UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE

BSc ENGINEERING (HONOURS) PART IV

ELECTRICAL MACHINES & DRIVES

EE405
NOVEMBER 2004
Time allowed: Three Hours
There are SIX questions of equal value.
Answer any FIVE questions only

PLEASE NOTE
All answers must be written in ink.
(Except where there are explicitly required, pencils may
only be used for drawing, sketching or graphical work.)
Marks will only be awarded for answers that relate
directly to the questions asked.
You may use a non-programmable electronic calculator.
Pocket computers and programmable calculators
are not allowed in this examination.
The marks allocated to each question or part thereof are shown in the right hand margins.
They are given for guidance only.
You may retain this paper at the end of the examination.

Q.1

(a)
(b)

Briefly outline the method used to study the performance of an electrical

machine under dynamic mode of operation.
[3]
Consider a separately excited d.c motor starting unloaded and sketch without
derivation both the speed and the armature current versus time during starting
for the following two cases :
(i)
(ii)

Armature inductance is neglected

Armature inductance is considered with m >> 4 e
In both cases, estimate the initial and steady-state values of the speed
and armature current.
[7]

(c)

Q.2

Q.3

(a)

A 425 V, 50Hz, 2-pole, 3-phase, delta-connected induction motor has the

following parameters referred to the stator side.
r1 = r21 = 0.5, x1 = 3, x 12 = 2
The motor drives a pure-inertia load at a slip of 0.04. The total inertia of the
motor and load is J = 0.6 kg m2 and the effect of friction and of magnetizing
current are negligible. Estimate the time the motor takes to accelerate from a
speed of 1000 rpm up to the load operation speed.
[10]
Sketch a circuit where a chopper is used as a booster stepping up the dc voltage
and obtain an expression for the voltage amplification ratio.
[6]

(b)

A d.c series motor is powered by a voltage controller which employs a chopper

used in the step-up mode. The armature and field resistance of the motor
windings are 0.02 and 0.03 respectively. The back emf constant of the
motor is 15.27 mV/A/rad/s. The average motor current is 250A and the supply
voltage is 200V. Estimate the duty cycle of the inverter when the motor runs
at a speed of 1000rpm. Estimate the motor shaft Power and torque if the duty
cycle of the chopper is changed to 0.75 while maintaining the motor average
current at 250 A. Take the mechanical losses equal 5 kW.
[14]

(a)

Why is a free wheeling diode shunted across the armature of a dc motor when
fed from a semi-converter controller?
[2]

(b)

Under what conditions a full converter controller allows power inversion from
the motor to the supply. Will the converter current direction reverse in this
case? Would you leave the motor winding connections unchanged and why?
[6]
The speed of a 7.5 kW, 230V, 1200 r.p.m. Separately excited d.c. motor is
controlled by a single-phase full converter fed from a 260V-ac supply. The
armature resistance is 0.2 and the ON resistance of each switching thyristor
is 0.05. The motor voltage constant k is 0.182 V/rpm. Assume that
sufficient inductance is present in the armature circuit to make the motor

(c)

current continuous and ripple-free. Calculate for a firing delay angle of 30,
the motor speed when supplying half the rated load. If the polarity of the
motor back emf is then reversed by reversing the field current, calculate the
firing delay angle required to keep the motor current at its half-rated value.
Calculate also the power fed back to the supply.
[12]
Q.4

A 440-V, 50Hz, 6-pole, 960 rpm, Y-connected induction motor has the following
parameters per phase referred to the stator.
r1 = 0.6, r21 = 0.3,

x1 = x 12 = 1,

xm is very large.
The motor is fed from a nonsinusoidal voltage source. The fundamental component of
the source voltage is 440V. Fifth and seventh voltage harmonics are 20 percent and
14 percent of the fundamental, respectively. Higher harmonic can be ignored. Skin
effect causes the stator and rotor resistances to increase three times for the fifth
harmonic and four times for the seventh harmonic. Neglect friction, windage, core
losses and estimate:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)

Q.5

(a)

The motor copper losses due to the fundamental, fifth and seventh voltage
harmonic components. Hence calculate the total copper losses of the motor.
The motor torque due to the fundamental, fifth and seventh voltage harmonic
components and the overall motor torque.
The motor derating when operating from nonsinusoidal supply in order to
maintain the same temperature rise of the motor as that when operating from
sinusoidal supply under the same loading conditions.
[20]
A pump has a torque-speed curve given by TL = (1.4 / 10 3 ) N 2 Nm where N
is the speed in rps. The pump is driven by a-three-phase induction motor of
the following parameters; 4-pole, star-connected,

r1 = 0.25, r2\ = 0.6,

x 2\ = 0.36,

x m = 17.3.

The motor is fed from a 240V, 50Hz, three-phase supply.

The pump speed is to steplessly vary from full speed of 1250 rpm to 750 rpm
by voltage control using pairs of inverse-parallel connected thyristors in the
lines. Calculate the range of firing angles required, given the following
relation between the motor input current in pu, Ipu, the firing delay angle and
the input current phase angle in degrees.
I pu =
and

150
150

I pu = I actual/ Ibase
3

Where Ibase is defined as the motor phase voltage divided by the motor per
phase impedance.
[20]

Q.6

(a)

Draw two possible circuits which result in the smooth variation of an added
resistance to the rotor circuit of a wound three-phase induction motor using
solid state electronic switches. Give the advantages and disadvantages of each
circuit.
[6]

(b)

How is operation of an induction motor under field weakening achieved and

when is it normally implemented.
[4]

A 440V, 50Hz, 4-pole, star-connected three phase induction motor is used as adrive in
a slip-power recovery speed control arrangements. The motor equivalent circuit
parameters referred to the stator side are
r1 = 0.067, r2\ = 0.04,

x1 + x 2\ = 0.177

stator/rotor turns ratio = 1.15.

The inverter is directly connected to the supply. Find the firing delay angle of the
inverter so that the motor runs at a no-load speed of 1440 rpm. Upon loading the
motor, the speed drops to 1400 rpm. Find the amount of recovered power in this case.
[10]
END OF QUESTION PAPER