit. In each leg of the 100

Vab, %
bridge, one transistor at a time is switched on,
connecting an output terminal to either +Vd or 0
Vd. As in the stepper motor drive, the diodes
provide paths where load current can continue to -100
flow when the transistors are turned off. It is 0 180 360 540 720
essential that one transistor has ceased to conduct Time phase, degrees
before the second transistor in the same leg is
turned on, otherwise the DC supply will be short-
circuited. This is the same problem of shoot- 100
through that was mentioned in section 7.6.

Vbc, %
0
Six-step inverter
-100
The simplest mode of operation is to control the 0 180 360 540 720
switches so that the voltage waveform at each Time phase, degrees
output terminal is a square wave. Figure 8-13
shows the voltages with respect to the mid-point of
the DC supply, as a percentage of the DC supply 100
voltage Vd. The line-to-line voltages are then quasi-

Vca, %
square waves, as shown in figure 8-14. Because 0
there are six switching transitions per cycle, this is
known as a six-step inverter. -100
0 180 360 540 720
50
Va, %

Time phase, degrees

0
-50 Figure 8-14: Six-step line-to-line voltages.
0 180 360 540 720
Time phase, degrees Pulse-width modulation

The six-step inverter waveform is rich in

50 harmonics, which can have an adverse effect on
motor performance [12]. This type of inverter is
Vb, %

0 generally used in high power drives, typically

above 1 MW, but for lower powers a technique
-50 known as pulse-width modulation (PWM) is used
0 180 360 540 720 to generate a better approximation to a sine wave
[3, 4]. Instead of switching the devices at a low
Time phase, degrees
frequency to generate the required output wave
shape, in PWM they are switched at a high
frequency and the mark/space ratio is modulated
50 sinusoidally. The result is a waveform with an
Vc, %

average value that varies sinusoidally, as shown in

0 figure 8-15.
-50
0 180 360 540 720
Time phase, degrees

Figure 8-13: Six-step output voltages.

Power Electronic Control 69

 100
Vab, %
0 link current cannot reverse, because a simple
-100
0 90 180 270 360
Time phase, degrees
Figure 8-15: PWM inverter voltage waveform
For clarity, the carrier frequency in figure 8-15
is only 12 times the modulation frequency, so the
approximation to a sine wave is not very good. In
practical inverters, the frequency ratio is typically
100 at the highest modulation frequency.
With a PWM inverter, it is a simple matter to
control the amplitude of the equivalent sine-wave
output by varying the modulation index. In figure
8-13, for example, the amplitude is about 70% of
the maximum possible output. For AC motor
control, it is necessary to change the output voltage
amplitude when the frequency changes: see section
8.4.
DC link inverter
Normally the DC supply for the inverter is
obtained from the AC mains via a converter of the
kind described in section 8.1. The DC link between
the converter and the inverter includes inductance
and capacitance, as shown in figure 8-16, to give a
smooth DC input to the inverter. This arrangement
is known as a DC link inverter.
converter DC link inverter
Figure 8-16: DC link inverter.
In many cases, the converter is simply a diode
bridge, which may be single-phase for low-power
applications.
70 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes
Dynamic braking
A problem with the DC link inverter is that the DC
AC/DC converter cannot accept current flow from
the DC link. If a motor connected to the output of
the inverter regenerates, the power flow will
reverse, and the current flow from the inverter to
the link will cause the voltage on the capacitor to
rise. Control circuits should shut down the inverter
if this happens.
If the inverter is required to handle reverse
power, which can happen when a motor is braked
by rapidly reducing the inverter output frequency, a
resistor must be connected across the DC link to
absorb the power. This is termed a dynamic
braking resistor, which is usually connected by a
semiconductor switch as shown in figure 8-17. The
switch is turned on only when the DC link voltage
rises above a preset level, so that the resistor is not
connected during normal operation of the inverter.
Figure 8-17: Dynamic braking resistor.
In applications requiring frequent power
reversal, the power loss in a dynamic braking
resistor may be unacceptable. A more complex and
costly alternative is to provide a second AC/DC
converter that operates as an inverter when the
direction of the DC link current reverses, thereby
returning energy to the AC supply [12].
 V V0 kV0
8.4 AC motor control f
(8-6)
f0
Relationship between voltage and frequency
E E 0 kE 0
f
All AC machines and transformers are limited by (8-7)
f0
the maximum permissible flux density in the steel
parts of the magnetic circuit. This, in turn, imposes
Similarly, the synchronous speed is given by:
a relationship between the magnitude of the
applied voltage and the frequency. In a s k s 0 (8-8)
transformer, we have equation 2-10 for the
magnitude of the primary winding voltage: and the reactances are:
V1m 2 fN 1 ABm [2-10] X d kX d 0 , X q kX q 0 (8-9)

If the core flux density Bm is held constant, this With these definitions, the torque equation 6.9
equation shows that the magnitude of the voltage is becomes:
proportional to frequency. The same principle
VEsin V 2 1 1
applies to AC machines, which gives the constant
Td
3
sin 2
volts per hertz rule for variable-frequency s X d 2 X q X d
operation. (8-10)
V E sin V 2 1 1
0

Equation 2-10 was derived on the assumption 3

0 0
s0 2 X q 0 X d 0
sin 2
that the resistance of the winding is negligible. X d 0
This is usually a good approximation at the normal
AC mains frequency of 50 Hz, but it does not hold Thus the torque depends on the load angle but is
at very low frequencies. If the transformer independent of the frequency.
secondary is open-circuited, the flux density in the
core is determined by the current in the primary
winding, which in turn depends on the input Induction motor soft start
impedance:
In section 6.2, it was noted that the starting current
I1 1
V V1 of an induction motor is typically six times the full-
(8-5)
R12 (L1 ) 2
Z1 load current. In addition, as shown in section 6.6,
there is a large transient torque when the full
where L1 is the self-inductance of the primary. At supply voltage is suddenly applied to the motor.
very low frequencies, the current will be These problems can be reduced by soft starting
determined by the winding resistance R1 rather than gradually increasing the applied voltage. This is
the reactance L1. The constant volts per hertz rule easily accomplished with an AC phase controller
therefore ceases to apply at very low frequencies, of the form shown in figure 8-18, connected
where a constant voltage is required. between the 3-phase supply and the load [12].

a1 a2
Synchronous motor speed control

The speed of a synchronous motor can be

controlled by varying the frequency of the applied b1 b2
voltage. If the armature resistance can be
neglected, the phase voltage V will be proportional
to the frequency. Since the excitation voltage E is
c1 c2
generated by rotation of the magnetised rotor, it
will be proportional to the speed, and therefore
proportional to the frequency. Let V0 and E0 be the Figure 8-18: Phase controller
values of E and V at the base frequency f0. If we
define a frequency ratio k = f / f0, the values at any
other frequency f are:

Power Electronic Control 71

Figure 8-19 shows the output voltage waveform for Rs jxs jxr
Is Ir
one phase when the load is purely resistive, and the
firing angle of the thyristors is 60. + I0

Vs Rr
100 jXm
Voltage, %

s
0

-100 Figure 8-20: Induction motor equivalent circuit

0 180 360 540 720 The torque is given by equation 6-9, which
Time phase, degrees may be re-arranged as follows:

Td
3 2 Rr 3 2
s s s
Ir I r Rr (8-11)
Figure 8-19: Phase controller output voltage s
The RMS value of the output voltage falls as the The quantity ss is the slip angular frequency, so
firing angle increases, reaching zero when the developed torque will be constant if the rotor
= 180. current and the slip frequency are held constant.
Constant slip frequency is the preferred operating
mode, so it is necessary to explore the
Induction motor speed control
consequences of this constraint when the frequency
As with the synchronous motor, the most effective is varied. As with synchronous machines, we
way of controlling the speed of an induction motor introduce a frequency ratio k = f / f0, where f is the
is to vary the supply frequency. For optimum operating frequency and f0 is the base frequency. If
performance, the supply voltage must also be s0 is the fractional slip at the base frequency f0,
varied to maintain a constant magnetic flux density corresponding to a synchronous speed s0, then:
in the machine. The principles of variable- s s s0 s 0 (8-12)
frequency operation may be deduced from the
equivalent circuit of figure 6-6, reproduced below: The fractional slip s at frequency f is thus:
s0 s 0 s0 s 0 s0
s
Is Rs jxs jxr Ir
s k s 0
(8-13)
k
I0
+ The value of the rotor resistance element in the
rc equivalent circuit is:
Rr
Vs
r r
s Rr R kR
(8-14)
jxm s s0 / k s0
and the values of the reactances are:
The core loss resistance is given by equation 6-15: x s kx s 0 , x r kx r 0 , X m kX m 0 (8-15)

X m2 With these substitutions, the equivalent circuit

rc [6-15] takes the form shown in figure 8-21:
Rc
Rs jkxs0 jkxr0
Since Rc is approximately constant under variable- Is Ir
frequency conditions [3, 4], and Xm is proportional
+ I0
to frequency, the value of rc will be insignificant at
low frequencies. Therefore, this element may be Vs jkXm0 kRr
ignored, giving the circuit shown in figure 8-20. s0

Figure 8-21: Variable-frequency circuit

72 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

 Apart from the resistance Rs, the values of all
the elements in this circuit are proportional to the
frequency ratio k. If we set Rs = 0, and make the
stator voltage Vs proportional to k, then the currents
Is, I0 and Ir will be constant. Since the magnetic
flux density in the machine is proportional to I0,
this constraint ensures that the flux density remains
constant. It is therefore the normal mode for
variable-frequency operation.
Figure 8-22 shows theoretical torque/speed
curves for the example 3 kW motor from section 7,
If the correct value of stator resistance Rs is
included in the model, it has an increasing effect
on the machine performance at low frequencies
because all the other elements in the equivalent
circuit are getting smaller. Figure 8-23 shows the
resulting torque/speed curves for the example 3
kW motor, when the stator voltage is directly
proportional to frequency.
70
60

Torque, Nm
with Rs = 0 in the equivalent circuit and the voltage 50
40
proportional to frequency. The slip is 5% at 50 Hz, 20 30 40 50
30
which is close to the full-load value. This gives a 20 10
theoretical torque of 20.3 Nm, shown by the blue 10
horizontal line in figure 8-20. All of the 0 2.5
torque/speed curves have the same shape, with the 0 300 600 900 120 150
same value of breakdown torque, and the full-load 0 0
slip speed is 75 rev/min in each case. Rotor speed, rev/min

100
Figure 8-23: Variable-frequency operation:
80
Torque, Nm

2.5, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 Hz, constant V / f.

60
10 20 30 40 50 At 50 Hz and a fractional slip of 5%, the
40
developed torque is 18.5 Nm, shown by the blue
20 horizontal line in figure 8-21. This is slightly less
2.5
0 than the nominal full-load torque, giving an output
0 300 600 900 120 150 power of 2.76 kW. Table 8-1 shows the
0 0 performance for the frequency range 2.5 50 Hz.
Rotor speed, rev/min Table 8-1: Constant V / f
Frequency, Hz 50 40 30 20 10 2.5
Figure 8-22: Variable-frequency operation: Phase voltage, V 230 184 138 92.0 46.0 11.5
2.5, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 Hz, Rs = 0.
Phase current, A 5.55 5.49 5.39 5.20 4.68 2.86
At a supply frequency of 2.5 Hz, the full-load Fractional slip, % 5.00 6.25 8.33 12.5 25.0 100
torque is obtained at standstill. If the motor is Torque, Nm 18.5 18.1 17.5 16.2 13.2 4.90
started at this frequency, it will deliver the full Speed, rev/min 1425 1125 825 525 225 75
rated torque but only take the normal full-load
current. In contrast, a motor started at 50 Hz will
take about six times the full-load current. Inverter
control therefore gives optimum starting
performance as well as speed control.

Power Electronic Control 73

 To compensate for the effect of the stator Inverter voltage-frequency characteristic
resistance, it is necessary to boost the voltage at The results given above for a 3 kW motor show
low frequencies. Table 8-2 shows the that it is necessary to modify the simple linear
corresponding results when the voltage is increased relationship between voltage and frequency.
to maintain a constant full-load torque. Figure 8-22 Inverter manufacturers normally enable the user to
shows the corresponding set of torque/speed adjust the volt relationship to suit a particular
graphs. motor. As an illustration, the red curve in figure
Table 8-2: Variable V / f 8-25 shows the required voltage-frequency
relationship for the example 3 kW motor, which
Frequency, Hz 50 40 30 20 10 2.5
deviates considerably from the simple linear
Phase voltage, V 230 186 142 98.2 54.5 22.4
relationship shown by the blue line.
Phase current, A 5.55 5.55 5.55 5.55 5.55 5.55
Fractional slip, % 5.00 6.25 8.33 12.5 25.0 100 240
Torque, Nm 18.5 18.5 18.5 18.5 18.5 18.5
Speed, rev/min 1425 1125 825 525 225 75

Phase voltage, V
180

70
120
60
50
Torque, Nm

60
40
10 20 30 40 50
30 0
20 0 10 20 30 40 50
2.5
10 Frequency, Hz
0
0 300 600 900 1200 1500 Figure 8-25: Voltage-frequency relationship for
a 3 kW induction motor.
Rotor speed, rev/min
The required characteristic is very nearly a
Figure 8-24: Variable-frequency operation: straight line that does not pass through the origin.
2.5, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 Hz, variable V / f. Many inverter manufacturers provide an adjustable
Although the performance at full-load slip is characteristic of the form shown in figure 8-26,
now constant throughout the speed range, the where the boost voltage Vb, break-point voltage Vp,
breakdown torque and the starting torque are still and break-point frequency fp can be set as required.
significantly reduced at low frequencies. This is
another effect of the stator resistance Rs. In larger
motors, Rs is a smaller proportion of the motor
impedance, so the characteristics approach the
ideal more closely.

74 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

This shape is easily adjusted to give a good When the concept was first introduced, vector
approximation to the characteristic in figure 8-25. control required the direct measurement of the flux
voltage in the motor with field sensors. Since this was
often impracticable, alternative methods have been
developed based on measurement of the stator
V0 voltage and current and the rotor position. The
latest development is sensorless vector control,
where the rotor position measurement is not
required. This method uses measurements of the
stator voltage and current alone, together with a
mathematical model of the motor.
Drives that implement vector control, with or
Vp without a rotor position sensor, can determine the
Vb parameters of the motor model automatically from
measurements of the stator quantities. They are
0 fp f0 frequency more costly than simple inverters with frequency
and voltage control, but they offer improved
Figure 8-26: Inverter user-defined voltage- dynamic response to changes in the motor speed
frequency characteristic. and the torque load.

Vector control of induction motors

In a DC motor, the commutator forces the magnetic

axis of the armature flux to be at right angles to the
axis of the field flux. This gives the maximum
torque for a given current in the machine windings,
and it gives the DC machine simple control
properties: the torque is determined by the product
of the armature current and the field flux.
In an induction motor, the corresponding angle
between the flux components depends on the
operating conditions, and is not predetermined by
the design of the machine. However, for any given
rotor speed and load, it is possible to adjust the
stator voltage and frequency so that the magnetic
conditions resemble those of a DC motor, with the
two flux components at right angles. With this
constraint, an induction motor can be controlled in
a similar way to a DC motor, to achieve good
dynamic performance. This method of controlling
the motor is known as vector control or field-
oriented control. A theoretical treatment is beyond
the scope of this course, but an introduction will be
found in references [3, 4, 12]. This topic is covered
in the Year 3 course Electrical Machine Drives.

Power Electronic Control 75

9 REFERENCES
1. Edwards, J.D.: Electromechanics Course Notes, 2004.
2. Smith, R.J. and Dorf, R.C.: Circuits, Devices and Systems (5th edition, Wiley, 1992)
3. Edwards, J.D.: Electrical Machines and Drives (Macmillan, 1991)
4. Fitzgerald, A.E., Kingsley, C. Jr., and Umans, S.D.: Electric Machinery (6th edition, McGraw-Hill,
2003).
5. Say, M.G.: Alternating Current Machines (5th edition, Pitman, 1983).
6. Alger, P.L.: Induction Machines (2nd edition, Gordon and Breach, 1970).
7. BS 4999 (IEC 34-2): 1977: Methods for determining losses and efficiency of rotating electrical
machines from tests (British Standards Institution / International Electrotechnical Commission).
8. ANSI/IEEE Std 112 1978, IEEE standard test procedure for polyphase induction motors and
generators (American National Standards Institute).
9. Hancock, N.N.: Matrix Analysis of Electrical Machinery (2nd edition, Pergamon, 1974).
10. Edwards, J.D.: Electrical Machines (2nd edition, Macmillan, 1986).
11. Acarnley, P.P.: Stepping Motors: a Guide to Modern Theory and Practice (4th edition, Institution of
Electrical Engineers, 2002).
12. Murphy, J.M.D. and Turnbull, F.G.: Power Electronic Control of AC Motors (Pergamon, 1990).
13. Say, M.G. and Taylor E.O.: Direct Current Machines (2nd edition, Pitman, 1986).

76 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

10 APPENDICES

10.1 Induction motor 2-axis equations

In matrix form, the 2-axis differential equations of a 2-pole induction motor are as follows [9, 10]:
v sd Rs Ls p 0 Mp 0 isd
v
sq Rs Ls p Mp isq

0 0
vrd Mp M r Rr Lr p Lr r ird
(10-1)

vrq M r Mp Lr r Rr Lr p irq

In equation 10-1, p d / dt and r is the rotor angular velocity in rad/s. The resistances Rs and Rr are the
normal stator and rotor resistances in the equivalent circuit, and the inductances are related to the
equivalent-circuit reactances as follows:
X m M
x s ( Ls M ) (10-2)
x r ( Lr M )
The variables vsd, vsq, isd and isq are the 2-axis stator voltages and currents. These are related to the 3-phase
terminal voltages and currents by the equations:

i
isd 1 12 12 sa
i 3 isb
23
2
(10-3)
sq 0 2
3
isc

v
v sd 1 12 12 sa
v v sb
23
2
(10-4)
sq 0 2
3 3

v sc
Provided there is a 3-wire supply to the motor (no neutral connection), there is an inverse transformation
giving the 3-phase variable in terms of the 2-axis variables:

isa 1 0
i 2 1 3
isd
2

sb 3 2
isq
(10-5)
isc 12 23

v sa 1 0
v 2 1 3
v sd
2

sb 3 2
v sq
(10-6)
v sc 12 23

Appendices 77
The variables vrd, vrq, ird and irq are the corresponding 2-axis rotor voltages and currents. They are related to
the physical currents in an equivalent 2-phase rotor winding by the equations:
ird cos sin ir
i
rq sin cos ir
(10-7)

v rd cos sin v r
v
rq sin cos v r
(10-8)

where is the angle between the axis of the phase of the rotor and the a phase of the stator. The inverse
form of these equations is:
ir cos sin ird
i
r sin cos irq
(10-9)

v r cos sin vrd

v
r sin cos v rq
(10-10)

Equation 10-1 can be expressed in the form:

v ( R L p G r ) i Z i (10-11)
where v and i are the column vectors of voltage and current variables, and the impedance matrix Z is given
by:
Z R L p G r (10-12)
The resistance matrix R, the inductance matrix L and the torque matrix G all have constant elements:

Rs 0 0 0
0 0
R
Rs 0
0 0
(10-13)
0 Rr

0 0 0 Rr

Ls 0 M 0
0 M
L
Ls 0
M 0
(10-14)
0 Lr

0 M 0 Lr

0 0 0 0
0 0
G
0 0
0 Lr
(10-15)
M 0

M 0 Lr 0

78 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

The developed torque is given by [9, 10]:

Td i T G i M (ird isq isd irq ) (10-16)

To solve problems such as starting or DC braking, equation 10-11 must be re-arranged in a suitable
form for numerical solution with all the derivatives on one side:

pi L1{v ( R G r ) i}
di
(10-17)
dt
In addition, there is the mechanical equation of motion:
d r
J Jp r Td Tl M (ird isq isd irq ) Tl (10-18)
dt
where J is the moment of inertia of the rotating system, and Tl is the load torque (which may be a function
of the rotor speed r).
Equations 10-17 and 10-18 represent five simultaneous first-order non-linear differential equations,
which can be solved by standard numerical methods such as Runge-Kutta to determine the stator currents
and the rotor speed as functions of time. If the motor has P pairs of poles, two changes are required to the
equations: (a) the left-hand side of the torque equation 10-16 is multiplied by P; (b) in equation 10-1, r is
replaced by Pr.

Appendices 79
10.2 List of formulae Pout Pin Ploss
1 loss
P
General principles Pin Pin Pin
Efficiency:
1
Pout Ploss
Magnetic force on a current element: df idl B
Pout Ploss Pout Ploss
Conductor in a magnetic field: e Blu , f Bli
Transformers
Ampres circuital law: H.dl i Ni d d
Voltage: v1 N 1 , v2 N 2
Materials: dt dt
B B ( H ) r 0 H , 0 4 10 7 H/m Current: N 1i1 N 2i2 R 0
Magnetic flux and flux linkage: BA, N Sinusoidal operation: V1m 2 fN 1 ABm
d d d
Faradays law: e N (Li ) n
v2 i1 N 2
Ideal transformer:
dt dt dt v1 i2 N1

Impedance transformation: Zin

ZL
Inductance: L , M 21 12
i i1 i2 n2
V2 nl V2 fl
Voltage regulation:
v1 R1i1 L1 1 M 2
di di
V2 nl
dt dt
Coupled coils:
v 2 R 2 i 2 L2 2 M 1
di di
dt dt AC power

Stored energy: W L1i12 L2 i22 Mi1i2 Complex power: S = P + jQ = VI*

Real power: P S cos VI cos Re( VI * )

MMF: F Ni Hl R
Reactive power: Q S sin VI sin Im( VI * )
Reluctance: R
Ni l
r 0 A

l
DC machines
Resistance: R
l
A A Basic equations: ea K f r , Td K f ia

L R Linear approximation: ea K i f r , Td K i f ia
Force: f x i 2 2
x x
(linear system)

Armature equation: v a Ra ia ea Ra ia K f r
L R
Torque: T i 2 2

(linear system)

Ra negligible: r
va
2 K f

f B
0
Magnetic force per unit area:
A
Small motors: r a d2
va R T
K f ( K f )

Series motor: i f ia i

80 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes

3-phase systems and rotating field

va Vm cos( t )
Induction machines

3-phase voltages: vb Vm cos( t 120) Slip speed: N s N r

vc Vm cos( t 240)
N s N r s r
Fractional slip: s
Star connection: Vline 3 V phase Ns s
Rotor input: Pem s Td
Delta connection: I line 3 I phase
Rotor output: Pmech r Td (1 s ) s Td

Synchronous speed (2p poles): Rotor loss: Ploss ( s r )Td s s Td

3-phase torque: Td
3 2 Rr
s [rad/s], n s
f
s
[rev/s], Ir
p p s

1-phase torque: Td
1 2 Rr 1 2 Rr
s s s
I rp I rn
N s 60n s 2s
60 f
[rev/min].
p
Equivalent series/parallel elements:
Synchronous machines X m2 Rc2
rc Rc xm Xm
Non-salient model: V jX s I E Rc2 X m2 Rc2 X m2
3VEsin rc2 x m2 rc2 x m2
Non-salient torque: Td Rc Xm
s X s rc xm
Salient-pole torque:
Loss components:
3 VEsin V 2 1 1
P.oss PRs PRr Pcore Pfw Pstray
Td sin 2
s X d 2 X q X d
PRs 3 I s Rs , PRr 3 I r Rr , Pcore 3 I m rc
2 2 2

Xd 2

1 sin 2
3V
Reluctance motor: Td
2X d X q
PRr 3s | I r |2
Rr
sPem s( Pin PRs Pcore )
s
Speed control frequency ratio k f / f 0
No-load test
V kV0 , E kE 0 , s k s 0
Pin Pin PRs Pcore Pfw
X d kX d 0 , X q kX q 0
Pin Pfw | I s |2 ( Rs rc ) 2
V E sin V 2 1 1
Td 0 sin 2
3

0 0
s0 X d 0 2 X q 0 X d 0

Appendices 81
Speed control

Td
3 2 Rr 3 2
s s s
Ir I r Rr
s

s s s0 s 0

s0 s 0 s0 s 0 s0
s
s k s 0 k

r r
Rr R kR
s s0 / k s0

x s kx s 0 , x r kx r 0 , X m kX m 0

Stepper motors

l g drB 2
Alignment torque: Tm
0

4 pl g drBm Be
Hybrid stepper: Tm
0
Restoring torque: T Tm sin n

Stepper resonance: S r k 1, 2, 3,
fn
,
k

AC/DC converters

1-phase diode bridge: Vd 0 0.900V

2 2V

3-phase diode bridge: Vd 0 1.35V

3 2V

Thyristor bridge: Vd Vd 0 cos

82 Electrical Machines and Systems Course Notes