School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

AC Vector Controlled Drives

Induction Motor Drives
Greg Asher
Professor of Electrical Drives and Control
Greg.asher@nottingham.ac.uk
 Part I

Revision of Induction motors

 Equivalent circuit
 Power Flows
 Torque-speed characteristic
THE 3 PHASE INDUCTION MACHINE
• 60% of world's generated energy  rotating machines
• >90% of this  induction machines
• The induction machine consumes more of world’s generated electricity
than any other piece of electrical equipment

Power Range
• 100-500W small fans
• 1-50kW fans, pumps, conveyors, escalators
• 500kW water pumping, coal cutting,
• 1MW high speed train motor (eg. x4)
• 10MW warship/cruise ship motor (X2)
 Introduction – construction of cage IM

A A A
B’
C’

VA Iron
Al
bars
C B Rotor
(side view)
A’ A’ A’

End rings

 Stator has 3 windings AA’, BB’, CC’ wound 120 apart in space
 Stator windings connected to 3-phase mains at e = (2) 50Hz mains
 Fed by 3-phase currents 120 apart in time to create rotating magnetic field
 Rotor has NO windings
 It has a cage of Aluminium bars; currents will be induced in it
 Speed of rotating fields

 Rotating field set up by stator currents rotates at

N
synch speed s

fe ωe  2πf e P (poles) ω s rads-1 ωs rpm

S 50 314 2 314 3000

N
50 314 4 157 1500
S
50 314 6 105 1000

S 50 314 8 78 750
N 50 314 10 63 600

• If each phase spans 60° in space, then get 4-pole distribution

• 1 rpm = 2 radians/minute = 2/60 radian/second (rads-1)
Therefore 1 rads-1 = 60/2  10 rpm
• Stator windings of an IM can only be wound in one way. P is
fixed for an individual machine. An IM can either be a 2-pole
machine, or a 4-pole machine or ….etc.
 Concept of torque increasing with rotor slip

 Rotor bars see magnetic field rotating past them (conductors in moving field)
 Currents induced in rotor bars to establish torque; rotor travels at ωr in
attempt to catch up with rotating field
  r
 Have  s   r   sl ;  s  r then  sl  0 s s
s
 Bigger slip, bigger torque
P Vs 2  sl P Vs 2 s
T  ω sl  s T 3 3
2  e Rr  e 2  e Rr
T
Low Rr
2
P Vs
Slope = 3
High Rr 2 ωe Rr

Rated Operation Irat

(Stator current increases with slip)

r
s=1 s = 0.5 s=0
Per phase equivalent circuit

RR
IS RS lS IR s lR
RR R (1  s )
 RR  R
s s
Power Mechanical
VS LM losses power

Im

 Vs , IS rms stator volts, current per PHASE (not line-line)

 IR rms rotor current referred to the primary (also component of Is flowing to cancel
magnetic field of rotor currents)
 Im rms component of stator current which magnetises machine (sets up rotating field
 L0 magnetising inductance
 lr ls rotor leakage inductance, stator leakage inductance
 Lr rotor self inductance, Lr  Lo  lr
 Ls stator self inductance, Ls  Lo  ls
 Rs stator resistance, Rr rotor resistance
l l 1
 Stator an rotor leakage coefficients r  r  s  s   1  
Lo Lo 1   r (1   s ) r s
 Per phase equivalent circuit – full speed range

 Leakage effects reduce torque for a given slip, also causing maximum torque and
shape of torque curve at large slips
3Rr P Vs 2
 Torque-slip curve now given by: T
se 2   2 
  R  Rr    2 l  l 2 
 s s 
e s r 
 
 Real T-speed curve
 Final speed determined by load
 Typical fan-pump load shown
T  When motor switched to mains:
3Irat 2Irat - motor goes to P1
- motor too large or too small?
4Irat
5Ira
t P1  Smaller fan-pump load shown
Irat  When motor switched to mains:
Tacc
- motor goes to P2
Tstart
P2
 Lift, hoist load shown in green
- constant due to gravitational force
- slight increase due to friction etc
s=1 s=0.5 s=0 r
Rotating field and rotating flux
Rotating field, flux and applied voltage
Rotating field and induced rotor currents
Torque on induced currents
Field due to rotor currents - cancelled!!
Stator & rotor current fields – increasing load
Stator current components
Effect of rotor leakage -1
Effect of rotor leakage - 2
 Variable frequency (and voltage) operation

3Rr P Vs 2
Motor torque for given motor T
voltage Vs and frequency e: se 2   
2 
  R  r    2 l  l 2 
R
 s s 
e s r 
 
Vs k
put Vs = ke since Im   : this keeps Im (and field)  constant when
ωe Lo Lo applied frequency changes

ωe ωe Torque expression becomes:

T  0.5 1
ωe _ rated
ωe _ rated 3Rr P k2
T
ω sl 2   R 
2

  s  r   l  l 2 
R
  ωe ω sl  s r

Tacc  
Rs R
and  r
ωe ω sl

Only dependent on sl

ωr
0.25 0.5 0.75 1 ωe
 Field weakening esp. at higher speed

• In Vs = ke, k is such that Vrated (eg 415V) occurs at e-rated (eg 50Hz)
• If Vrated is the maximum voltage of the converter, then Im and the field must
reduce if we wish e > e-rated

• Seen that as field of flux  1/e ; hence T  1/e for a given current (Ir)
• Eventually, leakage effects impose

• Field weakening region often T = constant Te= constant Te2 = constant

called “Constant Power”
• Frequencies to 2e normal
• Employed if load also has
constant power characteristic
(so that good motor-load
matching can be got)
The PWM converter

IDC

E
580V

• Variable Vs and e synthesized by “modulating” the transistor switching pattern

• Motor speed r may be +ve or –ve depending on phase sequence of VS
• Regeneration occurs when r > e

• Under region, current reverses into

DC link,, charging C
Is = Is rated • Voltage increases!
Generating
region IDC
Is = 0

e Is = -Is rated
The PWM converter - regeneration

IDC
• Called “dynamic braking”
• If E rises to Enom+E, then transistor turned on. If E
E falls to Enom-E, then turned off
• Cheap but energy wasteful, especially if load has
many braking instances

IDC IDC
• Called PWM rectifier or “active font-
end”
• Can draw near sinusoidal currents
form supply
• Can inject reactive power into supply
• Line inductors required to “decouple”
supply voltage from PWM output
Open- loop V-f control
(where accurate speed-holding not required)

• Ramp generator ramps fe

to fe* at rate k (fe = kt )
• K reduced (or set to zero)
if IDC > Imax or E > E+E

B
6
2Irat
3Irat
E+E + + set
Irat
A
- Imax
-
PWM
e1 e2
reduce k fe Vm
set
fe * V

f e1 e2
Ramp generator Voltage-frequency Irat
with slope k characteristic
2Irat
Open- loop V-f control
Low speed voltage boost

Rs Rr/s • Aim is to adjust Vs to keep Im constant

Is
Im - Vs  I s Rs  j e Lo I m
Vs Vm Lm
• When e is not small I s Rs  e Lo I m

- Vs   e Lo I m  kf e
Vm 1pu
• When e is small I s Rs   e Lo I m

k Field weakening - Vs  kf e  Vb
Vb
• The voltage boost Vb (normally 20-40V) is
required to overcome the voltage drop due
fe
to Rs when e is small
Summary for PWM V-F drives

• About 25-30% of IM drives are driven by PWM converters

• Open-Loop V-f drive most common – 60% of total
- many drives esp. pumps and fans are just switched on and left running for long
periods under constant speed
• V-f drive operation based on steady state sinusoidal operation – only
controlling rms values
• V-f drive has poor torque control and poor low speed performance
- but OK for just starting loads requiring low torque at low speed
• Need to control instantaneous values of current
to get fast control of torque and flux (and hence speed)
• This is done by “vector control” of IMs
 Part II

Revision of Induction motors

 Equivalent circuit
 Power Flows
 Torque-speed characteristic