Foundation Degree Lecture Notes

Three-phase Induction Motor

Dr Rihman Issa
2.1 Motor Characteristic for Constant Supply Frequency

When a 3-phase supply is applied to the stator windings of an induction motor, a constant-
magnitude sinusoidal-distributed magnetic field is produced. This field rotates at a
synchronous speed, given in terms of the supply frequency
 and the number of pairs of
poles P as:


 


(2.1)

The stator field cuts the rotor conductors and induces currents in them, which in turn
interacts with the stator field to produce a torque. By Lenz's law, this causes the rotor to
turn in the direction of the stator field, and it accelerates until it attains a constant speed  ,
slightly less than the synchronous speed given by equation (2.1).

An important quantity throughout induction motor theory is the slip s defined as:
  



(2.2)

From which the rotor speed follows as:

  1  

(2.3)

The frequency of the rotor voltages and currents is:

  .


(2.4)

Among many important considerations in the steady-state performance of an induction

motor are the variations of current, speed and losses as the load torque changes, together
with the starting and maximum torque. All these quantities may be derived from the per-
phase equivalent circuit for the motor shown in Figure 2.1(a). When the rotor is stationary,
the machine acts as a transformer on short circuit and large stator and rotor currents at low
power factor flow. The voltage induced in the rotor is:

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 Foundation Degree Lecture Notes

  


(2.5)

where k is a constant and  is the flux/pole established by the stator windings. The voltage
 is a function of
 and as the motor accelerates from rest, both
 and  decrease. At a
slip  the induced rotor voltage becomes   , when the rotor current is:
 
 
  


 

  
(2.6)

The quantity 
is an apparent rotor resistance, which may be thought of as the sum of the
actual rotor resistances  and'the so-called load resistance R(1-s)/s, as shown in Figure

2.1(b). As the motor accelerates rest increases, leading to a reduction in the motor line

current. The power factor at first rises, before reaching maximum and subsequently falling.

As the motor approaches synchronous speed 
becomes very large, reducing the rotor
current almost to zero and producing negligible output torque. The torque/slip relationship
may be derived from the per-phase equivalent circuit of Figure 2.1 (a), in which the power
input per-phase to the rotor is:


   

(2.7)

The mechanical power developed per-phase is:

      !

Or

 1
            
 
(2.8)

The electromagnetic torque "# corresponding to the output power is obtained by equating
this power to the product of the torque and the angular velocity. Thus if $  2& is the
synchronous angular velocity:

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 Foundation Degree Lecture Notes

  1  $ "#

 $ "#

(2.9)

Where $  1  $  2& is the angular velocity of the rotor.

It follows from equations (2.8) and (2.9) that:

1
    
"# 
2&

2.10

And substituting equations (2.3) and (2.6) into equation (2.10) leads to

  
"# 
2&   '  

2.11

Equation (2.11) shows that the torque is a function of the rotor voltage and frequency.
Neglecting the effects of stator parameters, which infers that  is constant, and
differentiating this equation with respect to s, and equating the result to zero, gives the slip
at which maximum torque is produced as


()* +
'

2.12

where the positive sign applies to motoring action (i.e. 1 > s > 0), and the negative sign to
generating action (i.e. s < 0 ). Substituting the positive value of smax into equation (2.11)
gives the maximum torque produced by the motor as


"()* 
4& '

2.13

The torque/speed relationship expressed by equation (2.11) , is shown typically in figure 2

with motoring, generating and braking regions indicated. The starting torque is obtained by
substituting s=1 into equation (2.11), to give
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 Foundation Degree Lecture Notes

 
" 
2&   ' 

2.14

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 Foundation Degree Lecture Notes

Figure 1 Induction Motor Equivalent circuit per phase

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 Foundation Degree Lecture Notes

Figure 2 Torque/speed characteristics of an Induction Motor

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