Braking of Electric Motors

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If the load on the motor is removed and supply is disconnnected, the motor will continue to run for sometime due to the inertia and then stops. In most of the cases, the main requirement is that the motor and its driven machine must be stopped quickly i.e., the machine must stop at the instant of disconnection of supply. Eg: Lifts Quick stopping of a motor is more essential than quick starting. Any delay in starting up a motor only causes the motor to stand idle but a delay in stopping a motor may result in heavy damage to equipment or to the manufactured products. The objective of braking can be cited as follows: 1. Reducing the time taken to stop. 2. Stopping exactly at specified points.

Types of braking:
There are two types of braking namely Mechanical Braking and Electrical Braking. In mechanical braking, the stored energy of the rotating parts in dissipated in the form of heat by a brake shoe or a brake drum. In electric braking the stored energy of rotating parts is converted into electrical energy and dissipated in the resistance in the form of heat or returned to the supply.

Advantages of electric braking:

1. In mechanical braking, due to the excessive wear on the brake blocks or brake lining, needs frequent and costly replacement but no such replacement is needed in electric brakiung. Hence, there is saving in cost. 2. In electric braking, there is no cost incurred by way of maintenance of brake shoes or lining. But in mechanical braking, frequent adjustment are necessary to compensate for the wear and tear, thereby making maintenance costly. 3. Mechanical braking produces metal dust due to frequent operation, which will cause over wearing or bearings. No such dust is produced in electrical braking. 4. In some type of electrical braking, a part of energy is returned back to the supply thereby effecting a considerable saving in the operating cost. This is not possible with mechanical braking. 5. Smooth stopping in not possible in mechnical braking, because it depends on the smoothness of the braking surface and skill of the operator. But in electrical braking, smooth stopping is always possible.

6. In mechanical braking, due to the frequent operation, heat is produced at brake blocks or brake lining which may lead to failure of brakes. In electrical braking also heat is produced due to the operation, but in no way, this heat is harmful to the braking system.

Types of Electrical Braking:

Thera are three types of electric braking namely 1. Rheostatic or dynamic braking. 2. Plugging or counter current braking or reverse current braking. 3. Regenerative braking.

Electrical Braking of DC shunt motors:

Rheostatic or dynamic braking: In this method, the armature is simply disconnected from the supply and connected to a resistance, while the field remains connected to the supply as shown below.

All the kinetic energy of the moving mass is converted to electrical energy which is dissipated in the variable resistance connected. The magnitude of the braking torque can controlled by varying the value of the value of the resistance R. The disadvantage of this method is that in case of failue of electric supply, this method is ineffective. Plugging: This involves the reversing of the armature connections of the motor. We have seen that if the direction of current through armature or field is reversed, the direction of rotation of motor also gets reversed. In case of plugging, motor is subjected to the reversely directed torque. Under such conditions the back emf and the voltage acts in the same direction, so the current flowing in the circuit is produced by a voltage V + Eb i.e., approximately 2V.

To limit high inrush of current an additional resistance R is connected. In this method, motor tries to accelarate in the other as motor comes to rest. So some auxillary device is required to cut off the supply as soon as motor comes to rest. In case of failure of supply this method is ineffective. This method gives more braking torque than the rehostatic braking. The method applied to a shunt motor is shown below.

The method is generally used in braking elevators, rolling mills, machine tools etc. Regenerative braking: In the method, instead of being disconnected from the supply, it remains connected and returns the braking energy to the line. Consider a shunt motor running shown below. Suppose the load causes the speed to be increased above normal, the field current remaining the same then the back emf becomes greated than the supply voltage (Eb>V).

The current gets reversed and power will be supplied to the line, tending to prevent any further increase in the speed. Alternatively same effect can be obtained by increasing the field current where motor quickly slowed down to the speed corresponding to the new value of the field current. Due to reversal

of direction of armature current as Eb > V, armature torque be reversed and speed falls until Eb becomes less than V. The method is used while lowering the cage of a hoist or the advantge motion of an electric train.

Electric Braking Of DC Series Motor

Rheostatic or dynamic braking: The basis principle of disconnecting the armature from the supply remains the same. The direction of the current through the armature reverses while braking. The motor runs as generator. In case of series motor care should be taken to see that the direction of current through field does not change.

Plugging: The basic principle of reversing the armature conncetion remains same. Similar to shunt motor, the resistance R added can be controlled to control the magnitude of the braking torque.

Regenerative Braking: In case of dc series motor, increase in excitation results decrease in speed. As such it is not possible to get emf more than voltage. It is not possible to make field current more than the armature current. Hence regeneration braking with series motor is not possible. But can be used with traction motors with some special arrangements.

Electric Braking of an Induction Motor:

The mechanical brakes or electric brakes can be used to bring an electric motor to rest quickly. But with the mechanical brakes, smooth stop is not possible. Similarly the linings, levers and other mechanical arrangements are necessary to apply mechanical brakes. Mechanical brakes also depends on the operator.As against this, an electric braking is easy and reliable hence it is used to stop the induction motors very quickly. Though the motor is brought to rest electrically, to maintain its state of rest a mechnical brake is must. Dynamic or Rheostatic Braking: In rheostatic braking, one supply line out of R, Y and B is disconnected from the supply. Depending upon the condition of this disconnected line, two types of rheostatic braking can be achieved.

Two lead connection: In this method, the disconnected line is kept down. This is shown below. Three Lead Connection: In this method, the disconnected line is connected directly to the other line of the machine. This is shown below. As one of the motor terminal is not connected to the supply, the motor continues to run as single phase motor. In this case the breakdown torque i.e., maximum torque decreases to 40% of its orginal value and motor develops no starting torque at all. And due to high rotor resistance the net torque produced becomes negative and the braking operation is obtained. In two lead connections, the braking torque is small while in three leads connection, the braking torque is high at high speeds. But in the three lead connection there is possibility of inequality between the contact resistances in connections of two paralled lines. This might low braking torque and even may produce the motoring torque again. Hence inspite of low braking torque, two lead connections is preferred over three lead connections.

The torque-slip characteristics for motoring and braking operation is shown below

Plugging: The reversal of direction of rotation of motor is the main principle in plugging of motor. In case of an induction motor, it can be quickly stopped by interchanging any two stator leads. Due to this, the direction of rotating magnetic field gets reversed suddenly. This produces a torque in the reverse direction and the motor tries to rotate in opposite direction. Effectively the brakes are applied to the motor. Thus during the plugging, the motor acts as a brake. One important aspect about plugging is producion of very high heat in the rotor. While plugging, the load keeps on revolving and rotor absorbs kinectic energy from the revolving load, causing speed to reduce. The corresponding gross mechanical power Pm is entirely dissipated as heat in the rotor. Similarly as stator is connected to supply, rotor continues to receive power P2 from stator which also gets dissipated as heat in the rotor.

The plugging should not be done frequently as due to high heat produced rotor may attain high temperature which can melt the rotor bars and even over heat the stator as well. DC Dynamic braking: A quick stopping of an induction motor and its high inertia load can be achieved by connecting a stator terminals to a dc supply. Any two stator terminals can be connected to a dc supply and third terminal may be kept open or may be connected directly to other stator terminal. This is called DC Dynamic braking. If third terminal is kept open it is called two lead connection while it it is shorted directly with other stator terminal it is called three lead connection. A diode bridge can be used to get dc supply. The figure below shows connection with Diode Bridge for a dc dynamic braking of an induction motor.

When dc is supplied to the stator, stationary poles N, S are produced in stator. The number of stationary poles is P for which stator winding is wound. As rotor is rotating, rotor cuts the flux produced by the stationary poles. Thus the ac voltage gets induced in the rotor. This voltage produces ac current in the rotor. The motor works as generator and the I2R losses are dissipated at the expenditure of Kinectic energy stored in the rotating parts. Thus dynamic braking is achieved. When all KE gets dissipated as heat in the rotor, the induction motor comes to rest. Advantages: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Heat produced is less compared to the plugging. The energy dissipated in the rotor is not dependent on the magnitude of the dc current. The braking torque is proportional to the square of the dc current. Quick stopping of the motor is possible. The method can be used for wound rotor or squirrel cage rotor induction motor.

Regenarative Braking: The input power to a three phase induction motor is given by Pm = = 3 Vph Iph cos Angle between stator phase voltage and phase current.

This is less than 90 degree for the motoring action. If the rotor speed is increased greater than the synchronous speed with the help of external device, it acts as an induction generator. It converts the input mechanical energy to an electrical energy which is given back to supply. It delivers active power to the three phase line. The flux becomes greater than 90 degree. The power flows reverses hence the rotor induced emf and rotor current also reverse. So rotor produces torque in opposite direction to achieve the braking. As the electrical energy is given back to the lines while braking, it is called as regenerative braking.