UNIT 3

CONTROL OF THREE PHASE

INDUCTION MOTOR
INTRODUCTION
An induction motor consists of a frame, a stator
and a rotor. The stator or the stationary portion
carries the three stator windings. The rotor
consists of cylindrical member made of steel
laminations mounted rigidly on the motor shaft.
The rotor winding consists of copper or
aluminium bars fitted into slots in the rotor
member
This assembly of bars and end rings looks like a
squirrel cage and this similarity has given the
motor its name.
This revolving field cuts the rotor bars and
induce current in them. The induced current in
the rotor produces its own magnetic field. The
stator magnetic field and rotor magnetic field
interact and the rotor magnetic field follows the
stator magnetic field thereby establishing a
torque on the motor shaft.
The current in the rotor is maximum at standstill
(when the rotor is stationary, emf induced in the
standstill rotor is maximum). As the motor picks
up speed, the rotor current decreases as the
relative speed between the rotating field
produced by the stator and rotor speed
decreases. The torque speed characteristic of a
typical squirrel cage motor.
Motor Current at Start and During Acceleration
At standstill the rotor winding acts like a short
circuited secondary of a transformer. The
secondary current and thus in turn the primary
current drawn by stator winding from supply is
large. The starting current may be as high as 4.5
to 6 times the full load current of the motor
depending upon the motor characteristics.
As the motor accelerates, the current goes on
decreasing but at a slow rate. The current decays
sharply when motor reaches near its rated speed.
No-load Speed and Final Speed of Motor
On no-load motor accelerates until the
necessary speed is reached to overcome
windage and friction losses. This speed is
very near to the synchronous speed. The
motor, however, never reaches synchronous
speed,. When the motor is loaded, speed
adjusts itself to the point where the force
exerted by the magnetic field on rotor is
sufficient to overcome the torque required
by the load. the motor will run at speed N2.
The difference between the speed of
magnetic field (synchronous speed) and
rotor is known as slip.
• Starting of motor
• A motor may be required to start on no-load or on full load depending
upon the machinery to which it is connected.
• At starting, the inrush current is high but due to this high current a high
starting torque is developed, which accelerate the motor quickly to its final
speed. As the accelerating rate is fast the I2R heating time in the motor is
small . Hence magnetic starters are used in small motors only
• Higher capacity motors are generally started at a reduced voltage
• The high starting current drawn from the main supply is objectionable to
the supply authorities as it causes heavy line voltage drops which adversely
effects the performance of other loads connected to the system.
• The second reason for starting motors on reduced voltage may be to obtain
low starting torque. This may be desired in certain machinery where full
voltage starting torque applied suddenly may cause machinery to get
damaged due to sudden jerk..
(i) Resistance reduced voltage starter : PRIMARY RESISTOR TYPE STARTERS
• The purpose of inserting resistance during starting is two fold.
• On one hand it reduces the inrush current of the motor which may be objectionable
to the supply authorities as it would cause a high line voltage drop. Secondly,
reduced voltage applied to the motor at start provides a reduced starting torque
which prevents damage to the driven machinery, avoiding a sudden jerk. The value
of resistance connected should, however, be so selected that besides limiting
• The resistance type starters are used for small horse power rating motors where
main consideration is limiting the starting torque to avoid damage to the connected
machinery rather than controlling the line voltage drop
• Manual Primary Resistor Type Starter
• Manual Primary Resistor Type Starter Manual starters use Master switches or Drum
controllers for connecting the motor terminals to supply. Master switch used for
this starter has three positions of the operating handle i.e. OFF-START-RUN
•The current has been shown reduced to
four times the full-load current. The
motor current follows the path parallel
to dotted line but at a reduced level. At
time t 1, when motor has reached near
its normal speed, the resistance is cut off
from the circuit and full supply voltage
gets applied to the motor terminals. At
this time there is sudden inrush of
current as shown in the figure.
Afterwards, the motor follows the upper
curve and runs at its rated speed
• Semi-automatic Stepless Resistance Starter
• This is another type of line resistance reduced voltage starter which gives
stepless decrease of line resistance
• In this, resistors are made up of stacks of specially treated graphite discs placed
in steel tubes. The inside surface of steel tubes are lined with insulating
refractory material. When a mechanical force is applied to the columns of
graphite discs through a manually operated handle the discs are compressed.
The compressing of the discs reduces air gap between the discs and thereby
resistance is decreased
• As the pressure on the top of discs is increased the resistance decreases
gradually (steplessely) This type of starter can therefore be employed for
squirrel cage motors upto 200 hp.
• Automatic Primary Resistor Type Starter
• This starter also has two contactors marked START and RUN as in the case
of semi-automatic starter. Here, the time gap between closing of start
contactor and run contactor is controlled automatically with the help of an
electrical timer
INCREMENT RESISTANCE STARTER
•The motor starts only when all the
resistances have been cut off and motor
gets connected to full supply voltage
and draws the normal direct on line
current, which is about six times the
full load current
•This starter is used for large motors
which require high starting torque to
start from standstill.
• AUTO-TRANSFORMER REDUCED VOLTAGE
STARTERS
• This type of starters use an auto-transformer between the motor and the
supply lines to reduce starting current of the motor. Taps are provided on
the auto-transformer to select 50%, 65%, 80% of the line voltage for
starting. The advantage of this starter is that for the same starting torque to
be developed, the line current drawn from supply is less than that in case of
resistance and reactance starters.
• Auto-transformer starters are of two types: (i) open circuit transition type;
and (ii) closed circuit transition type.
• The reason is that open circuit transition starting for auto-transformer
starter and star-delta starters are widely used due to economical reason.
• Manual Auto-transformer Starter
• As starting torque of a motor is proportional to the square of the
applied voltage, connection at 50, 65 and 80 per cent tapping will
therefore yield starting torques of 25, 42 and 64 per cent of the full-
voltage starting torque. Thus for a motor which develops starting
torque of 1.5 times the full load torque (1.5 TFL ), the starting
torques of 0.38 TFL, 0.63 TFL and 0.96 TFL respectively can be
obtained by using the above mentioned tappings. These values of
torques are usually sufficient to start with loads in most of the cases.
• Automatic Auto-transformer Starter (Open Circuit Transition)
• In automatic starter, the transition from start to run condition takes place
automatically with the help of a timer.
• Four main contacts of start contactor (S) have been used to connect the
auto-transformer windings in open delta. As the starter shown is for a large
motor, motor has been connected to supply through, circuit breaker and
magnetic overload relay
The dotted line shown here the direct on line
characteristic while the full line shows the
current with auto-transformer in the circuit. At
time t1 the start contactor is opened and at time
t2 the run contactor is closed. For a time gap t2
– t1 the motor winding is disconnected from
the supply. During this period a voltage is
generated in the motor winding due to rotor
flux. At t2 when run contactor is energised the
induced voltage and supply voltage may get
superimposed to give a high transient current of
short duration which may be higher than even
the direct on line starting current
• Auto-Transformer Voltage Starter (Closed Circuit
Transition)
• Closed circuit transition operation requires two starting contactors, both
having three poles.
• PART WINDING MOTOR STARTER
• Part winding starters are used with squirrel cage motors having two
separate and parallel stator windings
• Large motors can be built with three parallel windings also. And can be
designed in star and delta connection.
• They are used to drive centrifugal loads such as fans, blowers or
centrifugal pumps.
• The advantages of the part winding starters are:
• (i) It is less expensive than other reduced voltage starters using resistors,
reactors and
• transformers;
• (ii) It requires only two contactors having half the rating of the full-load
rating of the
• motor;
• (iii) The starter provides closed circuit transition.
• The disadvantage of part winding starting are:
• (i) The starting torque is fixed and is low;
• (ii) Neither of the two windings has thermal capacity to operate along for
more than a few seconds.
• Thus, this type of starting is unsuitable for high inertia loads where
starting time is long.
• Part-winding starter may be of the following two types, namely:
• (i) Two-step starting, and
• (ii) Three-step starting.
• Current drawn by the motor gets equally divided between the two windings
connected in parllel.
• Three Step Starting
• In three step starting when first contactor is closed, one of the two
windings gets connected to the lines through resistors in each of the
phases. After a time delay of approximately two seconds,
• the resistances are cut off and this winding gets connected to the full line
voltage through the closing of the second contactor. After another time
delay of two seconds,
• the Run contactor is energised to connect the second winding to the lines.
• The value of resistance can be so selected that 50% of the line voltage is
available at the motor terminals during first step.
• Thus the motor starts with three approximately equal increments of the
starting current
• STAR-DELTA STARTER
• The stator windings of the motor are first connected in star and full voltage is connected across
its terminals. As the motor reaches near the rated speed, the windings are disconnected and then
re-connected in delta across the supply terminals
• The current drawn by the motor from the lines during starting is reduced to one third of the value
of current the motor would have drawn if connected in delta.
• Manual Star-delta Starter
• (i) Push button operated manual star-delta starter
• (ii) Semi-automatic star-delta starter
• (iii) Automatic open circuit transition star-delta starter
• (iv) Automatic closed circuit transition star-delta starter.
• Automatic Star-Delta Starter (Open Circuit Transition)
• In an automatic star-delta starter, the time required to change from star to delta
connection is obtained with a time delay relay. A knob on the time delay relay can
be adjusted at the desired time setting required for running the motor in star. The
time setting is around 10 sec. For lightly loaded motor time setting is a little less,
while for fully loaded motors the time setting may be a little more than 10 secs.
• Automatic Star-Delta Starter (Closed Circuit Transition)
• For most installations the open circuit transition starter discussed in the previous
section works satisfactorily. However, some installations may require closed circuit
transition starting to prevent power line disturbances.
• Closed circuit transition starting is achieved by adding one more three pole
contactor and resistors in the circuit of an open circuit transition starter.
• STARTERS FOR MULTI-SPEED MOTORS
• A squirrel cage motor is basically a constant speed motor, its speed being determined by the
line frequency and the number of poles of the stator winding. Such motors, however, can be
designed to have different speed by
• Multi speed motors are divided into three categories according to the torque developed at
various speeds. Before these three types are discussed, let us recall the relationship between
horse-power, torque and speed, which is expressed as:
• Horse-power developed = torque × speed.
• (i) Constant horse-power motors. These motors develop the same horse-power at all speeds.
Thus the torque varies inversely as the speed according to the above equation.
• (ii) Constant torque motors. These motors develop same torque on all speeds. Horsepower
rating of the motor varies in proportion to the speed.
• (iii) Variable torque motors. These motors are designed to develop a torque which is
proportional to the speed. Horse-power rating of these motors is therefore proportional to the
square of the speed. Torque speed curves are shown dotted for a typical two-speed motor with
a two to one ratio for constant horse-power, constant torque and variable torque design.
• Another problem faced while switching from one speed to another is that when
the motor is disconnected from the lines and reconnected with a different
number of poles, the stator windings remain open during transition.
• The entrapped flux will generate emf in the winding which may add to the line
voltage and a high transient current may flow which may be harmful to the
windings. It is thus desired that sufficient time should be allowed for the
transition from one speed to another in order to permit decaying of flux
entrapped in the magnetic circuit .
• Starter for Two-Speed, Two Winding (Separate Winding) Motor
• The two separate stator windings meant for different speeds may be connected
either in startor in delta.
• REVERSING THE DIRECTION OF ROTATION OF INDUCTION MOTORS
• In a three phase induction motor, the rotor tends to rotate in the same direction as
the revolving magnetic field produced by the stator windings. The direction of the
revolving field depends upon the phase sequence of the supply voltage.
• If the phase sequence of supply to the motor windings is changed by interchanging
two phase leads, the direction of the revolving fields is reversed. Thus the direction
of rotation of a three phase induction motor can be reversed if the two supply phase
leads to the motor terminals are interchanged. This phase reversal to the motor
terminals is accomplished by two contactors.
• Stators for wound rotor induction motors
• The rotor of a wound rotor induction motor is wound with three phase windings.
The windings are star connected, the three terminals are taken out and connected to
slip rings mounted on the shaft.
• Connections are then tapped through brushes mounted on the slip rings. This motor
is also commonly known as slip ring induction motor. The purpose of taking out the
three rotor terminals is to connect extra resistance in the rotor circuit.
• Connection of resistance in the rotor circuit limits the current drawn by motor and
also the torque speed characteristic of the motor changes. Extra resistance in the
rotor circuit may be added to obtain high starting torque and also to control the
speed of the motor.
• MOTOR ACCELERATION
• To accelerate a slip ring induction motor from standstill to full speed with
full load, resistance connected in the rotor circuit is cut out in steps.
During acceleration it is required that current and torque peaks are
restricted to reasonable limit.
• Limitation of current peaks is necessary to prevent excessive line voltage
drop and also overstressing of the switching devices. Limitation of torque
peaks is required to prevent overstressing of the mechanical parts of the
driven machinery
• MANUAL STARTER USING MASTER CONTROLLERS
• An important application of slip-ring induction motor controlled by a master controller is in
over-head cranes. A master controller, as discussed earlier while dealing with control
components, is a switch which has got plastic cams on a rotating shaft.
• The control contacts are so mounted that cams can activate them. When the shaft containing
the cams is rotated by a lever, either in left or right direction particular set of contacts get
actuated at different positions of the lever. Master controllers will have lever movement in one
direction only if the motor is to be run in only one direction
• AUTOMATIC CONTROL OF ACCELERATION
• In automatic control the resistance steps in the rotor circuit of a slip ring induction
motor are cut off by energising number of contactors in proper sequence, after
closing of the line contactor. As discussed earlier, the accelerating contactor should
close when motor has accelerated on the preceding step to such a speed that closing
of contactor does not cause resulting torque and current peaks to exceed the pre-
determined limit.
• They are :
• (i) Definite time control: The closing of acceleration contactors takes place after
definite time period in sequence. The timings are adjusted to restrict current peaks
within limits.
• (i) Individual timers, either pneumatic or electronic for each step;
• (ii) Motor driven cam timer;
• (iii) Timer heads mounted on contactors; and
• (iv) Flux decay relays.
Control Circuit Using Individual Time for Each
Step
• 4.5.1.3 Control Circuit Using Contactor with Timer Head
• In this circuit, timer heads (Pneumatically operated) are mounted on the contactors.
When a contactor is energised, the plunger of the timer is also attracted along with
contactor plunger. Contactor contacts close immediately while timer head mounted
on contactors closes its contact after the pre-set time delay, set on the timer head.
Variation in operating time obtained is, however, small by using the timer heads. In
the above control circuit the motor starts with full resistances, when the ON-push
button is pressed. Timer head of contactor M operates after pre-set delay and its
contact M1 closes to energise the accelerating contactor A. Contactor A shorts a set
of resistance of the rotor circuit. Timer head A closes after some delay and
energises contactor B. This goes on till the last contactor D is
Control Circuit Using a Motor Driven Cam Timer
• Control Circuit Using Flux Delay Relays