Assignment 2 : PWM Controller

Question :
Pulse width modulation (PWM) is a method of reducing the average power delivered by an electrical
signal, by effectively chopping it up into discrete parts. PWM usually used in controlling the speed of
the motor. In your opinion, what are the factors affecting the speed changes? Is it voltage or
frequency? Prepare your answer together with FIVE (5) references from any books or webpage
articles / notes. Additional aid of diagram on explaining the concept will be rewarded extra marks.

Answer :
1) From my opinion, as we know the popular application in motor is speed control. Motors as a
class require very high currents to operate. Being able to vary their speed with PWM
increases the efficiency of the total system by quite a bit. PWM is more effective at
controlling motor speeds at low RPM than linear methods. As for frequency, There are many
different ways to control the speed of DC motors but one very simple and easy way is to use
Pulse Width Modulation. For example, PWM pulse high: Instant full current, and thus full
torque while PWM pulse low: Instant zero current and thus zero torque.

2) From the info that I’ve been read, mostly because the both of frequency and voltage. Pulse
width modulation (PWM) is used to generate pulses with variable duty cycle rate. The rapid
rising and falling edges of PWM signal minimises the switching transition time and the
associated switching losses. PWM duty cycle is used to vary the speed of the motor by
controlling the motor terminal voltage. The motor voltage and revolutions per minutes (RPM)
obtained at different duty cycle rates. As the duty cycle increases, more voltage is applied to
the motor. This contributes to the stronger magnetic flux inside the armature windings and the
increase the RPM.
3) The duty cycle can change to affect the average voltage that the motor experiences. The
frequency of the cycles can increase. The pulse can even be increased in length. These can all
happen together, too, but in general, it’s easier to think of as either duty cycle increasing or
frequency increases to increase the speed of the motor. (Pulse width is directly related to duty
cycle, so if you decide to increase the width of a pulse, you are just altering the duty
cycle.)The only thing that hasn’t changed in all of this is the high voltage level, because “on”
is always the same for the digital output; merely flicking the output on and off at varying
speeds and for varying lengths of time is how you get pulse width modulation to fake an
analog output. In other words, if you want the motor to go faster, you can drive the PWM
output to a higher duty cycle. The higher the frequency of high pulses, the higher the average
voltage and the faster the fan motor will spin.
Figure 3 : Pulse Width Modulation
Reference :
1) https://www.analogictips.com/pulse-width-modulation-pwm/
2) https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/blog/pulse-width-modulation.html
3) https://engineering.stackexchange.com/questions/10211/dc-motors-relationship-between-
pwm-frequency-and-torque
4) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317656759_EFFECT_OF_PULSE_WIDTH_MODUL
ATION_ON_DC_MOTOR_SPEED
5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-width_modulation