2018 23rd International Scientific-Professional Conference on Information Technology (IT)
Single Phasing of Three Phase Induction Motors
under Various Load Conditions
Ivana Z. Giceva, Vasilija J. Sarac, Saso A. Gelev, and Vlatko T. Cingoski

ensure that the single stator winding is divided into two,
Abstract — Three-phase induction motors are widely used
as industrial electric drive systems. Although highly robust,
flexible and easily maintainable, these motors quite often
suffer from sudden loss of one of its phases, i.e. so-called
single phasing. This regime usually leads to overheating of
the windings and, if prolonged, motor burnout and other
mechanical problems. In this paper, the causes and effects of
single phasing of a three-phase induction motor are
simulated and investigated using Matlab/SIMULINK models.
The obtained simulation results are discussed and potential
solutions are presented.
Keywords — electric machine and drives, induction motor,
mathematical modeling, motor protection devices, single
phasing.
I. INTRODUCTION
T HE most application in the modern electric drives
cannot be achieved without utilization of induction
motors (IM). Either single-phase or more widely used
three-phase IMs, they are frequently used as the basic
mechanical power generators in today’s industry, starting
from micro-power home appliances up to large power
electric water pumps, air compressor and/or ventilators,
rotation steel mills or heavy cranes and elevators [1].
Induction motor occasionally could be found in the
literature under the name of asynchronous motors, because
they run at a speed slightly lower than the synchronous
speed that equals with the speed of the rotational field and
depends on the frequency of the power source to which the
motor is connected and the number of machine poles.
There are two types of IMs: single-phase IM, and three-
phase IM, depending upon the input supply, single-phase
AC or three-phase AC supply. For three-phase IM, the
spatial distribution of the stator windings and the phase
distribution of the three-phase input supply ensure
generation of the three-phase synchronous rotational
electromagnetic field. However, for single-phase IM this is
not automatically achieved. Thus, in case of single-phase
IM, it is necessary during construction of the motor to
Ivana Z. Giceva, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University Goce
Delcev, Stip, Kampus 2, 2000 Stip, Macedonia (phone: 389-32-550-033;
e-mail: ivana_gicheva@hotmail.com).
Vasilija J. Sarac, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University Goce
Delcev, Stip, Kampus 2, 2000 Stip, Macedonia (phone: 389-32-550-033,
e-mail: vasilija.sarac@ugd.edu.mk)
Saso A. Gelev, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University Goce
Delcev, Stip, Kampus 2, 2000 Stip, Macedonia (phone: 389-32-550-033,
e-mail: saso.gelev@ugd.edu.mk)
Vlatko T. Cingoski (contact author), Faculty of Electrical
Engineering, University Goce Delcev, Stip, Kampus 2, 2000 Stip,
Macedonia (phone: 389-32-550-033, e-mail:
vlatko.cingoski@ugd.edu.mk).
978-1-5386-3620-6/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
Žabljak, Montenegro
usually equal, spatially distributed windings along the
stator and supplied with two currents with phase difference
as close as possible at 90°el, by means of adequately
designed inductor L or mostly common capacitor C. When
a three-phase IM is supplied with one-phase power supply,
it could not start rotating by itself, due to the lack of
generation of a rotational electromagnetic field by the
stator windings. Little swing of the rotor axis either in one
or in the other direction could enable rotation of the motor,
however with less operational effectiveness.
The main problem that we investigated in this paper is
what would happen if three-phase IM loses one of its
phases during its normal operation as an electrical drive
system under various loads? Experiences show that losing
one phase during operation is a rather common problem in
the electrical systems driven by three-phase IM [2]-[5].
Therefore, it is necessary to better and deeper investigate
this problem, which in the literature are usually described
as „single phasing,“ although the motor loses only one
phase and remains operating with two-phase input supply.
Some further IMs failure analyses show that significant
number of IMs are highly damaged due to an occurrence
of this so-called „single phasing“, as a result of a rapid
increase of the stator currents, overheat of the motor and
its burnouts [6]. This situation leads towards long
downfalls, lost productivity and financial losses for the
companies. Normally, motors are protected against current
overload with fuses and various protection relays and
against thermal overloading by bimetal relays. However,
they are not always capable to ensure full protection of the
IM during single phasing. Thus, better settings of the
protection relays are needed to trip the motor off the grid
at the right moment in case of single phasing to secure full
protection of the motors and the rest of the equipment,
especially for high power motors [7].
In order to better predict the outcomes of single phasing
of three-phase IM under operational conditions with
various loads, we deeper investigated this problem in this
study. The main goal was to find adequate protective
measures for the motor and the drive system from
unwanted breakdown due to unexpected single phasing
under load. For this, a specially designed model of middle-
size three-phase IM was modeled and simulated in
Matlab/SIMULINK environment. The values of the stator
currents and the electromagnetic torque were monitored
and compared to normal load conditions, and under single
phasing conditions. The transient time period and its
influence on the value of the currents, torques and motor
overheating was also investigated and used for obtaining
2018 23rd International Scientific-Professional Conference on Information Technology (IT)
parameters for setting a secure timing of the motor
protection relays for motor’s trip-off andd protection of the
whole electric drive system. The obtaained results well
correspond with the theoretically exppected and some
experimentally obtained results for otheer three-phase IMs
of the similar size [8], [9].
II. SINGLE PHASING OF THREE-PPHASE IM
As mentioned above, three-phase IM M could not start in
case one of its phases is disconnected, leeaving the motor to
operate into a physically two-phase regiime. In such cases;
we could hear humming while the motorr would struggle to
start. Continuation of such regime hass no physical and
operational meaning since the motor couuld not start and in
some cases might result in some minor m motor damages.
Very different is the regime when loaaded IM with rated
or lower than rated load, due to variouss reasons such as a
blown fuse, a broken power supply linee or a bad terminal
connection, etc., loses one of its phases leaving the motor
to operate only with the remaining twoo phases. This so-
called single phasing operation mode coould lead to several
operational problems for IM, and veryy likely could end
with rapid degradation of motor paarameters and its
burnout, if some protection measures aree not timely taken.
Three-phase IMs came with two typess of connections of
its stator winding: the delta (“”) conneection and the star
(“”) connection. Thus, as expected, thhe behavior of the
stator currents during single phasing strrongly depends on
the type of the stator winding connectionn, as schematically
shown in Fig. 1. Although the motor rremains connected
with two of its phases to the power gridd, in both cases, the
flow of the stator currents closely reseemblance a regime
where the three-phase IM is connected to a single phase,
thus the name of the problem is „single pphasing” problem.
Fig. 1. The connection of stator winddings and current
values before and after single phasing fo
for ““-connection
(left), and ““-connection (rright).
For example, if the values of the line currents under the
normal conditions either for ““ or “ “ connected stator
winding have the same rated values, affter single phasing,
the line currents in the remaining two pphases theoretically
increase at least 1.73 times. This happpens because the
torque and mechanical power that the m motor delivers at the
rotor shaft does not change quickly, i.e. they have a
tendency to stay constant even the singlee phasing occurs.
Žabljak, Montenegro
““ stator winding “Y“ stator winding
Fig. 2. Broken stator windinggs due to single phasing in
case of ““ and ““ stator winding connection.
On the other hand, because of different connection of
the stator winding, the phase cuurrents become different. In
case of ““ connection, the linee and phase current have the
same value which is at least 1.73 times higher than the
values before single phasingg, while in case of ““
connection, two of the phasee currents – those directly
connected with the phase wherre the break occurs – do not
change their initial values. H However, the value of the
remaining phase current flowinng through the third winding
doubles, for obvious reasons ssince the resistance of this
winding, is twice less than the resistance of the remaining
two windings connected in seriaal.
In practice, the values of thhe line and phase currents
flowing during single phasingg could have different and
even higher values due to seveeral reasons, such as change
of the power factor, constructioon nonlinearities, change of
the mutual inductances within the motor, a higher inertia
of the mechanical load etcc. However, the general
conclusion could be that the vvalues of the stator currents
may significantly increase. Thhus, the amount of copper
losses, as they depend on thhe square of the current,
increases even higher. This quickly leads to motor
overheating and, if the motor m mechanical load is close to
the rated one or even slightly hhigher, very soon this results
with motor burn down, in casee protective measure are not
adequately and timely taken.
Although it is probably m most significant and could
definitely lead to relatively quuick motor failure or in the
easiest cases toward permaneent damages of the stator
windings, the effect of motoor overheating during the
single phasing is not the only problem. Analyses show that
almost 33% of damages are eelectrical while 31% of the
problems could have a mechannical origin as shown in Fig.
3. Some of the most prominnent problems could be a
reduction of motor efficiency, nuisance and overload
tripping, premature failure oof motor windings, shaft
vibration and noise, speed and torque pulsation, reduction
of motor output torque, eetc. Thus, more detailed
investigation of three-phase IM
Ms single phasing, especially
for large IMs are advisable and beneficial.
III. SIMULINK MODEL OF THE THREE-PHASE IM
For modeling of the threee-phase IM under normal
operational conditions and during single phasing
Matlab/SIMULINK models w were used. Two separate
SIMULINK models were creaated, one for simulation of
the normal start-up and operation of three-phase IM, and
2018 23rd International Scientific-Professional Conference on Information Technology (IT)
the other model that simulates single phhasing of the same
motor at desired moment of time. The rrated parameters of
the modeled three-phase IM were defi fined in a separate
Matlab m–file: Pn=60 [kW], Un=400 [V V], fn=50 [Hz], and
nn=980 [min-1]. The model was simulaated under several
different load conditions, particularly att 20%, 40%, 60%,
80% and 100% of its rated mechanical looad.
Fig. 3. Most prominent problems in the three-phase IMs
operation because of single phhasing.
The m–file was designed initially to load the first
simulation model, i.e. the normal startting and operation
regime for the three-phase IM, and lateer at the particular
set moment of time, the second ssimulation model
corresponding to the single phasing oof the motor was
loaded and executed. In this modeel, phase A was
disconnected from the unit supply causiing single phasing
of the three-phase IM. The main motorr parameters were
observed during the entire simulation pperiod of tt=6 [s],
from starting, up to the stationary rregime and single
phasing. Both Matlab/SIMULINK K models are
schematically presented in Figs. 4(a) andd 4(b).
IV. OBTAINED RESULTS AND DIISCUSSIONS
Initially, the start-up of the IM w was simulated and
analyzed. As expected, the time for m motor acceleration
depends on the mechanical load and iincreases with the
increase of the mechanical load, as can bbe seen from Table
1. Observing that the longest start-up time for the fully
loaded IM was less than ts-max=1.96[s]], the exact timing
for single phasing was set at t=3[s].
TABLE 1: ACCELERATION TIME OF IM UNDEER VARIOUS LOADS.
Load 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
ts [s] 1,23 1,33 1,47 1,69 1,96
The obtained results for the stator currrents, voltage, and
torque during the motor’s start-up and single phasing are
given in Fig. 5. As expected, during m motor start-up, the
stator currents have much larger valuues than the rated
ones. However, the time for start-up lassts for a very short
period of time that is not enough for the increased losses in
Žabljak, Montenegro
the stator windings to trigger eeither the protection devices
or bimetal protection of the mootor, if they are adequately
present. Later, the values of tthe stator currents drop to
their rated values, the torque trransients at the motor shaft
end and the motor starts operrating in stationary regime.
Then, at t=3[s], intentionally thhe second simulation model
is loaded from m–file and the IM are forced to enter into
single phasing mode. The vaalue of the stator current
Ia=0[A], while the values of thhe currents in the remaining
two phases (phases B and C) inncrease rapidly.
(a) model of the IM beffore single phasing
(b) model of the IM durring single phasing
Fig. 4. The Matlab/SIMU ULINK models of IM.
The stationary values of thee stator line currents before
and after single phasing are prresented in Fig. 6. As seen,
the stator line currents valuees before and after single
phasing do not change linearly with mechanical load. This
mainly can be attributed to thee fact that the power factor
under which the IM operates chhanges, as shown in Fig. 7.
The current ratios before and after single phasing ranges
from Isp/In=2,13 (at 20% load)) up to Isp/In=2,5 (at 100%
load). Accordingly, the currrent losses in the stator
windings sharply increase from m 4,56 times in comparison
with the rated losses, signifficantly overheating stator
windings and the IM in generral, causing burnout of the
motor if single phasing reggime prolongs. The ratio
between the maximum torque achieved at single phasing
to the rated torque is even largger and have opposite trend,
from Msp/Mn=3,5 (at 20% looad) up to Msp/Mn=1,3 (at
100% load), as shown in Fig. 8. This could be attributed,
on one hand to the amount of eexisting reactive mechanical
torque at the rotor’s shaft at thee moment of single phasing
– larger reactive torque results wwith smaller increase of the
electromechanical motor torquee, and opposite, and on the
other hand, on difference between electrical and
mechanical time constants for thhe machine.
2018 23rd International Scientific-Professional Conference on Information Technology (IT) Žabljak, Montenegro

occurrence of such problems and satisfactory protect IMs

in various electric drive systems. Obtaining values of
various parameters, such as time changes and an increase
of the values of currents and torque could help to correctly
set the protection relays and successfully protect the motor
and the electric drive system from unexpected single
phasing under various load conditions.
REFERENCES
[1] P. Krause, et al. “Analysis of Electric Machinery and Drive
Systems”, 2nd Ed., John Wiley & Sons, 2002.
[2] S. Karmakar, et al., “Induction Motor Fault Diagnosis” Chapter 2,
pp. 7-28, Springer, 2016.
[3] S.M. Shashidhara, and P.S. Raju, “Stator Winding Fault Diagnosis
of Three-phase Induction Motor by Park’s Vector Approach,”
IJAREEIE, Vol. 2, Issue 7, pp. 2901-2906, July 2013.
[4] A.M. de Silva, “Induction Motor Fault Diagnostic and Monitoring
Methods,” M.Sc. Thesis, Marquette University, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, 2006.
[5] M. Sudha, “Development and Implementation of Embedded
Protection Scheme for Three-Phase Squirrel Cage Induction Motor
Fault Analysis," Ph.D. dissertation, Chapter 3, Dept. Elect. Eng.,
Anna University, Chennai, 2009.
[6] Electrical Apparatus Service Association, Inc., Failures of three-
phase stator windings, booklet, pp. 6, 2004.
Fig. 5. Stator currents Ia, Ib, Ic, voltage Ua and torque M [7] SPD Electrical Protection Handbook - based on the 2014 NEC®,
of the IM before and during single phasing at 80% of the Eaton Bussmann, 2014.
[8] W. H. Kersting, “Causes and Effects of Single-Phasing Induction
rated load. Motors,” IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, Vol. 41, No.
6, pp.1499-1505, 2005.
400,00 [9] U. C. Lakshmi, et al., “Single Phasing of Three Phase Induction
In Motor,” Project, Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, K
Current (A)

300,00 Isp L University, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, 2015.

200,00
0,800
0,630
Power Factor

100,00 0,546
0,600
0,435
0,00 0,400 0,304
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
0,200 0,158
Load (%)
Fig. 6. Stator current before and after single phasing of 0,000
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
three-phase IM under various loads.
In addition, since the directions of the stator currents in Load (%)
remaining phases during single phasing are opposite, two Fig. 7. The values of power factor cosϕ at single
components, direct and inverse, of the electromagnetic phasing of three-phase IM under various loads.
torque are generated simultaneously at the motor’s shaft 1000,00
that leads to changes in the motor torque with double Mn
Torque(Nm)

800,00
frequency than the supplied current frequency. This could Msp
600,00
be easily visible from Fig. 9, where the time changes of
400,00
the supply current and resultant torque are given.
200,00
V. CONCLUSIONS 0,00
The single phasing of three-phase IMs could be very 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
inconvenient and dangerous working regime, especially Load (%)
for larger IMs. Although at the first moment, seems that Fig. 8. Changes in torque before and after single
the motor continues with normal operation, if the phasing of three-phase IM under various loads.
protection relays, in particular, bimetal relays, are not
adequately set to disconnect IM from the supply, single
phasing could lead to serious overheat of the windings,
their burnout, long-time outages, additional costs due to
unavailability of the motor, its repair and/or replacement,
etc.
Thus, large attention has to be paid for adequate
placement and setting of motor’s protection devices. Using
numerical simulation such as those presented in the paper
using Matlab/SIMULINK environment could be very
helpful to correctly predicted and overcome in advance Fig. 9. Current Ib and torque M after single phasing.