Electric machine

The academic study of electric machines is the universal study of electric motors and electric generators.
By the classic denition, electric machine is synonymous
with electric motor or electric generator, all of which are
electromechanical energy converters: converting electricity to mechanical power (i.e., electric motor) or mechanical power to electricity (i.e., electric generator).
The movement involved in the mechanical power can be
rotating or linear.

ways the case. Motors and generators can be designed

with or without iron to improve the path of the magnetic eld (teeth to reduce the air gap is a common example) and with and without permanent magnets (PM),
with dierent pole number etc., but still belong to dierent classes of machines. Electric machines can be synchronous meaning that the magnetic eld set up by the
stator coils rotates with the same speed as the rotor; or
asynchronous, meaning that there is a speed dierence.
PM machines and reluctance machines are always synchronous. Brushed machines with rotor windings can be
synchronous when the rotor is supplied with DC or AC
with same frequency as stator or asynchronous when stator and rotor are supplied with AC with dierent frequencies. Induction machines are usually asynchronous, but
can be synchronous, if there are superconductors in the
rotor windings.

The apparatus that converts energy in three categories:

generators which convert mechanical energy to electrical
energy, motors which convert electrical energy to mechanical energy, and transformers which change the
voltage level of an alternating current.
Although transformers do not contain any moving parts
they are also included in the family of electric machines
because they utilise electromagnetic phenomena.[1]
Electric machines, in the form of electric motors, consume approximately 60% of all electricity produced.
Electric machines (i.e., electric generators) produce virtually all electricity consumed. Electric machines have
become so ubiquitous that they are virtually overlooked
as an integral component of the entire electricity infrastructure. Developing ever more ecient electric machine
technology and inuencing their use are crucial to any
global conservation, green energy, or alternative energy
strategy.

2 Comparing electric machine systems

Comparing the cost-performance between electric machine systems of dierent classication or from dierent manufacturers is dicult without a critical baseline
of metrics. For equitable comparison of eciency, cost,
torque, and power between electric machine systems, the
comparison should be matched with the same voltage and
speed at a given frequency of excitation; or instead, the
additional cost, eciency, and real-estate of the transmis1 Classications
sion for instance for coupling to the speed of the application, the transformer for matching voltage, the frequency
When classifying electric machines (motors and genera- converter to match excitation frequency, etc., should be
tors) it is reasonable to start with physical principle for included.
converting electric energy to mechanical energy. If the Other parameters that should always be considered in any
controller is included as a part of the machine all ma- revealing comparison:
chines can be powered by either alternating or direct current, although some machines will need a more advanced
Duty Cycle although directly related to cost, econtroller than others. Classication is complicated by
ciency, and power density, duty cycle gives meaning
the possibilities of combining physical principles when
to application applicability;
constructing an electrical machine. It can, for example,
Peak Torque Potential the closeness of peak torque
be possible to run a brushed machine as a reluctance mapotential to continuous torque indicates the safe
chine (without using the rotor coils) if the rotor iron has
margin of the design;
the correct shape.
Cost, Eciency, and Real-estate of the Electronic
Controller unless integrated and included in the
specications of the electric machine system, the
electronic controller, which is required for practical
system operation, should always be included.

Generally all electric machines can be turned inside out,

so rotor and stator exchange places. All rotating electric machines have an equivalent linear electric machine
where stator moves along a straight line instead of rotating. The oppositelinear to rotary dualis not al1

MOTOR

Utilization of the Magnetic Core and frame assem- have the eld winding on the rotor and the armature windbly As an example: with the wound-rotor doubly ing on the stator.
fed electric machine as the only exception, rotor as- AC generators are classied into several types.
semblies, which consume nearly half the volume of
the electric machine, passively participate in the en In an induction generator, the stator magnetic ux
ergy conversion process and are under-utilized.
induces currents in the rotor. The prime mover then
drives the rotor above the synchronous speed, causing the opposing rotor ux to cut the stator coils pro3 Generator
ducing active current in the stator coils, thus sending power back to the electrical grid. An induction
generator draws reactive power from the connected
system and so cannot be an isolated source of power.
In a Synchronous generator (alternator), the current
for the magnetic eld is provided by a separate DC
current source.

3.2 DC generator

Electric generator.

Main article: Electric generator

An electric generator is a machine that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy.An electric generator
works based on the principle that whenever conductor
cuts the magnetic eld,an emf is induced which will cause
the current to ow if conductor circuit is closed.Take the
working of Simple loop Generator as an example.

4 Motor

An electric generator is a device that converts mechanical

energy to electrical energy. A generator forces electrons
to ow through an external electrical circuit. It is somewhat analogous to a water pump, which creates a ow of
water but does not create the water inside. The source
of mechanical energy, the prime mover, may be a reciprocating or turbine steam engine, water falling through a
turbine or waterwheel, an internal combustion engine, a
wind turbine, a hand crank, compressed air or any other
source of mechanical energy.
The two main parts of an electrical machine can be described in either mechanical or electrical terms. In mechanical terms, the rotor is the rotating part, and the stator
is the stationary part of an electrical machine. In electrical terms, the armature is the power-producing component and the eld is the magnetic eld component of an
electrical machine. The armature can be on either the
rotor or the stator. The magnetic eld can be provided
by either electromagnets or permanent magnets mounted
on either the rotor or the stator. Generators are classied
into two types, AC generators and DC generators.

3.1

AC generator

An AC generator converts mechanical energy into

alternating current electricity. Because power transferred
into the eld circuit is much less than power transferred
into the armature circuit, AC generators nearly always

Electric motor.

Main article: Electric motor

An electric motor converts electrical energy into
mechanical energy. The reverse process of electrical generators, most electric motors operate through interacting
magnetic elds and current-carrying conductors to generate rotational force. Motors and generators have many
similarities and many types of electric motors can be
run as generators, and vice versa. Electric motors are
found in applications as diverse as industrial fans, blowers
and pumps, machine tools, household appliances, power
tools, and disk drives. They may be powered by direct
current or by alternating current which leads to the two
main classications: AC motors and DC motors.

4.1

AC motor

Main article: AC motor

An AC motor converts alternating current into mechanical energy. It commonly consists of two basic parts, an
outside stationary stator having coils supplied with alternating current to produce a rotating magnetic eld, and
an inside rotor attached to the output shaft that is given a
torque by the rotating eld. The two main types of AC
motors are distinguished by the type of rotor used.
Induction (asynchronous) motor, the rotor magnetic
eld is created by an induced current. The rotor
must turn slightly slower (or faster) than the stator
magnetic eld to provide the induced current. There
are three types of induction motor rotors, which are
squirrel-cage rotor, wound rotor and solid core rotor.

Transformer.

current in the rst or primary winding creates a varying

magnetic ux in the transformers core and thus a varying
magnetic eld through the secondary winding. This varying magnetic eld induces a varying electromotive force
(EMF) or "voltage" in the secondary winding. This eect
is
called mutual induction.
Synchronous motor, it does not rely on induction and
so can rotate exactly at the supply frequency or sub- There are three types of transformers
multiple. The magnetic eld of the rotor is either
generated by direct current delivered through slip
1. Step-up transformer
rings (exciter) or by a permanent magnet.
2. Step-down transformer

4.2

DC motor

Main article: DC motor

The brushed DC electric motor generates torque directly
from DC power supplied to the motor by using internal commutation, stationary permanent magnets, and rotating electrical magnets. Brushes and springs carry the
electric current from the commutator to the spinning wire
windings of the rotor inside the motor. Brushless DC motors use a rotating permanent magnet in the rotor, and stationary electrical magnets on the motor housing. A motor
controller converts DC to AC. This design is simpler than
that of brushed motors because it eliminates the complication of transferring power from outside the motor to the
spinning rotor. An example of a brushless, synchronous
DC motor is a stepper motor which can divide a full rotation into a large number of steps.

Transformer

3. Isolation transformer
There are four types of transformers based on structure
1. core type
2. shell type
3. power type
4. instrument type

6 Electromagnetic-rotor machines
Electromagnetic-rotor machines are machines having
some kind of electric current in the rotor which creates
a magnetic eld which interacts with the stator windings.
The rotor current can be the internal current in a permanent magnet (PM machine), a current supplied to the rotor through brushes (Brushed machine) or a current set
up in closed rotor windings by a varying magnetic eld
(Induction machine).

Main article: Transformer

6.1 Permanent magnet machines

A transformer is a static device that converts alternating
current from one voltage level to another level (higher
or lower), or to the same level, without changing the
frequency. A transformer transfers electrical energy
from one circuit to another through inductively coupled
conductorsthe transformers coils. A varying electric

PM machines have permanent magnets in the rotor which

set up a magnetic eld. The magnetomotive force in a
PM (caused by orbiting electrons with aligned spin) is
generally much higher than what is possible in a copper coil. The copper coil can, however, be lled with a

RELUCTANCE MACHINES

ferromagnetic material, which gives the coil much lower the machine which is set up by induction.
magnetic reluctance. Still the magnetic eld created by
modern PMs (Neodymium magnets) is stronger, which
means that PM machines have a better torque/volume and
torque/weight ratio than machines with rotor coils under
continuous operation. This may change with introduction 6.3 Induction machines
of superconductors in rotor.
Since the permanent magnets in a PM machine already
introduce considerable magnetic reluctance, then the reluctance in the air gap and coils are less important.
This gives considerable freedom when designing PM machines.
It is usually possible to overload electric machines for a
short time until the current in the coils heats parts of the
machine to a temperature which cause damage. PM machines can in less degree be subjected to such overload
because too high current in the coils can create a magnetic eld strong enough to demagnetise the magnets.

Induction machines have short circuited rotor coils where

a current is set up and maintained by induction. This
requires that the rotor rotates at other than synchronous
speed, so that the rotor coils are subjected to a varying
magnetic eld created by the stator coils. An induction
machine is an asynchronous machine.

Induction eliminates the need for brushes which is usually a weak part in an electric machine. It also allows
designs which make it very easy to manufacture the rotor. A metal cylinder will work as rotor, but to improve
eciency a squirrel cage rotor or a rotor with closed
windings is usually used. The speed of asynchronous induction machines will decrease with increased load because a larger speed dierence between stator and rotor
6.2 Brushed machines
is necessary to set up sucient rotor current and rotor
magnetic eld. Asynchronous induction machines can be
Brushed machines are machines where the rotor coil is made so they start and run without any means of control
supplied with current through brushes in much the same if connected to an AC grid, but the starting torque is low.
way as current is supplied to the car in an electric slot car
track. More durable brushes can be made of graphite or A special case would be an induction machine with suliquid metal. It is even possible to eliminate the brushes perconductors in the rotor. The current in the superconin a brushed machine by using a part of rotor and stator ductors will be set up by induction, but the rotor will run
as a transformer which transfer current without creating at synchronous speed because there will be no need for a
torque. Brushes must not be confused with a commuta- speed dierence between the magnetic eld in stator and
tor. The dierence is that the brushes only transfer elec- speed of rotor to maintain the rotor current.
tric current to a moving rotor while a commutator also Another special case would be the brushless double fed
provide switching of the current direction.
induction machine, which has a double set of coils in the
There is iron (usually laminated steel cores made of sheet stator. Since it has two moving magnetic elds in the stametal) between the rotor coils and teeth of iron between tor, it gives no meaning to talk about synchronous or asynthe stator coils in addition to black iron behind the sta- chronous speed.
tor coils. The gap between rotor and stator is also made
as small as possible. All this is done to minimize magnetic reluctance of the magnetic circuit which the magnetic eld created by the rotor coils travels through, something which is important for optimizing these machines. 7 Reluctance machines
Large brushed machines which are run with DC to the
stator windings at synchronous speed are the most common generator in power plants, because they also supply
reactive power to the grid, because they can be started
by the turbine and because the machine in this system
can generate power at constant speed without a controller.
This type of machine is often referred to in the literature
as a synchronous machine.
This machine can also be run by connecting the stator
coils to the grid, and supplying the rotor coils with AC
from an inverter. The advantage is that it is possible to
control rotating speed of the machine with a fractionally
rated inverter. When run this way the machine is known
as a brushed double feed induction machine. Induction is misleading because there is no useful current in

Reluctance machines have no windings in rotor, only a

ferromagnetic material shaped so that electromagnets
in stator can grab the teeth in rotor and move it a little. The electromagnets are then turned o, while another set of electromagnets is turned on to move stator
further. Another name is step motor, and it is suited for
low speed and accurate position control. Reluctance machines can be supplied with PMs in stator to improve performance. The electromagnet is then turned o by
sending a negative current in the coil. When the current
is positive the magnet and the current cooperate to create
a stronger magnetic eld which will improve the reluctance machines maximum torque without increasing the
currents maximum absolute value.

Electrostatic machines

In electrostatic machines, torque is created by attraction

or repulsion of electric charge in rotor and stator.
Electrostatic generators generate electricity by building up electric charge. Early types were friction machines, later ones were inuence machines that worked
by electrostatic induction. The Van de Graa generator
is an electrostatic generator still used in research today.

Homopolar machines

Homopolar machines are true DC machines where current is supplied to a spinning wheel through brushes. The
wheel is inserted in a magnetic eld, and torque is created
as the current travels from the edge to the centre of the
wheel through the magnetic eld.

10

Electric machine systems

For optimized or practical operation of electric machines,

todays electric machine systems are complemented with
electronic control.

11

References

Chapman, Stephen J. 2005. Electrical Machinery

Fundamentals. 4th Ed. New York: McGraw Hill.
[1] Flanagan. Handbook of Transformer Design and Applications, Chap. 1 p1.

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