Electrical Machines

3 Phase Induction Motor

Stephen Cooper

ELECTRICAL MACHINES
Rotating Magnetic Field in 3 Phase Induction Motors 3 Phase Induction Motor
Introduction

The induction motor is the most commonly used AC motor. The main reason for its wide acceptance is due to its basic construction, robustness, relative low cost and reliability. And the 3 phase induction motor is by far the motor most used in industry. It has high efficiency and requires little maintenance. It can be started without the need for extra starting motors or coils. It does however have some draw backs. The efficiency is sacrificed if the speed is varied and the speed will decrease with load. The main reason the induction motor is so popular is its simple operation. Basically the induction motor consists of two main parts the stator and a rotor and it is this simplicity, which makes them so reliable.
General Overview

The induction motor works on the principle of induction from the stator to the rotor. This is achieved by passing a current through the stator which in turn induces a current to flow in the rotor similar to a transformer. Induction motors could be referred to as rotating transformers where the secondary winding is free to rotate. The combined action of this induced current and the magnetic field creates a motive force on the motor rotor.
The Stator

The stator is made up of a number of laminated stampings, which are slotted to allow them to accommodate the windings. The stator has two major factors firstly the number of phases it carries and secondly the number of poles. The number of poles will set the speed the motor will operate at for maximum efficiency. The more poles the motor has the slower the speed of the motor will be. The stator is formed on the outside of the motor inside the housing or yoke.
The Rotor

The rotor sits inside the stator and is the part of the motor that turns. The most common type of rotor construction is the Squirrel Cage. Named so because of its similar appearance to a squirrel cage exercise wheel. This in constructed in the form of a laminated core, an uninsulated winding in the form of a cage and a steel shaft.
Operation of the Rotating Field

The stator has each phase wound onto it at 120 spacings. This 120 phase shift between each phase of a generated 3 phase AC supply gives the necessary current phase shift between the poles to establish a rotating field in the stator of the 3 phase induction motor. The windings have AC currents flowing through them that have the same electrical offset and that each produce a sinusoidal AC magnetic field. This field, which always follows the same axis, is at its maximum when the current in the winding is at its maximum. The field generated by each winding is the resultant of two fields rotating in opposite directions, each field having a constant value of

12/02/2012

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Electrical Machines

3 Phase Induction Motor

Stephen Cooper

half that of the maximum field. At any instant in the period the fields produced by each winding can be represented as shown below:

When the coils are connected in star to a three phase supply, the currents cause pulsating fluxes around each conductor. Due to the 120 spacing of the coils and the different phase currents in the coils, the flux produced by each phase combines to form a resultant flux that moves around the stator at a constant speed. This flux is called the Rotating Magnetic Field.

12/02/2012

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