BULLETIN

BULLETIN OFOF THE POLISH ACADEMY

THE POLISH ACADEMY OF OF SCIENCES
SCIENCES POWER SYSTEMS AND POWER ELECTRONICS
TECHNICAL SCIENCES, Vol. 69(2), 2021,
TECHNICAL SCIENCES, Vol. 69, No. 2, 2021 Article number: e136746
DOI:
DOI: 10.24425/bpasts.2021.136746
10.24425/bpasts.2021.xxxxxx

A novel source side power quality improved soft starting

A novel source side power quality improved soft starting
of three-phase
of three-phase induction
induction motor
motor using
using a symmetrical
a symmetrical angle
angle controller
controller through
through picPIC microcontroller
microcontroller
SELVAPERUMAL1∗1*, , N.
S.S.SELVAPERUMAL N. KRISHNAMOORTHY 2
KRISHNAMOORTHY 2,and PRABHAKAR3 3
G. PRABHAKAR
and G.
11Departmentofof EEE,
EEE, Syed
Syed Ammal
Ammal Engineering
Engineering College,
College, Ramanathapuram,
Ramanathapuram, Tamilnadu,
Department Tamilnadu, India
India
22 SBM College of Engineering and Technology, Dindigul-624005, Tamilnadu, India
SBM College of Engineering and Technology, Dindigul-624005, Tamilnadu, India
3
3 Department of EEE, V.S.B. Engineering College, Karur, Tamilnadu, India
Department of EEE, V.S.B. Engineering College, Karur, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract. PIC microcontroller has a vital vital role

role in
invarious
varioustypes
typesofofcontrollers
controllersand andnowadays
nowadaysthe thepresence
presenceofofPICPIC microcontroller
microcontroller is is
unavoidable
unavoidable in
most
in mostcontrol applications.
control applications. This
Thispaper
paperdescribes
describes thethe
enhancement
enhancement of of
soft starting
soft of of
starting induction
induction motors
motors using PIC
using PICmicrocontroller.
microcontroller. Soft starting
Soft startingis
required
is requiredforfor
thethe
induction
induction motors
motorswithwith
reduced applied
reduced voltages
applied so that
voltages so the
thatpeak starting
the peak current
starting is reduced
current and theand
is reduced startup of the motor
the startup of theismotor
smooth is
with controlled
smooth torque and
with controlled reduced
torque andmechanical vibrations,vibrations,
reduced mechanical reduced starting
reducedcurrent withcurrent
starting correspondingly reduced busreduced
with correspondingly voltage drops. Whiledrops.
bus voltage many
of the available schemes of soft starting offer better results in view of smooth starting process, the proposed
While many of the available schemes of soft starting offer better results in view of smooth starting process, the proposed methodology offers methodology offers soft starting as
well starting
soft as it cares
as about
well as theit source current
cares about thequality.
sourceIncurrent
contrast to the In
quality. conventional
contrast to multistep starting scheme,
the conventional multistepinstarting
this work a continuously
scheme, controlled
in this work a con-
starting scheme
tinuously is proposed.
controlled The three
starting scheme phase AC The
is proposed. voltage
threecontroller
phase ACtopology
voltage is used as the
controller core controller.
topology is used as Intheeach
coreof the half cycles,
controller. In eachinstead
of the
of a single
half cycles,conduction
instead of period
a singlewith a single period
conduction delay angle,
with athe proposed
single delay AC voltage
angle, controller
the proposed AC is voltage
switchedcontroller
symmetrically in each
is switched half cycle with
symmetrically in
multiple
each halfpulses
cycle inwitheach quarterpulses
multiple cycle.inSymmetrically
each quarter cycle.placedSymmetrically
fixed numbersplacedof switching pulses are
fixed numbers of used. The paper
switching pulsesalso
are describes
used. The the various
paper also
time ratio the
describes controls
various namely the phase
time ratio angle
controls controller,
namely the extinction
the phase angle controller
angle controller, the extinctionand angle
the symmetrical
controller andangle
thecontroller.
symmetrical Theangle
design aspects
controller.
of the
The proposed
design aspectssoftofstarting schemesoft
the proposed and starting
the validation
schemeofandthethe
proposed system
validation in the
of the MATLAB
proposed systemSIMULINK environment
in the MATLAB are presented
SIMULINK in this
environment
paper.
are presented in this paper.
Key words:
Key words: soft
soft starting
starting of
of three
threephase
phaseinduction
inductionmotor,
motor;symmetrical
symmetricalangle
anglecontroller,
controller;AC
ACvoltage
voltagecontroller, power
controller; quality
power improvement.
quality improvement.

1. Introduction SCIM with additional features like overload protection and no

volt protection [2].
The induction motor of the squirrel cage type, the so-called The Star Delta starter [3] is the earliest and a widely used
Squirrel Cage Induction Motor (SCIM) is the work horse of traditional soft starting scheme. The Star Delta starter connects
the industry. The rugged structure, ease of operation and main- the three phases SCIM to the source with voltage reduced to
tenance and many such features have placed the SCIM at the 1/1.732 times the line voltage. After the motor picks up speed
top of the list of candidates suitable for industrial applications. the starter contacts are reoriented to connect the motor in delta
However, the induction motor suffers two drawbacks. They lack configuration and connect the motor to the three-phase source
an easy speed control scheme and the drawing of a heavy cur- applying the full line voltage across each phase. The auto trans-
rent as high as seven times the rated full load current while former starter is yet another starting scheme for SCIM. In this
starting. These two drawbacks are being addressed by differ- starter the starting voltage is first fixed at 50% of supply volt-
ent ways using more digital signal processing systems in asso- age. After the motor has started up and reaches its rated speed
ciation with modern power electronics. This paper is about the then full voltage is applied to the motor using auto transformer
design development and validation of a novel source current starter [4,5]. In Start Delta starter and in auto transformer starter
conscious soft starting scheme for the squirrel cage induction the basic principle is to reduce the starting voltage by a fixed
motor. Down in the history there have been many soft starting fraction of full operating voltage and thus reduce the starting
schemes proposed and validated by various researchers [1]. As current. With the advent of power electronic semiconductors,
for the traditional starting schemes for the SCIM the Direct On- right from the SCR [6], which belongs to the Thyristors family
line Starter is the simplest of all starters and it does not include and the more modern power electronic devices like the Power
any soft starting scheme but it provides a safe and convenient MOSFET and the IGBT [7] along with modern digital signal
means of connecting the three-phase source to the three phases processing units like the digital microprocessor and the Micro
controllers, the soft starting schemes for the SCIM are under-
∗ e-mail:
going fast changes.
[email protected]
*e-mail: [email protected] Anti-parallel SCR based AC voltage controllers [8] have
Manuscript submitted
Manuscript submitted2020-09-21, revisedinitially
20XX-XX-XX, 2021-02-05, initiallyfor
accepted accepted
publication been used for soft starting. In SCR based soft starting schemes,
for publication 2021-02-27,
20XX-XX-XX, published published in April2021.
in ZZZZZZZZ 2021 in the earlier applications, fixed number of firing angles has

Bull. Pol. Ac.:

Bull. Pol. Acad.Tech.
Sci. 69(2)
Tech. 2021
Sci. 69(2) 2021, e136746 11

© 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
 S.
S. Selvaperumal,
Selvaperumal, N.
N. Krishnamoorthy, and G.
Krishnamoorthy, and G. Prabhakar
Prabhakar

been used. SCR based soft starting uses phase angle control activities etc. The torque produced by the SCIM is a function
and it leads to reduced power factor and poor quality of source of square of applied voltage [20]. Soft starting is essentially the
current during the starting period. However, in [9] the authors gradual rather than a sudden production of torque. Sudden pro-
have used the extinction angle control of soft starting using duction of torque happens with full operating voltage applied at
MOSFETs. This scheme provided improved source side power one time while soft starting is about applying the voltage grad-
factor. In this paper, the idea forwarded is that a symmetri- ually or in a continuously variable gradual basis [15]. The three
cally placed switching pulse with conduction periods gradu- phase AC voltage regulator makes it possible to continuously
ally increasing from the off state to the fully running condi- or gradually increase the applied voltage so that the SCIM is
tion [10, 11]. The proposed idea has the advantages of more started in a soft and smooth manner.
smooth starting process with continuously varied conduction
period, improved power factor on source side, improved start-
ing current waveform on the source side with reduced THD 2. SCR based three phase AC voltage controllers
throughout the starting period.
The SCIM is most rugged and simplest of electrical motors. The only degree of freedom to implement a loss less soft start-
It is the most popular and most useful and simplest as well ing scheme is to control the voltage applied to the motor. The
[12, 13]. The SCIM is available in single phase and three phase AC voltage controller is a topology is best suited for this pur-
versions and the discussions in this paper pertain to three phase pose [21]. The given topology of the SCR based AC voltage
SCIM. During the transient period the entire electromagnetic controller that is suitable for an R type load typically used for
and electromechanical consideration of the machine becomes heat control (Fig. 1).
very complex [14, 15]. The stator current undergoes a rapid
change, the speed rapidly changes the position based mutual
inductances change and the interaction of all these things op-
erate in a complex manner during the starting period. The ac-
tion of the soft starter is to govern the transient period in such
a manner that stator current is within limits, the torque devel-
opment is smoother with reduced mechanical vibrations, with
minimal losses and with improved source side power factor and
decreased source current THD. Starting from rest, if a certain
small instalment of exciting voltage ‘e’ is applied to the sta-
tor then current starts flowing in the stator and rotor and ulti-
mately a torque is produced. This torque will turn the rotor of
the motor until motor reaches a certain steady state speed. The Fig. 1. Topology of the three phase AC voltage controller
applied voltage e has been just sufficient to take the rotor to
a new steady state speed ‘n’. Since the electrical and mechani- With the RL load, in order to use the stored energy a free-
cal time constants are different it takes a finite time for the rotor wheeling system is necessary and the AC voltage controller
to reach this speed n in time ‘t’ [16]. If more voltage is applied catering to RL load may use a freewheeling system. Phase an-
than ‘e’, which was applied in the earlier case, then the motor gle control is usually used with AC voltage controllers that are
would produce more torque and steady state speed would be- built around SCRs. SCRs can be turned on at required instant
come more than ‘n’ and that the speed ‘n’ would have reached but they cannot be turned off at required instant without the ad-
at a time earlier than time ‘t’ it took in the earlier case. Sudden dition of some complex commutation arrangements [22]. The
application of full voltage produces large torque and the motor SCR however turns off naturally at zero crossings when the
tries to reach the full rated speed in a short while [17]. With ex- current through the SCR just crosses a value below the mini-
citing voltages applied in small instalments the acceleration can mal current called holding current. Thus, AC voltage controllers
be controlled and the motor may be guided to the rated speed in built around SCRs are suitable for conduction period control
a smooth manner. This way the unnecessary high starting cur- scheme wherein the turn on instant is user defined and the turn
rent may be reduced, the rate of change of mutual inductances off instant is system dependent.
will be reduced, the vibrations will be reduced and there are
several advantages behind such a smooth starting [18].
Soft starting is a phenomenon that is applicable only during 3. MOSFET based AC voltage controllers
the starting period. It has nothing to do with the performance of
motor under steady state running condition. All issues associ- Power MOSFETs can also be used for the construction of AC
ated with starting process happen only for a short transient pe- voltage controllers. Figure 1 shows the topology of an AC volt-
riod [19]. However, in a large industrial plant with a large num- age controller with power MOSFETs as the main switches.
ber of high-power motors which are frequently turned on and MOSFETs, unlike SCRs can be turned ON and OFF at required
off the overall scenario becomes very complex and the all-round instants as defined or desired by the user. Hence it is possible
performance of the entire industry will degrade causing losses, to construct AC voltage controllers with MOSFETs with any
power quality issues, frequent electromechanical maintenance control strategies like firing angle control, or extinction angle

22 Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci. Bull.

Tech.Pol.
Sci. Ac.:
69(2)Tech.
2021, e136746
69(2) 2021
 A novel source sideApower
novelquality
sourceimproved soft starting
side power quality of three-phase
improved softinduction
starting motor using a symmetrical
of three-phase inductionangle
motorcontroller
... through pic...

control or with both in every half cycle of AC sine wave. If the

firing delay angle and the extinction angle are controllable then
a symmetrical conduction scheme can be developed with equal
conduction delay angle and extinction angle.

3.1. Phase angle control. In the basic form, in the case of

phase angle control scheme, in every half cycle of AC source
the firing instant in which the power control device such as
SCR or MOSFET turned on is controlled. With the starting
instant aligned with starting of AC cycle the full cycle of the
AC wave is applied across load and current flows through the
load for complete cycle. If the switching angle is delayed from
zero crossing the average voltage applied across the load is re-
duced [23]. The simulation model of AC voltage controller is
given Fig. 2. Figures 3–5 illustrate the voltage, current and FFT
analysis for the phase angle controller with R and RL load. Fig. 4. Source current waveform and FFT for R

Fig. 5. Phase current with RL load – Phase angle controller

3.2. Extinction angle control. In the case of extinction angle

control, in each positive and negative half cycle the turning on
of power electronic switch is carried out at starting of half cy-
cle. Conduction continues through the cycle until MOSFET is
Fig. 2. The topology of the AC voltage controller implemented for the turned off by removing the gate turn on signal. Thus, conduc-
R phase with RL load tion can be established in synchronism with the starting of sine
wave and can be stopped at the desired instant. By changing the
instant of stopping of conduction through the MOSFET power
flow can be controlled. The performance and THD analysis are
given in Figs. 6–9. Extinction angle control can be extended to
the soft starting application of the three phases SCIM.

3.3. Symmetrical angle controller. Similar to the phase an-

gle control in which turn on instant is controlled, and extinction
angle control in which the turn off instant is controlled, in the
case of symmetrical angle control both turn on instant and turn
off instant are controlled [24]. Thus, by appropriately selecting
the turn on instant and turn off instant the conduction period
can be made symmetrical about the peak value of incoming sine
wave. Maintaining symmetry of voltage applied across load the
Fig. 3. With phase angle control the phase angle of the source current source current THD is reduced (Figs. 10, 11) and also as this
lags from the voltage by 32.3 degrees method includes the extinction angle control, that is turning off

Bull. Pol. Ac.:

Bull. Pol. Acad.Tech.
Sci. 69(2)
Tech. 2021
Sci. 69(2) 2021, e136746 33
 S.
S. Selvaperumal,
Selvaperumal, N.
N. Krishnamoorthy, and G.
Krishnamoorthy, and G. Prabhakar
Prabhakar

Fig. 6. The Waveforms and FFT pertaining to the load side voltage and
current with R Load in the case of excitation angle control
Fig. 9. Source current of an extinction angle controller with 50% duty
cycle

Fig. 7. The waveform of load side voltage in the case of extinction

angle controller and its FFT
Fig. 10. The waveform and FFT of the R phase source current with
Symmetrical angle controller with RL load

Fig. 11. The waveform and FFT of the source current with symmetrical
Fig. 8. Load side voltage with RL load – Extinction angle controller angle controller for 50% conduction

44 Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci. Bull.

Tech.Pol.
Sci. Ac.:
69(2)Tech.
2021, e136746
69(2) 2021
 A novel source sideApower
novelquality
sourceimproved soft starting
side power quality of three-phase
improved softinduction
starting motor using a symmetrical
of three-phase inductionangle
motorcontroller
... through pic...

before the zero crossing the power factor of the source current Considering a 50 Hz power system with 380 V as the line volt-
also increases. The simple symmetrical angle control can also age, if the starting period is 30 seconds then the total number
be extended for soft starting of the three phase SCIM. The rel- of cycles covering the starting period will be 1500. Each cycle
evant waveforms of symmetrical angle based soft starting are starting from the 0th cycle will have an area that is distributed
shown in Fig. 12. linearly over 1500 cycles. The 1500th cycle will have full area
or conveniently an area of 1Per Unit. In the proposed five pulse
symmetrical angle controller, the ON durations in each pulse
are kept in such a way, that the total ON period and hence the
area of conduction of each pulse equals the area of the corre-
sponding cycle of the ideal or reference voltage that progresses
gradually.
The mathematical considerations are System frequency
50 Hz., Source Voltage 3 phase 380 V, 50 Hz, Motor rating
10 kW, 380 V, 50 Hz, Number of poles of motor 4, rated speed
1440 RPM, starting transient period considered 1 Seconds,
Number of cycles covered during starting period 50. In the pro-
posed soft starting scheme three pulses are used in every half
cycle and these three pulses are centred at the 45 degrees, 90
degrees and the 135 degrees’ points of the positive half cycle
and at 225 degrees, 270 degrees and at 315 degrees. The total
period of half cycles with 50 Hz system is 10000 microseconds.
At the end of the 1500th cycle the total duration of conduction
will 10000 microseconds in each cycle. The total duration of
Fig. 12. The source current and FFT of a symmetrical angle controller conduction in the first cycle should be 10000/1500 = 6.667
microseconds divided equally for the three pulses which will
be 2.22 microseconds. This duration 2.22 microseconds will be
The objective of the soft starting scheme is to drive the sta- added uniformly to all the three pulses in each cycle and this
tor current in a controlled manner such that the source current increment of conduction period increases until the total period
gradually increases in a soft manner such that the motor accel- of conduction becomes 10000 microseconds at the end of the
erates from zero RPM state to final steady state without draw- 1500th cycle. The proposed scheme of soft starting was simu-
ing a heavy starting current. With the application of a contin- lated in the MATLAB SIMULINK environment (Fig. 13).
uously controlled source voltage this ideal current may be ob-
tained and the resulting developed torque. But it is not possi-
ble to obtain this linearly rising source voltage with the help 4. Results and discussions on simulations
of the available power electronic switches. Power electronic
switches are controlled in the time axis while the resulting cur- By considering the three different time ratio controls namely
rents and voltages, after due filtering show up continuous con- the Phase Angle Control, the Extinction Angle Control and the
trol in the amplitude. In the proposed method three pulses in Symmetrical angle control are implemented in R load, RL load
total are used for every half cycle. These pulses have on and and finally in the case of an Induction Motor. The results of all
off periods. If the widths of each of the pulses are so arranged control methods have been recorded with the waveforms and
by turning on and off the power electronic switches the aver- the FFT. Figs. 14–17 illustrate the rise of voltage and current at
age value may be made equal to the ideal starting current. Soft the time of starting and Figs. 18–21 illustrate the speed, electro-
starting although has several advantages it has a main disadvan- magnetic torque, starting current, THD and Power Factor while
tage that total starting period is increased. So, it is convenient starting the Three Phase Induction motor. It is clear that com-
to design soft starting scheme by first fixing the total starting pared to the traditional phase angle control scheme the other
period. If the total starting period is decided, the slope of rise techniques like the extinction angle control and the symmetri-
in starting current begins from zero, the rated value can be cal- cal angle control perform better. The best of the three schemes
culated. Going by an example if rated voltage is 380 V Line to is the Symmetrical Angle controller. With the three-time ratio
Line and if the total starting period will be 30 seconds then the control schemes the performance with R load and RL are first
slope at which applied voltage should gradually rise is given studied and recorded. Then the SCIM was connected and the
as 380/30 Volts per second. During this transition period, each performance parameters were recorded.
cycle has an area and this area rises gradually as per the slope These results have been obtained and given in Tables 1, 2
used. With power electronic switches the applied source volt- and 3 with a proposed three phase voltage controller with R
age is not altered but through the power electric switches only. load, RL load and Squirrel cage induction motor as load with
The turning On and Off of symmetrical angle control are se- the period of conduction increased gradually over a period of
lected in real time, so that the area of conduction in each cycle 1 sec. The total number of cycles passed on is 50. The total
equals to the corresponding cycle in the ideal starting voltage. power delivered to the load, the range of power factor, the THD

Bull. Pol. Ac.:

Bull. Pol. Acad.Tech.
Sci. 69(2)
Tech. 2021
Sci. 69(2) 2021, e136746 55
 S.
S. Selvaperumal,
Selvaperumal, N.
N. Krishnamoorthy, and G.
Krishnamoorthy, and G. Prabhakar
Prabhakar

Fig. 13. Simulink model for measuring Power Factor and THD

Fig. 14. Rise of voltage and current when the multiple pulse PWM
symmetrical angle control is implemented in the case of an RL load Fig. 15. Rise of voltage and current when the Single pulse PWM sym-
metrical angle control is implemented in the case of an RL load. Order
of the signals from top: Power factor, THD, Load Current and Load
are recorded and compared. The power factor is also maintained side voltage
always high over the entire control period. The THD is main-
tained throughout to be less than 5%. In the case of phase an-
gle control and extinction angle control the power factor in- angle controller are less suitable for soft starting. Although
creases gradually as the conduction angle increases. The THD the performance of Multiple pulse and the single pulse Sym-
is less than 4% for extinction angle control while it is near 10% metrical angle controllers are both in terms of minimal start-
for phase angle controller [25, 26]. Similar readings were ob- ing time, low THD on the source current and improved PF, it
served with RL load also. Then the SCIM was started with can be concluded that the symmetrical angle controller is bet-
four schemes and readings have been recorded and presented ter than multiple pulse symmetrical angle controller consider-
here. It can be concluded that symmetrical angle controller and ing the mathematical overheads and the complications involved
multiple pulse symmetrical angle controller are better two can- in engineering of multiple pulse symmetrical pulse based soft
didates and the extinction angle controllers along with phase starting.

66 Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci. Bull.

Tech.Pol.
Sci. Ac.:
69(2)Tech.
2021, e136746
69(2) 2021
 A novel source sideApower
novelquality
sourceimproved soft starting
side power quality of three-phase
improved softinduction
starting motor using a symmetrical
of three-phase inductionangle
motorcontroller
... through pic...

Fig. 19. Speed, electromagnetic torque, starting current, THD and

Power Factor while starting the Three Phase Induction motor with Sin-
gle Pulse Symmetrical Angle controller

Fig. 16. Rise of voltage and current when the extinction angle control
is implemented in the case of an R load

Fig. 20. Speed, electromagnetic torque, starting current, THD and

Power Factor while starting the Three Phase Induction motor with Ex-
tinction Angle controller

Fig. 17. Rise of voltage and current when the extinction angle control
is implemented in the case of an RL load

Fig. 21. Speed, electromagnetic torque, starting current, THD and

Power Factor while starting the Three Phase Induction motor with
Phase Angle controller

Table 1
R Load (5 Ohms) across the 380 V, 50 Hz supply

Starting Tmax PF Energy

Method time (Nm) THD max range consumed
(sec) in Joules
MPSPWM 0.55 20 5.0 0.5–1 612
SPSPWM 0.33 21 4.8 0.95–1 573
Fig. 18. Speed, electromagnetic torque, starting current, THD and EAC 0.52 20 3.2 0.2–0.93 553
Power Factor while starting the Three Phase Induction motor with
PAC 0.55 17.5 10 0.2–0.7 578
Multiple Pulse Symmetrical Angle controller

Bull. Pol. Ac.:

Bull. Pol. Acad.Tech.
Sci. 69(2)
Tech. 2021
Sci. 69(2) 2021, e136746 77
 S.
S. Selvaperumal,
Selvaperumal, N.
N. Krishnamoorthy, and G.
Krishnamoorthy, and G. Prabhakar
Prabhakar

Table 2 The methodology of implementing the soft starting of the

RL Load (R = 5 Ohms, L = 10 mH) across the 380 V, 50 Hz supply SCIM using extinction angle control scheme implemented, as
an experimental prototype is discussed in this section. A three
Energy phase AC voltage controller is used as the main power control
Method THD Maximum PF Minimum Consumed system. In each phase of the source power supply anti series or
in kilo Joules
back-to-back connected MOSFETS are used in series with the
MPSPWM 5.0 0.91 13.55 phase windings of the motor. For each of the switching module,
SPSPWM 4.8 0.95 18.00 consisting of two MOSFETs, a common gating signal is used
and this signal is passed to the gate of the MOSFETs through
EAC 3.2 Gradual 12.35
optocouplers of type MCT 2E. There is a Zero Crossing De-
PAC 10 Gradual 12.29 tector (ZCD) used for each phase and these ZCDs detect the
zero crossing in each phase for both positive and negative half
Table 3 cycles. In the case of extinction angle controller, after the zero
Squirrel cage Induction motor as load across the 380 V, 50 Hz supply crossing is detected in each cycle the MOSFETS are switched
ON. The MOSFETSs once switched on remain in the ON state
Method THD Maximum PF Minimum Energy Consumed for a predetermined period, in each cycle, and thus conduct only
MPSPWM 4 0.8 7420 J for a specific period of conduction and at the end of this pe-
SPSPWM 4 0.85–1 11.47 KJ riod the MOSFETs are turned OFF by removing the switching
pulse. If these switching pulses start at each zero crossing and
EAC 2.5 Gradual 7825 J keep the MOSFETs in conduction mode for the complete cycle
PAC 2.5 Gradual 7759 J then it is like Direct on Line starting shown in Fig. 23. How-
ever, with soft starting schemes the duration of conduction in
each cycle is gradually increased from a small duration of con-
5. Experimental verification duction and the duration of conduction gradually increases un-
til the full conduction in each cycle is reached. This reduces the
An experimental verification prototype has been built (Fig. 22) starting current shown in Fig. 24.
to validate the proposed idea of soft starting of the SCIM.

Fig. 23. Starting current of the SCIM with Full conduction periods
Fig. 22. Experimental prototype of the proposed soft starting scheme (DOL or Sudden Starting
for the Induction Motor
In order to compare the performance of the soft starting
The PIC16F877A features 256 bytes of EEPROM data scheme with the DOL starting scheme both soft starting and
memory, self programming, an ICD, 2 Comparators, 8 chan- DOL starting have been carried out. For the purpose of DOL
nels of 10-bit Analog-to-Digital (A/D) converter, 2 cap- starting the conduction period in each cycle was kept at 100%
ture/compare/PWM functions, the synchronous serial port can and the resulting stator current with high starting current at
be configured as either 3-wire Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) starting has been observed and the waveform of the starting cur-
or the 2-wire Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2 C) bus and a Universal rent for the R phase stator winding is shown in Figs. 25 and 26.
Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (USART). All of these fea- With the soft starting in action, during the starting period the
tures make it ideal for more advanced level A/D applications in conduction angle is gradually increased from zero and during
automotive, industrial, appliances and consumer applications. the low conduction periods the stator current is very low and

88 Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci. Bull.

Tech.Pol.
Sci. Ac.:
69(2)Tech.
2021, e136746
69(2) 2021
 A novel source sideApower
novelquality
sourceimproved soft starting
side power quality of three-phase
improved softinduction
starting motor using a symmetrical
of three-phase inductionangle
motorcontroller
... through pic...

Fig. 24. Segment of the stator current at initial stage when the SCIM
is soft started
Fig. 26. R phase starting current with 80% conduction period starting

Fig. 25. Soft starting implemented with fixed 60% conduction period
in each cycle Fig. 27. R phase current at the final steady state

is significantly distorted as shown in Fig. 23. Figure 28 corre- Figures 28 and 29 show the switching pulses with different
sponds to 90% conduction throughout the starting period while duty cycles. These pulses are applied to the MOSFETs in syn-
Fig. 29 corresponds to 20% conduction angle during the start- chronization with the ZCD.
ing period. Thus, with the proposed methodology it is possible Figure 28 shows the train of switching pulses when the con-
to start the SCIM with any desired fixed conduction periods. duction angle is increased from 0 towards 180 degrees. How-
Such an arrangement is necessary when the gradual increase of ever, Figs. 30 and 31 show the image of the train of switching
conduction angle may be avoided so as to reduce the starting pulses for the complete starting period when the motor is started
period. with a fixed conduction period of 80% and 90%.
With extinction angle controller it is only a finite period of With soft starting in action the stator current is limited to
conduction that happens in every cycle and this period is in- a fixed value without any initial shoot up. The starting current
creased gradually until the machine reaches the required rated is uniform over the entire starting period. This reduces the usual
speed. This causes the waveform of the voltage across the out- high starting current and the undue mechanical vibrations dur-
put to be non sinusoidal and rich in harmonics. However, with ing starting. The starting current with soft starting applied is
the SCIM as the load, the stator current of the motor is quite as shown in Fig. 32. The same experimental gadget could be
sinusoidal with a THD as low as 1.23% even during the early used for testing the performance of the DOL, the phase an-
starting phase. Figures 24 and 27 show the stator current to be gle control, the extinction angle control and the multiple pulse
nearly sinusoidal. chopper-based controllers. The THD of the starting current with

Bull. Pol. Ac.:

Bull. Pol. Acad.Tech.
Sci. 69(2)
Tech. 2021
Sci. 69(2) 2021, e136746 99
 S. Selvaperumal, N. Krishnamoorthy, and G. Prabhakar
S. Selvaperumal, N. Krishnamoorthy, and G. Prabhakar

Fig. 28. Switching pulse with 90% conduction in each cycle

Fig. 31. Switching pulses with fixed 90% duty cycles for DOL starting

Fig. 29. Switching pulses with 20% conduction at starting

Fig. 32. Stator current that does not exhibit any initial high starting
current with soft starting applied

50% conduction period was observed for both extinction angle

50% conduction
controller and theperiod
phasewas observed
angles for both
controller extinction angle
implementations for
controller and
soft starting of the
the phase
SCIM.angles controller implementations for
soft starting of the SCIM.

6. Conclusion
6. Conclusion
PIC microcontroller based on a novel soft starting scheme for
PIC microcontroller
the squirrel based onmotor
cage induction a novel
hassoft starting
been scheme
proposed. Theforpro-
the
squirrel cage
posed idea induction
used motor
a multiple hassymmetrical
pulse been proposed.angleThe proposed
control with
Fig. 30. Switching pulses with gradually increased ON period for soft idea used
linearly a multiple
increasing pulse symmetrical
conduction angleover
periods spread control with lin-
a starting pe-
starting early increasing
riod of conduction
30 seconds. periods idea
The proposed spread
hasover
beena starting
validatedperiod
and

10
10
Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci. Tech. Sci. 69(2) 2021, e136746
Bull. Pol. Ac.: Tech. 69(2) 2021
 A novel source side power quality improved soft starting of three-phase induction motor using a symmetrical angle controller through pic...

of 30 seconds. The proposed idea has been validated and the [4] S.A. Hamed and B.J. Chalmers, “Analysis of variable-voltage
results are deeply investigated using MATLAB SIMULINK thyristor controlled induction motors”, IEE Proc. 137, 184‒192
simulation. The other soft starting schemes like the phase angle (1990).
controller, the extinction angle controller and the single pulse [5] O. Oputa, P.I. Obi, and I.K. Onwuka, “Induction motor starting
symmetrical angle controller were also tested. The results reveal analysis and start aided device comparison using ETAP”, Eur.
that the performance of the proposed multiple pulse symmetrical J. Eng. Technol. Res. 2, 1‒7 (2017).
[6] E.C. Carmo, V.F. Mendes, M.F. Santos, and L.A. Silva, “Starting
angle control based soft starting scheme using PIC microcontrol-
large induction motors alternatives for emergency generation
ler is better than the other starting schemes in terms of reduced
system”, 2018 Simposio Brasileiro de Sistemas Eletricos (SBSE),
source current harmonics and increased power factor. The exper- Niteroi, 2018, pp. 1‒6, doi: 10.1109/SBSE.2018.8395772.
imental verifications also confirm the superiority of the Extinc- [7] A. Gastli and M.M. Ahmed, “ANN-based soft starting of Volt-
tion Angle Controller based soft starting scheme as compared to age-controlled-fed IM drive system”, IEEE Trans. Energy Con-
the Phase Angle Controller based soft starting scheme. vers. 20, 497‒503(2005).
[8] H. Wadke, P. Gurav, S. Ghaytadak, and A. Singh, “Power Factor
Table 4 Improvement for Induction Motor by Using Capacitor Bank”,
Specifications of proposed soft starting scheme Int. J. Res. Eng. Sci. Manag. 1(1), 77‒79 (2018).
[9] M. Hyla, “Start-up of large-power synchronous motor with the
Components Value / Specifications 6 kV voltage source inverter and microprocessor-controlled unit
SCIM 380 V, 50 Hz, 0.5 HP for excitation supply”, J. Electr. Eng. 69(1), 156‒162 (2018),
doi: 10.2478/jee-2018-0019.
Source V and F 3 Phase, 380 V, 50 Hz [10] V. Volkov and A. A. Kolesnikov, “Energy-saving speed control
of frequency-controlled induction motors on starting and decel-
Controller PIC 16 F 877A erating”, Russ. Electr. Eng. 84(1), 237‒243(2013).
Opto Coupler MCT 2E [11] N. Balamurugan and S. Selvaperumal, “Assessment of Anti-
windup PI controlled induction motor drive using V/F method”,
MOSFETs IRF 840 Int J Adv. Eng. Tech. 7(1), 964‒968 (2018).
[12] G.G. Richards and M.A. Laughton, “Limiting induction motor
Snubber circuit R = 47 E; C = 0.1 MFD; Diode 3 A transient shaft torques following source discontinuities”, IEEE
Trans. Energy Convers. 13(1), 250‒256 (1998).
Zero Crossing det. IC 741
[13] G. Zenginobuz, I. Çadirci, M. Ermis, and C. Barlak, “Soft start-
ing of large induction motors at constant current with mini-
Table 5 mized starting torque pulsations”, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl. 37(1),
Comparisons of phase angle control and extinction angle control 137–144 (2001).
[14] A.A. Shaltout, “Analysis of torsional torques in starting of large
Conduction period kept at 50% squirrel cage induction motor”, IEEE Trans. Energy Convers.
9(1), 135‒142 (1994).
Type THD Power factor
[15] S.A. Derazm and H.Z. Azazi, “Current limiting soft starter for
Phase Angle Control 12.8 0.45 three phase induction motor drive system using PWM AC chop-
per”, IET Power Electron. 10(1), 1298‒1306 (2017).
Extinction Angle Control 4.6 0.74 [16] I. Cadirci, M. Ermis, E. Nalcacl, B. Ertan, and M. Rahman,
“A solid state direct on line starter for medium voltage induction
motors with minimized current and torque pulsations”, IEEE
Acknowledgements. Authors are grateful to Dr. N. Jeyaraj, Trans. Energy Convers. 14(3), 402‒412 (1999).
Chairman, SBM College of Engineering and Technology, Din- [17] E. Omorogiuwa and Ch. Ayor, “Energy Efficiency Optimization
digul, Dr. Chinna Durai Abudullah, Correspondent, Syed Ammal Of Three Phase Induction Motor Drives For Industrial Applica-
Engineering College, Ramanathapuram and the management of tions”, Int. J. Eng. Appl. Sci. 5(1), 42‒49 (2018).
V.S.B. Engineering College, Karur, for providing facilities and [18] J. Yuan, Ch. Wang, Y. Zhu, and B. Chen, “A novel soft start
encouragement to carry out the above research work. method of super large capacity high voltage motor”, CES Trans.
Electr. Mach. Syst. 3(1), 302‒308 (2019).
[19] G. Vivek, J. Biswas, M.D. Nair and M. Barai, “Simplified double
References switching SVPWM implementation for three-level VSI”, J. Eng.
2019(11), 8257‒8269 (2019),
[1] I. Boldea, “Electric generators and motors: An overview”, in [20] J.-K. Seok and S. Kim, “Hexagon Voltage Manipulating Con-
CES Trans. Electr. Mach. Syst. 1(1), 3‒14 (2017), doi: 10.23919/ trol (HVMC) for AC Motor Drives Operating at Voltage Limit”,
TEMS.2017.7911104. IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., 51, 3829‒3837 (2015).
[2] A.H. VanderMeulen, T.J. Natali, T.J. Dionise, G. Paradiso, and [21] T.P. Holopainen and A. Arkio, “Simple Electromagnetic motor
K. Ameele, “Exploring New and Conventional Starting Methods model for torsional analysis of variable speed drives with an
of Large Medium-Voltage Induction Motors on Limited kVA induction motor”, Tech. Mech. 37, 347‒357 (2017).
Sources”, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl. 55, 4474‒4482 (2019). [22] O.S. Ebrahim, M.A. Badr, A.S. Elgendy, and P.K. Jai, “ANN-Based
[3] R.F. McElveen and M.K. Toney, “Starting high-inertia loads”, Optimal Energy Control of Induction Motor Drive in Pumping
IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., 37, 137–144 (2001). Applications”, IEEE Trans. Energy Convers. 25, 652‒660 (2010).

Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci. Tech. Sci. 69(2) 2021, e136746 11

 S. Selvaperumal, N. Krishnamoorthy, and G. Prabhakar

[23] B. Basak, “Transient Behaviour of Three Phase Induction Motor [25] N. Balamurugan and S. Selvaperumal, “Intelligent controller for
Under Supply Interruption of One Phase During Starting”, in speed control of three phase induction motor using indirect vec-
National Power Systems Conference-IIT, Kharagpur, 2002, pp. tor control method in marine applications”, Indian J. Geo-Mar.
259‒262. Sci. 47(1), 1069‒1074 (2018).
[24] M. Muthuramalingam, G.G. Samuel, C. Christober Asir Rajan, [26] P. Strankowski, J. Guzinski, M. Morawiec, A. Lewicki, and F. Wil-
“A novel intelligent controller for soft starting scheme in three czynski, “Sensorless five-phase induction motor drive with third
phase induction motor”, J. Eng. Technol. Res. 8, 371‒377 harmonic injection and inverter output filter”, Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci.
(2017). Tech. Sci. 68(3), 437‒445 (2020).

12 Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci. Tech. Sci. 69(2) 2021, e136746