Injection of EMF in the rotor circuit: Consider a three-phase induction motor in which the

power is supplied through both stator and rotor. It is assumed that the machine is running at
constant torque load. The speed control of three-phase slip-ring induction motor can be done
using injected EMF in the rotor circuit. In the Schrage motor slip frequency EMF is produced
and injected into secondary winding on the stator by means of brushes.

Fig 1Equivalent circuit of induction motor with injected EMF in rotor circuit

Under steady state condition,

V1  R1I1  jX1I1  E1
V2/  R 2/ I 2/  jsX2/ I 2/  sE1 (1)
/
Here V is the injected EMF referred to stator. The rotor quantities are referred to
2
stator side. The rotor voltage referred to stator is
NK
V2/  1 w1 V2
N2K w 2
Ignoring the voltage drop in the stator we can write
V1  E1  Constant
The expression for torque is given as
3sE1I2/ cos 12 3E1I2/ cos 12
T   constant (2)
s  r s
Here 12 is angle between E1 and I 2/ . The synchronous speed s is constant. For
constant torque E1 should be constant. Thus I2/ cos 12  constant
If rotor voltage V2/ has same phase shift as the EMF E1 , then if slip is very small
R 2/
cos 12   1.0
 R    sX 
/ 2
2
/ 2
2

Thus Current I2/  constant . We can write that

N1K w1
R 2/ I 2/  V2/  sE1  V2  sE1  constant (3)
N2K w 2
The injected EMF is having slip frequency, however it may have different phase
difference with the rotor voltage. The machine can be made to run in sub- and super-
synchronous speed apart from normal induction motor operation.
Certain industrial application requires a lower speed of operation. The use of rotor
resistance control decreases the overall efficiency. With the following cascade connections,
the recuperation of slip power is possible. The overall efficiency is higher, because slip power
is not being wasted as resistive loss. There are two solid-state methods of speed control with
injected EMF:
o Kramer’s cascade
o Scherbius cascade

(a) Kramer’s cascade: In Kramer’s cascade, the slip-ring induction motor is started using
rotor resistance starter. Fig 2 shows a schematic diagram of Kramer’s cascade. When
machine is running, the rotor circuit EMF is rectified and connected to a separately excited
DC motor. The DC motor is connected to the main shaft of induction motor by means of
gears. By varying the field current of DC motor, the speed of shaft can be varied in sub-
synchronous region.

Fig 2 Schematic diagram for Kramer’s cascade

Let the effective phase voltage to the rectifier is V2 and the average output voltage is VR. For
a three-phase bridge rectifier the voltage relation is

V2  VR  k .VR
3 6
The referred value of V2 on stator side is,
NK
V2/  1 w1 V2
N2K w 2
In no-load operation V2/  s0 E1  s0 V1 =constant
The voltage VR supplies power to DC motor, thus
VR  k ee Ndc  k ee Nr .i
N
Here transmission coefficient of the reduction gear is i  dc
Nr
Let the synchronous speed of induction motor be Ns. then
Nr  Ns 1  s0 
Thus
NK
kk e Nsi 1 w1 e
N2K w 2 e
s0   (4)
e e  en
N1K w1
E1  kk e Nsi
N2K w 2

When e =0, or field is not excited, then the no-load slip is s0  0 . However when e
=en, then the no load slip is s0  0.5 . In the Kramer’s cascade, the no-load speed of
induction motor can be reduced to 50 % of the synchronous speed. The torque slip
characteristics have been shown in Fig 3. The Kramer’s cascade is used in drives requiring
large torque at low speeds such as cement mills and rolling mills. This has also gained
importance in the areas of variable speed wind power generations.

Fig 3 Torque speed characteristic- effect of varying field current.

(b) Scherbius cascade: In Scherbius cascade, the slip power is converted into DC and then
into 3 phase AC, which is fed back to three-phase lines. The schematic diagram for solid state
Scherbius cascade is given in Fig 4. The slip-ring induction motor is started using rotor
resistance starter. When machine is running, the rotor resistances are removed and rotor
terminals are connected to the three-phase rectifier. The slip power is converted into DC,
which is again connected to a three-phase bridge converter operating as an inverter. In which
the firing angle is more than 90. The logic for gate pulses for different thryristors is obtained
from three-phase lines. The converter converts the DC power into three-phase AC power
having frequency same as line frequency. The slip power is fed back to the lines using Y-Y
transformer having a definite turn ratio.
Fig 4 Schematic diagram of solid state Scherbius control of induction motor

The speed of induction motor is controlled by changing the firing angle of the
converter. For a three-phase bridge rectifier the per phase voltage relation is

V2  VR  k .VR
3 6
The per phase injected EMF is
V/ 1 N K
E1  2   1 w1 V2 (5)
s0 s0 N 2 K w 2
The inverter input and output voltages satisfy the relationship,
k.VI  VT cos 
Here VI and VT are the inverter input and output per phase voltage

The transformer voltage is VI  k T VT ,

Here kT is the coefficient of transformation. Since VR=VI thus we get

V NK V NK
s0  2  1 w1 V2  I  1 w1 cos  (6)
E1 N 2 K w 2 k T E1 N 2 K w 2
This shows that no-load slip is proportional to cos  . When firing angle =90, the
no-load slip s0=0.0. This corresponds to the natural torque slip characteristics. The maximum
recommended slip is 0.5. This slows the use of lower capacity power rectifier, inverter and
transformer. Fig 5 shows the torque slip characteristics of Scherbius control. Here slip power
less rotor loss is rectified, then converted back into the power of supply frequency and
returned to the three-phase lines through the transformer.
Scherbius control does not require DC motors. It offers higher efficiency and lower
system inertia. This has also gained importance in the areas of variable speed wind power
generations.

Fig 5 Torque slip characteristics of Scherbius cascade

The applications are fan type load like air blowers, pumps and compressor. Since
there is no gear box, the efficiency is likely to be higher than that of Kramer’s cascade.