Technological University of the Philippines

Manila
College of Industrial Technology
Electrical Engineering Department

Assignment
in
Energy Conversion, Lecture

Submitted by:
Valencia, Immanuel Jose C.
BSECE – 4C

Submitted to:
Mr. Carlos Angelito Morales
Professor

September 9, 2017
Efficiency of Dynamos
Dynamos are actually quite efficient at converting kinetic energy to electrical energy. It depends on the size and the
precision of construction, but 80% is easily achievable, so if 100W is available from the bicycle it should be possible
to get 80W from the dynamo. However, we need to know where the energy comes from in the first place. A gas
turbine generator is about 40% efficient, in terms of the energy theoretically produced by burning gas to actual
electrical output. Wind generators can, theoretically, extract up to 55% of the energy from the wind. A very fit human
pedaling a bicycle is capable of converting around 25% of energy from metabolism into kinetic energy, so their body
is burning 400W to put 100W into the dynamo and get 80W out, for an overall efficiency of 20%.

A. Power Losses in Dynamo

The power received by a dynamo is called the input; in a generator it is mechanical power, while in a motor it is
electrical power. The power delivered by a dynamo is called its output; in a generator, it is electrical power, while
in a motor it is mechanical power. Although mechanical power is usually expressed in horsepower ( 1 hp = 33 00
ft-lb of energy per min ), it is customary to change the mechanical unit to its equivalent electrical unit of watts when
making calculations involving power losses and efficiency ( 1 hp = 746 watts ).

The power input to a dynamo is always more than its power output; that is, a generator or motor cannot convert all
the power it receives into useful output. This implies, that some of the power input is used to perform functions that
do not show up as power output.

The difference between the power input to machine and its power output is called power loss because it is
unavailable to drive a mechanical load in a motor or to supply electrical power in a generator.

This power loss always produces heating in the dynamo; therefore, the greater the power loss, as a percentage of the
power input, the hotter will the machine tend to become. If this loss should reach an excessive value, the temperature
rise might be high enough to cause failure.

Ohmic Losses

In the Earth's fluid outer core, a dynamo process converts thermal and gravitational energy into magnetic energy. The
power needed to sustain the geomagnetic field is set by the ohmic losses (dissipation due to electrical resistance)

Recent estimates of ohmic losses cover a wide range, from 0.1 to 3.5 TW, or roughly 0.3–10% of the Earth's surface
heat flow. The energy requirement of the dynamo puts constraints on the thermal budget and evolution of the core
through Earth's history.
Here we use a set of numerical dynamo models to derive scaling relations between the core's characteristic dissipation
time and the core's magnetic and hydrodynamic

Reynolds numbers—dimensionless numbers that measure the ratio of transport to magnetic and viscous diffusion,
respectively.
The ohmic dissipation of the Karlsruhe dynamo experiment supports a simple dependence on the magnetic
Reynolds number alone, indicating that flow turbulence in the experiment and in the Earth's core has little influence
on its characteristic dissipation time. We use these results to predict moderate ohmic dissipation in the range of 0.2–
0.5 TW, which removes the need for strong radioactive heating in the core7 and allows the age of the solid inner core
to exceed 2.5 billion years.

Brush Contact Loss

These losses occur in armature and field copper windings. Copper losses consist of Armature copper loss, Field
copper loss and loss due to brush contact resistance.

Armature copper loss = Ia2Ra (where, Ia = Armature current and Ra = Armature resistance)

This loss contributes about 30 to 40% to full load losses. The armature copper loss is variable and depends upon the
amount of loading of the machine.

Field copper loss = If2Rf (where, If = field current and Rf = field resistance)

In the case of a shunt wounded field, field copper loss is practically constant. It contributes about 20 to 30% to full
load losses. Brush contact resistance also contributes to the copper losses. Generally, this loss is included into armature
copper loss.

B. Rational Losses or Stray Power Loss

Two general classifications of power losses in electric machines

1. Those that are caused by the rotation of the armature (rotational losses)
2. Those that result from a current flow in the various parts of the machine (electrical losses)

Rotational losses will vary only if the speed changes, while the electrical losses are affected by the current values
through the various electrical elements such as the armature winding, the fields, and the brush contacts.

Stray Losses are the miscellaneous type of losses. The following factors are considered in stray load losses.

 The distortion of flux because of armature reaction.

 Short circuit currents in the coil, undergoing commutation.

These losses are very difficult to determine. Therefore, it is necessary to assign the reasonable value of the stray loss.
For most machines, stray losses are taken by convention to be one percent of the full load output power.
Rotational losses may be divided into five parts:
1. bearing friction
2. brush friction
3. wind friction (windage)
4. hysteresis
5. eddy currents

Hysteresis Loss

 Takes place in the revolving armature core because the magnetic polarity in the iron changes in step with the
changing positions of the magnetic material under the various poles.

 This hysteresis loss is magnetic in character but results only because the armature core is turning; it may
therefore be properly classified as rotational loss.

 In generators, whose speeds are usually constant, and in shunt motors that operate at substantially constant
speed, the hysteresis loss is fairly constant because of the flux density in the core iron changes very little with
the load.

 In series and compound motors, the hysteresis loss does vary somewhat with the changes in load because
both the speed and flux density are affected by the load.
Eddy Current Loss

 This result because the generated voltages in the iron near the outside surface are greater than those closer to
the center of the shaft because of the higher speed;
 The difference in potential then causes the currents to flow in the iron. Since the eddy currents have paths
mostly parallel to the shaft
 The logical way to minimize their magnitude is to introduce high resistances in the form of air spaces in direct
line to such paths.

Power Flow Diagram

The most convenient method to
understand these losses in a dc generator or
a dc motor is using the power flow diagram.
The diagram visualizes the amount of power
that has been lost in various types of losses
and the amount of power which has been
actually converted into the output.
Following are the typical power flow
diagrams for a dc generator and a dc motor.
Efficiency of Conversion
Efficiency should not be confused with effectiveness: a system that wastes most of its input power but produces
exactly what it is meant to is effective but not efficient. The term "efficiency" makes sense only in reference to the
wanted effect. A light bulb, for example, might have 2% efficiency at emitting light yet still be 98% efficient at heating
a room (In practice it is nearly 100% efficient at heating a room because the light energy will also be converted to heat
eventually, apart from the small fraction that leaves through the windows). An electronic amplifier that delivers 10
watts of power to its load (e.g., a loudspeaker), while drawing 20 watts of power from a power source is 50% efficient.
(10/20 × 100 = 50%)

Mechanical Efficiency
Mechanical efficiency measures the effectiveness of a machine in transforming the energy and power that is input to
the device into an output force and movement. Efficiency is measured as a ratio of the measured performance to the
performance of an ideal machine:
Mechanical Efficiency = Measured Performance / Ideal Performance
Mechanical Efficiency = Mechanical Advantage x 100 / Ideal Performance
Because the power transmission system or mechanism does not generate power, its ideal performance occurs when
the output power equals the input power, that is, when there are no losses. Real devices dissipate power
through friction, part deformation and wear.
The ideal transmission or mechanism has an efficiency of 100%, because there is no power loss. Real devices will
have efficiency less than 100% because rigid and friction-less systems do not exist. The power losses in a transmission
or mechanism are eventually dissipated as heat.
This is the measure of the effectiveness with which a mechanical system performs. It is usually the ratio of the power
delivered by a mechanical system to the power supplied to it, and, because of friction, this efficiency is always less
than one. For simple machines, such as the lever and the jackscrew, the efficiency is the actual load lifted divided by
the theoretical force delivered.

Electrical Efficiency

The efficiency of an entity (a device, component, or system) in electronics and electrical engineering is defined as
useful power output divided by the total electrical power consumed (a fractional expression), typically denoted by
the Greek small letter eta (η – ήτα).

Electrical Efficiency = Useful Power Output / Total Power Input

If energy output and input are expressed in the same units, efficiency is a dimensionless number. Where it is not
customary or convenient to represent input and output energy in the same units, efficiency-like quantities have units
associated with them. For example, the heat rate of a fossil-fuel power plant may be expressed in BTU per kilowatt-
hour. Luminous efficacy of a light source expresses the amount of visible light for a certain amount of power transfer
and has the units of lumens per watt.
Overall Efficiency
Overall efficiency looks at entire systems from the initial input to the final output. The input does not necessarily have
to be thermal in nature. Examples of systems where the input is not thermal include hydro-power systems, electrical
motors, and gear trains. Again it is the ratio of energy output to energy input.

The 1st Law of Thermodynamics indicates that the “cost” or “input” required to generate propulsion (do work with
a propulsion system) is energy. For mechanical propulsion, this energy comes from chemical energy in fuel or nuclear
energy (in the case of nuclear submarines). For animals, the energy comes from the food they eat. In either case, it is
desirable to do a lot of work with very little energy input (get more “bang for your buck,” so to speak). To quantify
the relationship between work output and energy input we define overall efficiency as

where Ei is the rate of energy input required to generate the given thrust. High η0 indicates low energy input for a
given work output. The 1st Law of Thermodynamics, however, indicates that the maximum overall efficiency is η0 =
1, which occurs when there is no heat transfer out of the system (all incoming energy is converted to work). In reality,
η0 < 1 due to limitations of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics.

For mechanical propulsion systems like jet engines and propeller-based propulsion, η0 is traditionally split into two
parts: thermal efficiency and propulsive efficiency.