Industrial Engineer · phase 12 of 16 · noun

Dynamic Braking

Method that dissipates regenerated motor energy in a resistor connected to the DC bus through a braking chopper.

The Explain card

Plain English
Dynamic braking sends the energy a decelerating motor pushes back onto the DC bus into a resistor, through the braking chopper. The motor brakes hard and the resistor gets hot.
Example
A centrifuge decelerates from full speed in twenty seconds instead of coasting for ten minutes. The bus rises, the chopper connects the resistor, and the energy leaves as heat on the cabinet roof.
Why it matters
It is the standard way to stop high inertia loads quickly with a plain drive. The resistor and chopper have to be sized for the energy per stop and the stops per hour, and an undersized resistor fails as a fire hazard rather than as a fault.
Hook
Brake hard, and turn the motion into heat.

Word knowledge

How the word is built, where it came from, and what it sits beside in memory.

In a sentence

During VFD commissioning, the technician enables dynamic braking and sets the deceleration time before testing an emergency stop with the loaded conveyor.

Why these words
  • dynamic French dynamique, from Greek dynamikos, powerful modifies braking to identify a method associated with motor motion and electrical energy
  • braking brake plus the action-forming suffix -ing names the slowing action at the center of the phrase
Where it came from
Origin
English engineering compound formed from dynamic and braking
Entered the language
20th century
What changed
Dynamic moved from the general sense of force or power into technical language about motion and energy, while braking broadened from mechanical restraint to electrical motor control.
How it is spelled
Pattern
dynamic keeps the Greek-derived root dynam- followed by the adjective suffix -ic
Pattern
braking drops the final silent e of brake before adding -ing

Spelled like

  • dynamics
  • dynamo
  • making
  • driving
Broken into chunks
  • dynam
    • dynamo
    • dynamics
    • dynamometer
  • brak
    • brake
    • braking
    • brakeless
What it sits beside

Same subject

Same shape

  • regenerative braking
  • rheostatic braking
  • plug braking

motor braking terms

  • dynamic braking
  • regenerative braking
  • plug braking

VFD commissioning settings

Where it sits in the deck

Phase 12: VFD Commands, References, and Stopping

Starting, referencing and stopping, including the several very different things a drive can mean by the word stop.

Neighbours in this phase