Amplidyne Characteristics

Introduction:

An Amplidyne is a rotating amplifier. It is a prime-mover-driven d.c. generator whose output power can
be controlled by a small field power input. An amplidyne is capable of giving a controlled power output
in the range of a few hundred to few thousand watts with a power amplification of the order of 10,000 or
more and hence finds wide application in feedback control system.

Objective:

Study of amplidyne whose output power can be can be controlled by a small field power input. For
studying the characteristics:

1) We plot a graph of Output voltage against effective field current with no load, full load(500
W), and without compensation winding effect.

2) We draw the schematic diagram of an amplidyne system.

Principle of operation:

The principle of operation of an amplidyne is simple. In the figure, a d.c. generator with a control field
current If and the resulting control field flux f is shown. If the armature is rotated as shown a voltage
will be induced in the armature and the resulting induced current through the armature and conductors
will set up an armature reaction flux q at right angles to f. The reaction flux q is called the
quadrature flux. In conventional generators, this armature reaction flux is suppressed, but in amplidyne a
magnetic path is provided to encourage it. Moreover, the brushes are short-circuited so that maximum
amount of q will induce voltage ed in the armature conductors in a direction as shown in the figure, and
is called the direct axis voltage. A second set of brushes(called the direct axis brushes) is used to connect
this to the load. Since q f(as obvious from the above discussion), e d e q.

When the output brushes are connected to the load, the resulting load current Id will again rise to an
armature reaction flux which obviously opposes the original control field flux f. The load current will
thus be limited to a value such that mmf of this armature reaction is equal to the mmf by the control field
current If. Thus the machine will act like a constant current generator - the load current depending only on
the field current and independent of the speed and direction of rotation of armature(this is known as
Rosenburg Generator, used in train lighting). In control system, such constant current feature is
undesirable and the armature reaction flux due to the load current is compensated by the use of a
compensating winding. Such a machine is called amplidyne. The compensating winding is placed in

IL
A