Current Harmonics in Induction Machine

with Closed-Slot Rotor

Gui-Yu Zhou, and Jian-Xin Shen*

Department of Electrical Engineering
Zhejiang University
Hangzhou, China
E-mail: guiyu@zju.edu.cn, J_X_Shen@zju.edu.cn*

Abstract—Usually an induction machine with closed slots on stator and closed slots on the rotor will produce low-order line
rotor has lower harmonics in line currents than that with open current harmonics, such as 5th, 7th, etc. This phenomenon is
slots. However, in this paper, finite element analysis shows that different from the general knowledge that closed slots on the
some induction motors with single-layer windings may have an rotor reduce current harmonics. Then, simulation and experi-
opposite characteristic, say, such motors with closed slots exhibit ment will be carried out to verify the phenomenon.
significant 5th- and 7th-order harmonics. This phenomenon is
explained with theoretical analysis and validated with II. THEORETICAL ANALYSIS
experiments. The study is of reference value for the induction
motor design. A. Stator Magnetomotive Force (MMF)
In this paper, only the induction motor with three symmet-
I. INTRODUCTION rical stator windings is considered. The MMFs of the three
Harmonic pollution, especially that of low-order harmoni- windings a, b, c can be summed to form [9]
cs, is one of the critical problems in power system [1, 2].  kv 
Induction motors are dominant loads of the power system [3, Fs t , s   Fsm    cos1t  vp s  ,
g 0, 1,  2, ... 
v 
(1)
4]. Therefore, it is always important to reduce the current 1

harmonics and increase the efficiency of the induction motors. where v = 6g1+1 is the harmonic order, 1 is the stator
applied angular frequency, p is the pole pairs number,  s is
It is known that the line current harmonics and power the mechanical angular position in stator steady frame, and
efficiency of induction motors are influenced by the shape of
3  4  N I 
rotor slots. Use of closed or open slots is still a big debate, Fsm     t m  , (2)
because both have their advantages and disadvantages. The 2     Cp 
motor with an open-slot rotor has smaller flux leakage, hence,  vpq 
some of the motor performance can be enhanced, for example, sin  
the constant-power speed range can be increased [5]. However,  vy1   Z1 
k v  sin   , (3)
the disadvantages are also obvious, since the equivalent air-  2  q sin  v 
gap length is enlarged, and more slot harmonics are induced.  
 2
On the other hand, closed slots on the rotor allow easier die
casting of squirrel cage and simplify the rotor surface where N t is the total number of turns per phase, I m is the
machining [6]. Closed slots also exhibit higher rotor leakage amplitude of phase current, C is the number of parallel
inductance, which helps to eliminate the rotor slot harmonics, circuits, y1 is the coil pitch, τ is the pole pitch, q is the
and further reduce noise, line current harmonics and torque number of coils in a phase belt, and Z1 is the total number of
ripple, but degrades some other performance [7], such as the stator slots. Then, the stator MMF of harmonic order v can be
power factor. Moreover, during rated operation, due to the written as
saturation of rotor slot bridges (see Fig. 3(a)), both the air-gap Fsv t ,  s   Fsmv cos1t  vp s  , (4)
permeance and slot leakage inductance vary [8], producing where
extra air-gap magnetic field harmonics. k
Fsmv  Fsm  v , (5)
This paper will analyze these extra harmonics caused by v
the varying saturation of rotor slot bridges. It will be shown Here Fsv is just the vth-order stator slot mmf harmonic,
that some induction motor with single-layer windings on the especially, when

Project Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China

(2013CB035604)
 Z1 b fic
v  g1s  1, g1s  1,  2,  3, (6)
p

B. Air-gap Permeance
Air-gap permeance is influenced by the length of air-gap, Bar
the saturation of stator/rotor teeth, and slot openings, etc. The
slot openings produce slot permeance harmonics [7, 10]. Both
slot permeance harmonics and slot MMF harmonics induce
Figure 1. Fictitious slot opening influenced by slot bridge saturation
electromotive force (EMF) harmonics and lead to the stator
line current harmonics at the same frequencies [11]. In the
1
paper, the frequencies of the line current harmonics are mainly Bsv, sat 2 t , r  
Fsmv 1 cossv  2s 1t  v  2  p s  , (18)
studied. For simplification, the slot permeance harmonics are 2
neglected, while only the slot MMF harmonics are considered. where sv is the slip of the vth-order MMF harmonic, as
Saturation is usually present in an induction motor in order sv  1  v1  s  (19)
to fully utilize the magnetic materials. The operating region of
The flux linkage produced by the air-gap field of (15)
materials is always designed above the knee point of the B-H linking with the rotor windings produces the EMF in the rotor
curve [12]. The effect of saturation can be modeled by adding
bars at the slip frequency. Since there are many rotor bars (Z2)
additional permeance harmonics to the air-gap permeance
in the squirrel-cage rotor, the EMF in each bar is different,
function as [13]
being a function of time t and the angle  r .The EMF of the
 (t , s )   0  sat (t , s ) , (7) rotor bar located at angle  r is
where Λ0 is the mean air-gap permeance, and dB t , r 
E rv t , r   k rv sv
sat (t , s )  
 ka cos k a 21t  2 p s  . (8) dt
ka 1, 2, 3,...  Erv, p t , r   Erv, sat1 t , r   Erv, sat 2 t , r  , (20)
Usually, the harmonics of ka > 1 is neglected, then (8) can be
rewritten as where krv is the proportionality coefficient,
sat (t , s )  1 cos21t  2 p s  . (9) E rv, p t , r   E rvm, p sin sv1t  vp r  , (21)
E sv , sat1 t , r   E svm, sat1 sin sv  2 s 1t  v  2  p r  , (22)
C. Air-gap Field Harmonics produced by Stator MMF
E sv , sat 2 t , r   E svm, sat 2 sin sv  2s 1t  v  2 p r  , (23)
The air-gap field produced by the vth-order stator MMF
can be calculated by multiplying (4) and (7), as [11] with
Bsv t ,  s   Bsv, p t ,  s   Bsv, sat1 t ,  s   Bsv, sat 2 t ,  s  , (10) E rvm, p  k rv sv1 Fsmv  0 , (24)
1
where E svm, sat1  k rv s v  2 s 1 Fsmv 1 , (25)
Bsv, p t , s   Fsmv  0 cos1t  vp s  , (11) 2
1
1 E svm, sat 2  k rv sv  2 s 1 Fsmv 1 . (26)
Bsv, sat1 t , s   Fsmv 1 cos31t  v  2  p s  , (12) 2
2
1
Bsv, sat 2 t , s   Fsmv 1 cos1t  2 - v  p s  . (13) D. Closed Rotor Slot Bridge Saturation
2 When a squirrel-cage induction motor with closed rotor
Since the rotor is rotating, it is essential to establish a slots operating at load condition, the rotor bars carry
relationship between the stator and rotor co-ordinates. The sufficient current to make the rotor slot bridge saturated [5],
circumferential location of any point in mechanical radians then the slot leakage reactance is reduced.
from the stator reference axis is defined as  s , and that from The saturation level of the rotor slot bridges can be
the rotor reference axis is defined as  r . The relationship modeled with a fictitious slot opening b fic , as shown in Fig. 1.
between the  s and  r is given by [14] The width of b fic is approximatively proportional to the
t
 s   r  1 1  s  . (14) saturation level of the bridge.
p
Learning from the B-H curve of silicon steel sheet, we can
Then the air-gap field produced by the vth-order stator MMF see that when the magnetic field intensity H of the silicon
can be referred to the rotor co-ordinate, and (10) can be steel sheets is small, the magnetic field B is nearly
rewritten as proportion-nal to H; while when H is larger than the knee
Bsv t , r   Bsv , p t , r   Bsv , sat1 t , r   Bsv , sat 2 t , r  , (15) point Ht, the increment of B becomes slower and slower. That
where is to say, when H of the slot bridge is smaller than Ht, the slot
Bsv , p t , r   Fsmv  0 cossv1t  vp r  , (16) bridge is not saturated and the fictitious slot opening b fic is
inclined to 0; while with the increasing of H, and when H is
1 larger than Ht, the slot bridge becomes saturated, and
Bsv, sat1 t , r   Fsmv 1 cossv  2 s 1t  v  2  p s  , (17)
2 b fic becomes larger to be inclined to the maximum b ficm . Ref.
[5] shows that the maximum of magnetic field B of the slot
bridge can reach to 1.9T, causing severe saturation. isv , c R X s v , c irv' , c X '
s rv ,c
Rm
The current in each bar is produced by its EMF, so the
current in each bar is also different, being a function of time t Rr'
u rv , c
and the angle  r . It is obvious that the amplitude of the u sv , c
sv , c
fundamental component of the rotor bar current is much
X mv , c
larger than the harmonic components, that is to say, the
saturation of slot bridge mostly depends on the fundamental
component of the rotor bar current (ir1). The current ir1 is imv , c
produced by the EMF shown in (21) with v = 1, expressed as Figure 2. Equivalent circuit of induction motor
ir1 t , r   I r1m coss1t  p r   r1  , (27)
where Ir1m is the amplitude of the fundament component of where
the rotor bar current, and  r1 is the initial phase angle. Ervm, p sin sv1t  vp r 
irv, p (t , r ) 
Rr  jsv1 Lr 0  Lrs 
The saturation level of the slot bridge is positively related
to the absolute value of ir1. Then, a positive-correlation  
function f can be defined as:  I rvm, p cossv1t  vp r 1 
 
k , p cos 2 s1t  p r  ,

b fic t ,  r   f  ir1 t ,  r   , (28)   1, 2, 3,... 
(34)
where
Ervm, sat1 sin sv  2s 1t  v  2 p r 
cos 2s1t  p r   r1   1 irv, sat1 (t , r ) 
ir1 t ,  r   I r1m . (29) Rr  j sv  2 s 1 Lr 0  Lrs 
2
 I rvm, sat1 cossv  2s 1t  v  2 p r  
Eq. (28) and (29) show that the distribution of fictitious
slot opening b fic has a fundamental frequency 2s1t , whilst  
the fundamental pole pairs number is 2p. Using Fourier
analysis, b fic can be written as
1 
 
k , sat1 cos 2 s1t  p r  ,

(35)
  1, 2, 3,... 
b fic t , r   b fic , 0   
b fic ,  cos 2 s1t  p r   fic ,  ,  E rvm, sat 2 sin sv  2s 1t  v  2 p r 
irv, sat 2 (t , r ) 
 1, 2, 3,...
Rr  j sv  2 s 1 Lr 0  Lrs 
(30)
 I rvm, sat 2 cossv  2 s 1t  v  2  p r 
where b fic , 0 is the mean value of fictitious slot opening,
b fic ,  is the amplitude of εth harmonic, and  fic ,  is the respec-  
tively initial phase angle. The slot leakage inductance Lrs is in
opposite proportion to the fictitious slot opening b fic , as
1 
 k , sat 2 cos 2 s1t  p r  .

(36)
  1, 2, 3,... 
k
Lrs  rs , (31) The current in the rotor bars, shown in (33), produces the
b fic
rotor MMF harmonics [15, 16]:
where krs is a proportionality coefficient. Then the total rotor Frv t , r   Frv, p t , r   Frv, sat1 t , r   Frv, sat 2 t , r  , (37)
leakage reactance can be expressed as
X rv , c  sv, c1 Lr 0  Lrs  , (32) where
where sv, c1 is the angular frequency of the corresponding Frv, p t ,  r  
Z2
2 p p

I rvm, p cos sv1t   p p r 
rotor EMF shown in (21)-(23), Lr 0 is the total rotor leakage
inductance except for Lrs, and Lr 0 is assumed as a constant.  
Fig. 2 shows the equivalent circuit of the induction motor.  1 
 
k , p cos 2 s1t  p r  ,

(38)
It can be seen that when the induction motor is operating at   1, 2, 3,... 
rated condition stably, the fundamental slip s is close to 0, Z2
Rr' / s is much larger than the rotor fundamental leakage Frv, sat1 t ,  r   I rvm, sat1 cossv  2 s 1t   sat1 p r 
reactance X r'  1 , so the variation of the rotor leakage reactance 2sat1 p
has little influence on the rotor fundamental current ir1. While  
for the harmonic components, as v  1 , the slip sv, c is far
away from 0, Rr' / sv , c may be not much larger than the rotor
 1 
 
k , sat1 cos 2 s1t  p r  ,

(39)
  1, 2, 3,... 
harmonic leakage reactance X r' v,c , so the variation of the
Z2
rotor leakage reactance has significant influence on the rotor Frv, sat 2 t ,  r   I rvm, sat 2 cossv  2 s 1t   sat 2 p r 
harmonic current irv, c . 2 sat 2 p
The current in the rotor bar produced by the EMF shown  
in (20) can be expressed as  1 
 
k , sat 2 cos 2 s1t  p r  ,

(40)
irv t , r   irv, p (t , r )  irv, sat1 (t , r )  irv, sat 2 (t , r ) , (33)   1, 2, 3,... 
where TABLE I. AIR-GAP FLUX DENSITY HARMONICS
Z2 Brv Brv
 p  g2  v; g 2  0,  1,  2,  3, (41) v ε m n v ε m n
p 3 -3 3 9
Brv , p Brv , p
 sat1   p  2 , (42) 1 7 1 -5
Brv , sat1 5 -1 Brv, sat1 5 11
1 1
 sat 2   p  2 . (43) -1 5 -1 -7
Brv, sat 2 3 9 Brv, sat 2 3 -3
1 -5 1 7
E. Production of Line Current Harmonics 5 -1 5 11
Brv , p Brv , p
The rotor MMF harmonics (37) produce the air-gap field 3 9 3 -3
Brv , sat1 7 1 Brv, sat1 7 13
harmonics as -5 2 1 7
7 2 1 -5
Brv t , r    0 Frv t , r  . (44) 5 11 5 -1
Brv, sat 2 Brv, sat 2
In order to analyze the EMF harmonics in stator windings 3 -3 3 9
induced by Brv t , r  , Brv t ,  r  needs to be referred to the Brv , p 7 1 Brv , p 7 13
5 11 5 -1
stator co-ordinate, by replacing  r with  s . Then (44) can be 9 3 9 15
rewritten as 3 Brv , sat1 3 Brv, sat1
3 9 3 -3
Brv t , s    0 Frv t , s  Brv, sat 2 7 13 Brv, sat 2 7 1
 Brv, p t ,  s   Brv, sat1 t ,  r   Brv, sat 2 t ,  s  ,
5 -1 5 11
(45)
where
higher leakage inductance of the closed rotor slots has the
 0 Z 2 I rvm, p
Brv , p t , s  
2 p p

cos s  1t   p p s   better current filtering. Thus, the induction motor with closed
rotor slots has lower stator current harmonics than the one
with open slots if only slot harmonics are considered.
 
1 
  k , p cos 2 1t  p s  ,

(46) However, when analyzing other components of the stator
current spectrum, g 2 can be set to 0, hence s  is equal to 1,
  1, 2, 3,... 
then (46)-(48) can be rewritten as
 0 Z 2 I rvm, sat1
Brv, sat1 t , s  
2sat1 p
 
cos s  2 1t   sat1 p s   Brv , p t , s  
 0 Z 2 I rvm, p
cos1t  vp s  
2vp
   
1 
  k , sat1 cos 2 1t  p s  ,

(47) 1 
  k , p cos 2 1t  p s  ,

(50)
  1, 2, 3,...    1, 2, 3,... 
 0 Z 2 I rvm, sat 2
Brv, sat 2 t , s  
2sat 2 p
 
cos s  2 1t   sat 2 p s   Brv , sat1 t , s  
 0 Z 2 I rvm, sat1
cos31t  v  2  p s  
2 v  2 p
   
1 
 
k , sat 2 cos 2 1t  p s  ,

(48) 1 
  k , sat1 cos 2 1t  p s  ,

(51)
  1, 2, 3,...    1, 2, 3,... 
where  0 Z 2 I rvm, sat 2
Z2 Brv, sat 2 t , s   cos1t  v  2 p s  
s  1  g 2 1  s  . (49) 2 v  2 p
p
 
The stator line current harmonics are produced by the
EMF harmonics in stator windings, which are induced by the
1 
 
k , sat 2 cos 2 1t  p s  .

(52)
  1, 2, 3,... 
air-gap field harmonics. The air-gap field harmonics are
produced by the stator and rotor MMF harmonics. While the In order to analyze the low-order time harmonics of the
stator MMF harmonics produce the EMF harmonics in the air-gap field, Eq. (44) can be defined as
stator at the fundamental frequency, the line current
harmonics are produced by the rotor MMF harmonics with
Brv t , s   Brvm cosm1t  np s  ,
m n
(53)
their frequencies depending on s  . By analyzing (45)-(49),
where m is the time harmonic order, and n is the spatial
the stator current spectrum can be obtained, including the
harmonic order. The values of m and n are determined by v
fundamental component, slot harmonics and some
and ε. And the low-order values of m and n are shown in
components caused by the saturation of silicon steel sheet.
Table I by analyzing (50)-(52). Table I shows that the 5th- and
For g 2  0 , the harmonics of Brv t ,  s  are called slot 7th-order time harmonics with the spatial order -1 or 1 exist in
harmonics, these harmonics induce stator line current the harmonics of Brv , p . These harmonics induce EMF
harmonics with frequencies being much higher than the harmonics in the stator windings, then the 5th- and 7th-order
fundamental frequency. As shown in [5], these current current harmonics are produced.
harmonics can be reduced by enclosure of rotor slots, as the
 The amplitude of the vth-order MMF is proportional to the Rotor Slot Bridge
0.8

winding factor kv in (3). Then the induction motor with

double-layer windings can choose a rational value of the coil 0.5
R2.36

pitch y1 to decrease or eliminate the 5th- and 7th-order MMF

harmonics. But the induction motor with single-layer 6.2
windings can’t decrease or eliminate the 5th- and 7th-order
MMF harmonics. Therefore, the 5th- and 7th-order line current
harmonics can appear apparently in the closed-rotor-slot R1.28

induction motor with single-layer windings. (a) Closed rotor slot (b) Open rotor slot

III. SIMULATION RESULTS Figure 3. Shapes of rotor slots

Simulation study is performed on two 3-phase 2-pole 0.15 0.15

induction motors. Their ratings include 380V, 50Hz, 90W and 0.1 0.1

2700rpm. They have 24 stator slots and 18 rotor slots, and 0.05 0.05

Current (A)

Current (A)
star-connected single-layer armature windings. One of them 0 0

has closed slots on rotor, and the other, open slots. The shapes -0.05

-0.1
-0.05

-0.1
of these two types of slots are shown in Fig. 3. The only
difference between them is the 0.8mm opening. 0 0.01 0.02 0.03
Time (s)
0.04 0.05 0.06 0 0.01 0.02 0.03
Time (s)
0.04 0.05 0.06

2-D finite-element analysis (FEA) is used to simulate these (a) Closed-slot motor (b) Open-slot motor
two induction motors, in which the exciting source of the Figure 4. Simulated line current waveforms under no-load condition
motors is three-phase sinusoidal voltages.
Fig. 4 shows the simulated line currents of the two motors 0.4
106
8
110
under no-load condition. The currents are analyzed with fast 0.3
0.25
6
6.05

Current (mA)
Fourier transformation (FFT) and the spectra are thus obtained,
Current (mA)

0.2 4 3.20
as shown in Fig. 5. 0.10
0.13
0.11
0.1 2

Similarly, Fig. 6 shows the simulated line currents of the 0.76

0 0
two motors under rated load condition. By FFT analysis, the 0 200 400 600
Frequency (Hz)
800 1000 0 200 400 600
Frequency (Hz)
800 1000

line current spectra can be obtained, as shown in Fig. 7.

(a) Closed-slot motor (b) Open-slot motor
Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 show that, under load condition, distort- Figure 5. Simulated line current spectra under no-load condition
ion of the line current of the closed-slot motor is much more
significant than that of the open-slot one, because the rotor slot 0.6 0.6

bridges are saturated. And more importantly, not all the slot 0.4 0.4

bridges are saturated. Instead, only a few areas of the rotor 0.2 0.2
Current (A)
Current (A)

(note, the number of the areas is the same as the number poles) 0 0

contain saturated slot bridges, and even in the same area, -0.2 -0.2

different slot bridges have different saturation level. Moreover, -0.4 -0.4

the position of these areas keeps changing since the rotor runs 0 0.01 0.02 0.03
Time (s)
0.04 0.05 0.06 0 0.01 0.02 0.03
Time (s)
0.04 0.05 0.06

at an asynchronous speed. Furthermore, the saturation degree (a) Closed-slot motor (b) Open-slot motor
keeps varying according to the load condition. However, Fig. Figure 6. Simulated line current waveforms under load condition
4 and Fig. 5 show that, under no-load condition, the current
ripple in the open-slot motor is obvious due to the influence of 35 8
the rotor slot permeance harmonics, but the closed-slot motor 30
509
516

has less current ripple, because the current in the rotor bars is 25 24.2 6
Current (mA)

4.71
Current (mA)

20
very low and the slot bridges are hardly saturated. 15
4
3.70

10.9
10
Data in Fig. 7 show that the induction motor with closed 5 4.16 3.57
2
1.03

rotor slots has apparent low-order line current harmonics, as 0

0 200 400 600 800 1000
0
0 200 400 600 800 1000
the amplitude of the 5th-order harmonic current is 4.77% of Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz)

the fundamental amplitude, and the 7th-order harmonic
current is 2.14%. Whilst for the induction motor with open
rotor slots, the amplitudes of the 5th- and 7th-order harmonics
are negligible.
The simulation results show that there are serious low-
order current harmonics in the single-layer-winding induction
motor with closed rotor slots, but much lower in the open-slot
motor.
(a) Closed-slot motor (b) Open-slot motor
Figure 7. Simulated line current spectra under load condition
IV. EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION
Two motors with the same parameters of the simulated
motors are used in experiment with the 50Hz/380V 3-phase
sinusoidal mains power supply. Their stators are the same,
and their rotors are shown in Fig. 8, one has open slots and
the other has closed slots, and both rotors are skewed by the
same angle.
 low-order line current harmonics may not only degrade the
motor performance and efficiency, but also cause harmonic
pollution to the mains power supply. Therefore, in the
applications where the low-order line current harmonics are
crucial, the open-slot rotor structure might be a better choice
in the induction motor with single-layer armature windings.
And, the influence of the rotor slot harmonics can be
minimized by decreasing the width of the slot opening to an
appropriate value and meanwhile avoiding varying saturation
of rotor slot bridges.
Figure 8. Rotor prototypes, upper: with open slots, lower: with closed slots

0.6 0.6
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Current (A)

Current (A)

0 0 pp.1235–1239, Apr. 2005.

-0.2 -0.2
[2] H. Liao, “Power system harmonic state estimation and observability
-0.4 -0.4
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