  The present work revisits the reduction of the nonlinear dynamics of an
electromechanical system through a quasi-steady state hypothesis, discussing
the fundamental aspects of this type of approach and clarifying some confusing
points found in the literature. Expressions for the characteristic time scales
of dynamics are deduced from a physical analysis that establishes an analogy
between electromechanical dynamics and the kinetics of a chemical reaction. It
provides a physical justification, supplemented by non-dimensionalization and
scaling of the equations, to reduce the dynamics of interest by assuming a
quasi-steady state for the electrical subsystem, eliminating the inductive term
from the electrical equation. Numerical experiments help to illustrate the
typical behavior of the electromechanical system, a boundary layer phenomenon
near the initial dynamic state, and the validity limits of the
electromechanical quasi-steady-state assumption discussed here.
