Design of AC Drive System to Control

Speed, Torque, Direction and Over

Current

Author
Ali Hussnain 2011-EE-427
Aamir Saeed 2011-EE-450
Muhammad Yasir 2011-EE-460

Supervisor
Mr. Muhammad Nasir
Assistant Professor

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
LAHORE
January 2015
 Design of AC Drive System to Control Speed, Torque,
Direction and Over Current

Author
Ali Hussnain 2011-EE-427
Aamir Saeed 2011-EE-450
Muhammad Yasir 2011-EE-460

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of

B.Sc. Electrical Engineering

Thesis Supervisor:
Mr. Muhammad Nasir
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Electrical, Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering,
University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore
Pakistan.

External Examiners Signature:___________________________________________

Thesis Supervisors Signature:____________________________________________

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY LAHORE

January 2015

i
 ABSTRACT

In 19 th Century, soft devices and Direct Current (DC) drives were used for
the controlling speed of typical motors. In soft device, initially low voltage is required but
at the same instance current also starts decreasing which relieve the motor from stresses.
DC drives were also dominant for a long period of time still after the invention of
Edisons induction motor. In DC drives, DC converter changes the supply voltage fed to
the DC motor where commutator convert the direct current into alternating current. In
alternating current (AC) drives varying the frequency is remained difficult task. Initially,
this can be done by rotary converters but they were bulky and inflexible. However speed
of the motor could be controlled by varying the voltage at fixed frequency, but this
process gave very poor outcomes. That is why DC drives was always dominating AC
drives in major applications of the industry. Further advancement in solid state
technology, Bipolar Junction transistor (BJTs) were introduced, still there voltage rating
was not enough to be used in power circuits. And then Silicon-Controlled Rectifier (SCR)
was introduced along with Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) technique brought
revolutionary change for AC Drives.
This revolutionary change in power electronics made a way for the
comeback of AC drives. Market of AC drives start dominating and replacing DC drives in
many applications which are used in industry. As AC drives controlling is much more
accurate, reliable and flexible. No need of mechanical equipment. Maintenance
requirement is also not necessary as frequency inverter is used. AC drives give smooth
starting and free of jerk operation, this also leads to the maintenance cost. These drives
have low maintenance requirement, lower noise and having higher efficiency. These are
available in wide range of torque, speed and power. They also gives advantage in reduce
plant wear, reduced complaints at low operating cost. We also aim to find way of making
contribution in it by increasing its efficiency through some different controlling approach
or by using such components that increase the overall efficiency.

Keywords: AC Drive System, Efficiency, Controlling Methods

ii
iii
 UNDERTAKING
I certify that research work titled Design of AC Drive System to Control Speed, Torque,
Direction and Over Current is my own work. The work has not been presented
elsewhere for assessment. Where material has been used from other sources it has been
properly acknowledged / referred.

Signature of Student
Name of Student
Registration Number

iv
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All thanks go to ALLAH, The God of the worlds. It is actually His help that we
have received from various people and sources throughout the duration of our effort
towards this bachelor degree. We would like to thank all of the many people that have
contributed to our education and research. The journey has been long, but memorable.
First and foremost, we greatly appreciate the contributions of our advisor, Mr.
Muhammad Nasir, for his instructions in class and on our project work. His continued
support even outside the realm of education and his gentle prodding to keep working has
been instrumental in completion of this work. He is a great friend and mentor. We would
like to thank all of our friends, who were able to break us away from our work on the
occasion and enjoy life. We would like to express our gratitude to all the staff at the
department. All the people at the department are helpful and friendly.
We do not know how to thank our family enough. Our parents have always
encouraged us to study without putting any requirements on the result. They have also
helped us with all kinds of practical issues and financial support for our undergraduate
studies. We cannot imagine that this would have been possible without their help thanks
again. Finally, we
would like to express our deepest gratitude to our loved ones for understanding and
supports us.

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vi
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ...ii
Acknowledgement............................................................................................v
List of Figures ix
Abbreviations x
Chapter I: Introduction................................................................................1
1.1: Historical Background...........................................................1
1.1.1: Early 20th Century...........................................................2
1.1.2: In 1950s..........................................................................2
1.1.3: After 1980s.....................................................................3
1.2: Objectives of the Study.........................................................3
1.3: Limitation of the work...........................................................4
1.4: Benefits of the AC Drives......................................................5
1.4.1: Dominance of AC Drives in Market...............................6
1.4.1.1: Maintenance Cost...............................................7
1.4.1.2: Productivity........................................................7
1.4.1.3: Energy Saving.....................................................7
1.4.1.4: Higher Quality...................................................7
1.4.2: Energy and Maintenance Benefits of AC Drives.........8
Chapter II: Literature Review....................................................................10
2.1: Basics of AC Drives............................................................10
2.2: Electrical Motors.................................................................12
2.2.1: Induction Motors........................................................12
2.2.2: Synchronous Motor....................................................14
2.3: Power Processor.................................................................15
2.3.1: Input and Inverter Section...........................................15
2.4: Rectifier..............................................................................16
2.5: Three Phase Inverter...........................................................16
2.6: Pulse Width Modulation.....................................................19
2.7: Volts per Hertz Ratio.........................................................21

vii
2.8: Control Unit......................................................................22
2.9: Electrical Sources..............................................................22

viii
 LIST OF FIGURES

Number Page

Fig 1.1 Comparative structural diagram....................................................6

Fig 1.2 Market of VSD..............................................................................7
Fig 1.3 Annual Growth Rate......................................................................8
Fig 2.1 Modern Electric Drive Using Power Converter..........................11
Fig 2.2 Multidisciplinary Nature of Electric Drives................................11
Fig 2.3 Induction Motor Circuit Diagram................................................13
Fig 2.4 The per Phase Equivalent Circuit of Synchronous Motor...........14
Fig 2.5 Power Processing Unit.................................................................15
Fig 2.6 Rectifier Circuit Diagram............................................................16
Fig 2.7 Inverter Principle Diagram..........................................................16
Fig 2.8 Two Level Voltage Source Inverter.............................................17
Fig 2.9 AC Drive Circuit Diagram...........................................................18
Fig 2.10 Line Voltage of Three Phase Inverter..........................................18
Fig 2.11a Single Phase Inverter Associated With PWM..............................19
Fig 2.11b Comparators for PWM................................................................20
Fig 2.11c Reference Signals for PWM.......................................................20
Fig 2.12 Volts per Hertz Ratio..................................................................21

ix
 ABBREVIATIONS

AC Alternating Current
BJT Bipolar Junction Transistor
DC Direct Current
FOC Field Oriented Control
IGBT Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor
PWM Pulse Width Modulation
SCR Silicon-Controlled Rectifier
VFD Variable Frequency Drive
VSD Variable Speed Drive

x
 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Historical Background

The end of nineteenth century witnessed a revolution in the electrical
industry. Firstly, Edison introduced direct current (DC) motor. In 1888, Tesla
introduced the alternating current (AC) induction motor for the first time. Tesla
believed that his invention is more useful and applicable than DC motor. However, to
control the speed of an AC motor need two conditions either by varying the number
of poles or by varying the magnetic flux. Another way to control the speed of AC
motor by changing the frequency but that was also not an easy task at that time. So
due to all these steps at that time for the need of output power and accuracy required
in speed controlling DC motors were important. Because, technology used was just
by simply adding rheostat in low power DC circuit during that time. For a long
decade, that was the most economical and applicable method to fulfill the purpose of
changing the speed or varying the torque of the DC motor.
By the end of 1980s, the traditional motor control was started
diminishes. Because AC motor drives revolutionized in it and started competing with
the traditional DC motor control. Because they were became more economical and
feasible than DC motor control. These drives are able to control the synchronous and
induction motor. AC drives worked at reduced torque with above rated speed and then
also at maximum speed from 0 rpm with full torque [1]. In these AC drives firstly the
incoming AC is being rectified into DC and then by using the technique of pulse
width modulation (PWM) to generate output waveform of voltage and current to
control the frequency of output. But in this process also bears the harmonic distortion
and overload spikes along with the loss of 2% to 3% of frequency conversion as heat
in the AC drives. Development in the power semi-conductor devices leads to the
development in the electrical drives system. In power converters, application of solid
state devices has been initiated in 1957s with the invention of Silicon-Controlled
Rectifier (SCR). The advancement in electrical drives system is further divided in

1
different era. This division is on the basis of development in the field of power semi-
conductor devices with the passage of time. These are classified in 3 stages.

Early 20th century

In 1950s
After 1980s

1.1.1 Early 20th Century

For fixed operation AC drives were used initially. Generate ac voltage
with rotary converter of variable frequency, which are bulky and inexpensive. Still
with a fixed frequency source it is possible to make variable voltage drive to control
AC motor, but in this way the efficiency shown by this drive at low speed will be very
poor. On the other side, the variable DC supply could be used in DC motor for
controlling armature voltage, and using multi-machine configuration variable DC
supply can be produced easily. Hence, because of this DC drives were used for
variable speed operation while AC drives were used for only fixed speed applications.

1.1.2 In 1950s
At the time of 1950s, Bipolar Junction Transistors were present, but they
cant be used in power circuits as they have very low voltage rating. Since then SCR
were introduced in 1957 which made a revolutionary change in AC drive system. As
they have higher rating compared to the solid state transistors which are then be used
in variable frequency inverters or converters. With the help of variable frequency ac
supply, one could control the speed of motor, can be generated using inverter. The
switching frequency of SCR was very low at that time so square wave inverters were
used in AC drive system.
In early 1960s, some advancement in the fabrication of BJT and also
with the introduction of PWM technique control of AC drive system had significantly
contributed a lot. But still the DC drive showed their dominance over AC drives
because of the complex magnetic coupling between the rotor and stator of AC

2
machines. But the due to the advancement during that period of time replaced the DC
drives with Ac drives, where the applications of medium variable speed were
required.

1.1.3 After 1980s

In 1972s, new approach came which is now known as Field Oriented
Control (FOC) or vector control also. With the help of this technique AC motor can
be used for high performance torque control. In this process, the control of AC motor
is transformed into the control of DC motor. But in the decade of 1970s, the concept
of FOC is not feasible or even realizable as fast switching microprocessors were not
available. After 1980s, the FOC control applications increased in number in
industries. And AC drives of FOC method replaced the applications which are only
run with DC drives only. The way this trend is going it seems that AC drives
eventually replaces the DC drives in the near future.

1.2 Objectives of the Study

AC drives control AC motors. This is usually a way which controls the
electric motor speed. It is also refer to as variable frequency drive (VFD) or variable
speed drive (VSD). VFD can be used to control both torque and speed of the motor
of induction motor by varying the frequency and current of the AC waveform being
delivered to the motor. Significant saving of electrical energy can be achieved by
different methods:

Improving the power factor

Slip energy recovery
Variable speed drive
Captive power generation

The task of variable speed is to convert electrical energy into,

mechanical energy, with a minimum loss. The drive must be variable in speed to

3
obtain the optimum technological process. Using solid state technology, it ensures of
losses will be down less by the use of Insulated Gate Bipolar Junction (IGBT).
The basic objectives which are must be present in it are related to the
need of the customer and the sound relationships between the motor, machine and
motor control. Because motor is the device that enforces the machine to does work.
And motor controller directs the information for controlling of the motor. The
objective must be in front of:

Ensure the desire motor performance as AC drive effects on speed, torque,

direction, current, voltage, heating and horsepower of the motor.
Help to limit demand and electrical consumption of motor
Run at 100% speed, no matter the load.
Must convert electrical energy to mechanical energy along with minimum
possible losses.
Must be variable in speed over large range of settings.
Starting of motor must be smooth and jerk free.
Motor attached to variable speed drives must be operated at four quadrants,
which also depend on the speed and torque of the motor.
Variable frequency drive must offer an efficiency of 95% or better at full load
condition.
Protected circuits which are orderly shutdown of drive, indication of fault
condition.
There must be short circuit protection, circuit breaker or motor circuit
protector.

1.3 Limitations of the Work

Potential problem occurs during the construction of variable speed
drives. These are may be off related to technical issues, unavailability of resources,
lack of technological advancement worldwide or in specific area, during the
fabrication of the components involve in circuit, due to the human error in the

4
formation process, mismatching the properties of motor and drive. Eventually all
these things give a major impact as a whole to the task. There are also some other
factors that limit the proper working of the drive and on its construction. Due to the
improper circuitry of the stages involve in the making of drive puts an extra faults in
drive. Consequently, it affects the objective of the work. Similarly, other factor that is
harmonic distortion is a big problem to be sort out at first preference. Safety of the
drive is another important task to which focus will be given because in case of fault or
in case of emergency the drive must be kept protected from any harm. Further hurdles
are as follow which plays an important role in preventing the fulfillment of the define
task:

Harmonic distortion.
3-phase generation.
Safety of drives, circuitry involve and the motor too.
Improper designing of the circuit.
Micro-Controller programming.
Complexity of the circuit when requirements are increased from single motor.

1.4 Benefits of the AC Drives

Control methods of AC drives or VSDs are the best than other
simpler control methods that includes throttling or bypass control. The structure of
such equipment is very simple and very cost effective at first. However, there are
many drawbacks i.e. best quality from that process is difficult to receive. These
methods are also energy consuming, so there operating cost is much higher than the
VSDs. They have also environmental impacts, like emission of CO2 from power
plants. Hence, in simple control method the total life cycle cost of investment is much
higher than VSDs. Different types of VSDs are discussed further below:

Mechanical VSD control commonly uses belt drives which are further
controlled by conical pulleys with positioning motors or manually.

5
 Hydraulic Coupling VSD control produces a speed difference between the
driving and driven shafts by changing the oil volume in coupling. The oil
amount is control with the help of valves.
DC Drive control used a commutator which is a mechanical inverter that
changes the direct current to alternating current by simply changes the supply
voltage fed to the DC motor.
AC Drive control no mechanical inverters are required. Frequency converter
changes the speed of the motor. Frequency converter itself control through
electrical signals.

Fig 1.1: Comparative structural diagram

The above figure shows that the control unit is between the motor and machine in
mechanical and hydraulic VSDs, which makes the maintenance task very difficult and
this is benefits of electrical VSDs over the others.

1.4.1 Dominance of AC Drives in Market

Here are the four main benefits that shoot up the AC drives in the
market. These are the most important points that attract towards the use of AC drives.
These all are as follow:

6
1.4.1.1 Maintenance Cost
Smooth starting and jerk free operation is achieved by use of
electrical VSDs, which consequently leads to the maintenance costs.

1.4.1.2 Productivity
Increase in the speed of the motor is not a problem with the AC drive
as the speed of the motor can be varied through drive, which consequently reduces
money and time. And production can be achieved without any investment.

1.4.1.3 Energy Saving

Changing the production volume can be achieved by varying the
speed of the motor. This saves a lot of energy especially in those applications that
uses fans and pumps.

1.4.1.4 Higher Quality

Optimize result can be obtained by the use accurate speed control.
This optimization leads to the best quality of end product, consequently the best profit
for the user.

Fig 1.2: Market of VSD

AC drives market share increases too much due to these benefits.

Electrical AC drives account for more than 60% of market than other VSDs. AC

7
drives market increases about 10% per year while the market of DC drives start
diminishing, this is because of the many benefits of A drives over other control
methods [2]. And also DC drives used brushes which require maintenance which
consume both energy and money, resultantly increased the life cycle cost. This is why
AC drives market shares are going to be increase.

Fig 1.3: Annual Growth Rate

1.4.2 Energy and Maintenance Benefits of AC Drives

Energy cost can be cut down when the motor is not running at full
speed with the help of VSDs. There is no other method that saves the energy like this.
Further saving benefits are under as follow:

Large savings are achieved by reduced electricity consumption and heat loss.
Under the control of Energy Management System (EMS) motors are installed
to run at low speed at any time, but at high speed at meal time.
When motor is running at 80% of speed, it uses 50% of energy.
Run the motor at any speed at any specific time leads to the energy saving.
At reduced speed, the load torque reduces which further reduces the
mechanical stress causes the maintenance savings.

8
 Other than maintenance, energy and cost savings the AC drives also
have several more advantages over other drives. These benefits give preference to AC
drives over other drives or controlling method.
Further benefits are also under as follow one by one:

Available in wide range of speed, torque and power.

Quieter operation at low load.
Reduced complaints and lower operating cost.
Improved control process.
Higher efficiency and low maintenance is required.
Electric energy is easy to be transferred.
Reduces motor heating and stress.
Typical payback is less than 2 years.
Flexible control characteristics.

9
 CHAPTER 2
Literature Review

2.1 Basics of AC Drives

Drives are installed in that systems that are needed by motion control
e.g. fans, pumps, robots, machine tools etc. Prime movers that are used in drive
systems to provide movement and energy that is used to give motion can be from
different types of sources: diesel engine, petrol engine, electric motors, hydraulic
motors etc. The electric motors that use drives as a prime mover are called electrical
drives. These control provided by these drives may be simple as an ON/OFF switch.
In addition with ON/OFF control these drives may provide motor overload protection.
In soft start devices the current decreases by decreasing the voltage at startup and
relive the motor from stresses. Also in these devices motor has smooth acceleration
up to 100% operating speed and also can control motor smooth deceleration up to
zero. AC drives are also smooth operating soft devices but speed and torque of motor
may vary according to the requirements. And motor has not to run at 100% speed and
torque but these can vary according to the requirements. These drives are categorized
to be variable frequency drives and variable speed drives, but for simplicity we just
call them AC drives.
These drives have high efficiency, low maintenance requirements,
cleaner operation and lower noise. These are available in wide range of speed torque
and power. Energy can easily be transported by using AC drives to the motor. These
can be expensive at initial cost but saves money at time. Energy saving and reduced
tear and wear on machinery repay quickly the initial investment.
The voltage applied to the motor can be changed by using power
electronics convertors. These convertors increase and decrease the voltage according
to the requirement. AC motor is not limited to the application where alternating
current source is available but it can also be used available power source is DC. The
available DC is converted to AC by using invertors to run the motor. The invertor also
controls the frequency of the output AC [3]. By changing the frequency we can

10
change the speed and torque of the motor. Modern electric drive system using power
electronics convertors is shown in figure:

Fig 2.1: Modern Electric Drive using power convertors

Electric drive is multidisciplinary field. Different research areas can be

subdivided from electric derives system as follows:

Fig 2.2: Multidisciplinary nature of electric drive

11
 The AC drives consist of different components which perform
different functions according to their requirement. The major components of AC
drives are:

Electrical Motors
Power Processor
Control Unit
Electrical Source

2.2 Electrical Motors

Motors take power from electrical sources. They convert electrical
energy to mechanical energy, thus called energy convertors. The power is reversed in
braking mode.
There are several types of motors used in electrical drives. The choice
of motor depends upon the cost application environmental factors and also the types
of sources available. But majorly these are classified into DC and AC motors. DC
motors are wound and permanent magnet motors.
AC motors can be classified into two types on the basis of
requirement and construction:

Induction Motors
Synchronous Motors

2.2.1 Induction Motors

Three phase induction motors are commonly used in adjustable speed
drives. Basic parts of induction motor are:

Rotor
Stator
Air gap

12
 The stator of the induction motor is supplied with balanced three
phase AC voltage which produces induced voltage in the rotor winding. The stator
winding are distributed in such a way that effect of multiple pole produces magneto
motive force in the air gap between stator and rotor. The circuit diagram of three
phase induction motor can be drawn as:

Fig 2.3: Induction Motor Circuit Diagram

The speed of rotation of the field is called synchronous speed

which is defined as:

2 s is syncronous speed [rad/sec]

s
p
Ns is syncronous speed [rpm]
(2.1) p is numbers of poles
120 f
Ns is the supply frequency [rad/sec]
p
f is the supply frequency [Hz]
(2.2) Nm is motor speed

The speed of the rotor is that speed through which roter rotates as a
result of indunction of megno motive force in the air gap. Mathematically it
can be written as:

m s (1 S )

13
 The slip of the motor is the relative speed between synchronous
apeed and roter speed expressed in per unit. Mathematically it can be expressed as:

S m
S
S

NS Nm
S
NS
(2.4)
2.2.2 Synchronous Motors
The synchronous motor the speed of rotation is proportional to the
frequency of the A.C. power. As the frequency of the input varies, speed of the
rotation of the motor changes. The circuit diagram of the synchronous motor can be
drawn as:

Fig 2.4: The per phase equivalent circuit of synchronous motor

.
The Kirchhoff voltage law can be applied as:

V= EA + jXS IA +RAIA
(2.5)
EA = V - jXS IA RAIA

2.3 (2.6)

EA is the emf induced in the motor, RA is armature resistance and XS is the reactance
of the synchronous machine.

14
2.3 Power Processor
As the electrical sources are normally uncontrollable, therefore it is
necessary to control the flow of power to the motor. By using controllable sources the
motor can be reversed, brake and can be operated with variable speed. Initially relays
were used for this purpose to control the voltage but these were inflexible and
inefficient. Now a days convertors are used to shape the voltage or current supplied to
the motor.
These convertors are flexible. Flexibility means that voltage and
current can be shaped by simply controlling the switching action of the power
convertor. Also these are efficient so that power losses in the convertor are negligible.
These are compact smaller higher rating solid state electronic devices. Because these
are continuously developed, they are getting cheaper.

2.3.1 Input and Invertor Section

AC drive is device for controlling speed and torque of a motor. It
does this in such a way that first converting three phase AC to DC. Then by using
various mechanisms we convert this DC to AC with controllable frequency of the
output sine wave.
There are generally two types of control: pulse width modulation and
six step control. Mostly AC drives use pulse width modulation method for controlling
the frequency and that is used in this project. There are two main sections of the
PWM drives which are described as:

Rectifier
Invertor

15
 Fig 2.5: Power Processing Unit

2.4 Rectifier
Rectifier is used to convert input alternating current to direct current.
The input three phase input supply is fed to the rectifier circuit that yields direct
current .It uses six diodes that rectify the input wave.

Fig 2.6: Rectifier Circuit Diagram

2.5 Three Phase Inverter

The dc output taken from the rectifier is fed to the inverter that
converts it into sine wave. It consists of IGBTs that turn off and on simultaneously so
that controls the frequency of the output wave.
The gating sequence of the inverter is controlled by the pulse width
modulation (PWM) scheme. Basically invertor inverts the dc input signal to the ac
output signal which is used to drive the motor.

Fig 2.7: Inverter Principle Diagram

16
 Two level invertor associated with pulse width modulation scheme is
given as in figure. S1-S6 are the six power switches that shape the output and these
are controlled by the terminals a, a, b, b, c, c,

Fig 2.8: Two level voltage source invertor

The complete circuit diagram of the drive circuit uses both rectifier
and inverter circuit. Initially input is given to the rectifier this gives DC output
voltage and this is made smooth with the help of capacitor or other filter circuit.
These filter circuit removes the pulses in the output and made it smooth dc voltage.
This smooth dc voltage is changed to the ac output voltage by using
three phase invertor. The invertors IGBTs turn off and on in accordance with applied
control wave. This wave is supplied by microcontroller which monitors the switching
of the IGBTs. The turn ON and OFF pattern of the switches, form ac wave at any
desired frequency. In most of the case frequency of the ac output wave is constant but
according to the requirement it can be changed [4]. This change of frequency helps us
to control the speed and torque of the motor. Also we are able to control the direction
of the motor which means that whether the motor should rotate in clockwise direction
or anti-clock wise direction.
We can connect any type of load either Y or delta. In Y connected load
we measure line to neutral voltage but in delta connected load we measure the line
line voltage. In figure shown below it is shown how rectifier is associated with
invertor in order to yield controllable output voltage.

17
 Fig 2.9: AC drive circuit diagram

The output wave of the three phase invertor is designed with the help
of the sequence of the transistors. The transistors T1& T4, T2 & T5 and T3 &T6 are
on the same legs of the inverter.

Fig 2.10: Line voltages of Three Phase Invertor

18
2.6 Pulse Width Modulation
The turn on and turn off the switches is controlled by using pulse
width modulation. It is the process that is used to modify the width of pulses that are
contained in a pulse train directly proportional to the small control signal .The
concept is made in such a way that greater is the control signal ,the wider will be the
width of pulse. By using sinusoid of the required frequency as a voltage control for
pulse width modulation, it is possible to produce high power waveform whose mean
voltage varies in sinusoidal manner can be used to drive ac motors. The basic concept
associated with PWM can explained with figure 2.11a. Fig 2.11b shows single phase
PWM inverter with using IGBTs. IGBT1 through IGBT4 can be controlled by two
comparators as shown in fig 2.11b

.
Fig 2.11a: Single phase inverter associated with PWM

A comparator is a device that compares the input signal with the

reference signal and turns the transistors on and off as a result of the comparison.
Comparator A compares the input signal with the reference signal Vx(t) and controls
the IGBTs T1 and T2. Similarly comparator B compares the input signal with

19
reference signal V2(t) and controls the IGBT T3 and T4. If the Vin is greater than
Vx(t) it will turn on T1 and turn off T2. Similarly if Vin greater than Vy(t) then
comparator B turns IGBT T3 turn on and T4 off. Otherwise the result will be opposite
and vice versa.

Fig 2.11b: Comparators for PWM

The reference voltage signals are Vx(t) and Vy(t). These signals are
that signals which specify the turn on and turn off time for a particular IGBT. These
reference signals are the triangular waves which are taken in comparison with the
input voltage. These reference voltage signals can be sketched as:

Fig 2.11c: Reference signals for PWM

20
2.7 Volt per Hertz Ratio
As the current is applied to the induction motor it generates magnetic
field in its rotating field as a result torque produces. The magnetic flux is of constant
value in order to produce full load torque. As the AC drives are used to provide lower
speed there must be a source of maintaining constant flux. The method of magnetic
flux control is called volt per hertz ratio. According to this method volt and frequency
must increase in same proportion to maintain normally good torque production in the
motor.

Fig 2.12: Volts per Hertz Ratio

This ratio pattern saves energy going to the motor. But it leads to
critical performance of the motor. AC drives tries to maintain this ratio, because if it
increases or decreases motor speed will change and becomes unstable as a result
torque diminishes. On the other hand there could produce excessive heat which may
damage the motor.
In PWM voltage change is required to maintain the volts per hertz
ratio. This voltage change is done by increasing or decreasing the width of the pulses
created by inverter [5]. A PWM can build rated torque in the range of about 0.5Hz
and up. Multiple motors can be driven within amperage rating of the drive. All the
motors will run at the same speed because of the same frequency. There can be
advantage that all the motors will change speed together, the control will be greater.

21
2.8 Control Unit
The performance required and type of motor used gives rise to
complexity in the control unit of the ac drives. A controller can be simple of few op-
amps or few digital integrated circuits. It can also be complex as a combination of
several ASICs and digital signal processors (DSPs). The types of the main controller
may be:

Analogue
Digital
DSP/Microcontroller

Analogue signal are noisy, inflexible. However analog circuit ideally

has infinite bandwidth. Digital signals resist to noise and are configurable. Their
bandwidth is smaller than analogue signals and depends upon their sampling
frequency. DSP/Microcontroller is flexible but is of lower bandwidth.DSP performs
faster than microcontroller because these preform multiplication in single cycle. By
using DSP and microprocessor complex estimations can be easily handled and can be
easily implemented.

2.9 Electrical Sources

Electrical sources provide energy to the motors. For high efficiency
electrical sources needs to be regulated using power electronic convertors. Power
sources can be DC and AC in nature and normally these are uncontrollable. Their
magnitudes and frequencies are fixed and are dependent to the source of energy such
as wind or solar. AC source can be single phase or three phase, three phase sources
are required for high power applications.

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 REFERENCES

[1]. R .G. Hoft, Power Electronics: Historical Review, Present

Status and Future Prospects, IPEC-Tokyo 93, pp.6-18, 1983.

[2]. E. Ohno and M. Akamatsu, Speed Control of AC Motors

with SCR Variable Frequency Inverters, (in Japanese),
Mitsubishi-Denki-Giho, Vol. 38-6, p. 97, 1964.

[3]. G.K. Dubey, Fundamental of Electrical Drives, Narosa, 1994.

[4]. W. Leonhard, Control of Electrical Drives, Springer-Verlag, 2001.

[5]. H.M. Rashid, Power Electronics, Bangladesh, 2005.

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 CHAPTER 4
Modeling of an Induction Motor

4.1 Structure and Operating Principle

The induction motor consists of a round and hollow static part with a
cylindrical rotating part inside of it. The former is referred to as the stator and the
latter as the rotor. The stator core has slots inside of its inner surface and the rotor
inside of its outer surface. The stator slots of a three-phase motor contain three sets of
windings each separated by 120 electrical degrees, whereas the rotor slots contain
conducting bars enclosed by short-circuit rings at both ends. A motor with a rotor
circuit of this type is called a squirrel-cage induction motor. An alternative of this is
the slip-ring induction motor, whose rotor winding is connected to slip-rings at the
motor shaft, from which it is possible to connect the rotor winding to external
resistors or to a frequency converter.

Fig 4.1: Basic component of ac motor

The stator and rotor cores are made of high-permeability materials to

achieve small reluctances in the path of the magnetic fluxes, which is needed to
produce maximal magnetic flux with minimal magnetizing current. The mutual

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inductance between the stator and rotor windings is characterized by the width of the
air gap the smaller the gap, the greater the inductance. On the other hand, the stator
and rotor leakage inductances are mainly determined by the shape of the respective
windings and slots.

When the stator windings are fed with symmetric sinusoidal voltages
the resulting currents create a rotating magnetic field in the magnetic circuit formed
by the stator and rotor cores and the air gap between them. The field rotates at a
geometrical angular frequency where the parameter p is the number of pole pairs
formed by the stator windings. This rotating magnetic field induces electromotive
forces (EMF) in the closed rotor circuit. The currents caused by these EMFs produce
a magnetic field opposing the rotating stator field. Now, according to Lenz's law, a
force will act on a current carrying conductor placed in a magnetic field. Thus, the
rotor bars will be pushed by a tangential magnetic force, producing electrical torque
with respect to the rotor shaft. The rotor begins to rotate if the electrical torque is not
balanced by an opposite mechanical torque, which further means that the rotor will
not rotate exactly at the same, synchronous, angular speed as the stator field does.
Instead, rotor will start to rotate with mechanical angular speed.

(4.1)
Where p is the number of poles and wr is representing the speed.w1
and w2 shows the speeds of rotor and stator and difference between speeds of rotor
and stator is a characteristic of induction motor which is called slip. This
characteristic is not present in the ac synchronous motors as relative position of rotor
axis as compare to the resultant magnetic field fixed, so the rotor rotates with same
relative motion as does the resultant magnetic field.

4.2 Torque, Speed and Slip Characteristics:

When the motor starts, the motor develops approximately 201% of
full-load torque for starting and then accelerates along the speed-torque curve through

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the pull-up torque point, and finally operates near the full-load torque point,
depending upon the actual load torque requirements .If the load-torque requirement
exceeds the maximum torque capability of the induction motor, the motor will not
have enough torque to accelerate the load and will stall. For instance, if the load line
required more torque than the motor could produce at the pull-up torque point (for
example, 160% load torque versus 140% pull-up torque), the motor would not
increase in speed past the pull-up torque speed and would not be able to accelerate the
load. This would cause the motor to overheat, and/or overload devices to trip. It is,
therefore, important to insure that the motor has adequate accelerating torque to reach
full speed.

Fig 4.2: Speed-Torque of three phase induction motor

Normally, the motor accelerates the load and operates at the point of
intersection of the load line and the motor speed-torque curve. The motor then always
operates between the breakdown torque point and the synchronous speed point. If
additional load torque is required, the motor slows down or slips and develops more
torque by moving up toward the breakdown torque point. Conversely, if less torque is
required, the motor will speed up slightly toward the higher point. Again, if the

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breakdown torque requirements are exceeded, the motor will stall. The torque and
speed characteristics for maximum rotor resistance is shown in Fig 4.4 which shows
that the torque-speed characteristic of an induction motor can be significantly
changed by designing different resistance values within the rotor bars. It is shown that
the is directly proportional to the resistance of the rotor bars. As the resistance of the
rotor bar increases, the torque also increases. The resistance of the rotor are shown in
the sequence as ra > r b > rc > rd > re .

Fig 4.4: Torque speed curve with change in motor resistance

The set of torque-slip characteristics with variation in rotor circuit

resistance is shown in Fig 4.5. The point to note that, the maximum torque remains
same for all the characteristics. This has been shown earlier that the maximum torque
depends on rotor reactance only, but not on rotor circuit resistance. Only the slip at
maximum torque increases with the increase in rotor circuit resistance. So, for
constant load torque operation, the slip increases or the speed decreases with the

27
increase in rotor circuit resistance. The motor efficiency decreases, as the rotor copper
loss increases with the increase in slip.
The load torque remains same, but the output power decreases, as the
speed decreases. Also, it may be observed that the starting torque increases with the
increase in rotor circuit resistance, with the total rotor circuit resistance lower than
rotor reactance. The starting torque is equal to the maximum torque, when the total
rotor circuit resistance is equal to rotor reactance. If the rotor circuit resistance is
more than rotor reactance, the starting torque decreases.

Fig 4.5: Torque-Slip curve with change in rotor resistance

The above figure shows that higher the resistance of the rotor bars, higher will be the
curve between the torque and the corresponding slip of the motor.

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4.5 Identification of Induction Motor:
To define the basic performance and mounting parameters of the
motor different methods for identifying the induction motor parameters are
introduced. In literature, these methods have been categorized into off-line
identification and on-line estimation methods, respectively. Previously, the off-line
methods were performed with the locked rotor and no-load tests, but recently the
trend has been on identifying the motor at standstill without locking the rotor
mechanically. The on-line methods are then used to track the parameters for possible
variations.
Without any sophisticated identification methods, basic knowledge of
the motor parameters can be obtained from the motor name-plate. It usually contains
at least the nominal values of the following electrical and mechanical quantities:
voltage, current, frequency, rotor speed, output power and power factor, from which
estimates for the rotor time constant, magnetizing inductance and rotor resistance can
be calculated.
4.5.1 Motor Nameplate:
Following minimum amount of information is given on nameplate of an induction
motor:
Manufacturer type and frame Designation
Motor Horsepower

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