| abstract
| - A DC motor relies on the fact that like magnet poles repel and unlike magnetic poles attract each other. A coil of wire with a current running through it generates an electromagnetic field aligned with the center of the coil. By switching the current on or off in a coil its magnetic field can be switched on or off or by switching the direction of the current in the coil the direction of the generated magnetic field can be switched 180°. A simple DC motor typically has a stationary set of magnets in the stator and an armature with a series of two or more windings of wire wrapped in insulated stack slots around iron pole pieces (called stack teeth) with the ends of the wires terminating on a commutator. The armature includes the mounting bearings that keep it in the center of the motor and the power shaft of the motor and the commutator connections. The winding in the armature continues to loop all the way around the armature and uses either single or parallel conductors (wires), and can circle several times around the stack teeth. The total amount of current sent to the coil, the coil's size and what it's wrapped around dictate the strength of the electromagnetic field created. The sequence of turning a particular coil on or off dictates what direction the effective electromagnetic fields are pointed. By turning on and off coils in sequence a rotating magnetic field can be created. These rotating magnetic fields interact with the magnetic fields of the magnets (permanent or electromagnets) in the stationary part of the motor (stator) to create a force on the armature which causes it to rotate. In some DC motor designs the stator fields use electromagnets to create their magnetic fields which allow greater control over the motor. At high power levels, DC motors are almost always cooled using forced air. The commutator allows each armature coil to be activated in turn. The current in the coil is typically supplied via two brushes that make moving contact with the commutator. Now, some brushless DC motors have electronics that switch the DC current to each coil on and off and have no brushes to wear out or create sparks. Different number of stator and armature fields as well as how they are connected provide different inherent speed/torque regulation characteristics. The speed of a DC motor can be controlled by changing the voltage applied to the armature. The introduction of variable resistance in the armature circuit or field circuit allowed speed control. Modern DC motors are often controlled by power electronics systems which adjust the voltage by "chopping" the DC current into on and off cycles which have an effective lower voltage. Since the series-wound DC motor develops its highest torque at low speed, it is often used in traction applications such as electric locomotives, and trams. The DC motor was the mainstay of electric traction drives on both electric and diesel-electric locomotives, street-cars/trams and diesel electric drilling rigs for many years. The introduction of DC motors and an electrical grid system to run machinery starting in the 1870s started a new second Industrial Revolution. DC motors can operate directly from rechargeable batteries, providing the motive power for the first electric vehicles and today's hybrid cars and electric cars as well as driving a host of cordless tools. Today DC motors are still found in applications as small as toys and disk drives, or in large sizes to operate steel rolling mills and paper machines. If external power is applied to a DC motor it acts as a DC generator, a dynamo. This feature is used to slow down and recharge batteries on hybrid car and electric cars or to return electricity back to the electric grid used on a street car or electric powered train line when they slow down. This process is called regenerative braking on hybrid and electric cars. In diesel electric locomotives they also use their DC motors as generators to slow down but dissipate the energy in resistor stacks. Newer designs are adding large battery packs to recapture some of this energy.
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