HIGH TORQUE CAGE MOTORS

The rotor of of an induction motor can be designed in two types :

a: Squirrel cage rotor

b: Slip ring rotor

For both of them the stator part connection is same, no change.

At squirrel cage rotor we can not add external resistance which means speed and torque
cannot be controlled.
But in slip ring type of rotor we are able to add external resistance and we have a full control
over the speed and torque of induction motor.
So deep bar and double rotor is only applicable in squirrel cage induction motors.
The starting torque of a squirrel cage induction motor is only 1.5 times of full load torque, and
the current drawn is very hight it's 5 to 7 times of full load current, this is because the rotor
resistance is very low.
So deep bar and double cage rotor are used to provide more rotor resistance and to decrease
the current.
The motive is to provide efficient starting torque and effective starting current drawn.
 1. Deep Bar Cage Motor

The Deep Bar Rotor in an induction motor is used to obtain high rotor resistance at starting
and low rotor resistance at the running condition. The figure below shows a deep bar cage
rotor with deep and narrow bars.

A bar may be assumed to be made up of a number of narrow layers connected in parallel.

The above figure shows three layers A, B and C. The topmost layer element that is denoted
by A is linked with the minimum leakage flux. Its leakage inductance is minimum. On the other
hand, the bottom layer C links with the maximum leakage flux and thus, its leakage
inductance is maximum.
At the starting, the frequency of the rotor is equal to the supply frequency. The bottom layer
element C offers more impedance to the flow of current than the top layer element A.
Therefore; maximum current flows through the top layer and minimum current flows through
the bottom layer.
The effective rotor resistance increases and the leakage reactance decreases, and this is
because of the unequal current distribution of the current. The starting torque and the starting
current is higher and lower, respectively because of the high rotor resistance at the starting
condition.
The value of a slip and the frequency of the rotor is very small, under the normal operating
conditions. The reactances of all the layers of the bars is small as compared to their
resistances. The impedance of all layers of the bar is nearly equal, so the current flows
through all parts of the bar equally. The rotor resistance of the motor is small because of the
large cross-sectional area makes the rotor resistance small, which results in a better
efficiency at the lower slip.
 2. Double Cage Induction Motor

This is another way of obtaining improved starting performance without affecting its running
performance. Though it is more expensive it gives better performance than deep bar rotor.
A Double Cage Induction motor is that type of motor in which a double cage or two rotor
windings or cages are used. This arrangement is used for obtaining high starting torque at a
low value of starting current. The stator of a double cage rotor of an induction motor is same
as that of a normal induction motor. In the double cage rotor of an induction motor, there are
two layers of the bars. The figure of the Double cage induction motor is shown below.

Each layer is short-circuited by the end rings. The outer cage bars have a smaller cross-
sectional area than the inner bars and are made of high resistivity materials like brass,
aluminium, bronze, etc. the bars of the inner cage are made of low resistance copper. Thus,
the resistance of the outer cage is greater than the resistance of the inner cage.
There is a slit between the top and the bottom slots. The slit increases linking the inner cage
winding is much larger than that of the outer cage winding. Thus, the inner winding has a
greater self-inductance.
Construction Of Double Squirrel Cage Rotor

Rotor of a double squirrel cage motor has two independent cages on the same rotor. The
figure shows the cross sectional diagram of a double squirrel cage rotor.

Bars of high resistance and low reactance are placed in the outer cage, and bars of low
resistance and high reactance are placed in the inner cage. The outer cage has high
'reactance to resistance ratio' whereas, the inner cage has low 'reactance to resistance ratio'.
Working Of Double Squirrel Cage Motor
At starting of the motor, frequency of induced emf is high because of large slip (slip =
frequency of rotor emf / supply frequency). Hence the reactance of inner cage
(2πfL where, f = frequency of rotor emf) will be very high, increasing its total impedance.
Hence at starting most of the current flows through outer cage despite its large resistnace (as
total impedance is lower than the inner cage). This will not affect the outer cage because of
its low reactance. And because of the large resistance of outer cage starting torque will be
large.
As speed of the motor increases, slip decreases, and hence the rotor frequency decreases.
In this case, the reactance of inner cage will be low, and most of the current will flow through
the inner cage which is having low resistance. Hence giving a good efficiency.
When the double cage motor is running at normal speed, frequency of the rotor emf is so low
that the reactance of both cages is negligible. The two cages being connected in parallel, the
combined resistance is lower.
Torque speed characteristics

Single case vs double case