An arbitrary load torque generator for studying electric drives in a laboratory environment

摘要

This paper presents an arbitrary load torque generator for simulating real mechanical loads, such as fans, conveyors, compressors or winders, recently incorporated into the undergraduate electric machine courses at Cartagena Polytechnic University (Spain). The system has been built and tested at the Electric Machines and Drives Laboratory, proving to be a great teaching tool for electric machine laboratory experiments. In order to obtain a low cost solution and offer a practical point of view, all the system components -variable frequency drives, a.c. brushless servo machine, induction motor and touch screen terminal -have been chosen from industrial manufacturers. The main advantage of this modular design is that it enables monitoring of voltage and current waveforms from any point of interest, extending its educational possibilities towards power electronic areas. Different tests and their results have also been included in this paper.