On mechanical governors for electric motors

In this work I propose a mechanism whereby a Watt mechanical governor can be used in the context of electric motor control. The motor considered is the shunt or parallel dc motor, in which flux weakening is used as a speed regulation strategy. Connection of the governorballs to a variable resistor in series with the stator circuit results in automatic flux weakening as the motor speed changes, and this phenomenon can be used to alter the torque-speed characteristics of the motor in the desired manner. After demonstrating the details of this process under the steady state assumption, I construct the dynamic model for the combined motor-governor arrangement. The system is a set of coupled nonlinear differential equations. Linearization about the fixed point yields the conditions for stable operation and also shows the possibility of a Hopf bifurcation. I introduce a self-consistent procedure for finding the characteristics of the limit cycle. The existence of this limit cycle is supported by numerical simulations.