Experiments to Observe the Impact of Power Quality and Voltage-Source Inverters on the Temperature of Three-Phase Cage Induction Motors

using an Infra-Red Camera

Fernando J. T. E. Ferreira1,2, Anbal T. de Almeida2, Joaquim F. S. Carvalho1, and Mihail V. Cistelecan3
1

Dep. of Electrical Engineering, Engineering Institute of Coimbra (ISEC), Coimbra, Portugal 2 Institute of Systems and Robotics, University of Coimbra (ISR-UC), Coimbra, Portugal 3 Research Institute for Electrical Machines (ICPE-ME), Bucharest, Romania E-mail: fernandoferreira@ieee.org
expected that, in the European Union, in the next decade, of the IMs will be fed by VSIs. Besides their well-known benefits, such as process improvement and energy savings, VSIs can lead to a significant increase of the IMs operating temperature due to the additional losses associated with the harmonic distortion inherent to output PWM voltages (even when output filters are used), and, in the case of totally-enclosed, fan-cooled (TEFC) motors, due to the reduced cooling capability when the motor speed is reduced below nominal speed. The operating temperature increase in VSIfed IMs, associated with the voltage transients at the motor terminals, due to the voltage reflection effects in the power cables, can lead to a significant reduction in the motor electric insulation system lifetime. In IMs directly fed from the mains supply (line-fed IMs), a significant increase in the operating temperature can occur due to voltage unbalance and/or voltage harmonic distortion in the power network. The voltage harmonic distortion is provoked by nonlinear loads (such as VSIs, which typically incorporate diode rectifiers at the input stage). The 5th-order harmonic is particularly baneful, since it produces a negative-sequence stray rotating magnetic field, dragging the motor and heating the rotor [2]. In general, all negative- and positive-sequence current harmonics, resulting from voltage harmonics at the motor terminals, lead to extra losses in the motor stator core and windings. Thermal phenomena are of major importance in the electric machines courses, particularly from the perspective of experimental demonstration and basic explanation of the related causes and effects. In thermal steady-state1 (or thermal equilibrium), the capacitances (representing the thermal capacity of the different parts) disappear from the lumped-parameter thermal equivalent circuit based model, yielding only current sources (representing the loss production in the different parts) and thermal resistances (representing the thermal resistance between the different parts), which are constant, assuming constant motor speed and ambient temperature. Therefore, in general, after thermal stabilization/equilibrium, the temperature increases linearly with the motor losses. However, the lumped parameters mesh can be very complex, depending on the refinement of the motor thermal model, as explained in [3].

Abstract Nowadays, voltage-source inverters (VSIs) are widely used to control speed, torque and/or position of threephase, squirrel-cage, induction motors (IMs). However, the harmonic distortion inherent to the VSI output PWM voltages leads to the increase of the motor operating temperature and, consequently, to the reduction of the electric insulation system lifetime. Additionally, the most common long-duration voltage anomalies in the power network, such as voltage magnitude deviation, unbalance and harmonic distortion, have a well-known impact on IMs performance and lifetime. The operating temperature increase due to poor power quality is particularly critical in the totally-enclosed, fan-cooled IMs. In order to allow a direct observation of the temperature distribution in IMs subjected to different voltage supply conditions, a set of experiments are proposed, using a totally-enclosed, fan-cooled IM, an end-shield-less, fan-less IM, and an infra-red camera to acquire the temperature maps in the frame for the first mentioned motor and in the stator core, stator windings and rotor for the last mentioned motor. The motor steady-state temperature is directly related with the losses being produced in it under different operating conditions, including ambient temperature, load, speed and input power quality. The proposed laboratorial experiments can be used to easily observe and study that relation, including the impact of PWM voltage supply and of individual voltage harmonics in the IMs operation, being a contribution in the scope of electrical engineering education, particularly for electric machines and power electronics courses.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, power quality is of major importance, particularly in the industrial and tertiary sectors. Power quality is related with the mains supply reliability and quality of the respective voltage waveforms, in terms of shape and amplitude. The most common long-duration voltage anomalies in the power network, such as voltage magnitude deviation, unbalance, and/or harmonic distortion, have a significant impact in the performance and lifetime of three-phase, squirrel-cage, induction motors (IMs) [1, 2], which are, by far, the most used electric motor type in industry. Therefore, it is important to evidence that impact in the electric machines and power electronics courses, as well as the importance of derating motors operating in such conditions in order to avoid internal overtemperature in steady-state operation, since it can lead to a significant reduction in their lifetime. The use of voltage-source inverters (VSIs) to control speed, torque and/or position of IMs is increasing significantly. It is

Typically, the thermal equilibrium state is considered when the temperature variation is lower than 0.5 K/30 min.

In a motor, the temperature rise, , between two points with different temperatures, caused by the heat produced in the hottest point by Joule effect losses, Plosses, dissipated through the equivalent thermal resistance, Rth, to the surrounding ambient with temperature, amb, and stored in the equivalent thermal capacity, Cth, is shown in Fig. 1, assuming that, at the initial instant, all the motor parts are at the ambient temperature2. After reaching thermal equilibrium, which occurs 6 to 7 times de thermal constant, th, the thermal capacity effect ends, and it can be removed form the equivalent circuit for thermal steady-state analysis purposes, yielding the circuit in Fig. 2a. On that basis, the steady-state temperature rise is simply given by (1). = Rth Plosses (1)

(a) (b) Fig. 2. Approximate lumped-parameter thermal equivalent circuit of a motor.

If three different points (including ambient) are considered, the same principle can be applied, as presented in Fig. 2b, in which the intermediate temperature rise, between points 2 and 3 is given by (2), similarly to a voltage divider.
2

In this paper, the heating phenomenon in IMs is addressed and laboratorial experiments are proposed using an infra-red camera, a conventional IM and a special low-power end-shield-less IM.

II. EXPERIMENTS AND THEORETICAL EXPLANATIONS A. Experiments with a Totally-Enclosed Induction Motor In the first proposed experiment, the IM temperature relation with its load and voltage supply harmonic distortion is analyzed. At this stage, it is important to define the motor load, which is given by (3), where is the motor load (in %), Pshaft is the motor output shaft or useful power (in W), PN is the motor rated or nominal power (in W).
= 100% Pshaft/PN (3)

(Rth2/(Rth1+Rth2)) = Rth2 Plosses

(2)

In fact, it is obvious the analogy between the thermal quantities and the electric quantities the temperature rise (in C or K) is equivalent to the voltage drop (in V), the losses (in W) are equivalent to the current (in A), and the thermal resistance (C/W or K/W) and thermal capacity (W.s/C or W.s/K) are equivalent to the ohmic resistance ( ) and electric capacitance (in F), respectively.

In this experiment, a 3-kW, 4-pole, 400-V, TEFC IM is directly fed from the line/mains and by a 2-level PWM VSI (2-kHz carrier/switching frequency, 50-Hz fundamental frequency, 400-V fundamental voltage), in order to allow the motor frame temperature comparison in both cases, for different load levels. It is used a high-accuracy hysteresis dynamometer (which includes a load cell and an encoder) [4], a power analyzer, an oscilloscope, and an infra-red camera (IRC), as can be seen in Fig. 3.

Fig. 1. Temperature rise and thermal time constant in a motor.

2

Fig. 3. Test-bench and IRC used for the experiments with the 3-kW IM.

After the motor starting transient period, at rated load, the motor equivalent lumped thermal capacity and resistance can be both approximately determined by simply recording over time the frame temperature rise (e.g., using an infrared thermometer with USB communication to the PC, with proper data visualization software), motor efficiency, and input power (allowing for the losses calculation), and then fitting to the temperature rise vs. time data a curve with the form in which and .

Firstly, the 3-kW IM was fed directly from the line/mains and its temperature and losses were measured for 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% load. The results for no-load and full-load operation are presented in Fig. 4, clearly evidencing the well-known motor temperature dependency on load. It should be noted that, during

this experiment, the mains supply voltage was slightly distorted, as shown in Table I.

slightly vary due to the slip dependency on motor load, the frameambient equivalent thermal resistance can be considered constant [3]. On the basis of Fig. 5 and (2), the frame temperature rise in a given point (which is considered as reference for all calculations), frame, is given by (4), where Rframe is the frame-ambient equivalent thermal resistance.
frame

= Rframe Plosses

(4)

(a)

The losses component that does not contribute to internal heat production (heatless losses, Pheatless) can be estimated by means of intersecting the curves of the frame-ambient thermal resistance, as a function of that losses component, for different motor loads, as can be seen in Fig. 6, corresponding to the intersection point (in this case, 26 W at 0% load speed). The heatless losses are properly compensated as a function of the speed squared. The estimation of heatless losses is important for the temperature rise calculation as a function of the losses component actually producing heat in the interior of the motor and, therefore, the respective thermal resistance. The theoretical demonstration of the experimental results is summarized in Table II, in which the estimated Rframe is presented for different load points, with a very small variation, validating the proposed methodology. Typically, the steady-state winding temperature rise variation as a function of the motor load is higher than that for the frame, but approximately equal in percentage.

(b) Fig. 4. Side-view IRC images of a line-fed 3-kW, 4-pole, TEFC IM, at different loads: (a) no-load; (b) full load. TABLE I Line-to-Line Voltage and Line Current Harmonic Distortion (f1 = 50 Hz). Load (%) 100 75 50 25 0 THDu (%) 2.6 2.6 2.6 2.7 2.8 THDi (%) 3.6 4.8 5.9 6.7 6.5 U5 | I5 (%) 2.4 | 2.9 2.2 | 4.3 2.5 | 5.5 2.6 | 6.4 2.7 | 6.4 U7 | I7 (%) 0.9 | 2.0 0.8 | 2.0 0.7 | 2.0 0.6 | 1.8 0.6 | 0.7 U11 | I11 (%) 0.2 | 0.1 0.2 | 0.1 0.1 | 0.2 0.1 | 0.1 0.1 | 0.4 U13 | I13 (%) 0.4 | 0.2 0.3 | 0.1 0.3 | 0.2 0.3 | 0.3 0.1 | 0.2 U17 | I17 (%) 0.1 | 0.1 0.1 | 0.0 0.1 | 0.0 0.1 | 0.0 0.0 | 0.0 U19 | I19 (%) 0.1 | 0.0 0.1 | 0.0 0.1 | 0.0 0.1 | 0.0 0.0 | 0.1 Note: and .

Fig. 5. Approximate lumped-parameter thermal equivalent circuit of a motor with separated interior-to-frame and frame-to-ambient thermal resistances. TABLE II Demonstration of the Experimental Results for Different Loads ( 2 Load Plosses* Rframe frame (%) (W) (K/W) (K) (p.u.) 0% 190 13.8 0.072 1.00 25% 194 14.1 0.073 0.98 50% 246 17.8 0.072 0.96 75% 354 25.7 0.073 0.93 100% 687 49.9 0.073 0.89 * Plosses is equal to total losses minus heatless losses, Pheatless.

amb

Obviously, since the total losses are not proportional to the motor load, and no-load losses (i.e., core plus mechanical losses) can be significant, the motor temperature rise will not decrease proportionally with the motor load. However, the frame temperature roughly varies proportionally to the losses responsible for internal heat production, which includes all the losses except the windage losses (note that friction losses also produce heat in the bearings). Therefore, in order to explain the observed temperature variation in the frame, two equivalent thermal resistances can be considered, one between an internal virtual loss production point (lumped heat/losses production) and the frame surface, and other between the frame and the ambient, as represented in Fig. 5. It should be noted that the last resistance actually varies with the motor speed because it depends mainly on the heat dissipation by convention (i.e., by means of air movement in the frame surface). In fact, in frame-ambient heat-exchange process, only a minor part of the heat is dissipated by conduction and radiation. However, since the speed in single-speed IMs only

= 20C). Pheatless (W) 26.0 25.4 24.9 24.2 23.0

When an IM is fed by power-electronic-based devices (such as VSIs and electronic voltage regulators) its efficiency is negatively affected due to the additional harmonic losses. In the case of VSIs, these additional losses are not relevant when their well-known advantages are taken into account. Most manufacturers often recommend a derating up to 10% in the VSI-fed IMs. In order to evaluate the referred effects, the 3-kW IM was fed by a VSI (fc = 2 kHz, f1 = 50 Hz) and tested at different loads. The harmonic distortion of the VSI output PWM voltages and currents, for a carrier/switching frequency fc = 2 kHz, is shown in Table III. It should be noted the significant 5 th order voltage harmonic (negative-sequence harmonic, mainly due to the inverter operation in the overmodulation region, i.e., amplitude modulation index

higher than 1), which can produce significant additional losses in the motor. In Fig. 7, the motor operation at 50-Hz, 400-V fundamental voltage when it is fed directly from line or by the VSI, can be seen. It is possible to observe a general temperature rise increase in the frame.

PWM supply on IMs temperature can be also evidenced and explained with the proposed methodology.

(a)

Fig. 6. Heatless losses component estimation.

(b) Fig. 7. Side-view IRC images of a 3-kW, 4-pole, TEFC IM for different supplies at no-load operation: (a) Mains/line supply; (b) VSI supply.

In Table IV, the experimental results are summarized and explained with the approximate thermal circuit. The frameambient thermal resistance practically matches for both cases, as expected. For the 27-W additional heat-producing losses (or Joule effect losses), a 2-K temperature increase (+14.5%) was observed.
TABLE III VSI Output Harmonic Distortion (f1 = 50 Hz, fc = 2 kHz). Load (%) 100 75 50 25 0 THDu (%) 37.0 37.7 39.7 38.4 39.4 THDi (%) 9.9 9.7 9.9 9.6 11.0 U5 | I5 (%) 3.8 | 6.4 2.9 | 4.1 0.8 | 3.1 1.3 | 1.3 0.7 | 11.4 U7 | I7 (%) 1.7 | 3.2 2.3 | 2.6 1.4 | 2.0 1.1 | 1.3 0.7 | 10.7 U11 | I11 (%) 1.0 | 0.9 0.6 | 0.3 0.4 | 0.2 0.5 | 0.2 0.4 | 10.1 U13 | I13 (%) 0.4 | 0.2 1.4 | 0.5 1.7 | 0.3 0.3 | 0.2 1.3 | 10.1 U17 | I17 (%) 0.6 | 0.1 0.9 | 0.1 0.8 | 0.1 1.3 | 0.2 0.7 | 10.2 U19 | I19 (%) 0.3 | 0.1 0.2 | 0.1 0.8 | 0.1 1.0 | 0.1 0.3 | 10.1 Note: and .

To avoid position-related temperature measurement errors in particular points of the IRC 2-D images, the temperature map can be processed in order to extract an average temperature in a predefined area in the motor frame side (for that purpose MATLAB software tools can be used), and that value can be used for the proposed calculations, instead of using only one point. Alternatively to the IRC, a low-cost, single-point, infra-red thermometer can be used. With the described set-up it is also possible to test the motor average temperature rise (in %) under unbalance voltage supply, which reflects the overall losses increase, although there will be a thermal asymmetry in the per-phase windings, which as to be taken into account in the motor derating.

TABLE IV Demonstration of the Experimental Results for No-Load Operation. 2 Plosses* Rframe Pheatless frame Supply (W) (W) (K/W) (K) (p.u.) Line 190 13.8 0.072 1.00 26 VSI 217 15.8 0.073 1.00 26 * Plosses is equal to total losses minus heatless losses, Pheatless.

On the basis of the presented results, it is possible to conclude that the proposed strategy to relate the thermal steady-state frame temperature in a given point with the total heat-producing losses, by means of the average equivalent frame-ambient thermal resistance, is valid and simple to apply. Moreover, the impact of

B. Experiments with an End-Shield-Less Induction Motor In this section, experiments using a 150-W, 4-pole, threephase, end-shield-less, squirrel-cage, induction motor (ESLIM) are described. In Fig. 8, the setup used for that purpose is shown, in which the ESLIM is coupled with an electromagnetic brake, which has a load cell and an encoder. It should be noted that this motor testing setup is indicated only for didactic/teaching purposes, since the accuracy of the torque measurement is medium-low. The purpose of the first experiment with this set-up was to evaluate the voltage unbalance impact on the IMs performance. The supply voltage unbalance was achieved by means of a series resistance in one phase line, as shown in Fig. 9. Alternatively, if three separated autotransformers are available, they can be used to directly unbalance the voltage system. In this experiment, three different cases were analyzed, namely, balanced voltage supply

(Case 1), unbalanced voltage supply with voltage amplitude drop in one phase (Case 2), and conditions of Case 2 with motor derating on the basis of the rotor speed (Case 3). In Figs. 10 and 11, the IRC images obtained for the three cases are shown for the ESLIM. The general operating conditions are summarized in Table V, where Ud, Id, Ui and Ii are the direct and inverse symmetric components amplitude of the line-to-neutral voltage and line current.

Fig. 8. ESLIM test-bench (top-left), IRC (top-right), ESLIM non-drive-end view (bottom-left), and ESLIM side view (bottom-right).

Fig. 9. Diagram for the unbalanced voltage supply test set-up. TABLE V ESLIM Operating Conditions in the 1st Experiment. URN USN UTN IR IS IT Pin Pshaft Case (V) (V) (V) (A) (A) (A) (r/min) (p.u.) (p.u.) 1 30.4 30.4 30.4 0% 3.82 3.82 3.82 0% 0.55 1451 1.00 1.00 2 16.7 30.4 30.4 15% 2.82 5.55 3.75 48% 0.61 1432 1.02 0.97 3 21.5 30.4 30.4 13% 2.51 4.94 3.33 48% 0.53 1451 0.80 0.75 Case 1 Balanced voltage (f1 = 50 Hz), rated load; Case 2 Unbalanced voltage (f1 = 50 Hz; Rseries = 4.25 , hot), rated load; Case 3 Unbalanced voltage (f1 = 50 Hz; Rseries = 4.25 , hot), derated.

produced by the inverse air-gap rotating magnetic field (opposite direction to the direct rotating field) created by the inverse symmetric component of the stator currents. For that purpose, the NEMA derating curves can be applied and even validated with the used setup. It should be noted the 6.9-K temperature increase in the hottest per-phase winding heads from the balanced to the unbalanced cases (Figs. 10a and 10b). Since, in general, per each 10-K increase in the winding temperature, the insulation system lifetime is shortened to half (Arrhenius law), in the presented case, the motor lifetime will be significantly shortened. This experiment clearly shows the importance of properly derating the motor when its voltage supply is unbalanced, in order to avoid lifetime shortening. In order to demonstrate (once more) the impact of PWM voltage supply in the motor operating temperature, the ESLIM was fed by a 2-level VSI (fc = 1-kHz, f1 = 50 Hz), as shown in Fig. 12. Since the VSI was operating in the linear region (i.e., amplitude modulation index lower than 1), the low-order harmonics at the output voltages are relatively low. Thus, the additional losses are mainly due to the high-order harmonics (carrier frequency related harmonics), although the corresponding current harmonics are strongly filtered by the motor impedance, as can be seen in Table VI. In Figs. 13 and 14, the IRC images of the ESLIM can be seen. On the basis of the presented images, it is evident the significant impact of PWM voltage waveforms on the motor performance, leading to an increase of the core and copper losses and, therefore, of the temperature of all motor parts (a 7.5-K temperature increase in the winding heads). Tables VI and VII summarize the operating conditions. The 5th harmonic is commonly found in most industries due to the operation of nonlinear loads, such as those incorporating diode rectifiers, and its impact on the IM operation is strong. Therefore, it is very important to derate IMs operating in such conditions. NEMA derating curves (defined as a function of the voltage harmonic distortion) are recommended for that purpose. The next experiment deals with the 5th harmonic effect on the ESLIM.
TABLE VI ESLIM Operating Conditions in the 2nd Experiment. URN URN_1 IR IR_1 THDu THDi Pin Pshaft Case (V) (V) (A) (A) (%) (%) (r/min) (p.u.) (p.u.) 1 30.4 30.4 3.82 3.82 4.6 1.5 0.53 1451 1.00 1.0 2 90.5 30.4 3.85 3.82 40.0 1.7 0.20 1451 1.18 1.0 Case 1 Sinusoidal voltage supply (f1 = 50 Hz), rated load; Case 2 PWM voltage supply (f1 = 50 Hz; fc = 1 kHz), rated load. Balanced three-phase system, i.e., URN = USN = UTN and IR = IS = IT. TABLE VII ESLIM Supply Low-Order Harmonics in the 2nd Experiment. U5 U7 U11 U13 U17 U19 I5 I7 I11 I13 I17 I19 Case (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) 1 1.14 0.85 0.16 0.19 0.05 0.15 1.12 0.67 0.04 0.08 0.01 0.04 2 4.93 5.79 4.43 4.28 0.98 5.39 1.28 0.44 0.16 0.09 0.11 0.12

The IRC images evidence the asymmetric impact of unbalance in the per-phase winding temperatures (because of the asymmetric per-phase currents) and, due to the negative-sequence (or inverse) symmetric component, the rotor heats much more and the speed decreases significantly. Derating the motor (reducing the shaft load torque) in order to reach the initial speed obtained in the balanced situation, the temperature of the rotor and of the hotter phase windings is still higher in relation to the balanced case, as it can be observed by comparing Figs. 10a and 10c. Moreover, in the unbalanced cases, the rotor temperature remains approximately equal because, although the load/torque decrease in the derated case, the consequent speed increase leads to an increase of the rotor losses due to increase of the rotor current components

The 5th harmonic voltages superposition to the fundamental line voltages was achieved by means of a VSI feeding at 250-Hz fundamental frequency (properly filtered to eliminate carrierfrequency related harmonics) three single-voltage transformers (T1, T2 and T3), connected in star/wye (which contribute to the carrier-frequency related harmonics elimination) whose secondary windings are connected in series with the 50-Hz sinusoidal

variable-voltage supply provided by the autotransformer, as can be seen in Fig. 15. This low-cost set-up is innovative and can be used for teaching purposes. It should be noted that the VSI output voltage has to be carefully regulated, and it is important to ensure that the 250-Hz three-phase voltage system has a negative phase sequence and the 50-Hz three-phase voltage system has a positive phase sequence, in order to produce indirect and direct rotating air-gap MMFs in the motor, respectively. This can be previously verified by supplying the motor with each of the sources individually, and ensuring that it rotates in opposite wises. Otherwise, two phases must be exchanged in one of the three-phase voltage systems. In Figs. 16 and 17, the IRC images of the ESLIM fed by a distorted voltage supply with a dominant 5th harmonic (5.4%) can be seen. The motor operating conditions during this experiment are summarized in Tables VIII and IX.

decrease in motor speed), and increase of their internal temperature, as a consequence of the stator core and copper losses increase and, particularly, of the rotor losses increase, even with the significant decrease of the output shaft power and input active power. It should be noted the 15% decrease in the phase-to-neutral fundamental voltage, which also contributed to the motor slip increase. Therefore, the motor average internal temperature increases (note the 1.2-K increase in the rotor cage ring and 0.5-K in the coil-heads temperatures). This experiment can also be used to validate the NEMA motor derating curves, considering one of the most critical situations voltage distortion considering only the 5th harmonic (which, of course, is not likely to actually happen). The same setup can be used to study the impact of other harmonics alone, evidencing their individual impact in the motor performance.

(a)

(a)

(b)

(b)

(c) Fig. 11. Side-view IRC images of the ESLIM for different operating conditions: (a) balanced voltage supply; (b) unbalanced voltage supply; (c) unbalanced voltage supply and motor derating.

(c) Fig. 10. Non-drive-end-view IRC images of the ESLIM for different operating conditions: (a) balanced voltage supply; (b) unbalanced voltage supply; (c) unbalanced voltage supply and motor derating.

On the basis of the images presented in Figs. 16 and 17, it is evident the significant impact of the 5th-order harmonic on the IM performance, leading to a decrease on its speed (note the 1.7%

Fig. 12. Diagram for the voltage-source inverter supply test set-up.

TABLE IX ESLIM Supply Low-Order Harmonics in the 3rd Experiment. U5 U7 U11 U13 U17 U19 I5 I7 I11 I13 I17 I19 Case (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) 1 1.14 0.85 0.16 0.19 0.05 0.15 1.12 0.67 0.04 0.08 0.01 0.04 2 5.37 1.19 0.39 0.48 0.73 0.19 5.33 0.15 0.09 0.06 0.06 0.05

(a)

Fig. 15. Diagram of the set-up to test the effect of individual harmonics.

(b) Fig. 13. Non-drive-end-view IRC images of the ESLIM for different operating conditions: (a) sinusoidal voltage supply; (b) PWM voltage supply.

(a)

(a)

(b) Fig. 14. Side-view IRC images of the ESLIM for different operating conditions: (a) sinusoidal voltage supply; (b) PWM voltage supply. TABLE VIII ESLIM Operating Conditions in the 3rd Experiment. URN URN_1 THDu IR IR_1 THDi Pin Case (V) (V) (%) (V) (A) (%) (r/min) (p.u.) 1 30.4 30.4 0.0 3.82 3.82 0.0 0.53 1451 1.00 2 34.6 25.7 8.6 3.62 3.61 5.4 0.43 1427 0.85 Case 1 Sinusoidal voltage supply f1 = 50 Hz), rated load; Case 2 Distorted voltage supply (f1 = 50 Hz; f5 = 250 Hz; fc = 16 kHz). Balanced three-phase system, i.e., URN = USN = UTN and IR = IS = IT.

(b) Fig. 16. Side-view IRC images of the ESLIM under different operating conditions: (a) sinusoidal voltage supply; (b) distorted voltage supply.

C.
Pshaft (p.u.) 1.00 0.75

Thermographic Images of a VSI The presented analysis can also be applied to power-electronic devices such as VSIs. Just for curiosity, in Fig. 18, the IRC images of a 2-level, 3.7-kW, 400-V VSI, supplying 7-A output line current (RMS value), with a carrier frequency of 2 kHz and 15 kHz are shown. Excluding the power associated with the control/processing board and cooling ventilation, the inverter losses can be divided into two major components conduction

and switching losses. The first are mainly load dependent and the last mainly carrier frequency dependent. Therefore, for a given output current, if the carrier frequency is increased, the VSI temperature will also increase, assuming constant ventilation (i.e., constant heat dissipation by convection). In fact, the increase of the carrier frequency from 2 kHz to 15 kHz led to an increase of 2 K in a particular internal spot of the inverter, indicated in Fig. 18.

III. CONCLUSIONS The proposed experiments are easy to implement, although most of the required equipment is expensive, particularly the dynamometer, the power analyzer, and the infra-red camera. A new approach to study the impact of individual harmonics in the IMs is proposed, which can be used either for didactic/teaching purposes or for advanced research, depending on the quality and accuracy of the equipment used. The use of an end-shield-less IM and an infra-red camera for demonstration of the power quality (voltage unbalance, magnitude deviation, and harmonic distortion) impact on IMs is also novel and useful for teaching activities, once the results are very didactic or easily understood. The IRC images are appellative and clearly demonstrate the losses variation in the machines under different operating conditions. In general, the provided theoretical demonstrations seem to be appropriate to explain the experimental results, since both fairly match. In particular, the proposed methodology to estimate the motor heatless losses and the equivalent frame-ambient thermal resistance offers good results. Since the proposed setups are simple to implement, and the respective theoretical background is relatively simply to explain, they are indicated for electric machines and power electronics courses, as well as to set case studies for analysis during two or more classes. As future work, an analysis of NEMA induction motors derating curves for voltage unbalance and harmonic distortion (for one or two points), on the basis of the experimental thermographic images in the end-shieldless IM, taking into account the highest temperature rise in the per-phase windings, will be made.

(a)

(b) Fig. 17. Side-view IRC images of the ESLIM under different operating conditions: (a) sinusoidal voltage supply; (b) distorted voltage supply.

REFERENCES
[1] F. J. T. E. Ferreira, A. de Almeida, and G. Baoming: Comparative Study on 2-Level and 3-Level Voltage Source Inverters, 5th Inter. Conf. on Energy Efficiency in Motor Driven Systems (EEMODS'07), Conf. Proc., Beijing, China, June 2007. F. J. T. E. Ferreira, A. de Almeida, W. Deprez, R. Belmans, and G. Baoming: Impact of Steady-State Voltage Supply Anomalies on ThreePhase Squirrel-Cage Induction Motors, Inter. Aegean Conf. on Electric Machines, Power Electronics and Electromotion Joint Conf. (ACEMP07), Conf. Proc., Turkey, Sept. 2007. F. J. T. E. Ferreira, A. de Almeida, and G. Baoming: Three-Phase Induction Motor Simulation Model Based on a Multifrequency Per-Phase Equivalent Circuit Considering Stator Winding MMF Spatial Harmonics and Thermal Parameters, 17th Inter. Conf. on Electric Machines (ICEM06), Conf. Proc., Crete, Greece, Sept. 2006. de Almeida and F. J. T. E. Ferreira: User-Friendly High-Precision Electric Motor Testing System, 4th Inter. Conf. on Energy Efficiency in Motor Driven Systems (EEMODS05), Conf. Proc., pp. 149-157, Heidelberg, Germany, Sept. 2005. A. de Almeida, F. J. T. E. Ferreira, and Both, D.: Technical and Economical Considerations to Improve the Penetration of Variable Speed Drives for Electric Motor Systems, IEEE Trans. on Industry Applications, Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 188-199, Jan./Feb. 2005.

[2]

[3]

(a) [4]

[5]

(b) Fig. 18. Side-view IRC images of a 2-level VSI under different operating conditions: (a) Iline = 7 A, fc = 2 kHz; (b) Iline = 7 A, fc = 15 kHz.