ELL-332 Electric Drives

Lecture 2:
Four quadrant operation of drives
Anandarup Das
Associate Professor
Room-402A, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Delhi.
anandarup@ee.iitd.ac.in
Content
• 4 quadrant drives
• How a machine can be operated as both motor and generator

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 2

Specification of electrical drives
• An electric drive can be specified in several ways e.g., voltage required,
power required etc.
• However, from user or application perspective the most important
specifications of the drive are:
• How much torque the drive can produce ?
• What is the maximum and minimum speed at which the drive can operate ?
• What is the power required ?

• As such, we will frequently refer to the torque speed characteristics of the

motor that is used in the drive for motion control applications.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 3

Induction motor torque speed characteristics

• You have seen this curve before. We will modify the axes in this course.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 4

Induction machine - motor and generator

• The machine can operate either as a generator or a motor.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 5

4-quadrant operation of motor
• An electric drive can operate in 4
quadrants.

• In Q1, the motor drives in the

forward direction.
• Example: A car is moving forward,
and you may be accelerating in 1st
gear.
• Power absorbed by the motor is
positive.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 6

4-quadrant operation of motor
• The basic governing equation is:
𝑑𝜔
𝑇𝑒𝑚 − 𝑇𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑 = 𝐽
𝑑𝑡
• The power input to the motor is
given by,
• 𝑃𝑖𝑛 = 𝑇𝑒𝑚 𝜔/𝜂

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 7

4-quadrant operation of motor
• In Q2, the motor may be braking
while moving in forward direction.
• Example: A car is moving forward,
and you may be braking so that it
stops.
• You should apply a negative Tem
while the motion is still in forward
direction.
𝑑𝜔
• −𝑇𝑒𝑚 − 𝑇𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑 = 𝐽
𝑑𝑡
• Power absorbed by the motor is
negative.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 8

4-quadrant operation of motor
• In Q3, the motor is moving in the
reverse direction.
• Example: A car is moving backward
because you have applied the
reverse gear.
• You should apply a negative Tem
because the motion is backward
overcoming the friction of the
road.
• Power absorbed by the motor is
positive.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 9

4-quadrant operation of motor
• In Q4, the motor is still moving in
the reverse direction but now you
are applying brakes to stop it.
• Example: A car is moving backward
in reverse gear and you want to
stop it.
• You should apply a positive Tem
• Power absorbed by the motor is
negative.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 10

Example
• We will now take 2 examples- elevator and an electric vehicle.
• The example shows how an electric machine can operate in four quadrants
of torque speed curve and can achieve the desired operation.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 11

Elevator or hoist
• In a hoist or an elevator, a steel
rope is wound on a drum
which is rotated by a motor.
• The counter weight and the
elevator balances each other.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 12

Elevator or hoist
• Weight of the counter weight
(CW) is considered to be higher
than the empty cage but lesser
than the fully loaded cage.
• Load torque is almost constant
due to gravity and let us
neglect the weight of the rope.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 13

Load torque
• TL1 and TL2 are two load
torques.
• TL1 is due to the difference of
weights between loaded cage
and CW.
• TL2 is due to the difference of
weights between empty cage
and CW.
• They are of opposite sign.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 14

Motion in hoist
• In Q1, the man is lifted upward
so speed is anticlockwise.
• TL1 causes clockwise movement
and hence Tem must be
opposite to it.
• The power drawn by the
machine is positive.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 15

Motion in hoist
• In Q2, the empty cage is going
up and speed is anticlockwise.
• Since CW has more weight than
empty cage, so it will cause a
free fall due to TL2. Tem must
be opposite to it.
• The power drawn by the
machine is negative (acting as
generator).

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 16

Motion in hoist
• In Q3, the empty cage is
lowered and speed is clockwise.
• This is the case where you are
pulling up the CW in reverse
direction.
• The power drawn by the
machine is positive. This is
called reverse motoring.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 17

Motion in hoist
• In Q4, the loaded cage is
lowered and speed is clockwise.
• There will be free fall due to
gravity unless the machine
brakes.
• The power drawn by the
machine is negative.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 18

Electric vehicle speed control

• An electric car starts from rest and accelerates to a steady state speed ω.
• It then goes up a slope where it sees an obstacle.
• The car comes down the slope and goes backward at a steady state speed.
• We will see how the 4Q operation of the electric drive happens here.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 19

Electric vehicle speed control

• We have to ensure that we reach the desired speed with minimum time.
𝑑𝜔
• The acceleration and torques are related as: 𝑇𝑒𝑚 − 𝑇𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑 = 𝐽
𝑑𝑡
ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 20
Electric vehicle speed control

• At point 1, the vehicle starts to move towards the slope.

• It reaches the steady state speed (point 2). What is the trajectory ?

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 21

Electric vehicle speed control

• This is achieved by travelling through the maximum torque trajectory of the motor so
𝑑𝜔
that the time taken is minimum: 𝑇𝑒𝑚 − 𝑇𝐿 = 𝐽
𝑑𝑡
• Note: the load torque is strictly not constant, but we are assuming it to be constant.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 22

Electric vehicle speed control

• Closed loop control is necessary because once we reach 𝜔𝑟𝑒𝑓 we should

immediately stop applying 𝑇𝑚𝑎𝑥 to the load.
• We can draw the 𝑇𝑒𝑚 and 𝜔 with respect to time.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 23

Electric vehicle speed control

• At point 3, the vehicle is on the slope. The load on the motor is now more
because of gravity (TL1>TL).
• The operating point moves from point 2 to point 3 on the machine curve.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 24

Electric vehicle speed control

• Now an obstacle comes up and we have to stop the motor.

• The machine produces –Tmax. It is running as a generator and energy will be
fed to the battery.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 25

Electric vehicle speed control

• We should move from 4 to 4’ immediately, if we want to keep the car

standstill at the slope.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 26

Electric vehicle speed control

• Otherwise, we move from 4 to 5, allowing the gravity to assist in speeding up the vehicle.
• However, if the motor continues to run down the slope, it will accelerate to beyond the rated
speed.
• At 5, the motor must provide a braking torque (regeneration) to run at a steady speed.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 27

Electric vehicle speed control

• At 5, the motor supplies back energy to the battery assisted by gravity.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 28

Electric vehicle speed control

• Finally we move from 5 to 6 , on the flat surface at a steady state speed.

• At 6, motoring mode is used to overcome the frictional losses.
• The above analysis is called 4 quadrant operation of the motor.
ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA. NOT TO BE COPIED. 29