J o u r n a l of S h a n g h a i Uni v e r s i t y ( Engl i s h Edi t i on )

I S S N 1007- 6417, Vol . 5. No. l ( Ma r. 2001 ) , pp 60 ~ 65

Anal ysi s of Capaci ti ve Parasi t i sm in PWM Invert er- Fed Mot or
YANG Xi - j ~ n , CAO Yi - l ong, GONG Yo't~-ntin
School o.f Eleclromechan ical Engineering and Automatim~ , Shanghai Un iversitg. Shanghai 200072, China
Abstract The effects of parasitic capacitance in induction motor system are unnoticed when it is fed from the AC line, but they are
obvious when supplied directly from a PWM inverter. Consequently. many parasitic problems occur, such as motor-to-earth leakage
current, bearing current, incoming line current distortion and uneven distribution of electrical stresses along the winding. On the ba-
sis of the uniform transmission line principle, a complete equivalent circuit of the PWM inverter-fed motor system is presented, based
on which all the capacitive parasitic problems mentioned above are analyzed and simulated by means of PSPICE. All the results are
consistent with the existing ones.
Key words inverter-fed motor, capacitive parasitism, motor-to-earth leakage current, bearing current, input current distortion,
winding electrical stress
1 Introduction
St andar d low vol t age i nduct i on mot or s is desi gned
to be fed f r om AC mai ns , but many of t hem ar e fed
f r om PWM i nve r t e r s nowadays. Due to hi gh d r / d t of
PWM vol t age, t hey wi t hst and i nt ense i nst ant aneous
el ect r i cal s t r e s s e s , and t hei r i nner par asi t i c capaci -
t ance pr ovi des bypas s es for hi gher har moni cs , l eadi ng
to par as i t i s m. Recent pr act i ces show t hat t he fai l ure
rat e of PWM i nver t er - f ed mot or s is hi gher t han was
r epor t ed bef or e, and many of t he f aul t s ar e r el at ed to
t he par as i t i s m, i ncl udi ng bur ned wi ndi ngs, wor n- out
bear i ngs , et c. In gener al , t he par asi t i c capaci t ances
in a mot or ar e di st r i but ed bet ween t ur ns , bet ween
wi ndi ngs, bet ween wi ndi ngs and t he i ron core of t he
s t at or , bet ween wi ndi ngs and t he i ron cor e of t he ro-
t or , t hr ough t he ai r gap, and bet ween t he neut r al
poi nt and s t at or cor e. The capaci t ance is one of t he
i mpor t ant e l e me nt s in t he di st or t i on of t he i nput cur-
r ent and t he i ncr ease of swi t chi ng power di ssi pat i on
under PWM vol t age suppl y [1''~] . I t is pr oved by exper -
i ment s ~3] t hat t he d v / d t is not evenl y di st r i but ed a-
l ong a wi ndi ng, and t he f i r st one or t wo t ur ns have to
wi t hs t and t he hi ghest d c / d t . Mor e ove r . bear i ng
vol t age and bear i ng c ur r e nt , i ncl udi ng t he ci r cul at i ng
and non- ci r cul at i ng t ype . i ncr ease gr eat l y due to t he
i nt ense el ect r omagnet i c i nduct i on and el ect r ost at i c
Received Apr. 18. 2000: Revised Jul.5. 2000
YANG Xi-jun, Ph.D. Candidate
coupl i ng, whi ch cause t hei r f ast wear i ng [a-67. I n ad-
di t i on, t he mot or to ear t h l eakage c ur r e nt exhi bi t s an
obvi ous i ncr eas e, l eadi ng to l eakage pr ot ect i on mal -
funct i on [7-9]. Though gr eat pr ogr es s has been made
on t he subj ect , f ur t he r r es ear ch is needed. I n t hi s pa-
pe r , consi der i ng t he ef f ect s of par asi t i c capaci t ance, a
compl et e equi val ent ci rcui t of i nver t er - f ed mot or is
pr e s e nt e d, and some useful concl usi ons ar e dr awn.
2 Equivalent Circuit
Due to t he hi gh d r / d t of t he PWM vol t age, and t he
compl i cat ed har moni c space fi el ds i nduced, to est ab-
lish an equi val ent ci r cui t of PWM i nve r t e r - mot or dr i ve
s ys t e m is ver y di ffi cul t . An equi val ent ci rcui t of in-
duct i on mot or fed f r om non-si nusoi dal power suppl y i s
gi ven accor di ng to di f f er ent or der s of har moni cs and
consi der i ng fl ux l osses and ski n ef f ect s [1' Ill , based on
whi ch all ki nds of l osses ar e i dent i cal to t he I EEE
s t andar d- t es t ed r esul t s. Ne ve r t he l e s s t he equi val ent
ci rcui t s do not include t he capaci t i ve par as i t i s m. A
new compl et e equi val ent ci r cui t is pr e s e nt on t he bas i s
of all t he exi st i ng r esul t s ment i oned above in t he ar t i -
cle.
The equi val ent ci r cui t pr es ent ed in Ref. [ 11 ] is gi v-
en in Fi g. 1, wher e t he l eakage fl ux l osses ar e de t e r -
mi ned by t he r es i s t ance par al l el ed wi t h t he l eakage in-
duct ance.
In Fi g. 1, R1 r e pr e s e nt s t he s t at or r es i s t ance, R' 2
t he r ot or r esi st ance r educed to t he s t a t or , L1 t he st a-
Vol. 5 No. 1 Mar. 2001 YANG X. J . e t a l . : Analysis of Capacitive Parasi t i sm in PWM I nver t er - Fed Mot or 61
tor inductance, L' a the rotor inductance reduced to
the st at or, sl the slip, and k the kt h harmonic.
u' l
RJ-ql RLI2/SI
(a) Fundamental frequency
Rl k
I I
RLIk RL~/Sk
Fi g. 1
(b) k-th harmonic
Equivalent circuit of induction motor considering har-
monics and leakage flux losses
Ul
1.5R 1
[""1
1.5RLI1 1.SRLIz/S 1
(a) Fundamental frequency
1.5Rik
~ l ' - q
1.5RLlk 1 .SRL~/S K
1.5R2k' /Sk L~
(b) k-th harmonic
Fig. 2 Equivalent circuit of induction motor con-
sidering leakage flux losses
When 180 commutation is employed in the inver-
sion, the equivalent circuit of the PWM inverter-fed
motor is shown in Fig. 2, in which the harmonics loss-
es are considered.
In order to really refl ect the distribution of the par-
asitic capacitance in a mot or, assume that each wind-
ing inductance is linear and each phase winding is
evenl y divided into many segment s. Thus each seg-
ment consists of leakage inductance and resistance in
series. Then the equivalent circuit, considering the
effect s of the parasitic capacitance, is present ed in
Fig. 3, which is suitable for any waveform power sup-
ply. For simplicity, harmonic losses are not consid-
ered. Cit represent s the parasitic capacitance bet ween
t urns, Cws that bet ween winding and st at or core, Cwr
that bet ween winding and rotor core, and Cg that
through the air gap. Thus the lumped capacitance at
the motor input terminal [z'2] can be deduced from
Cws, Ci t l _ n , Cwr and Cg. In addition, Cg, L b, R b
and Sb const i t ut es the equivalent circuit which con-
tributes to the bearing voltage and the bearing cur-
rent.
3 Ef f ect s of Parasi ti c Capaci tance
Winding neutral point to eart h current is caused by
common mode voltage produced by unbalanced three-
phase PWM voltage, and it belongs to the motor-to-
eart h leakage current. The equivalent part bet ween
the winding neutral point and the motor frame is made
up of a capacitance. The sum of the current s flowing
through the t hree Cwsn'S is considered as the winding
neutral point to eart h current. Under the common
mode voltage, high frequency leakage current flows
through the insulation and the motor frame, which
leads to EMI. It is obvious that the leakage current
consists of the winding neutral point to eart h cur r ent ,
stator to eart h current , rotor to earth current and
bearing current.
Due to the parasitic capacitance bet ween rotor iron
core and iron core st at or, under the electrostatic in-
duction, bearing voltage is produced and maintatined.
When the steel balls contact the seat i ngs, or when the
lubricant is broken down, a high bearing current is
produced. According to related regulations, bearing
vol t age' s upper limit for gliding bearing is 3 0 0 - 5 0 0
mV, and that for rolling bearing is 300 mV. Bearing
current consists of non-circulating type E4] and circulat-
ing t ype Is] . For the former, bearing current directly
flow to the eart h through the parasitic capacitance be-
t ween winding and rotor. For the l at t er, Cg dis-
charges in the ret urn circuit made up of Cg, Lb, Rb
and Sb.
When the power switches are turned on, through
the parasitic capacitances flow instant capacitive cur-
r ent s, including the motor-to-earth leakage current ,
causing input current distortion.
62 Journal of Shanghai University
g~
3xSPWM
Voltages UB
iA
iB
Cwro STATOR Cwrl Cwr 2 Cwr(n~l) Cwrn
1 L, , R 1 ~ R, 2 1 ............. "] L,n R, . _L L2 R2
Citl I Cit2 1 / c~,~ 1 R~ - -
" " I I " I
T Cws TCwsl Cws2 T .............. .7" "Cws(n-I) Cwsn T
ROTOR
i .L I
T T T ............... ..T T
ic .L .L i . 2_ _L
I I
Uc ?
T T T ................ .,7- T
Fig. 3
When the motor is fed from AC line, along the
winding the terminal voltages and the dr~dr of each
turn are identical, but when from the PWM inverter,
due to the harmonic voltage and parasitic capaci-
tances, there are no longer such conclusions [1'4] . The
equivalent circuit should not be given only with
lumped parameters but uniform transmission parame-
ters. It is easy to explain why the terminal voltages
and d v/ d t ' s are unevenly distributed based on Fig. 3.
We can consider that the parasitic capacitance and
winding inductance constitute a cascade filter along
the winding, which filter the PWM voltage continu-
ously and cause the first few turns to withstand the
highest dv / dt . Thus the first turn insulation is liable
to break down, even when the turn-on rise times of
the switches are short enough.
4 S i m u l a t i o n R e s u l t s
Based on Fig. 3, the performances of the PWM in-
verter-fed motor drive system are simulated with
PSPICE. The simulated motor is wye-connected, and
its L1 is 13 mH, R 1 is 4.54 12, Lz is 16 mH and R'2 is
4. 54 12. In order to reduce simulation time, each
complete winding is divided into 13 segments evenly,
with the inductance l mH and the resistance 0. 35 12
for each segment. The measured interphase equiva-
lent parasitic capacitance at the terminals is 640 pF,
and that between the input terminal and neutral point
is 640 pF. In addition, Cws is 500 pF, C i t is 100 pF,
Cwr is 10 pF, Cg is 0. 25 nF, and Rg is 580 12. The
Equivalent circuit of PWM inverter-fed motor considering effects of parasitic capacitance
L b
T I
modulation mode is single polarity SPWM, the funda-
mental frequency is 50 Hz, the switching frequency is
5 kHz, the modulation ratio is 100 and the modulation
depth is 0. 8.
Based on simulation, in the inverter output line-to-
line voltage, the contents of low order harmonics are
almost 0 V in PWM voltage, but those of higher har-
monics are rich. When the harmonic frequency is 5 k
+ 50 Hz, the magnitude of line-to-line harmonic volt-
age is 126 V. The turn-on rise time of the power
switches is 250 nS.
The waveform of the common mode voltage is
shown in Fig. 4, and its spectrum in Fig. 5. The peak
value of the common mode voltage is near 250 Volts
and its virtual value is in direct proportion to the
switching frequency. In addition, it is near twice the
switching frequency that the content of harmonic is
the highest, reaching 40 V. The waveforms of the
leakage current are shown in Fig. 6 and 7, and its
spectrum in Fig. 8. The peak value of the leakage cur-
rent is near 250 mA. Such high current will damage
the insulation of motor. The waveform of the input
line current is shown in Fig. 9.
The waveforms of the voltage across first segment
of a winding are shown in Fig. 10 and Fig. 11, and
those across the last segment are shown in Fig. 12 and
Fig. 13. For the first segment, dr~dr is 433 V/250
nS, but it is 70 V/250 nS for the last segment. Their
general variation frequency is three times the funda-
mental frequency. The waveforms of the bearing volt-
Vol. 5 No. 1 Mar . 2001 YANG X.J. et al . : Analysis of Capacitive Parasitism in PWM Inverter-Fed Motor 63
age and i t ' s s pe c t r um ar e shown in Fi g. 14 and Fi g. 15
r e s pe c t i ve l y, and t hose of t he bear i ng c ur r e nt ar e in
Fi g. 16 and Fi g. 17 r es pect i vel y. The ef f ect i ve val ue
of bear i ng vol t age is near 1 V, i dent i cal to t hose in
Ref s. [ 4, 121. I t is obvi ous t hat such hi gh bear i ng cur -
r e nt can do gr e a t damage to t he bear i ng.
250
o
Q
>
-250
20
F i g . 4
41
o
>
0
F i g . 5
500-
Time(ms)
Waveform of common voltage
Frequency (Hz)
Spectrum of common voltage
40
40
1500 I
20 40
Time (ms)
Fig.6 Waveform of motor-to-earth leakage current
500
t-
Fi g. 7
-350 f
26,25
Time(ms)
26.78
Partial waveform of motor-to-earth leakage current
75
t-.
F i g . 8
10
L~
-10
0 20 40
Frequency (kHz)
Spect r um of mot or - t o- ear t h l eakage cur r ent
20 3'0 40
Time(ms)
F i g . 9 Wave of i nput l i ne cur r ent
400
o
>
- 400 -
20 30 40
Time(ms)
Fig. 10 Waveform of voltage across the first segment
64 Journal of Shanghai University
400
@
>
Fig. 11
-400
20.0
i
20.5
Time(ms)
21 0
Partial wavef or m of voltage across the fist s egment
400-
150
, [
O
>
-.~..
i
2O
Frequency(kHz)
Fig. 15 Spect r um of beari ng voltage
50
40
@
>
Fig. 12
--400
2 0 . 0 2(~.5 2 1 . 0
T i m e ( I n s )
W a v e f o r m o f v o l t a g e a c r o s s t h e l a s t s e g m e n t
Fi g. 13
4 0 0
$
@
>
u i . , , , J , m t ~ - , , ~ . ~ . . . . . . ~ . , ~ , , I , u , , , ~ . ~ . i , i a u l ~ t , , 1 1 , , , , , . , , ~
, - ' U T i I I P , , " , i q ' l , ' l p r " p - " - ' , , , , " ~ " , , ' , l ~ ' , " - ' , r , r , - . ~ . . . . . .
- 4 0 0
20 3'0 40
Time(ms)
Partial waveform of voltage across the last segment
@
>
20
Fi g. 14
Time(ms)
Waveform of bearing voltage
40
-50-
20 30
Time (ms)
40
Fig. 16 Waveform of bearing current
50"
g
-50
20.0
i
20.5 21.0
Time(ms)
Fig. 17 Partial waveform of bearing current
5 Concl usi ons
When the low voltage induction motor is fed from
the PWM i nvert er, due to the high d v / d t and rich
harmonics, the effect s of the inner parasitic capaci-
tance of motor are obvious, including high winding
electrical st resses, bearing over cur r ent , motor-to-
eart h leakage current , and incoming line current dis-
tortion. The aft er-effect is the fast aging of the mo-
tor. Based on the uniform transmission line t heor y,
considering the existence and effect s of parasitic ca-
pacitance, a new complete equivalent circuit of PWM
inverter-motor drive syst em is present ed. Based on
Vol. 5 No. 1 Mar. 2001 YANG X. J. et al. : Analysis of Capacitive Parasitism in PWM Invert er-Fed Motor 65
this, the simulation results are identical to those by
experiments. It is suggest ed that the winding in the
n e w e q u i v a l e n t c i r c u i t s houl d be d i v i d e d by t u r n i f
p o s s i b l e , i n o r d e r t o o b t a i n mo r e d e t a i l e d i n n e r e l e c -
t r i c a l c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of t h e mo t o r . I t i s al s o s u g g e s t e d
t h a t t h e e x i s t e n c e a nd e f f e c t s of t h e p a r a s i t i c c a p a c i -
t a n c e s houl d be c o n s i d e r e d b e f o r e a n a l y z i n g t h e e l e c -
t r i c a l c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of t h e P WM i n v e r t e r - mo t o r d r i v e
s y s t e m, o t h e r wi s e s o me p h e n o me n a c a n n o t be e x -
p l a i n e d wi t h s a t i s f a c t i o n .
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(Executive editor YAO Yue-yuan )