UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU-NATAL

DISCIPLINE OF ELECTRICAL, ELECTRONICS AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING

Course:

Electrical Machines 4

Code:

ENEL4MB H2

Practical: Lab 1 - Calculation of Equivalent Circuit Parameters and Estimation of

the Machine Performance
ELO4: Investigation, Experimentation and Data analysis.
A 50% average mark on practicals is required. Passing the practical is a course subminimum. Though
students can share practical stations they must submit individual hard copies of their reports.
Objectives
We will look at the performance of the machine and carry out the following tests and measurements:
Running light test
Locked rotor test
Calculation of equivalent circuit parameters
Obtains torque/speed and current/speed curves from equivalent circuit parameters
Load test
Comparison of results with simulation

2. Equipment
Warning please get your connections checked by a demonstrator when first switching on and if in
doubt. Take care when using the machinery it is low power and low voltage but a nasty accident can
still occur if you get things caught in it. Long hair should be tied back, ties should be removed or tucked
away and objects such as fingers or pens should not be put into the rotating machinery.
Look at the equipment in front of you. The main piece of equipment is the wound-rotor induction
motor and eddy current brake or dynamometer. The eddy current brake or dynamometer is solely for
loading the machine and is simply controlled from the dc power supply connected to it increase the
voltage and the load will increase. The dynamometer requires a resistor connected to the armature
and the DC supply to the field. Now look at the 3-phase induction motor.
For the induction motor you will find a connection panel with six terminals and a connection for the
rotor through three terminals. The rotor is hard-wired as a star connection and accessed through
three slip rings. The stator windings are labelled U1, U2, V1, V2, W1 and W2 which represent the
three different phases. These can be connected in two different ways in either star or delta. In the
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space below sketch the connections that you think represent a star and a delta connection. The
machine will run in delta for the experiment.

Star Connection

Delta Connection

Look at the other equipment you have in front of you. Identify the 3-phase variac supply, the 3-phase
power meters and the torque measurement weights. This machine can be started by direct
connection to the supply (call a dol start direct on-line start) but here we will start it with the variac
Inspect the plate on the induction motor. Rating plates are very important so never remove because it
is then difficult to identify what machine actually is!
Write down the details on the plate below:

Answer these questions:

1. What is the rated speed?. Is this the synchronous speed? (This can be obtained from the pole
number and frequency. These are not quoted but the frequency in Europe is 50 Hz and the
pole number of these machines is 2. The synchronous speed is given by Nsync = 120 supply
frequency fs pole number P.
2. What is the approximate rated torque?
In reality the rated torque will be a bit higher than this because the motor will run at a speed a little
below the synchronous speed.

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3. Running Light Test

The 3-phase supply sets up a rotating magnetic field inside the machine and the direction is dictated
by the phase sequence. To make the motor rotate in opposite direction it is a simple matter to change
two phases around (which reverses the phase sequence). In addition, we wish to run the motor as
lightly loaded as possible so we want to mechanically disconnect the eddy-current brake or
dynamometer.
Procedure
Push the eddy current brake or dynamometer away from the motor use a spanner to loosen and
tighten it. Connect the motor up as a delta connection; check the connection with a demonstrator.
Connect the machine to the 3-phase supply though the Power Analyzer. Connect a second meter to
measure the rotor currents the rotor windings should be shorted in a star. Sketch the connection of
the motor below:

Verify the machine runs in the correct direction in order to measure the torque with the weight
balances.
For the rest of the experiment we will keep the motor running in the same direction and in delta
connection.
We will now do a running light test. This is a simple test were we measure the input voltage, current,
power and reactive power or power factor when the motor is running light. Therefore, start the
motor and measure these parameters. The digital power meter has several pages so cycle round by
pressing the red button to find them look carefully at the units.
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Line to line voltage:

Line to neutral voltage:

Line Current:

Total input power:

Total input reactive power:

VAr

Power Factor:
Theory and Calculation
The induction motor essentially works as a transformer. The primary is the stator and the secondary is
the aluminium cage on the rotor. At the synchronous speed the rotor is rotating at the same speed as
the magnetic field set up by the stator current and therefore no current is induced into the rotor. As
the rotor slows emfs are induced into the rotor cage, producing rotor current; interaction between
the stator magnetic field and the rotor current will produce torque. Therefore we term the difference
between the synchronous speed and the rotor speed as the slip which is given by
slip s

N sync N r

(1)

N sync

At standstill the slip is 1 and at synchronous speed the slip is 0. We can predict the performance of
the machine by use of a per-phase equivalent circuit as shown below.

Since it is per-phase it should be excited by the phase voltage. For a balanced system the phase
voltage (which is the voltage of one phase referenced to zero) is the voltage between two lines
divided by the square root of thee (this will be covered in lectures). Therefore

Vph

VLine

(2)

A simple approximation of the equivalent circuit is to move the magnetizing components to the
terminals. This is because the magnetizing components have impedances which are much larger than
the resistance and leakage reactances of the stator and rotor. This gives a circuit which looks like
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In the open circuit test s is approximately zero so that the rotor circuit is blocked. Therefore the
equivalent circuit will be simplified to:

This test should be conducted at rated voltage. From the measurements calculate the values for Rc
and Xm. Remember that power is absorbed by the resistor in the circuit. Reactive power may be a
new concept to you. The points to bear in mind is that reactive power is absorbed by an inductor (and
generated by a capacitor) and that
Total absorbed inductor reactive power Q L

3 V ph

XM

VAr

(4)

The circuit is per-phase so that to get the total power or reactive power then multiply the per-phase
values by three. The unit of reactive power is Volt-Amp reaction (VAr).
Rc:
Xm

We now have two values in the per-phase equivalent circuit.

4. Locked Rotor Test.

This test is to obtain the other values in the equivalent circuit.
Procedure
Ensure that the motor is switched off. First push the eddy current brake or dynamometer back onto
the induction motor and use a spanner to tighten. Check that with no excitation the weights balance.
Set the front weight to 0 cm. Balance using the rear weight if necessary. Lock the rotor with the rotor
locking accessory.
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The locked rotor test should be conducted as close to rated current as possible. The rated line durrent
is given. Note this. Turn the voltage on VERY SLOWLY because the rated current is obtained at very
low voltage.
Switch on the system and quickly measure the input parameters then switch off after few seconds:
Line to line voltage:

Line Current:

Total input power:

Total input reactive power:

VAr

Rotor current:

Since the slip is unity, calculate the Nstator:Nrotor for both delta and start connection (this is from
transformer theory).
Nstator:Nrotor (delta):
Nstator:Nrotor (star):
Now take the rotor locking accessory off and turn the eddy current brake or dynamometer supply on
and set to zero voltage. Set the voltage to the LOCKED ROTOR VOLTAGE and increase the brake or
dynamometer voltage until the machine stalls. Balance the weights to obtained the locked rotor
machine. The weight has a mass of 10 N and the scale is in cm. Re-adjust the voltage to get the rated
current.
Question for report: Validate that the torque measured is (scale reading in cm 10) Nm when the
front weight is moved to rebalance with a load torque.
Just to check you have the same locked rotor torque
Line to line voltage:

Stator line current:

Total input power:

Input reactive power:

VAr

Weight scale reading:

cm

Locked rotor torque =

Nm
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The starting torque is approximately proportional to the square of the applied voltage so calculate the
starting torque at full voltage. How does the starting current vary with voltage?
Estimated full voltage starting torque =

Nm

Estimated full voltage starting current =

We will use this later. We now wish to obtain the input resistance of the machine so disconnect the
supply and measure the resistances between two phases using a multimeter (keep the delta
connection in tactb but disconnect the supply).
Rphase-to-phase (stator):

Calculate the effective stator resistance from the delta connection:

R1:

Now measure the resistance of a stator phase when disconnected:

Rph:

For the rotor, the winding is star connected. We could try to measure it using a multimeter but this
would be incorrect since there is brush gear. We could bypass this and measure on the slip rings if we
have access. However, another way is to disconnect the winding and inject a DC supply and turn it up
in 3 or 4 points to the rated rotor current (as obtained in the locked rotor test). Draw a V against I
graph as a straight line. Where the line crossed the V axis is the brush drop voltage (about 1.5 volts
probably) and the slope is the phase-to-phase resistance. Rph is half of the phase-to-phase resistance
and this is R2.
Vbrush

Rphase-to-phase (rotor)

R2:

The referred rotor resistance can be calculated using the square of the turns ratio (get it the right way
round!) as obtained earier for the delta connection:
R2:

Theory and Calculation

In the equivalent circuit, when the slip is 1 (i.e., at start) then rotor circuit has a much lower
impedance than the magnetizing circuit so that, at start, it approximates to

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Therefore, the values of X1 + X2 can be obtained from the input reactive power and current and R1 +
R2 can be obtained from the input power and current.

Total absorbed inductor reactive power QL 3 I Line X1 + X 2 ' VAr

2

X1 + X2 =

R1 + R2 =

We now have to separate the R1 and R2 and we can do this using the R1 resistance measured earlier.
R1 =

R2 =

We have now obtained all the circuit parameters for the induction motor. Compare the two values for
R2.

5. Simulation
With your values for the equivalent circuit you should now feed in relevant parameters into the
MATLAB program supplied. These should be for the delta connection. If the machine is reconnected in
star then this equivalent circuit parameters will increase by three. This will calculate graphs of torque,
current, output power, input power and efficiency against speed. Print out the graphs. The torque
equation will be derived in the lectures however it repeated here:
Total shaft torque T

3PR2/ V ph

4 f s s R1 R2 / j ( X 1 X 2 / )

Nm

(5)

Modify the MATLAB programme to obtain a clear torque/speed curve so that the rated load point,
locked rotor point and stall point (maximum torque point) can be plotted.
Not the following points from the data and the plate ratings. Note it should be delta connected.

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Rated output power

Rated Line Current

Rated torque =

Nm

Rated speed =

Rated efficiency =

Rated current =

Starting torque =

Nm

Starting current =

Ratio of starting to rated current

Breakdown torque

Nm

Slip at breakdown torque

6. Load tests
Set the voltage to about 25 % and run up to speed. Load the machine until the machine is on the
verge of stalling (this can be tricky) and note the torque arm measurement. Scale this torque to rated
voltage (how?). Using the tachometer, try to measure the speed at stall (could be very tricky!)
Weight scale reading:

cm

Torque measurement:

Nm

Breakdown torque at rated voltage:

Nm

Breakdown speed:

rpm

Breakdown slip:

p.u.

Now turn down the load and set the voltage to rated voltage. Turn up the load until rated input
power is obtained. Measure the speed and other variables:
.
Torque
Speed
r
Pout
Pin
Efficiency
Qin
Vline
Iph
P.F.
(Nm)
(rpm)
(rad/sec)
(W)
(W)
(%)
(VAr)
(V)
(A)

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Plot these points (locked rotor, full-load and stall) on the graphs and compare the results. Are they
close? If not, why not?

7. Conclusions and Report

In conjunction with this lab sheet with COMPLETED results, write a report where the programming is
included and your discussions and any additional calculations. Emphasis is put on calculation and
understanding and answering the questions as put forward. In your report, review the equivalent
circuit for a 3-phase induction machine, show how it is simplified and applied to the two standard
tests conducted here. This experiment has been conducted on a wound rotor induction machine but
the vast majority are cage induction machines. Comment on this. Marks will NOT be gained for any
copied material including figures and equations write your own report!
The marking scheme is:
Clear results and correct parameter calculation
Programming and graphs clearly done
Load points and validation
Discussion, further research and conclusions

30 %
30 %
20 %
20 %

It can be seen that a report that just lists results and does not make much effort in the developing the
program could be liable to failure. Sources should be clearly cited. Any uncited copied material with
be marked down. Answer questions that have been set.
D G Dorrell
August 2016

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