ABSTRACT
This chapter explores fundamental operating principles and concepts associated with direct current and alternating current (AC) motors and generators. It illustrates the electromagnetic principles behind the operation of generators and motors through simplified electrical diagrams, and common calculations involving electric motors. The chapter introduces basic principles and equations, governing important and practical functions and operational parameters of motors and generators. The basic construction and premise of operation of an AC alternator is similar to a dynamo with the exception of the fact that the commutator is unnecessary and therefore absent. An AC induction motor can be considered as a special case of a transformer with a rotating secondary and a stationary primary. Synchronous motors are AC induction motors that have no slip. In other words, in synchronous motors, the speed of rotor or motor shaft is the same as the rotational speed of the stator winding magnetic field.
