Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ind Motor IEEE Edu
Ind Motor IEEE Edu
1, FEBRUARY 2005 37
Abstract—This paper describes MATLAB/Simulink imple- Electrical machinery courses at the undergraduate level typi-
mentation of three induction motor tests, namely dc, no-load, cally consist of classroom and laboratory sections. The class-
and blocked-rotor tests performed to identify equivalent circuit room section covers the steady-state operation of the induc-
parameters. These simulation models are developed to support
and enhance electric machinery education at the undergraduate tion motor in which the per-phase equivalent circuit is used
level. The proposed tests have been successfully integrated into to compute various motor quantities, such as input current and
electric machinery courses at Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, power, power factor, developed torque, and efficiency. The com-
and Nigde University, Nigde, Turkey. putations associated with the steady-state operation require the
Index Terms—Education, induction motors, MATLAB/ knowledge of equivalent circuit parameters. These parameters
Simulink, software laboratory. are obtained by performing three tests, namely dc, no-load, and
blocked-rotor tests on the motor in a typical laboratory experi-
ment [7].
I. INTRODUCTION
The laboratory section includes these tests and a load exper-
Such an assignment improves students’ programming skills stray losses. The parameters of the equivalent circuit can be ob-
that would be helpful in other classes as well. tained from the dc, no-load, and blocked-rotor tests [7], [10].
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section II In the following, both experimental setup and Simulink/PSB
describes the dc, no-load, and blocked-rotor tests. For the sake models of each test are described.
of completeness, first the experimental setup for each test is pro- The PSB is a useful software package to develop sim-
vided with a brief explanation of how these tests are conducted ulation models for power system applications in the
and how the corresponding measurements are used to compute MATLAB/Simulink environment. With its graphical user
the equivalent circuit parameters. Then, for each test, the corre- interface and extensive library, it provides power engineers
sponding Simulink/PSB model is presented and compared with and researchers with a modern and interactive design tool to
the actual experimental setup emphasizing the similarities and build simulation models rapidly and easily. MATLAB and
discrepancies. Section III compares the equivalent circuit pa- Simulink/PSB have been widely used by educators to enhance
rameters determined using simulation data and data obtained teaching of transient and steady-state characteristics of in-
from experiments. Section IV explains how to integrate these duction machines [2], [3], [11]. Of course, other commercial
simulation models into undergraduate electric machine courses software packages, such as Maple and MathCad, are commonly
at two different universities, while the last section concludes the used in electrical engineering education with their advantages
paper. and disadvantages [12]. The reason that MATLAB with its
toolboxes was selected is that it is the main software package
II. INDUCTION MOTOR TESTS: EXPERIMENTAL SETUPS AND used in almost all undergraduate courses in the authors’ institu-
SIMULINK/PSB MODELS tions as a computation tool to reinforce electrical engineering
The steady-state operating characteristics of a three-phase in- education. Therefore, students can easily access to MATLAB,
duction motor are often investigated using a per-phase equiva- and they already have the basic programming skills to use the
lent circuit as shown in Fig. 1. In this circuit, and rep- given Simulink models and to write computer programs when
resent stator resistance and leakage reactance, respectively; required before coming to the machinery class.
and denote the rotor resistance and leakage reactance re-
ferred to the stator, respectively; resistance stands for core A. dc Test
losses; represents magnetizing reactance; and denotes the
slip. The equivalent circuit is used to facilitate the computa- The dc test is performed to compute the stator winding resis-
tion of various operating quantities, such as stator current, input tance . A dc voltage is applied to the stator windings of an in-
power, losses, induced torque, and efficiency. When power as- duction motor. The resulting current flowing through the stator
pects of the operation need to be emphasized, the shunt resis- windings is a dc current; thus, no voltage is induced in the rotor
tance is usually neglected; the core losses can be included circuit, and the motor reactance is zero. The stator resistance is
in efficiency calculations along with the friction, windage, and the only circuit parameter limiting current flow. Fig. 2 shows
AYASUN AND NWANKPA: INDUCTION MOTOR TESTS USING MATLAB/SIMULINK 39
the experimental setup of the dc test conducted at the Intercon- sistance branch in order to have a complete electrical connec-
nected Power Systems Laboratory (IPSL) [13] of Drexel Uni- tion. The purpose of the series resistance between the dc source
versity. A 120-V dc power source is applied to the two phases and the induction motor is to limit the current flowing through
of a Y-connected induction motor. A group of light bulbs are the two windings of the motor to its rated value, which is sim-
installed in the circuit as a resistive load in order to adjust dc ilar to the lighting bulbs used in the hardware setup of Fig. 2.
current to the rated value. The current in the stator windings Voltage and current measurement blocks measure the instanta-
and voltage across the two phases of the motor are mea- neous voltage across two phases and the current flowing through
sured. the windings, respectively. Two scopes display the waveforms
Fig. 3 depicts the Simulink/PSB implementation of the dc of the voltage and current, while two display boxes are used
test. From the PSB machine library, an induction motor block to obtain the steady-state values of the dc voltage, and cur-
is used whose electrical parameters (such as nominal voltage rent . With these two measurements, the stator resistance can
and equivalent circuit parameters) and mechanical parameters easily be computed as
(such as inertia and number of poles) can be specified in either
International System of Units (S.I.) or in per unit [9]. Similar (1)
to the experimental setup, a 120-V dc source is applied to the
two phases (phases A and B) of the induction motor through a The stator resistance obtained from the dc test is an approxi-
series resistance, while the phase C is grounded through a re- mate value of the actual one since the skin effect observed when
40 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 48, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2005
an ac voltage is applied to the stator windings and temperature phase current. This block computes the rms value of the input
effects are not taken into consideration. However, this approxi- signal over a running window of the one cycle of the speci-
mation is reasonable enough for teaching purposes. fied fundamental frequency (60 Hz). Three display boxes read
these rms values. Similarly, a voltage measurement block, an
B. No-Load Test rms block, and a display box are used to measure the phase A
The no-load test on an induction motor is conducted to mea- voltage. The outputs of the voltage measurement block and the
sure the rotational losses of the motor and to determine some of current measurement block of phase A are connected to a power
its equivalent circuit parameters. In this test, a rated, balanced measurement block, called the active and reactive power mea-
ac voltage at a rated frequency is applied to the stator while it surement, that computes the active power and reactive power.
is running at no load, and input power, voltage, and phase cur- The output of this block is connected to a scope and to a display
rents are measured at the no-load condition. Fig. 4 illustrates the block to obtain the waveforms and the values of and . The
experimental setup of the no-load test conducted at Drexel Uni- output terminal of the induction motor block (terminal m-SI)
versity’s IPSL. allows for the measurement of several variables, such as speed
Fig. 5 shows the Simulink/PSB realization of the no-load and electrical torque. A machine measurement block is used to
test, where a three-phase balanced Y-connected ac source whose get the mechanical speed. Through the scope and display block,
per-phase voltage is 120 V/60 Hz is applied to the stator terminal the waveform and the steady-state value of the rotor speed can
of the induction motor. The electrical inputs of the induction easily be measured in rad per second, or the corresponding data
motor block are the three electrical connections of the stator (ter- can be written to MATLAB’s workspace to make use of other
minals A-B-C), while the electrical outputs (terminals a-b-c) are graphical tools available in MATLAB. Fig. 6 shows the evo-
the three electrical connections of the rotor, which is short-cir- lution of the mechanical speed during the no-load simulation.
cuited. The input block (terminal Tm) is the mechanical torque The rotor speed reaches its steady-state value (188.5 rad/s for
at the machine’s shaft. This torque is set to be zero the tested motor) quickly, indicating that MATLAB/Simulink is
to simulate the no-load condition. The equivalent circuit pa- an appropriate tool to investigate steady-state behavior of induc-
rameters obtained from experimental data and the number of tion motors as well.
poles are specified using the induction motor-block dialogue One can see that there are some differences between the
box. Three current measurement blocks are used to measure the hardware setup and Simulink/PSB model. For example, the
instantaneous current of each phase. The output of each current per-phase-based real and reactive input power is measured in the
measurement block is connected to a root-mean-square (rms) simulation model, while in the experiment the total three-phase
block, called signal rms, to determine the rms value of each real input power is measured. However, this difference is
AYASUN AND NWANKPA: INDUCTION MOTOR TESTS USING MATLAB/SIMULINK 41
Fig. 6. Evolution of the mechanical speed during the no-load test simulation.
not significant since under the three-phase balanced opera- installed in the circuit in order to perform the blocked-rotor test
tion, computations are usually completed using the per-phase at various frequencies and to control input voltage to the stator.
quantities. Similarly, the per-phase voltage is measured in the Fig. 7 shows the Simulink/PSB model of the blocked-rotor
simulation, as opposed to the line-to-line voltages measured in test. This model is almost the same as that of the no-load test
the hardware experiment. shown in Fig. 5. However, there is a slight difference between
These measurements enable the approximate computation the two models. In the blocked-rotor model, the inertia of
of the sum of the magnetizing reactance and the stator the induction motor is set to infinity in order to simulate the
leakage reactance as follows [7]: blocked-rotor condition. Several measurements blocks are used
to measure the current, voltage, and active/reactive powers. The
or (2) mechanical torque to the rotor is set to an arbitrary nonzero
value [in this case, 5 Newton-meter (N.m)], which
will not affect the blocked-rotor condition since the inertia is
where is the per-phase voltage , is the phase infinite. Because of the infinite inertia, rotor speed remains at
A measured reactive power, and is the average phase current zero during the blocked-rotor simulation. Various test frequen-
measured . Using measured input power cies for blocked-rotor simulation can be easily achieved by
and the stator resistance obtained from the dc test, rotational changing the frequencies of the -connected voltage sources
losses of the motor given by the sum of the friction, windage, rather than using a synchronous generator coupled with a dc
and core losses can be found, as follows: motor.
The measurement data from the blocked rotor test enables one
(3)
to determine approximately the blocked-rotor resistance and re-
actance at the test frequency
C. Blocked-Rotor Test (4)
The blocked-rotor test on an induction motor is performed
to determine some of its equivalent circuit parameters. In this where is the blocked-rotor resistance, and is the
test, the rotor of the induction motor is blocked, and a reduced blocked-rotor reactance at the test frequency [7].
voltage is applied to the stator terminals so that the rated current
flows through the stator windings. The input power, voltage, and
current are measured. For some design-class induction motors,
this test is conducted under a test frequency, usually less than the or
normal operating frequency so as to evaluate the rotor resistance
appropriately [7]. The experimental setup of the blocked-rotor (5)
test is not shown here since it is similar to that of the no-load
test shown in Fig. 4. The only difference is that a synchronous If the test frequency is different from the rated frequency,
generator coupled with a dc motor and auto transformer were one can compute the total equivalent reactance at the normal
42 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 48, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2005
(6)
TABLE II
SIMULATION RESULTS OF THE INDUCTION MOTOR TESTS FOR MOTOR 1
TABLE III
EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT PARAMETERS DETERMINED BY SIMULATION AND THE CORRESPONDING ERRORS
For each induction motor tested the Simulink/PSB models of section. The experiments conducted during the term at the IPSL
the dc, no-load, and blocked-rotor tests were run. The simulation of Drexel University include open-circuit, short-circuit, and
data of no-load and blocked-rotor tests for motor 1 is shown in load tests for transformers, speed control experiments for dc
Table II, where various quantities, such as voltage, current, and motors, and induction motor tests. The IPSL is a computerized,
power required to compute equivalent circuit parameters, are small-scale, energy management system that was designed to
presented. The dc test simulation data for motor 1 is as follows: provide students with a hands-on learning experience about the
12.66 V and 15.74 A. The simulation data for the attributes and implications involved in the management and
other three motors is similar to that of Motor 1 and, thus, is not control of a small electric power system. With its customized
given here. graphic-intensive environment, it provides a set of experiments
Table III gives the equivalent circuit parameters computed, on the interaction of various system components in a real-life
using the simulation data and the corresponding errors relative power system operating environment [13].
to those obtained experimentally. The error computations as- In order to incorporate simulation models of induction motor
sume that equivalent circuit parameters determined experimen- tests into the course, the laboratory section is divided into two
tally are accurate. The results indicate that relative errors are main components, each of which is a two-hour section: software
negligible, and the proposed simulation models accurately pre- laboratory and hardware laboratory. After being introduced to
dict equivalent circuit parameters. The largest error occurs in the theory and operating characteristics of the induction mo-
the stator and rotor leakage reactances, since one assumes that tors, including per-phase equivalent circuit and torque-speed
two reactances have equal contributions to the blocked-rotor re- curve and speed control methods, students simulate three induc-
actance, which might not be the real case. tion motor tests presented in the previous section and record the
data required to compute per-phase equivalent circuit parame-
ters. A week before the software laboratory, the Simulink/PSB
IV. INTEGRATION OF SIMULATION MODELS INTO
models of the tests and a detailed hand-out describing how each
ELECTRIC MACHINERY COURSES
model is to be simulated are made available to students. An ex-
In this section, the authors describe the integration of these ample of the procedure showing the steps involved in simulating
simulation models into electric machinery courses at two a no-load condition is given in the Appendix.
different universities, Drexel University and Nigde University, An essential part of the software laboratory is an assignment
Nigde, Turkey. The Electrical and Computer Engineering given to students to develop a computer model for the per-phase
(ECE) Department of Drexel University offers a pre-ju- equivalent circuit of the induction motor using the MATLAB
nior-level machine course (ECE-P 352 Electric Motor Control programming language. Using the computer program, students
Principles) that concentrates on the fundamentals of electro- investigate motor characteristics under varying conditions. Ex-
mechanical energy conversion and related control theory. This amples of simulations obtained by students’ computer programs
five-hour course required for those who are in the power and for the motor 1 are presented in Figs. 8–10. Fig. 8 shows motor
control track has both lecture and laboratory sections that quantities, such as input current and power, power factor, de-
must be taken in the same quarter. The lecture section (three veloped torque and power, and efficiency as a function of rotor
hours a week) introduces students to operation principles of speed, and how these quantities are affected by a 20% drop
transformers, induction motors, dc motors, and various motor in the supply voltage when the frequency is kept constant at
control techniques, including the power-electronics-based the nominal value. Fig. 9 illustrates the same quantities when
ones. In the laboratory section (two hours a week), students the frequency is reduced by 25% while the supply voltage is
are required to perform various experiments for which the kept unchanged. Fig. 10 shows the torque-speed characteristic
necessary theoretical background is developed in the lecture of the motor for different values of rotor resistance. Such studies
44 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 48, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2005
Fig. 8. Effect of a 20% drop in the supply voltage on various motor quantities.
on the motor characteristics over a wide speed range help stu- dents are encouraged to provide explanations for these errors.
dents better understand various operation modes, such as vari- These errors might be the result of modeling of the induction
able voltage fixed frequency mode (Fig. 8) or fixed voltage vari- motor in Simulink or measurements errors often observed in
able frequency mode (Fig. 9)—material also covered in the lec- the hardware experiments. Nevertheless, proposed simulations
ture section. Furthermore, students gain experience and confi- give students insight as to the experimental procedure and the
dence in induction motor operation, which will be very helpful expected results before they go into the electric machinery
for them when they perform hardware experiments in the fol- laboratory to perform the physical experiments.
lowing week at the IPSL. The Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at
In the hardware laboratory, students are asked to set up and Nigde University offers two machinery courses. These are EEM
conduct four induction motor experiments: the dc test, the 308 Electric Machinery I (five hours a week) and EEM 435
no-load test, the blocked-rotor test, and the load experiment. Electric Machinery II (three hours week). The former, which
Similar to what is performed in the software laboratory, they must be taken by all undergraduate students, mainly focuses
take measurements required to compute motor parameters and on transformers and induction motors. The latter, designed for
to examine the motor characteristics under varying load. During power system majors only, introduces operation principles of
the laboratory section, students appear to be more familiar with dc motors (25%) and synchronous generators (75%). Similar to
induction motors theory and operation because of the experi- Drexel University, a software laboratory (two hours a week) as
ence gained during the software laboratory. A week after they a part of Electric Machinery I has been established, and stu-
complete hardware experiments, students are required to submit dents simulate induction motor experiments. A laboratory fa-
a report that must combine results from both simulations and cility, which will enable students to validate simulation results
experiments. The emphasis is that the report should compare experimentally, is under construction and will be available for
simulation results with experimentally recorded data, mainly use in the next academic year.
focusing on the differences/similarities. One can assume that
parameters obtained from simulation data would be the same as
V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
those obtained from experimental data since motor parameters
determined from experimental data are used in simulations. In this paper, the authors presented simulation models of
However, as can be seen in Table III, this equivalency is not the induction motor tests performed to obtain parameters of the
case, and negligible errors are observed. In their reports, stu- per-phase equivalent circuit of three-phase induction motors.
AYASUN AND NWANKPA: INDUCTION MOTOR TESTS USING MATLAB/SIMULINK 45
Fig. 9. Effect of a 25% drop in supply voltage frequency on various motor quantities.
APPENDIX
PROCEDURE FOR THE NO-LOAD TEST SIMULATION
0.089 kg.m . The true value of the inertia is not im- [8] SIMULINK, Model-Based and System-Based Design, Using Simulink,
portant since the steady-state values of motor quan- MathWorks Inc., Natick, MA, 2000.
[9] Power System Blockset for Use With Simulink, User’s Guide, Math-
tities need to be read. Works Inc., Natick, MA, 2000.
Step 3) Set the frequency attributes of all the signal rms [10] M. S. Sarma, Electric Machines: Steady-State Theory and Dynamic Per-
blocks and the active and reactive power measure- formance, 2nd ed. St. Paul, MN: West, 1994.
[11] K. L. Shi, T. F. Chan, Y. K. Wong, and S. L. Ho, “Modeling and simu-
ment block to 60 Hz. lation of the three-phase induction motor using Simulink,” Int. J. Electr.
Step 4) Make sure that the mechanical torque to the shaft is Eng. Educ., vol. 36, pp. 163–172, 1999.
exactly zero . [12] C. A. Canizares and Z. T. Faur, “Advantages and disadvantages of using
computer tools in electrical engineering courses,” IEEE Trans. Educ.,
Step 5) Specify the stop time of the simulation and integra- vol. 40, pp. 166–171, Aug. 1997.
tion method. [13] S. P. Carullo and C. O. Nwankpa, “Interconnected power system lab-
Step 6) Run the simulation. oratory: A computer automated instructional facility for power system
experiments,” IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 17, pp. 215–222, May 2002.
Step 7) Read the following data from the display boxes: [14] Standard Test Procedure for Polyphase Induction Motors and Genera-
(rms), (rms), (rms), (rms), , , and , tors, IEEE Standard 112, 1996.
and record all the data in a table.
REFERENCES Saffet Ayasun (S’97–M’02) was born in Tokat, Turkey, on October 27, 1968.
He received the M.S. degree in electric engineering, the M.S. degree in mathe-
[1] H. A. Smolleck, “Modeling and analysis of induction machine: A com- matics, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Drexel University,
putational/experimental approach,” IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 5, pp. Philadelphia, PA, in 1997, 2001, and 2002, respectively.
482–485, May 1990. He is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engi-
[2] M. H. Nehrir, F. Fatehi, and V. Gerez, “Computer modeling for en- neering Department of Nigde University, Nigde, Turkey. His research interests
hancing instruction of electric machinery,” IEEE Trans. Educ., vol. 38, include stability of the nonlinear dynamical system, applied mathematics, non-
pp. 166–170, May 1995. linear control theory, power systems, and bifurcation theory.
[3] M. W. Daniels and R. A. Shaffer, “Re-inventing the electrical machines
curriculum,” IEEE Trans. Educ., vol. 41, pp. 92–100, May 1998.
[4] K. A. Nigim and R. R. DeLyser, “Using MathCad in understanding
the induction motor characteristics,” IEEE Trans. Educ., vol. 44, pp. Chika O. Nwankpa (S’88–M’90) was born in Owerri, Nigeria, in 1962. He re-
165–169, May 2001. ceived the Magistr Diploma in electric power systems from the Leningrad Poly-
[5] S. Linke, J. Torgeson, and J. Au, “An interactive computer-graphics technical Institute, Russia, in 1986 and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and com-
program to aid instruction in electric machinery,” IEEE Comput. Appl. puter engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, in 1990.
Power, vol. 2, pp. 19–25, July 1989. He is currently a Professor of electrical and computer engineering at Drexel
[6] T.-F. Chan, “Analysis of electric machines using Symphony,” IEEE University, Philadelphia, PA. His research interests are in the areas of power
Trans. Educ., vol. 35, pp. 76–82, Feb. 1992. systems and power electronics.
[7] S. J. Chapman, Electric Machinery Fundamentals, 3rd ed. New York: Dr. Nwankpa received the Presidential Faculty Fellow Award in 1994 and the
WCB/McGraw-Hill, 1998. NSF Engineering Research Initiation Award in 1991.