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Reclosure: How It Happens

and What to Do About It
EASA Convention 2014
Hynes Convention Center
Boston, MA
July 1, 2014

Presented by

Jim Bryan
Technical Support Specialist
Electrical Apparatus Service Association
St. Louis, MO

The Electro•Mechanical Authority

 RECLOSURE: HOW IT HAPPENS AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
By Jim Bryan
Technical Support Specialist
Electrical Apparatus Service Association, Inc.
St. Louis, MO
Voltage surges come in many forms, all of which can
be devastating to an electric motor. Transient conditions,
rapid bus transfer, ungrounded systems, reclosure, im-
properly located or sized power factor correction (PFC)
capacitors, accidental connection of a new dual-voltage
motor for the wrong voltage, and lightning are all sources
of damaging surges.[1] Here, we would like to discuss
two of these sources: rapid bus transfer and reclosure.
Rapid bus transfer occurs when the voltage source
is changed from the primary to a secondary source
or back. This might occur when an automatic back-up
source in brought on line during a power outage. Reclo-
sure is similar but may include the automatic reclosing
of an overcurrent device or ‘chatter’ in a switch or circuit
breaker. The damage shown in Figure 1 resulted from
attempts to restart the motor after tripping on the initial
FIGURE 1: RESTARTING DAMAGE
1
attempt to start.
We begin to understand the problem when we evalu-
ate the reaction of the motor during such an event. The
motor winding acts like a large inductor, essentially a
coil of wire wound around a magnetic core, just like a
transformer. When the power is removed from the wind-
ing, the magnetic field that has been established in this
inductor begins to collapse. This collapsing field produces
a voltage as the rotor conductors cut the lines of flux, in
other words, the motor becomes an induction generator.
Since the rotor is slowing down and the frequency of the
generated voltage is related to the speed of the flux lines
being cut, the frequency of the voltage at the motor leads
is also reduced. Note here that the application will have
an impact on the rate of deceleration. A large fan will
have sufficient inertia to significantly extend the coast
down time where a low inertia turbine pump filled with
water will stop in a very short time. The field will collapse
at a rate that will be defined, the rotation or lack thereof
simply affects the frequency and phase relationship of
the two voltages.
FIGURE 2: TYPICAL MOTOR EQUIVALENT
CIRCUIT
r1 X1 X2
XM r2
s
This all occurs at a predictable rate independent of ro-
tating parts. Using the motor equivalent circuit (Figure 2)
values, we can calculate the open circuit time constant.
The formula for this is:
!! +   !!
! =  
2!!"2
Where: Substituting these values in the Open Circuit Time
Xm = magnetizing reactance Constant equation:
X2 = rotor leakage reactance per phase at rated
speed 30.74 + 0.309
f = line power frequency
! =     = 0.319
2  ×  3.14  ×  60  ×  0.258
r2 = rotor resistance per phase at rated speed
c = open circuit time constant As before, if t = c, the voltage at the motor terminals
t = time in seconds will be 36.8% of the applied voltage. If the applied volt-
age is 480V and t = 0.319 second, we can show this by:
Where c is the open circuit time constant, the voltage
of the decay at any time t can be calculated by: 1
! ! =    ×  460 = 176.7!
0.319
!"#  (0.319)
1
! ! =   !/!
!
As this voltage and its attendant frequency decrease, if
When t = c, the voltage will be 36.8% of the rated volt- the power is restored at line voltage, the phase relation-
age since the base of the natural log (e) is 2.718 and ship of the two voltage sources could result in a vector
1 / 2.718 = 0.368. So c is one open circuit time constant sum of the voltages that could spike well in excess of
in seconds.[2] the rated voltage of the machine as shown in Figure 3.
The values for the equivalent circuit are available from This out of phase reclosure can result in damage to the
the motor manufacturer. They cannot be measured or winding as in Figure 4 or even a broken shaft as shown
calculated without specific information about the mo- in Figure 5. These result from tremendous torque pulses
tor’s design. For a particular 75 horsepower motor, the resulting from the out of phase condition. Insulation dam-
values are: age can also occur due to the peak voltage that exceeds
Xm = 30.74Ω the dielectric strength of the insulation system. To avoid
X2 = 0.309Ω these problems, it is typically recommended that the
f = 60 Hz reclosure be delayed for anywhere from one to two open
circuit time constants, depending how conservative your
r2 = 0.258Ω
engineer is. This should be done with proper protective

FIGURE 3: SUM OF TWO SINE WAVES

2.5  

2  

1.5  

1  

0.5  

0  
0   2   4   6   8   10   12   14   16   18  
-­‐0.5  

-­‐1  

-­‐1.5  

-­‐2  

-­‐2.5  

60Hz   Decay   Sum  

2
 FIGURE 4: WINDING DAMAGE FIGURE 5: SHAFT DAMAGE
DUE TO RECLOSURE DUE TO RECLOSURE

relays in the control circuit. Any manual operation could
not respond as quickly or as consistently as required to
prevent damage.
Delaying the re-start for too long can also cause prob-
lems. If the rotor slows down significantly the re-start
current will approach an across the line start which could
damage the winding or connected equipment if the motor
is intended to use a reduced torque starting method such
as wye-delta. This is illustrated in Figure 6. This is a typi-
FIGURE 6: TYPICAL SPEED-CURRENT CURVE
+10% VOLTAGE
100% VOLTAGE
% STARTING CURRENT
cal speed vs. current curve for a NEMA Design B motor.
It shows that as the motor is accelerated from standstill
where the current is at its peak to full load where the
nameplate rated current is achieved, the current follows
a curve. If during the transition event the motor slows
and is reenergized, it will require the current associated
with that speed on the curve to begin accelerate back to
full speed. If that point on the curve exceeds the power
supply’s ability to supply the necessary current, damage
or a trip could occur.
Since the motor equivalent circuit values differ for each
motor, the delay required will also differ. Figure 7 shows
some data for typical motors ranging from 25 to 400 hp
(19 to 300 kW). As you see, larger motors will typically
have a longer open circuit time constant. This is almost
intuitive since we know that larger motors have a bigger

-10% VOLTAGE
coil of wire (inductor). The delay required may be several
seconds for large motors.
Certain accessories such as power factor correction
capacitors may extend this time constant even further.
FULL LOAD Capacitors, like inductors, store energy. When power is
NO LOAD
removed, the collapsing field can supply magnetizing
current to the motor that will extend the open circuit time
0% 100% constant.[3] It is also worthy of note that the power fac-
% SPEED tor may be over corrected. An inductive power factor is

3
 FIGURE 7: OPEN CIRCUIT TIME CONSTANT
referred to as lagging (the current lags the voltage) and
a capacitive power factor is leading (the current leads the
voltage). If the power factor becomes leading, not only
is the open circuit time constant made even longer, but
the voltage at the motor terminal can become danger-
ously high at the time the motor circuit is opened. This
can result in damage to the motor insulation. For this
reason, power factor should not be corrected to greater
than 95% lagging.
Rather than relying on the voltage to decay the one
to two open circuit time constants to a point where it is
not an issue, these devices look at the phase relation-
ship between the applied voltage and the decaying field
induced voltage. When the vector sum of the two is less
than 133% of rated voltage, the device will allow the
reclosure. This is the threshold some consider to be
safe; and more conservative engineers prefer 125%.[2]
One time to consider this effect is during motor testing
in your service center. Often the voltage is stepped up to
diminish the inrush requirement to start the motor. This
stepping function can result in short reclosure times.
Delaying the reclosure for one to two open circuit time
constants with each step will prevent damage to the mo-
tor. Since the motor is often not loaded during testing, the
coast down time can be quite long, but as stated earlier,
this will not directly impact the time constant, only the
4
phase relationship of the two voltages.
One might wonder then why we do not see many more
motors being damaged by this sort of service center
testing since it is very common. To answer that, consider
the V(t) equation above. The voltage steps used in these
tests not are usually large. For instance, we might start
at 120V, step to 240V then to 480V. Smaller increments
would be unnecessary and add complexity and effort. The
worst case in our example would be going from 240V
to 480V. After one time constant we will be at 36.8% of
the applied voltage or 240 x 0.368 = 88.3V. That is after
only 0.319 seconds. Based on this typical example, the
voltage is low enough after a very short time that it will
not cause a problem. It is a good practice when testing
large motors that a time delay be included. It would be
rare when stepping up the voltage in this manner that
a one second delay (say ‘1 Mississippi’) would allow a
problem.
In the IEEE/IAS Pulp & Paper Industry Technical Con-
ference held June 2013, a paper was presented [4] on
the capability of three phase motors to ride through a
single phase condition caused by the utilities’ automatic
reclosure process. After a fault occurs to open the circuit,
the automatic device will attempt to close a single phase
after 10-12 cycles (approximately 0.2 seconds). If that
attempt fails to clear the fault, another attempt is made
after 10 seconds and a third after 13 seconds. After the
third failed attempt, the system is locked out until service
personnel can clear the fault and restart the system. It
is the first attempt that will have the most potential for
damaging the motor. This 0.2 seconds is shorter than
the open circuit time constant for many larger motors
as seen in our earlier example of 0.319 seconds for the
75 hp motor. If the stars align and the phases are out of
alignment, the vector sum of the out of phase voltages
could result in significant damage to the motor. By the
way, the conclusion of the paper (using no motors above
10 hp (7.5 kW)) was that the motor will be able to survive
up to 13 seconds on single phase power.

CONCLUSION
It is important to be aware of the potential for damage
to the motor that can result from a reclosure event. In this
way, we can alert our customers to potential root causes
and help them to implement corrective and preventative
measures to prevent future occurrences.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] Yung, Chuck, and Bryan, Jim “Your Dog Didn’t Eat
Your Homework, and Lightning Didn’t Kill That Mo-
tor”, IEEE/IAS PCIC, September 2011.
[2] Nailen, Richard L., P.E., Managing Motors 2nd Edi-
tion, Barks Publications, 1996.
[3] Schwartzburg, W.E., Correcting Motor Power Factor
Problems – at the Load, Operation and Maintenance
of Industrial Electric Motors, Technical Publishing a
Division of Dun=Donnelley Publishing Corp, 1982.
[4] Agamloh, E.B., P.E., PhD, Peele, Scott, P.E., and
Grappe, Joe, P.E., Induction Motor Single-phasing
Performance under Distribution Feeder Re-closer
Operations, IEEE/IAS PPIC, June 2013.