Introduction D. C. motors are seldom used in ordinary applications because all electric supply companies furnish alternating current However, for special applications such as in steel mills, mines and electric trains, it is advantageous to convert alternating current into direct current in order to use d.c. motors. The reason is that speed/torque characteristics of d.c. motors are much more superior to that of a.c. motors. Therefore, it is not surprising to note that for industrial drives, d.c. motors are as popular as 3-phase induction motors. Like d.c. generators, d.c. motors are also of three types viz., series-wound, shunt-wound and compoundwound. The use of a particular motor depends upon the mechanical load it has to drive. D.C. Motor Principle A machine that converts d.c. power read more

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Under-compounded generators also operate satisfactorily in parallel but overcompounded generators will not operate satisfactorily unless their series fields are paralleled. This is achieved by connecting two negative brushes together as shown in Fig. (3.16) (i). The conductor used to connect these brushes is generally called equalizer bar. Suppose that an attempt is made to operate the two generators in Fig. (3.16) (ii) in parallel without an equalizer bar. If, for any reason, the current supplied by generator 1 increases slightly, the current in its series field will increase and raise the generated voltage. This will cause generator 1 to take more load. Since total load supplied to the system is constant, the current in generator 2 must decrease and as a result its series field is read more

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The generators in a power plant are connected in parallel through bus-bars. The bus-bars are heavy thick copper bars and they act as +ve and -ve terminals. The positive terminals of the generators are .connected to the +ve side of bus-bars and negative terminals to the negative side of bus-bars. Fig. (3.15) shows shunt generator 1 connected to the bus-bars and supplying load. When the load on the power plant increases beyond the capacity of this generator, the second shunt generator 2 is connected in parallel wish the first to meet the increased load demand. The procedure for paralleling generator 2 with generator 1 is as under: (i) The prime mover of generator 2 is brought up to the rated speed. Now switch S4 in the field circuit of the generator 2 is closed. (ii) Next circuit read more

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In a d.c. power plant, power is usually supplied from several generators of small ratings connected in parallel instead of from one large generator. This is due to the following reasons: (i) Continuity of service If a single large generator is used in the power plant, then in case of its breakdown, the whole plant will be shut down. However, if power is supplied from a number of small units operating in parallel, then in case of failure of one unit, the continuity of supply can be maintained by other healthy units. (ii) Efficiency Generators run most efficiently when loaded to their rated capacity. Electric power costs less per kWh when the generator producing it is efficiently loaded. Therefore, when load demand on power plant decreases, one or more generators can be shut down and the read more

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In a compound generator, both series and shunt excitation are combined as shown in Fig. (3.13). The shunt winding can be connected either across the armature only (short-shunt connection S) or across armature plus series field (long-shunt connection G). The compound generator can be cumulatively compounded or differentially compounded generator. The latter is rarely used in practice. Therefore, we shall discuss the characteristics of cumulatively compounded generator. It may be noted that external characteristics of long and short shunt compound generators are almost identical. External characteristic Fig. (3.14) shows the external characteristics of a cumulatively compounded generator. The series excitation aids the shunt excitation. The degree of compounding depends upon the increase read more

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