The shunt wound DC motor falls under the category of self excited DC
motors, where the field windings are shunted to, or are connected in
parallel to the armature winding of the motor, as its name is suggestive of.
And for this reason both the armature winding and the field winding are
exposed to the same supply voltage, though there are separate branches for
the flow of armature current and the field current as shown in the figure of
DC shunt motor below.
Voltage and Current Equation of a Shunt Wound DC Motor
Let us now consider the voltage and current being supplied from the
electrical terminal to the motor be given by E and Itotal respectively. This
supply current in case of the shunt wound DC motor is split up into 2 parts.
Ia, flowing through the armature winding of resistance Ra and Ish flowing
through the field winding of resistance Rsh. The voltage across both windings
remains the same. From there we can write
Thus we put this value of armature current Ia to get general voltage
equation of a DC shunt motor.
From there we can write Thus we
put this value of armature current Ia to get general voltage equation of a DC
shunt motor. Now in general practice,
when the motor is in its running condition, and the supply voltage is
constant and the shunt field current given by,
But we know Ish ∝ Φ i.e. field flux Φ is proportional to filed current Ish Thus
the field flux remains more or less constant, and for this reason, a shunt
wound DC motor is called a constant flux motor.
1. armature winding must be exposed to an amount of current that’s much
higher than the field windings current, as the torque is proportional to
the armature current.
2. The field winding must be wound with many turns to increase the flux
linkage, as flux linkage between the field and armature winding is also
proportional to the torque. Keeping these two above mentioned criterion
in mind a DC shunt motor has been designed in a way, that the field
winding possess much higher number of turns to increase net flux linkage
and are lesser in diameter of conductor to increase resistance (reduce
current flow) compared to the armature winding of the DC motor. And
this is how a shunt wound DC motor is visibly distinguishable in static
condition from the DC series motor (having thicker field coils) of the self
excited type motor’s category.
Self-Speed Regulation of a Shunt Wound DC Motor
A very important and interesting fact about the DC shunt motor, is in its
ability to self-regulate its speed on the application of the load to the shaft
of the rotor terminals. This essentially means that on switching the motor
running condition from no load to loaded, surprisingly there is no
considerable change in speed of running, as would be expected in the
absence of any speed regulating modifications from outside. Let us see how?
Let us do a step-wise analysis to understand it better.
1. Initially considering the motor to be running under no load or lightly
loaded condition at a speed of N rpm.
2. On adding a load to the shaft, the motor does slow down initially, but
this is where the concept of self regulation comes into the picture.
3. At the very onset of load introduction to a shunt wound DC motor, the
speed definitely reduces, and along with speed also reduces the back
emf, Eb. Since Eb ∝ N, given by, This can be graphically
explained below.
4. This reduction in the counter emf or the back emf Eb results in the
increase of the net voltage. As net voltage Enet = E − Eb. Since supply
voltage E remains constant.
5. As a result of this increased amount of net voltage, the armature current
increases and consequently the torque increases. Since, Ia ∝ Τ given by
The change in armature current and torque on supplying
load is graphically shown below.
6. This increase in the amount of torque increases the speed and thus
compensating for the speed loss on loading. Thus the final speed
characteristic of a DC shunt motor, looks like.
From there we can well understand this special ability of the shunt wound
DC motor to regulate its speed by itself on loading and thus its rightly called
the constant flux or constant speed motor. Because of which it finds wide
spread industrial application where ever constant speed operation is
required
