Fundamentals of Electric Drives

Prof. Shyama Prasad Das

Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology – Kanpur

Lecture - 04
Steady State Stability, Load Equalization

Hello and welcome to this lecture on fundamental of electric drives. Today, we will be
discussing about the steady state stability of the drive system.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:27)

Now, we know that a motor drives a load and in the steady state, the speed does not vary. So,
the acceleration is 0, it means the d omega m/dt=0. So, we have a motor which is driving a
load here and this is the mechanical shaft which is coupling the motor with the load and the
motor speed is omega m that same as the load speed and the motor torque is T, the load
torque opposes the motor torque that is Tl and the total moment of inertia of the system is J.

Now, we have already seen in the last lecture that when we have a motor and load
combination, we can write a dynamical equation and the dynamical equation is as follows.
So, this is J d omega m/dt which is the angular acceleration into the moment of inertia which
is called the inertial torque+viscous friction torque or the frictional torque TF and the useful
load torque, this is equal to the motor torque that is T here.

Now, in this case, we assume for simplicity that friction is 0, we do not have any friction or
we can include the friction with the load torque. So, this is combinedly known as the load
torque T small l. So, in the steady state, we have d omega m/dt=0, the speed is constant, so d
omega m/dt=0 in the steady state. So, if we apply this in this equation, so this quantity
vanishes in the steady state.

So, what we have here is Tl=T or the load torque=motor torque. So, that is the steady state
condition. Now, it means if we want to find out the operating point, the operating point is
decided by the intersection of the motor characteristic with the load characteristics. So, we
have let us say the speed torque plane omega m and T here and let us say this is our motor
characteristic, which is T, this is and we have the load characteristic which is this one Tl and
the intersection of these two decides the operating point.

It means the motor will be running at the speed and the corresponding torque will be this
torque. So, this is the operating point, so this is the motor characteristic and this curve
represents the load characteristics. Now, the question is that is this operating point is a stable
operating point that we have to find out, whether this point is a stable point or unstable point.
This we have to find out.

Let us see how we can decide whether this point is a stable operating point or an unstable
operating point.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:31)

Now, in this case, let us take two examples. One example, we have the speed in the y-axis,
torque in x-axis. Here, we have omega m and T. Let us say this is our motor characteristic T
and this is the load characteristic Tl. Here, we have the motor characteristic T and we have
the load characteristic which is Tl. Now, in the first case, we have the intersection which is
point A and in the second case the intersection is point B.

So, we have 2 different examples, in one example, the operating point is decided by A and the
other example the operating point is decided by the intersection that is B. Now, we have to
decide the out of this two equilibrium point which equilibrium point is a stable equilibrium
point and which one is an unstable equilibrium point because at each equilibrium point, we
have T=Tl.

Now, here also we have T=Tl at A, here also we have T=Tl at B. Now, what you have to do is
that, that equilibrium point will give a little bit of disturbance, will disturb the speed let us
say. Now, if you disturb the speed, the torque will change. Now let us say we disturb the
speed, we increase the speed a little bit here. Now, we increase the speed here. Now, when we
increase the speed from this point by some value let us say delta omega m.

Now, we have the load torque here, the motor torque is here. Now, at this instant when we
have disturbed from this, this was the operating point here we have let us say omega m1. So,
we have already disturbed it and right now we have omega m1+delta omega m. Now, the
motor torque in this case becomes<the load torque. Motor torque is<the load torque. It means
load torque is more, motor torque is less.

So, that is the tendency the speed to decrease because the load will bring the speed down. The
load is more; the motor which is driving the load is less. So, the load will try to bring the
speed down, so the speed will come down and this will again reach this equilibrium point
here. Now, let us say if we disturb the speed in the other direction by the same amount let us
say delta omega m.

We have a new equilibrium point here omega m1-delta omega m. At this point, which is
omega m1-delta omega m, the motor torque is here, the load torque is here. So, we find the
motor torque is more than the load torque. The motor torque is more than the load torque,
which means the motor will try to drive the load, the speed will increase. So, the speed will
increase, so this will result in increase of the speed.
So the characteristic will be travelled in this particular fashion and then will reach this
equilibrium point. So, we can say here A is a stable equilibrium point. What about B here? If
you see this characteristic in this case, which is the intersection of the motor characteristic
and the load characteristic, we again give a disturbance. This was originally operating at let
us say the point here is omega m2 and the corresponding torque here is T2.

This was the torque in this case that was T1 here, that was the operating point A. Now, in
operating point B, the speed is omega m2 and the torque is T2. Now, we increase the speed
by delta omega here, so when we increase the speed by delta omega, this is our delta omega
here, the new speed becomes omega m2-delta omega m. So, we see that when the speed has
say this is +delta omega m and we see that in this case, the motor torque is higher than the
load torque.

So, here we have T>Tl so when the motor torque is higher than the load torque, motor is
more powerful than the load, speed will go increasing. So, it means there will be divergence.
It means the speed will be further increasing and the characteristic will diverge and will run
away from the point B. So, it looks like that the equilibrium point B is an unstable
equilibrium point.

And if we decrease the speed here by delta omega m, we have got the new speed omega m2-
delta omega m and here what we obtain here is that the motor torque here is less than the load
torque. So, motor torque is less than the load torque, so the motor is less powerful than the
load, so the speed will further decrease. So, this operating point will go away from B, so this
is how the operating point will travel.

So, it means point B is an unstable equilibrium point. So, we have got 2 situations; in one
situation we got a stable equilibrium point, in the other situation we have got an unstable
equilibrium point. So, it means all motor and load combinations may not be stable. Some
motor load combination will be stable, some will be unstable. So, we have just explained or
understood this graphically.

So, is there a mathematical way of arriving at the decision whether equilibrium point is stable
or unstable? Now let us try to see that. So, in general, the rule is this that if d Tl/d omega m is
greater than dt/d omega m at the equilibrium point, then we call the stable equilibrium point.
So, this is basically the condition for stability. So, we have to check for this condition.

If the condition is satisfied, we say that that point is stable point; if the condition is not
satisfied, we say that that equilibrium point is unstable equilibrium point. Now let us prove
this mathematically.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:45)

Now, let us see that we have the motor torque which is given by the load torque+J d omega
m/dt here and let us make a little bit of perturbation. It means we have disturbed this
equation. So, this is a perturbed equation. When we have a change, a small change, this
equation looks like this. Now, if I call this equation as equation number 1, this equation as
equation number 2.

So what we will do? We will subtract equation 1 from equation 2. So, if you subtract equation
1 from equation 2 what we get is a small signal equation, delta T=delta Tl+J d/dt of delta
omega m. Now, this is a small signal equation which is about the perturbation delta T and
delta omega and delta Tl. This equation is a small signal equation. Now, from this equation,
we can show whether an equilibrium point is stable or unstable.

Now, let us try to see what is delta T? Delta T is dT/d omega m, the slope of that at that point
into delta omega m. Similarly, we can say that delta Tl=d Tl/d omega m*delta omega m. So,
these are the small disturbance in torque, the motor torque and the load torque which we
obtain from the slope of the respective characteristic at the equilibrium point okay.
Now, if we substitute for delta T and delta Tl in this equation, this is equation number 3, so
what we get here is the following, dT/d omega m*delta omega m=d Tl/d omega m*delta
omega m+J d/dt of delta omega m. Now, we further simplify this equation. If we further
simplify this equation what we get here, J d/dt of delta omega m that is equal to dT/d omega
m-d Tl/d omega m*delta omega m or we can take everything to one side and simplify, J/d/dt
delta omega m+d TL/d omega m-dT/d omega m*delta omega m that is equal to 0.

Now, this is a very important equation. This equation is a first order equation in d/dt of delta
omega m. So, we have to find out the solution of this equation. So, the solution of this
equation will be of this sort that delta omega m=delta omega m0 the initial value*1-
exponential-this equation’s solution is the following that this is exponential of –d TL/d omega
m-dT/d omega m 1/J*T.

Now, this is the solution of this equation. This is a first order equation. So, if we solve this
equation, we get the solution of this particular form. Now, this is the initial disturbance. Now,
if we wonder finally when we have disturbed the speed by delta omega m0, finally the speed
disturbance will be 0. If we disturb the speed and leave it like that, this would again come
back to the original equilibrium point which means delta omega should be=0.

So, it means at t tending to infinity delta omega should be=0. So as t tending to infinity if
delta omega should be=0, the coefficient here has to be positive. So, if for t tending to
infinity, delta omega should tend to 0, we should say that d Tl/d omega m-dT/d omega m
should be greater than 0. It means this value which determines the decay of the exponential,
this value should be positive.

So, only when this value is positive, we can say that at t tending to infinity, the exponential
term will go down to 0. It means if we disturb the speed and leave it at omega m0 as t tending
to infinity, this will decay down to 0. So, for the exponential part to decay down to 0 this part
has to be positive and J is the moment of inertia which is always positive. So, the only thing
is that d Tl/d omega m-dT/d omega m, this quantity should be positive.

So, which implies that d Tl/d omega m should be greater than dT/d omega m. So, we have
proved that for stability d Tl/d omega m should be greater than dT/d omega m.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:18)

So, we can write once again for steady state stability, we can say that d Tl/d omega m should
be greater than dT/d omega m. So, we check at the equilibrium point if this condition is
satisfied. We say that operating point is stable operating point and if this condition is not
satisfied, we can be sure that that operating point is an unstable operating point. It means
whenever we have some disturbance, the speed will diverge or the speed will not settle down
to that particular point.

So, we should avoid unstable equilibrium point. We should only try to see that the load torque
on a motor torque combination has to be stable.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:23)
Now, let us go further and we will discuss about what is called load equalization. Now, what
do we mean by load equalization? Now, we have various types of load, which can be as we
already seen that we can have a fan type of load, we can have a traction load, we can have a
constant power load. Now, we have some special loads which are pulsating in nature. The
load torque does not remain constant, it changes with time and it goes up and down.

For example, if you have seen the sugarcane juice making machine, when the sugarcane
enters that machine, there is a load torque applied. When the sugarcane comes out of the
machine, the load torque is 0 and this happens repeatedly. Same thing as steel rolling
machine, in the steel rolling mill the ingot goes into and then comes forward, goes into, so we
have pulsating load torque.

So, an example of a pulsating load torque is the following. We have the load torque which is
varying like this, it is not constant. So, we are plotting this load torque against time. This is t
here in the y-axis and this is the load torque high value, this is the load torque low value Tll
and the time for which this high value is applied is called th, the time for which the low value
is applied is called tl.

Now, what we have to do right now is that if we have a pulsating load torque, we have to
decide a motor for this. Now, the motor has to supply the load torque. Now should we be
deciding on the high value of the load torque or on the low value of the load torque? So, we
should be trying to see that the motor torque should be in between the high value and the low
value. The motor torque has to change something like this.

It should neither be very high nor be very low. This is the motor torque here T and this
variation is for Tl the load torque. So, the motor torque varies between minimum value, this
is called T minimum and we have maximum value that is the T maximum. So, in the steady
state, the motor torque changes between a minimum value and a maximum value. Now, how
do we achieve this?

We achieve this by connecting a flywheel to the motor and the load combination. So, we have
a motor here, which is connected to a load. So what we do here? We attach a flywheel, this is
a flywheel. Now what does a flywheel do? The flywheel equalizes the load. It means
although the torque variation is up and down, the variation of the motor torque is not as
severe as a load torque.

So, the differential amount is supplied by flywheel. So, this flywheel what it does, flywheel
increases the effective inertia of the system. So, when the inertia is more, the combination,
the motor and the load combination can supply more load torque. So, in this case, the total
inertia is J which is the combined inertia and this consists of the inertia of the motor+the
inertia of the flywheel.

So, now when we connect a flywheel, we have to find out what should be the inertia of the
flywheel. So, we have to decide about the inertia of the flywheel. So, it means what should be
the inertia of the flywheel so that we achieve the desired T minimum and T maximum. Now,
we can do that by plotting here the motor characteristic. Now, let us say this is the motor
characteristic which is speed versus torque.

Speed in the y-axis and torque in the x-axis, this is omega m0, so this is a drooping profile.
So, the motor behavior is known. So, when the motor behavior is known, we have to use this
motor behavior to decide the inertia of the flywheel. So, we conclude for this particular class.
We will continue from this in the next lecture.