12 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 38, NO.

1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2002

Induction Motor Thermal Aging Caused by Voltage

Distortion and Imbalance: Loss of Useful Life
and Its Estimated Cost
Jose Policarpo G. de Abreu and Alexander Eigeles Emanuel, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract—This paper reports the effect of voltage distortion and
imbalance (VDI) on the thermal aging of the insulation of low-
voltage induction motors. The study is based on a detailed thermal
modeling of actual motors in the 2–200-hp range. The dollar value
of the useful life lost was estimated for different VDI conditions.
Two important conclusions were reached. First, voltage subhar-
monics have a dramatic effect on motor thermal aging. Second,
the overall cost of motor loss of life due to harmonic pollution and
voltage imbalance, in the U.S. today, is estimated to be in the range
of 1–2 billion dollars per year.
Index Terms—Power quality economics.
I. INTRODUCTION
differences between the expansion coefficients of the conduc-
tors and silicon steel cause tremendous mechanical stresses that
lead to metal fatigue and eventual fractures. Moreover, under
unbalanced or distorted voltage the electromagnetic torque de-
veloped is smaller than the torque developed under ideal condi-
tions; consequently, the starting time is larger, hence, the fatigue
process is accelerated. Voltage harmonics are known to cause
torque pulsations that may affect the life span of bearings, cou-
plings, or gears.
The engineering literature is rich on papers that report the ef-
fect of VDI on induction motors. The earlier papers were mainly
focused on motor losses [5], [6], but more recent works have ex-
panded the scope to motor derating and thermal aging [7]–[9].

T HE top two sources of squirrel-cage motor failure are: first,

mechanical, with prevalence to bearing damage, and the
second is stator insulation breakdown [1]–[3].
The advent of adjustable speed drives (ASDs) has stirred re-
newed enthusiasm for this topic [10]. However, a matter that
still remains to be examined in more detail is the loss of useful
The deterioration of the stator insulation and its ultimate life of motors caused by VDI and the economics of this issue.
breakdown is controlled by four factors that act simultaneously The goal of this paper is to report the preliminary results of
on the dielectric [4]: a study focused on the stator thermal insulation aging in func-
• thermal aging of the insulation; tion of VDI. The work is limited to integral horsepower motors
• voltage surges caused by lightning, switching, or recurrent supplied directly from the power system. Voltage surges and me-
pulses; chanical or chemical deterioration of the insulation are not taken
• insulation chaffing and shearing caused by mechanical into consideration. The motors are assumed to operate at steady
stress due to vibrations and shearing forces; state with a constant mechanical load.
• chemical deterioration due to environmental factors such
as aggressive chemicals or hydrocarbons. II. EFFECT OF VDI ON MOTOR POWER LOSS
Both voltage distortion and imbalance (VDI) cause signif-
A. Iron Losses
icant additional power losses, thus increasing the steady-state
temperature rise of the windings. During the starting time, the The stator core losses are a function of the peak flux linkage.
heating process of rotor bars and rings is nearly adiabatic; the If the phase line-to-neutral voltage has the expression
upper region of the bars, where the current density is larger, is
reaching higher temperatures than the lower region of the bars. (1)
The significant temperature rise during the motor starting, the
then the flux linked by phase is
Paper ICPSD 01–26, presented at the 2001 IEEE/IAS Industrial and
Commercial Power Systems Technical Conference, New Orleans, LA, May (2)
13–17, and approved for publication in the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY
APPLICATIONS by the Power Systems Protection Committee of the IEEE
Industry Applications Society. Manuscript submitted for review May 15, 2001 with the peak value
and released for publication October 10, 2001. This work was supported by the
EFEI, CAPES, and Rotary Foundation.
J. P. G. de Abreu is with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Depart-
ment, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609-2280 USA, on (3)
leave from the Escola Federal de Engenharia de Itajubá, 37500-903 Itajubá,
Brazil (polica@iee.efei.br).
A. E. Emanuel is with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Depart- where is the harmonic order, and are the fundamental
ment, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609-2280 USA
(aemanuel@ee.wpi.edu). and the th-order harmonic voltage, respectively (rms values),
Publisher Item Identifier S 0093-9994(02)00603-5. and is the angular frequency.
0093–9994/02$17.00 © 2002 IEEE
ABREU AND EMANUEL: INDUCTION MOTOR THERMAL AGING CAUSED BY VDI 13

The rated line-to-neutral sinusoidal voltage produces a and and are equivalent impedances
peak rated flux linkage

(4) (10)

If the rms value of the nonsinusoidal voltage equals the rated

(11)
voltage,
where is the rotor slip for the th-order
(5) harmonic rotating field, is the slip at the fundamental rotating
field, is the rotor slip for the negative-sequence ro-
tating field, is the stator reactance at fundamental frequency,
where
are the dc rotor resistance and inductance transferred
to the stator, are the skin-effect coefficients of the
rotor resistance at the rotor frequency and
, respectively, and are the skin-effect co-
is the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the voltage, then from efficients for the rotor reactance at the rotor harmonic frequen-
(3)–(5) results cies and , respectively.
When computing the skin-effect coefficients for the rotor re-
sistance and inductance [12], it is imperative to take into account
both the bars and the rings. Keeping in mind that the motor op-
(6) erates at the slip , a harmonic voltage with the frequency
Hz, will cause a rotor frequency
For the typical voltage spectra, observed in 60- or 50-Hz power
systems, where the higher harmonics the ratio
. Such voltage distortions have an insignif-
icant effect on the iron losses [11]. However, (6) serves as an that corresponds to a rotor harmonic
important warning concerning . For example, if
(2.4 Hz) and , the peak flux could increase by
20%, causing eventual saturation.
The presence of the negative-sequence fundamental voltage with the sign for the positive-sequence harmonics and
is causing voltage imbalance. The definition of voltage im- for the negative-sequence harmonics. Since , the rotor
balance used in this paper is skin-effect coefficients must be computed at the frequency .
If one uses the frequency , the difference will cause
(7) large errors at lower order harmonics, especially at subharmonic
order. The stator winding skin-effect coefficient is com-
where is the positive-sequence fundamental voltage. For puted at harmonic order . A careful computation accounts for
practical situations where , the voltage imbalance has the fact that the skin-effect coefficient for the end windings dif-
but a minute effect on the core losses. The slightly elliptical ro- fers from the skin-effect coefficient for the slot winding. In a
tating field causes some regions of the stator core to experience reliable heat-flow simulation, the end-winding losses are sepa-
a minor increase of magnetic flux density, while in the rest of rated from the slot-winding losses.
the core the opposite is true. The total rotor cage losses are
B. Stator Winding and Rotor Cage Losses
The additional power loss in the stator windings, caused by (12)
imbalance and harmonics, is

In the thermal model, the cage power loss is also divided into
(8) ring and bars losses.

C. Interbar (Transversal) Power Loss

where is the dc resistance of stator winding, is
the skin-effect coefficient at harmonic of order and at funda- When the voltage developed between adjacent bars is large
mental frequency ( ), is the rms current caused by the enough stray currents will flow via the rotor laminations that
fundamental negative-sequence voltage, and is the rms har- bridge the adjacent bars. These additional losses due to the in-
monic current of order . terbar currents are hard to predict, they are strongly dependent
The components of the stator current are on the contact resistance between the bar and the laminations,
and can be assumed to be distributed within the rotor teeth. An
(9) approximate expression [13] for the ratio of the interbar losses
14 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 38, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2002

(a) (b)
Fig. 1. Steady-state equivalent thermal circuit of an induction machine. (a) Lumped components diagram. (b) Radial heat flow through the stator.

caused by a all the harmonic voltages and the interbar losses at is the velocity of the rotor in ). is the stator funda-
standstill rated conditions with sinusoidal voltage is mental current, is the no-load current and is the peak
air-gap magnetic induction. Voltage harmonics, for waves with
, do not affect . In modern designs, with
(13)
nearly closed rotor slots, is contained mainly in the rotor
teeth.
where is the number of rotor teeth. For a voltage distortion
usually encountered, when , the contribution III. THERMAL EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT
of harmonics to the transversal losses is not negligible. For ex- The thermal aging of the stator insulation is a function of the
ample, assuming , , and stator winding temperature that can be estimated by means of
results in . modeling the heat flow through the motor [10]. The complete
thermal equivalent circuit of an induction motor for steady-state
D. Surface and Pulsating Losses operation is shown in Fig. 1(a). The local losses, modeled by
These are iron losses due to the high frequencies of the air-gap current sources, are labeled as in Table I.
induction, and are located at the surface and within the rotor The heat is dissipated via two major paths. First is a radial
teeth. The general expression [9] is path, that leads to the external surface of the motor housing.
The second path is axial, or the lateral flow where the heat is
(14) ultimately dissipated through the lateral end shields or ports.
Segments of these paths can be modeled by means of pi-equiv-
where is a constant that depends on the geometry of the ma- alent cells of transmission lines. The circuit shown in Fig. 1(a)
chine and the number of teeth and it is proportional to , ( is the very basic circuit where groups of thermal resistances are
ABREU AND EMANUEL: INDUCTION MOTOR THERMAL AGING CAUSED BY VDI 15

TABLE I
STATOR AND ROTOR POWER LOSS SOURCES

TABLE II
STATOR THERMAL RESISTANCES
Fig. 2. Hot spots M; N and the critical spot C .

where is the hot-spot temperature of the stator

insulation, is the ambient temperature, and is the tem-
perature rise determined from the heat transfer model. For
C and C results an expected useful life
of years. If additional losses cause an additional tem-
perature rise , the hot-spot temperature will reach
and the corresponding percent loss of life is

(16)
TABLE III
ROTOR THERMAL RESISTANCES The halving interval, i.e., the temperature that yields
, is , (for class F insulation C), and
(16) can be approximated with

(17)

For small temperature excursions, the thermal equivalent cir-

cuit is linear and the temperature rise at any location (node ) for
the steady-state operating motor is expressed by a linear equa-
tion

lumped into one equivalent component. One will observe from

Fig. 1(b), that the radial heat flow is divided in two parallel paths
or sectors, the tooth sector and the slot sector ( ).
The main thermal resistances of the stator are labeled as in
Table II.
The equalizing thermal resistors help make the
thermal model more accurate. All the lateral heat flows through
the thermal resistance [Fig. 1(a)] computed from [14]. In
the rotor, we have the thermal resistances listed in Table III
Totally enclosed fan-cooled (TEFC) motors transfer
65%–85% of the heat through the stator cover surface and the
remainder through the end shields. The drip proof (DP) motors
dissipate 60%–80% of the heat via the end-shield ports and the
rest through the outer surface of the stator. The stator hottest
spot is found at the points or (Fig. 2). For TEFC motors,
is the hottest spot, and 5%–15% of the total heat flows
from . For the DP design, is the critical spot and
4%–11% of the total heat flows from . aging is affected by a multitude of factors: the basic thermal
This work is based on the experimental motor aging curves
detailed by Brancato [15] and the IEEE Std. 117. According to
[15], the life of a class F insulation motor can be estimated with
the expression
(18)
where is the power loss dissipated at node (W), and
are equivalent thermal resistances ( C/W).
From (18), it results that
or
(19)
that is the incremental change in temperature at node caused
by the incremental change in power loss .
One of the most critical spots where insulation failure occurs
is the point (Fig. 2). At this particular location, the insulation
aging, the edge effect that causes electric field stress amplifica-
tions, and high mechanical stresses due to time-varying shearing
forces. The incremental temperature change at the critical
spot can be estimated from the expression

(years) (15) (20)

16 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 38, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2002

where

(21)

are the incremental temperature rises at the points and ,

respectively. The total VDI-caused stator winding power loss
is the sum of the VDI power loss in the end windings
and in the slots

(22)

Based on the fact that

where and are the lengths of the stator package and Fig. 3. Equivalent thermal resistances for low-voltage motors.
length of the end turn, respectively, the substitution of (19) in
(20) gives TABLE IV
COEFFICIENTS a FOR POSITIVE-SEQUENCE HARMONICS AND SUBHARMONICS)

indicating that the incremental temperature rise at the crit-

ical point is proportional with the incremental increase in power
loss in the stator winding . This proportionality constant is
an equivalent thermal resistance

Choosing a base value for the thermal resistance TABLE V

, where is the motor rated apparent power and COEFFICIENTS a FOR NEGATIVE-SEQUENCE HARMONICS AND SUBHARMONICS)
a reference temperature rise, one will obtain the normalized
thermal resistance

(pu) (23)

From (23), it results that

(24)

and substitution of (24) and (8) in (17) gives the approximation
(25)
where is the normalized harmonic voltage
(26)
and
are the normalized stator resistance and equivalent impedances
to a base impedance . all the subharmonics and all the motors, the positive-sequence
Equation (25) shows that the loss of life due to thermal aging
is a quadratic function of the unbalance and harmonic voltage.
It is learned from (26) that the ratio is an indi-
cator of the motor susceptibility to VDI-caused thermal aging.
This important conclusion is reflected in the following section.
IV. RESULTS
The data obtained for this study is based on the thermal mod-
eling of five modern squirrel-cage motors, 460 V, 60 Hz, four
poles, class F insulation, rated 2, 10, 30, 100, and 200 hp. All
motors were assumed to have a useful life years when
operating continuously at 75% rated load with a 30 C am-
bient temperature. In Fig. 3 is presented the graph of the
versus the rated mechanical power of the studied motors. The
normalized thermal resistance of the DP motor is smaller than
the TEFC motor’s, hence, for the same electrical parameters and
VDI, the DP motor will suffer smaller loss of useful life than the
TEFC motor.
The percent values of the coefficients for TEFC motors are
presented in Tables IV and V. One will readily observe that for
coefficients are larger than the negative-sequence coefficients.
The explanation is found in the expression of the transferred
rotor resistance , more precisely the expression of
the rotor slip , with the sign for the positive
sequence.
ABREU AND EMANUEL: INDUCTION MOTOR THERMAL AGING CAUSED BY VDI
Fig. 4. Percent loss of life versus percent voltage imbalance (TEFC motors,
sinusoidal voltage).
Fig. 5. Percent loss of life versus percent voltage harmonics, or imbalance,
(100-hp motor).
For positive sequence and , , thus yielding a
smaller motor equivalent impedance (10). For the nega-
tive-sequence is larger than the positive-sequence and the
trend is reversed, i.e., for equal harmonic orders the motors are
more susceptible to the negative-sequence harmonic.
In Figs. 4–8 are presented the graphs that summarize the re-
sults of this study. The effect of voltage imbalance on TEFC
motors is shown in Fig. 4. The loss of life was calculated from
(16). The quadratic expression (25) holds true in the range
%. For imbalance larger than 3%, the error caused by
the approximation (17) becomes noticeable. In Fig. 5 is shown
the effect of voltage distortion on the 100-hp motor for 0.1,
0.5, 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, and 13. The labels “n” and “p” mean nega-
tive and positive sequence. The imbalance voltage corresponds
to n (negative sequence). The impact of subharmonics
is quite dramatic; for example, for a trace as small as
% causes 17% loss of useful life. This means that
for a 0.25% voltage subharmonic of order , a voltage
17
Fig. 6. 100-hp motor with 1% imbalance: percent loss of life versus percent
voltage harmonics (TEFC motors).
Fig. 7. Percent loss of life versus percent fifth harmonic voltage (TEFC motors
with 1% voltage imbalance).
imbalance of 1.8%, or a 6% fifth harmonic, all three will cause
the same thermal aging.
When imbalance and voltage distortion are both present,
Fig. 6, the curves loss of life versus are biased riding over
the imbalance curve shown in Fig. 5. The effect of the fifth
voltage harmonic in the presence of 1% imbalance is depicted
in Fig. 7 All these results show that there is not a simple
correlation among the loss of life, VDI, and motor power. The
fact that the 200-hp motor is less affected by the VDI than
the 100-hp one is due mainly to the differences between the
previously mentioned ratios (26), with the actual values
The effect of negative-sequence subharmonic of order 0.1 su-
perposed with 1% imbalance is presented in Fig. 8. For the DP
motors the loss of useful life can be estimated using a correction
factor .
18 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 38, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2002

TABLE VI
VOLTAGE SPECTRA USED IN THIS STUDY. PERCENT HARMONICS AND TOTAL
HARMONIC DISTORTION

TABLE VII
MOTOR LOSS OF USEFUL LIFE (YEARS)

Fig. 8. Percent loss of life versus percent 0.1th subharmonic voltage (TEFC
motors with 1% voltage imbalance).

V. ECONOMICAL ANALYSIS
We will assume a motor with an expected useful life years
and the purchase cost , a combined interest-inflation rate ,
and a straight-line depreciation rate. For a loss of useful life
years, it results that in the year the financial loss is
controlled. The fact that the three spectra are proportional
enables to graph the results in function of the THD.
The computed losses of useful lives are summarized in
where the first component is due to the book value lost Table VII. For comparison, the no-harmonic case (labeled O)
was added. It is found that at 1% imbalance with no voltage
harmonics, the loss of life is 0.59–1.21 years out of 20 useful
years. At 2% imbalance, the loss of life quadruples, reaching
and the second component is due to the earlier replacement of 4.44 years for the 100-hp motor. When the spectrum A har-
the motor monics are combined with 1% voltage imbalance, the motors
lose 0.99–2.25 years. When the imbalance is doubled to 2%,
the lost life is found in the range 2.63–5.30 years. For the same
conditions, spectrum B with 1% imbalance causes 2.13–5.04
The present value of the lost capital is lost years and 3.67–7.60 years for 2% imbalance. A dramatic
loss of life is caused by spectrum C. The 100-hp motor will lose
8.76 years with 1% imbalance and more than half of its useful
life with 2% imbalance. Even the 2-hp motor, the least-affected
unit, will lose more than a quarter of its useful life with 2%
that yields unbalance plus spectrum C.
These results were translated into capital lost per motor per
(27) year for each type of motor studied (Fig. 9). The graphs were
obtained from (27) assuming .
The above analysis is correct for a continuous 24 h/day motor These observations were extended to the motor population of
operation. Usually, motors operate of the time, where the U.S. [16], [17] to estimate the impact of the VDI at a national
is the expected life of the motor, . In this case, (27) level. In Table VIII are summarized five groups of motors, their
remains valid if and are replaced with and population, and average cost per unit. It was assumed that at the
, respectively. beginning of the first year one out of motors was
This model was used to observe the effect of different replaced with a new motor. The estimated total capital lost due
VDIs. The spectra of the tested voltage waveforms are given to thermal aging caused by VDI is plotted in Fig. 10.
in Table VI. Spectrum A has a THD of 3%, and is typical for For the conservative range of voltage imbalance 2% and
voltages measured in the 1980s/1990s, while spectrum B has voltage distortion 5%, the capital lost may reach 1.8 billion
6% and is typical for higher end situations. Spectrum C is dollars. These curves demonstrate the good engineering insight
an extreme case that may occur more frequently in the near for recommending voltage imbalance less than 1% (NEMA
future if the proliferation of current harmonics is not properly 12.45) and voltage distortion less than 5% (IEEE Std. 519).
ABREU AND EMANUEL: INDUCTION MOTOR THERMAL AGING CAUSED BY VDI
THD
Fig. 9. Capital lost per motor per year versus . Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. 35, pp. 810–818, July/Aug. 1999.
TABLE VIII
MOTORS’ POPULATION IN U.S. [16], [17]: MEAN HORSEPOWER AND COST
Fig. 10. Total yearly capital lost in U.S. versus THD . [16] “Classification and evaluation of electric motors and pumps,” Arthur D.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
The susceptibility to VDI is dependent on size and design
of the motor. Smaller motors are less susceptible than larger
motors. The ultimate factors that control the thermal aging of
the stator insulation are the type of insulation, the equivalent pu
motor impedance, stator resistance, and the equivalent thermal
resistance . The thermal aging of the motor insulation is sig-
nificantly affected by subharmonics. This result should alert all
the engineers responsible for standards, recommendations, or
guidelines for harmonic limitations.
The results discussed in this paper point to the fact that VDI
is a liability that costs end users a significant amount of money.
The exact calculation of the cost of the useful life is a chal-
lenging task, nevertheless, the preliminary calculations reveal
that VDI costs the U.S. community as much as 1.8 billion dollars
per year. The existing recommendations for voltage imbalance
and distortion are not overconservative and must be upheld.
19
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors’ wholehearted feelings of gratitude go to WEG
engineers who generously have shared their experience and key
information with them. Few manufacturers would do so much
for students and for science.
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[10] R. de Doncker, A. Vandenput, and W. Geysen, “Thermal models of
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[12] M. M. Liwshitz-Garik, “Computation of skin effect in bars of
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[14] D. E. Metzger and N. H. Afgan, Heat and Mass Transfer in Rotating
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[15] E. Brancato, “Estimation of lifetime expectancies of motors,” IEEE
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Jan./Feb. 2000.
Jose Policarpo G. de Abreu was born on Madeira
Island, Portugal, in 1952. He received the B.S.E.E.
and M.Sc. degrees from the Escola Federal de En-
genharia de Itajubá, Itajubá, Brazil, and the D.Sc. de-
gree in electrical engineering from the University of
Campinas, Campinas, Brazil.
He is a full Professor at the Escola Federal de En-
genharia de Itajubá, where he also serves as the Power
Quality Study Group Coordinator. He is currently on
leave at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester,
MA. His research interests include power quality is-
sues, such as power definitions, harmonics, imbalance, and voltage sags. Induc-
tion motors, transformers, and converter transformers are other interests.
Prof. de Abreu has been nominated for the Chairmanship of the 10th IEEE
PES ICHQP, to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in October 2002.
20 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 38, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2002

Alexander Eigeles Emanuel (SM’71–F’97) re-

ceived the B.Sc., M.Sc., and D.Sc. degrees from
the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa,
Israel, in 1963, 1965, and 1969, respectively.
From 1969 to 1974, he was a Senior R&D
Engineer with the High Voltage Power Corporation.
In 1974, he joined Worcester Polytechnic Institute,
Worcester, MA, where he teaches electrical engi-
neering and conducts research in the areas of power
quality and power electronics.