Improvement in

Induction Motor Efficiency

Induction motors are widely used motors in any type of industry for drive purpose..

On an average,the energy consumed by a motor during its life cycle is 70-100 times the initial cost of the motor..

Therefore the efficiency of motor is of paramount importance for energy conservation.. Efficiency of the motor can be improved by improved design, proper manufacturing, & during operation

Motor efficiency is defined as:-

Efficiency
Or..

Power Output Power Input

Efficiency

Power Output Power Output Losses

Losses:- The losses in an induction motor are grouped as fixed losses &
variable losses

Fixed losses iron loss,friction & windage loss independent of motor loading
Variable loss copper loss in both stator & rotor dependent on motor loading

Different losses in induction motor

Losses (%)

2 pole motor

4 pole motor

Core losses Friction & windage Stator copper loss

19 25 26

21 10 34

Rotor copper loss

Stray load loss

19
11

21
14

Methods of improving efficiency of motors:-

1) Improved Design:winding design To reduce copper loss,cross-sectional area of winding must be increased. increase in 20% in cross-sectional area will reduce copper loss by 16.7% However size of motor also increases so it should be economically considered

Core design Eddy current losses depends upon thickness of core lamination & flux density i.e.

Pe keB f t
2

2 2

So it can be reduce by reducing the lamination thickness & increasing the core length (flux density decreases) By increasing 15% of core length we can reduce iron losses by 25%.

2) Manufacturing Aspects

use minimum overhang length, optimum slot shape

Air gap should not be uneven higher grade thinner insulating material

3) Operation Philosophy

For operating loads in the range of 60% to 100% of rated load the reduction in motor efficiency is not very significant..
But on further reducing the load, efficiency decreases

In industry the driven load can vary over a large range,the motor must be sized for the peak load..

So suppose a 10 hp motor is loaded only 20% of rated load then its efficiency will be

So the only way to improve efficiency is to reduce the amount of power delivered to the motor

For this purpose there are lot of induction motor drivers available such as VFD i.e. variable frequency drive- it is an power electronic controller that adjusts the speed of an AC motor by controlloing the frequency & voltage of the supplied power..

If the driven load is decreased by 15%-20% the shaft power can be reduced to 30%. VFD adjusts the motor speed to the specific demands of the load..

Thank you