BEN FULCHER

Mechatronics Lab IV
AC Induction Motor
Mechanical Engineering 12/13/2010

Introduction
In 1882, Nikola Tesla identified the concept of the rotating magnetic induction field. This concept is a leading principle behind the operation of the alternating current induction motor. In 1889, he received a patent for an electric motor which used a rotating magnetic field to create mechanical rotation. In 1890, Michail Osipovich Dolivo-Dobrovolsky invented the cage rotor, which is commonly used in AC motors today.

How it Works
Electromagnetism Principles The function of the AC induction motor is to convert an alternating current power supply into rotational mechanical power. Two inter-related phenomena are associated with this conversion. The first of these phenomena is the occurrence of a magnetic field surrounding a conductor when current is passed through. Thus, by wrapping a conductive wire around a ferromagnetic material and running current through, an electromagnetic is created. The magnetic field produced by each turn of wire sums with the fields produced by the neighboring turns to produce a net magnetic field very similar in shape to that of a Figure 1. Electromagnet vs. permanent magnet magnetic fields permanent magnet. Figure 1 displays the behavior of the magnetic field surrounding an electromagnet (left) and a permanent magnet (right). The second phenomenon associated with the AC motors functionality is the tendency of currents to pass through a conductor when it is exposed to a changing magnetic field. These are commonly known as eddy currents. Eddy currents occur as a result of Lorentz forces acting on the electrons in the conductor. These Lorentz forces correspond with Faradays law of induction, which states that the electromotive force in a closed circuit is equal to the time rate of change of magnetic flux in the circuit. Construction The specific type of AC motor studied in this lab is the permanent split-capacitor motor. The permanent split capacitor motor is a four pole, (or two pole-pair), motor which makes use of a single-phase AC power supply.

Stator The stator consists of four coils, each consisting of wire wrapped around an iron core, geometrically spaced 90 apart. The four coils make up two coil pairs. Each coil pair is connected in series, and each coil in a pair is geometrically spaced 180 apart from the other. See figure 2 for a diagram of this arrangement. In figure 2, coils A and A make up one coil pair and coils B and B make up the other. When current flows through a coil, the coil becomes an electromagnet with a north pole and a south pole. Due to the 180 geometrical offset in a coil pair, as one coils south pole faces the rotor, the other coils north pole must face the rotor. A capacitor is placed in series with one coil pair and in parallel with the other, (see figure Figure 2. Stator layout 4), creating a 90 phase shift in the currents flowing through the coil pairs. This electrical phase shift makes possible the rotation of the magnetic field. In order to understand the effect of the phase shift on the magnetic field, consider the following example. In figure 2, assume that current flows from coil A to coil A and from coil B to coil B (but with a 90 lag behind the A coils). As coils A and A become fully charged, coil A exposes the rotor to its maximum magnetic north pole, and coil A exposes the rotor to its maximum magnetic south pole. At this instant, both coils B and B are uncharged. As coils A and A begin to discharge, coils B and B begin to charge, and at the instant in which they are charged to a maximum, coils A and A Figure 3. 90 degree phase shift are fully uncharged. The current then changes direction, becoming negative in the A coils. This causes coil A to expose its south pole to the rotor and coil A to expose its north pole to the rotor. Thus, the sequence of coils which expose their north pole to the rotor is as follows: A,B,A,B. The sequence of coils which expose their south pole to the rotor is then: A,B,A,B. An example of a signal phase shifted by 90 can be seen in figure 3. Note that when one signal reaches a either maximum or minimum, the other signal must equal zero. An electrical diagram of the stator can be seen in figure 4.
Figure 4. Stator circuit diagram

Rotor A typical rotor takes on a squirrel-cage appearance. The squirrel cage rotor consists of two conducting rings connected by multiple conducting bars, as seen in figure 5. The principle of the rotating magnetic induction field is put to use here. When the stators magnetic field rotates as previously described, current is induced along the rotor bars length. As the north pole of the stator field passes by a rotor bar, an upward vertical current is induced in the bar. At the same instant, the south pole of the stator field passes by a different rotor bar which is 180 removed from the stator fields north Figure 5. Squirrel-cage rotor pole, thereby also creating a downward vertical current in the bar (The direction of the current is determined by B x v, where B is the magnetic field vector and v is the velocity vector). These two currents flow in opposite directions geometrically, but flow in the same direction electrically (as seen in figure 5). As the current in one bar flows upward, the current in the other bar flows downward, (i.e. geometrically opposite flows). The rings at the top and bottom of the squirrel cage serve to complete the electrical loop, allowing current to flow between the two bars. The current flowing through the bars of the rotor serves to create magnetic fields around the rotor. Thus, as the stator north and south poles pass by rotor bars, north and south poles form on the rotor. The north and south poles of the rotor then seek to align or play catchup with the north and south poles of the stator, thereby producing rotation. For an induction AC motor, the rotor must rotate more slowly than the stators magnetic field. The relative motion of the stator field and the rotor bars is necessary for the creation of the rotors magnetic field. This relative motion is known as slip, which is defined to be

where ws is synchronous speed, wn is actual rotor speed, and s is slip (0<s<1). See figure 6 for a depiction of the rotors induced magnetic field (this is a simpler model of a one pole-pair motor).
Figure 6. Rotor's induced magnetic field

Experimental Setup
Stator Each of the four stator coils was made out of magnetic wire wrapped around a 0.455 diameter steel bolt. These coils were set 90 apart on top of wooden blocks. A single phase power supply of 8.06V, 60Hz was used to power the motor. The wire used was 28 gage magnetic wire, which has a resistance of 64.9 Ohms/1000ft. The total resistance of the circuit is ( ) , where R1 is the sum of the resistances in coils A and A, and R2 is the sum of the resistances in coils B and B. The coils pairs were each made of 85ft of wire, each therefore carrying a resistance of 5.5 Ohms. Since the average coil diameter was expected to be near 0.6 inches, each bolt required ~270 turns of wire. Once the coils were wound, the resistances were measured using the multimeter. As expected, each coil-pair carried a resistance of ~5.5 . The inductances of each coil pair were then calculated to be ~43mH according the following formula:

where N is the number of turns, A is the cross-sectional area of coil, k is relative permeability of steel, o is the permeability of free space, and l is the length of the coil (see appendix for these values). An appropriate capacitor had to be chosen such that the electrical phase shift between the coils approximated 90 while magnitude of voltage (and C C

Vo

Se

R2

R1

L1

I
L2

therefore current, since the resistances of the coil-pairs are equal) across the coil-pairs remained similar. If the current through the coil-pairs becomes too different, the magnetic fields are too dissimilar to produce rotation of the rotor. In order to choose this capacitor, a bond graph of the

Figure 7. Bond graph of motor circuit

circuit was first utilized, as shown in figure 7. Using impedance methods, the following transfer function between VL1 and VL2 was

derived. ( ( ) ) ( )

This transfer function describes the behavior voltage across one coil-pair with respect to the voltage across the other.

The magnitude and phase were then extracted from the transfer function and can be seen below: Phase: ( ) ( )

Magnitude: ( ) ( ( )

Since R1, R2, L1, L2 and w are known, C can be found such that ~90 and M~1. A readily available capacitor in the Mechatronics lab was the 220 F capacitor. Given this capacitor, the phase was calculated to be 63 and the magnitude was calculated to be 2.45. This capacitor was, in fact, successfully utilized in the operation of the motor. Rotor The rotor used was a steel jar lid. Although this rotor does not have the squirrel-cage appearance previously described, the induced current, and therefore the induced magnetic field, was still sufficient to produce a decent rotation. The jar lid was given a slight indentation on its center and was placed upon a pencil on which to rotate. The pencil was a great bearing as the graphite tended to act as a lubricant. Figure 8 displays the rotor along with the stator coils. Figure 2. Rotor and stator The silver strip on the jar lid gave the tachometer a reference point from which to measure the speed of the rotor.

Results
The rotor speed was measured to be ~1130 rpm. Synchronous speed, i.e. the speed of the stators rotating magnetic field, is 60Hz, or 3600 rpm. The motor slip, then, is calculated to be 0.68 or 68%. The slip is high, likely due to inefficiency of current inducement, since the rotor is not squirrel-cage. The rotor is also not completely balanced, as noted by vibrational noise while spinning. The magnetic field strengths are also not completely balanced, as noted by the magnitude of the transfer function derived earlier. The rotor also tends to fall off of the bearing when it reaches a certain speed. The voltage drawn was measured to be 8.06 V, and thus the

input current is calculated to be 2.93 A. Thus the power input into the system is ~23W. Figure 9 displays the motors rotation.

Figure 3. Motor's rotation

Sources
http://www.me.ua.edu/me360/PDF/AC_Motors.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_motor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/tables/magprop.html#c2 http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/magnetic/elemag.html#c5 http://www.tpub.com/content/NAVFAC/hdbk419a_vol2/hdbk419a_vol20182.htm

Appendix A. Data/Calculation Table

Inductance Calculation N [# turns] 270 k 75 mu0 [H/m] 1.25664E-06 mu [H/m] 9.42478E-05 A [m^2] 0.000182415 l [m] 0.042672 L [H]

number of turns relative permeability of steel permeability of free space permeability of steel Area of coil length of coil

0.00039161 inductance per coil 0.000783221 inductance per coil-pair

Phase shift/Magnitude (Capacitor Selection) R1 5.5 R2 5.5 L1 0.000783221 L2 0.000783221 C 0.00022 w 376.9911184 Phase shift 62.9257489 phase of coil2 minus phase of coil1 magnitude of coil2/magnitude of Magnitude 2.45493493 coil1 Results RPM(measured) Synchronous speed Slip Voltage input [V] total resistance [Ohm] current drawn [A] power input [W]

1130 3600 (60Hz*60min/sec) 0.686111111 8.06 (measured) 2.75 2.930909091 amps 23.62312727