Electrical Engineering in Japan, Vol. 94, No.
5, 1974
TRlrlPkd from Ilhnld Cpldcoi R o n h ~ h i ,Vol. 94B, No. 10, October 1974, pp. 479-486
An Analysis of DC-Machine Commutation
T . MATSUDA
Muroran Institute of Technology
1. Introduction
It is very important for machine designers to
accurately evaluate the commutation performance
of dc machines. The commutation performance is
affected by various factors, particularly by the
contact characteristics of brushes and commutator
segments. A number of commutation theories haa
been proposed so far and much effort has been
made to improve mainly carbon brush character-
istics. In analyzing the commutation character-
istics the so-called commutation equation has
played an important role, but it becomes greatly
complicated when a brush covers two o r more
commutator segments [1-5 1.
In recent years, digital computers have been
used extensively to study the commutation char-
acteristics. The digital analysis makes it pos-
sible to predict the commutation characteristics
and to evaluate the effects of various machine con-
stants of the commutation characteristics. Prac-
tically speaking, however, the methods proposed
by Linville [2] and others [3-61 should be reex-
amined from the following standpaints:
(1)to take into account the contact voltage vs.
current charccteristics of the brush more accur-
ately;
(2) to develop a simpler method for solving
commutation equation under multipoint boundary
conditions; and
(3)to simplify the digital computation proced-
ures.
In this paper, we express the commutation
equation in terms of state variables and propose
an iterative method for solving it on the basis of
periodic change of the commutation circuit. In
the proposed method, the contact characteristics
of the brush are fully taken into account,, The
validity of the proposed method is confirmed ex-
perimentally using a 3-kW test machine.
In this paper, we assume that the commutating
coil inductance and the interpole air-gap flux dens-
ity distribution are known. Although it is very im-
portant to determine them accurately, the detailed
discussion on this problem is omitted.
74
2. Commutating Circuit and Assumptions
for the Analysis
2.1 Assumptions
For simplicity of analysis, we set up the fol-
lowing assumptions.
(1) The stator has a symmetric structure with
pitch equal to pole pair pitch. A multipole machine
can be represented by an equivalent 2-pole machine.
The 2-pole machine to be analyzed in this paper
has a stator with double-layer lap windings and an
odd number of commutator segments per pole pair.
(2) The commutating coil inductance is kept
constant during each switching interval.
(3) The magnetic circuit of the interpole is not
saturated and the magnetic flux produced by the
interpole is proportional to armature current.
(4) The electromotive force produced by arma-
ture reaction is not affected by the commutating
condition.
(5) The armature current is kept constant and
the voltage induced in the commutated coil by the
noncommutated coil is negligible.
(6) Segment mica insulating commutator seg-
ments are negligibly thin and the riser has no re-
sistance.
(7) Eddy current induced in the commutating
coil conductor and the surrounding ferromagnetic
material is negligible.
(8) Each brush is fixed on the geometrical neu-
tral axis and i t always contacts commutator seg-
ments all over its contact area.
2..2 Commutation cimuit and type of commutated
current
To represent the commutation circuit by a
lumped-constant circuit, we represent the noncom-
mutated circuits by constant current sources.
The general commutation circuit thus derived is
shown in Ng. 1. The number of commutator seg-
ments contacting each brush is given by

F&. 1. General commutation circuit.
P=(u/2)+6 (1)
whereu=l,2, ... a n d O 5 6 5 0 . 5 . Asstated
in section 2.1, the number of commutator seg-
ments per each pole pair is assumed to be odd and
the stator winding is of lap winding type. The
effect of load resistance and armature winding is
taken into account in determining the current mag-
nitude of the constant current source. The effect
of armature reaction is also neglected as stated
in assumption (4)of the previous section.
In Fig. 1, n denotes the number of coils short-
circuited by positive and negative brushes. Coils
1, 2, ... n under commutation are numbered in
the direction of rotation as shown in Fig. 1. Coils
which are to be sho-rt-circuited after coil 1 are
assigned numbers 2, 3, ... . Commutator seg-
ments are numbered so that coil 1 begins to be
short-circuited as soon as commutator segment 1
begins to contact the positive brush. Resistance
R , j = 1, 2,... n + 2 represents the contact re-
sstance between brush and commutator segment j.
The meanings of other symbols are as follows:
5 inductance of short-circuited coil; Ljk mutual
inductance between short-circuited coils j and k;
rj coil resistance; ej electromotive force induced
in the short-circuited coil or in the commutated
coil; I armature current; iLj current flowing
through short-circuited coil; 153 commutator seg-
ment current.
In Fig. 1, the period from the time when the
commutation of coil 1 starts until the time when
the commutation of coil n ends is called switching
interval 0. The period from the time when the
commutation of coil n ends until the time when the
commutation of coil 2 starts is called switching
interval 0. Other switching intervals are num-
bered in a similar way. Odd-numbered switching
...
intervals or switching intervals 0 . 0 , are
75
u P 3 Coil pitch 0.5 slot pitch
L8~ingularswitching interval b * 0.3
Fig. 2. Switching intervals and types of current
interval.
called singular switching intervals because the
commutation of one coil has just begun and that of
another coil is going to finish in these intervals,
Even-numbered switching intervals (or switching
..
intervals 0 , 0, .) are called regular switching
intervals because there is no coil of which com-
mutation is going to start or going to end in these
periods [5 I.
In general, if 6 i n Eq. (1)is nonzero and the
number of commutator segments per pole is odd,
the state of the commutation circuit returns to the
original state each time the rotor rotates by a half
slot pitch, or, equivalently, each time u regular
switching intervals and u singular intervals are
repeated, u being the number of coils in each slot.
We call this time period the major switching inter-
val o r simply the major interval. The short-cir-
cuit current takes the same waveform in each
major interval. The waveform of short-circuit
current under linear commutation is illustrated in
Fig. 2. The initial value of the short-circuit cur-
rent in the major interval coincides with the final
value and we utilize this fact to set up a boundary
condition for solving the commutation equation.
We denote coils in each slot as coil a, b,
according to the order of commutation. More pre-
u...
cisely the coil which is commutated for the first
time among the coils i n each slot is called coil a.
Incidentally, short-circuit currents flowing through
coils a, b,
a, b, ...
... n are called short-circuit currents
u, respectively.
3. Commutation Equations and Brush
Contact Voltage
3.1 Commutation equation
We derive the commutation equation by the state
variable method. The state variable method is
superior to the conventional methods in its capa-
bility of systematically deriving the commutation
equation and its suitability for digital computation.
The state variable method makes it possible to
very easily solve the multidimensional nonlinear
commutation equation.
 First, let us construct a tree of the commuta-
tion circuit in Fig. 1by picldng up only the volt-
age sources and resistance branches. We repre-
sent the cutset corresponding to this tree by
F=rFVL FVLF0R L ]
] = ~ R L
FCLFcr
FrI 0
which gives tbe following commutation equation:
I v (f)+FVLiL(f
)=O
I (3)
in(f)+FnLIi(f)+FRlIl(f)=O
I r (t)+FrLIL(t)=O
Ur.(f)-FvrTUv(f)-FRL7UR(f)
-FFrLrDr (1) =O
I)I(f)-FRIruR (f)=o
For notations V, R, r, L and I, refer to Fig. 1.
The matrix with symbol T represents the trans-
pose of the matrix. For instance, FVLrepre-
sents the comction relationship between the volt-
age source branch and inductance branch. A simi-
lar statement holds for other F matrices. iv, iR,
ir, i1, vv, VR, V r and VI represent the current
and voltage vectors of the corresponding elements.
The circuit equations for individual branches
are described below.
(1) Resistance branch
It is difficult to express accurately the contact
voltage vs. current characteristics of the ca*n
brush. They vary with the brush materials, air
humidity, commutator segment temperature, con-
tact pressure, commutator segment velocity, etc.
[?I. According to the experimental results, the
contact voltage is a nonlinear functlon of current
density and its static (or dc) characteristics are
different from the dynamic (or ripple) character-
istics. The most typical dynamic characteristics
are illustrated in Rg. 2. For the method of mea-
suring these characteristics, refer to section 5.2.
The brush current density pulsates with time and
therefore contact voltage VR is expressed as
,=
U R ( ~ R1) K [g(t)]ntz"'"
where m is a constant equal to o r greater than
unity. Although, rigidly speaking, Kin Eq. (5) is
a function of current density, we assume here that
it is a constant [8]; g is the (n + 2)-dimensional
contact current density vector and is expressed 88
0 =LR.t.ir/A
where A is the total c a t a c t area of the brush and
T = t/Tc is time variable normalized to commuta-
tor segment period Tc and
*-2
9 8 =hdiag[- 1 - 11 )......, 1
-'-
r ' 0.5+s'
- . 1 1 where L is the inductance matrix in each switching
GI
0.5+U-r'
cumnt & d t y ( A / c m ' )
Ng. 3. Dynamic bar-brush contact voltage vs.
current characteristics of a brush.
I
1 (4) Equation (7) is an (n + 2) x (n + 2) diagonal matrix
i and k]n+ll/m if,ag (n + 2)-dimensional vector
with elements gj , j = 1, 2, ...
n + 2. Accord-
ing to the present author's experiment, the dynamic
contact voltage vs. current characteristics of the
brush are not very dependent on the dc component
of the brush current and K is kept almost constant
[9]. Therefore, we assume that K is expressed in
terms of the whole cmtact area resistance RB of
the b w h o r the contact resistance for the rated
brush current IB flowing uniformly over the whole
contact area. The brush contact voltage VB for the
rated brush current IB therefore is expressed aa
Vs=leRe=27l~ Re
=K ( 2 7 l ~ / A ) " ~ (8)
where Y = Ig/2 IF and IF is the rated armature
current flowing through all the parallel armature
circuits. Consequently, we obtain
~/A''"=(2ylr)1-"'n)R~ (9)
Substituting Eqs. (6), ( 7 ) and (9) into Eq. (51, We
obtain
UR (I) =(2 71 # ) l - ( l ' a )[ $Rh~i r ) sts""' (10)
which can be used to represent the contact voltage
vs. current characteristics of arbitrary brush
material by assigning suitable values to m, y and
RB. The circuit equation for the resistance branch
(5) of the short-circuited coil is represented by
Ur (t)=Grir(1) (11)
where & denotes an n x n diagonal matrix with
element l/rj.
(2) Inductance brush
(6)
Assuming that both the self- and the mutual
inductances of the short-circuited coil are constant
during each switching interval, we express the cir-
cuit equation for the inductance branch as follows :
D L ( f )= L d l r ( t ) / d t (12)
(7)
interval.
76
 (3) Voltap source branch
The electromotive force induced in the short-
circuited coil (or equivalently in the commutated
cdU is represented by a voltage source. We call
this electromotive force the commutation volt-
age. Assuming further that the magnetic flux
produced by the interpole is proportiad to the
armature current, we express the commutation
voltage vector as follows:
DV( t )= a [( 1 +k)ec-e.) +ec
where (Y = I/IF, ec is the electromotive force in-
duced by the interpole flux which in turn is pro-
duced by the armature current, Ba is the electro-
motive force induced by the armature reaction, k
is the ratio of magnetomotive force induced by
the interpole auxiliary winding to magnetomotive
force induced by the interpole main winding and
eL is the electromotive force induced by the main-
pole leakage flux.
L d ~ ( 1 ) = F v( ~
1) ' ~ +
FRL'OR(t)
v
dt
+FrL'Dr(t)
Equation (10) and the second expression of Eq. (3)
give
D R ( t ) = (27 I F ) ~ - ( ' / ' " ' R B{[-B
FRR
- F R / ~)ntzl'"'
I]
Substitution of Eq. (15) into Eq. (14) yields
tdM=FvLruv(t)
dt
+FRL'(27 IF)^-"'"') R E
X (SR{ -FRLi~( t ) -FBI ) It1""'
-FrL'%FrLiL(t)
where 9Ry is an (n x n)-diagonal element with ele-
ment rj/Rg and ar = Gr"/RB.
To express Eq. (16)in terms of normalized
variables, we introduce the following pew sym-
bols: x = iL/IF, t = iI/IF, T = t/Tc, -C-1 = LsL-1
(Ls is the normalizing inductance), p = RB R/Ls,
T = commutation period, and CP = vV/Vg. The
normalized equation thus derived is expressed a s
e d J - 1 {2FvLr9
dt B cuit current assuming that the commutation volt-
+( ~ ~ ' ) " " ~ " F R(-FBLX
L~(~R
-F R I ~ ) ) FrLT9rR L X )
s+t"'"-
Equation (17) is the basic commutation equation
which is derived taking into account the nonlinear
contact voltage vs. current charabteristics of the
brush. While Eq. (17) is not necessarily useful
to clarify the physical meanings of individual
terms, it is particularly suited for digital compu-
tation. Physically spealdng, the first term on the
right-hand side of Eq. (17) represents the commu-
tation voltage, the second term the voltage between
commutator segments and the third term, the volt-
age drop across coil resistance.
3.2 Contact voltage between brush and commu-
tator segment and voltage between commu-
tator segments
It is reported [lo, 11J that a spark discharge
occurs when the contact voltage between the brush
(13) and commutator segment exceeds about 3V. We
have also confirmed this fact experimentally. It
is very important for design engineers to predict
the contact voltage between the brush and commu-
tator segment. In the conventional design method,
only the average reactance voltage has been con-
sidered in designing the mechanical strength of the
interpole and the type of armature winding. If the
contact voltage between the brush and commutator
segment can be predicted accurately, then it be-
comes possible to design the shape of the interpole,
the type of winding, the number of commutator
segments covered by each brush, the magnitude
and waveform of commutation voltage- more accur-
ately.
(14) Contact voltage VR between the brush and comu-
tator segment can be expressed in terms of nor-
malized coil current x as follows:
D R ( f ) = ( 2 r ) - ( ' / " ' V ~ ( % f-FRLX
(
L~L(~) -FRIC)) I t 2 1 / m (18)
(15)
similarly, voltage vs(t) between the commutator
segments is given by
us(t)= (2 r)-('/'")V BF R L ' ( ~ R ( - F R L X
-FRI'C)]n+21~m (19)
Equations (18)and (19) are useful for calculating
(16) the time behavior of a ( t )and v,(t).
4. Numerical Solution of Commutation
Equation
Equation (17)can be solved very easily by
Runge-Kutta method, In determining the initial
value of the short-ircuit current, we notice the
fact that the initial value of the short-circuit cur-
rent coincides with the final value for the major
interval. More precisely we first estimate the
approximate initial value XI [ l J of the short-cir-
age is equal to the average reactance voltage and
(17 ) the armature current is commutated linearly. We
iterate the short-circuit current calculation using
the thus etermined initial value until the initial
value XI$ obtained at the jth iteration agrees with
the final value xE(j) with an error less than the
prespec ed error 2 e . Needless to say, the final
iB
value XE 1 obtained at the jth iteration is used as
the initial value q(J+1) for the (j + 1)st iteration.
A flow chart for this calculation procedure is
77
 m 5. Numerical Example and Experimental Results
Read in dr-
Set UP coanxmt.Eq.
Read in initial
estim.va1.XI
of hush cur.6
coanmnt. volt.
Fig. 4. Flow chart for solving the differential
commutation equations.
illustrated in Fig. 4. The short-circuit current
produced by the average reactance voltage, which
is used as the first initial value, consists of the
steady-state component and the transient compo-
nent. Since the steady-state component of the
short-circuit current is the true initial value being
sought, the initial value used for the first itera-
tive calculation has an error equal to the transient
component of the short-circuit current. Since the
commutation circuit comprises only resistances
and inductances, the transient term attenuates
with time. According to our experience, the
transient component attenuates after about three
iterations and 5 o r 6 iterations are sufficient to
reduce the discrepancy between the initial and the
final values below 10-5 times the armature cur-
rent. Therefore the number of iterations has little
effect on the total computing time. The number of
short-circuited coils or the dimension of commu-
tation equation is the most important among sev-
eral factors affecting the total computing time.
Generally speaking, the commutation circuit
varies from one switching interval to another.
Therefore it is necessary to change the commu-
tation equation each time the switching interval
changes. The time behavior of the short-circuit
current over major interval is determined ulti-
mately when the Short-circuit current has been
calculated for all switching intervals.
78
To test the validity of the theoretical analysis
in the preceding sections, we have measured the
time behavior of the short-circuit current and con-
tact voltage between the brush and commutator
segment of a 3-kW test machine. The short-cir-
cuit current is measured using a search coil.
5.1 Test machine
A separately excited dc machine was tested.
Its ratings are as follows: 3 kW, 100 V, 30 A,
1500 rpm, 2 poles, 1/2 slot pitch winding, 3
coils/slot, slot-type electric carbon brush (12.5
x 20 x 32 mmq, 2 brushes/pole, p = 2.5. The
search cull for Short-circuit current measurement
is arranged as shownin Ng. 5. The time rate of
short-circuit current variation can be measured
by observing the voltage waveform appearing across
slip rings 2 and 3. An auxiliary brush is fixed to
one of the two parallel connected brushes to mea-
sure the contact voltage between the commutator
segment and tail edge of the brush. The auxiliary
brush is insulated from the main brush by means
of the brush holder so that they'are not short-cir-
cuited. The contact area of the main brush is little
affected by fixing the auxiliary brush. An auxiliary
winding is also fixed to the interpole to adjust the
magnetic flux intensity produced by the interpole.
Machine constants and test conditions are summar-
ized in Table 1.
5.2 Determination of machine constants
Most important quantities for setting up com-
mutation equation are the contact voltage vs. cur-
rent characteristics of the brush, inductance
matrices of the short-circuited coil and commu-
tation voltage. In the present study, the contact
voltage vs. current characteristics of the brush
are determined experimentally and other two quan-
tities are determined by the numerical calculation.
The measured contact voltage vs. current char-
acteristics are shown in Ng. 3. The measuring
device is also shown in Ng. 7 . Solid curves in
Fig. 3 are measured by superposing a half-cycle
wave of 50-Ha sinusoidal current upon a steady-
state dc current of 8 A/cm2. The short-circuit
current is measured at the negative brush through
which the commutated current flows in the direc-
tion from the commutator segment to the brush.
A l l the curves in Flg. 3 have also been measured
at the negative brush. The half-cycle wave of the
50-HZ sinusoidal current superposed upon the
steady-state component has an amplitude of 34
A/cm2 for curve (a), 20 A/cm2 for curve (b) and
.
14 A/cm2 for curve (c) Section 0 s of these curves
is measured by superposing a negative ripple cur-
rent upon the dc current. Those values of K, m
and RB which are derived from curve (b) in Fig. 3
using Eqs. (5) and 8 are as follows:
Inductance matrix of the short-circuited coil is
derived using equations given in Langsdorf's book
 Machine C O M ~ E U I ~ ~ Values Machine ~ o ~ t a n t s Values
Test speed (rpm) 1.200 Duration of regular switching
Brush pressure (gr/cm2) 260 interval (ma) 0
Commutator temperature ("C) about 65 Duration of major interval (ms) 1.085
Segment pitch (mm) 5 Maximum inductance of short-
Commutation band (mm) 40.9 cimuited Coil Ls (CCS) 8.747
Commutation period T (ms) 1.809 Coil resistance (m) 1.7
Segment period Tc (ma) 0.723 RB (a) 0.023
Duration of singular switch- m 1.41
ing interval (ms) 0.362 P 2.5

To oscilloscope

Commutator se
3 Slfpdnp
5. Measurement of commutating coil current. 8 H :Metallic gmphite brush
Mg.
FYg. 7. Measurement of dynamic bar-brush con-
tact characteristics.

To oscilloscope ec: Electromotive force due to interpole

flux
ea: Electromotive force due to armature
reaction

tact area
contact area
3mm of
F&. 6. Auxiliary brush for measuring the voltage
drop between brush and bar.

[13 1. Time-invariant inductance of the interpole

is determined using Roterst equation shown i n
Alger's paper [ 31. The couphg factor between
coils of the same layer in the same slot is as-
sumed to be 100%. The magnetic flux distribution
of the interpole air gap is determined by the flux
mapptng method. This magnetic flux distribution
is used to determine electromotive force ec in-
duced by the interpole flux, electromotive force ea
produced by armature reaction and effective com-
mutation voltage (ec + ea). Their calculated wave-
forms are shown in Fig. %a) and that of electro-
motive force induced by the main pole leakage flux
is shown in Fig. 9(b). The latter electromotive
force has been found to be negligibly small in com-
parison with commutation voltage.
short-circ;it pehod
*Upper; -Lower
Fig. 8. Component e. m. f. s of commutating coil.
5 . 3 Results
The calculated coil currents are compared with
the measured ones in Figs. 10 and 11. Curves in
Fig. lO(a) hold for coil a and those in Figs. ll(4
and (b) hold for coils b and c respectively. The
valueofkissetequalto0, f O . 2 5 o r t 0 . 5 ; k = O

79
 leakage thrx-
Fig. 9. Oscillograms of e.m.f.8 induced in com-
mutated coil.
Solid curvet calculated
dashed curve: mosured
Fig. 10. Computed and measured currents in com-
mutated coil (coil a).
ZIS
d -
Z0
-15
I
0 1 2 3 4 5
t/ Tc
I I I I
Solid curve: calculated dashed
curve: m e m d
Fig. 11. Computed and measured currents of com-
mutated coils (top: coil b, bottom: coil c).
indicates that no auxiliary interpole winding exists
and k = f0.258 indicates that the magnetic €lux
produced by the main interpole winding is strength-
ened o r weakened by 25% by the auxiliary interpole
winding.
Comparing the calculated curves with the mea-
sured ones i n Figs. 10 and 11, we see that they
agree very well with each other except local dis-
crepancy. The measured coil current for coil
type a is shown in Fig. 12.
kr0.5
15A/dw. 0,36Zms/div. (It/T./dw.)
Fig. 12. Oscillograms of currents in commutated
coil (coil a).
Open-cir. coil (calc. c w e only)
C I
r) I
I I
d "
I $ Solid curves: me=. , dashed curves: cdc.
Fig. 13. Computed and measured curves of bar to
brush voltage drop at the trailing edge of brush.
The measured contact voltage curves are also
compared with the calculated ones in Fig. 13. The
former curves are measured at the tail edge of the
brush. While the measured curves disagree with
the calculated ones at the rise portion, their aver-
age pulse heights agree very well with each other.
The measured waveform of the contact voltage is
shown in Fig. 14. The disagreement between the
measured and the calculated contact voltages is
caused by the vibration of the brush and nonuniform
thickness of the commutator segment fflm. In spite
of this disagreement, the proposed method is suffl-
ciently useful when the brush is operating i n normal
condition. Brushes of large-machine contact com-
mutator segments operate more stably than those
of small machine because large machines are
equipped with strong interpoles. Therefore the cal-
culated results would agree better with the mea-
sured ones for a large machine.
80

a5 ms/div.
Top: k = 0.25, Bottom: k = 0.5
Fig. 14. Oscillograms of bar to brush voltage
drop at the trailing edge of brush.
6. Conclusions
~n this paper, we have proposed an iterative
state variable method for analyzing the commuta-
tion characteristics of dc machines. The calcu-
lated results agree very well with the measured
ones. The proposed method has the following ad-
vantages over the conventional methods:
(1) It has become possible to analyze syste-
matically the commutation characteristics of any
lap-winding dc machine.
(2) The contact voltage vs. current characteris-
tics of any brush material can be taken into ac-
count.
(3) The proposed commutation equation is
formulated in a boundary-value problem on the
basis of the periodic change of the commutation
circuit under consideration. This boundary-value
problem can be solved easily by conventional
methods, e. g., the Runge-Kutta method.
(4) Important commutation performances such
as the contact voltage between the brush and com-
mutator segment and the voltage between commu-
tator segments have been expressed in terms of
very simple equations. These performances can
be calculated simultaneously with the s hort-cir-
cuit current.
A s for the assumptions stated in section 2 . 1
d the application field of the proposed method,
we can conclude as follows:
(5) The proposed method is equally applicable
to a case where even number of commutator seg-
ments exist per each pole pair. While the pro-
posed method is also applicable to a wave-wind-
ing dc machine, attention must be given to the
pitch of wave winding. If the wave winding is found
to have a short pitch, then the proposed method is
applicable to a wave-winding dc machine as
easily as to a lap-winding dc machine [14].
(6) If the initial value of the short-circuit cur-
rent is known, the transient commutation behavior
can be solved by the proposed method. In this
81
case, the transient behavior of the interpole flux,
rotor speed and commutation voltage should be
known by some means.
Similarly to the conventional methods, the pro-
posed method is also effective in analyzing the
effects of the stator shape, types of armature
winding, the number of commutator segments is
covered by each brush and the kinds of brush
materials on the commutation characteristics.
For such an analysis, i t is important to analyze
accurately the magnetic flux distribution in the
interpole air gap and the contact voltage charac-
teristics of the brush in advance [15, 16 1.
The general commutation equation derived in
this paper is useful for studying the commutation
phenomena from various standpoints. They have
already been applied successfully to the analysis
of no-spark commutation zone [l, 17 1.
A chowledgement
The author thanks Prof. M. Naito of Hokkaido
University for his guidance under 1971 research
scholarship of Ministry of Education, and Prof. H.
Fujihara of Hokkaido University and Prof. K.
Origasa of Muroran Institute of Technology for
their valuable comments on this work. Digital
computation presented in this paper has been car-
ried out at Computer Center of Hokkaido Univers-
ity.
REFERENCES
1. Matsuda. Trans. I.E.E., Japan, Vol. 94-B,
p. 487, Oct. 1974.
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Electrical Engineering in Japan, Vol. 94, No. 5, 1974
Translated from Dcnld Gakkai Ronburuhi, Vol. 94B, No. 10, October 1974, pp. 487-494
G e n e r a l i z e d Commutation Theory of Large
DC Machines
T . MATSUDA (Member)
Muroran Institute of Technology
1. Introduction
A number of papers has reported on the com-
mutation phenomena of dc machines. Since Abe's
analysis [ 1 ] which considered the nonlinear con-
tact voltage characteristics of the brush, there
have been various theoretical studies of no-spark
commutation [2-61. These theories have assumed
that only one coil is commutated at a time, and
the applicability of these theories to linear brush
contact characteristics has not been made clear.
When two or more coils are short-circuited
simultaneously by a brush, the effect of the type
of armature winding on the commutation perform-
ance must be taken into account. From this stand-
point, the lap-winding dc machine can be analyzed
more easily and systematically than the wave-
winding machine. This is because the winding of
the former machine has a symmetric structure.
Hence, mdtipole lap-winding dc machine can be
represented by an equivalent two-pole machine.
Fortunately, most large dc machines are of the
lap-winding type.
In a companion paper [7, 81, the author de-
rived a g e n e d z e d commutation equation based
on the state variable method and demonstrated the
effectiveness of the proposed method for analyzing
the commutation phenomenon of large dc machines.
The present paper shows the following facts using
the commutation equation.
(l) The no-spark zone is bounded by the criti-
cal no-spark curve of the contact voltage at the
head edge of the brush. The no-spark zone van-
ishes if the current density at the tail edge of the
bush exceeds a critical value.
82
17. Matauda. 1974Hokkaido Branch Conv. Four
Inst. Elec. Engrs., Japan, No. 46.
Sublnitted June 1, 1973;
resubmitted May 25,1974
(2) The no-spark zone can be calculated even if
the contact voltage characteristics of the brush are
linear.
(3) The armature current can always be com-
mutated h e a r l y even if two o r more coils are com-
mutated simultaneously by one brush.
(4) When one brush short-circuits two o r more
coils simultaneously, the center line of the no-
spark is expressed in terms of a polynomial of the
electromagnetic coupling factor between two ad-
jacent commutated ccdls. Its position cannot be
determined until the commutation equation is
solved.
2. Outline of Conventional Commutation
Theories
In the classical commutation theories starting
with Abe's theory [l], the no-spark zone has been
discussed in great detail using the linearized com-
mutation equation. Hayashi modified Abe's theory
introducing the concept of sparking voltage (about
3.2 V) [Z]. Ichild measured.the dynamic contact
voltage characteristics of the brush and showed
that the no-spark zone becomes narrow as the load
current increases [ 31. However, the problem atill
remains of whether o r not and under what condi-
tions the no-spark zone vanishes. Otsutake et al.
analyzed the nonlinear commutation equation by
analog computer. They showed that the effective
no-spark zone is bounded by a b e a r commutation
line and vanishes when the load current exceeds a
critical value [4]. Hayashi and Naito solved the
linearized commutation equation to determine the
no-spark commutation conditions 15 J. Miyachi