Modeling and Parameter Identication of a

Double-Star Induction Machines

Paulo S. Dainez and Edson Bim

Daniel Glose and Ralph M. Kennel

Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of Campinas - UNICAMP
Email: {psdainez, bim}@dsce.fee.unicamp.br

Institute for Electrical Drives and Power Electronics

Technische Universitt Mnchen - TUM
Email: daniel.glose@tum.de and eal@ei.tum.de

is   radians, where  is the number of the stator

phases. However, if this number is even, the phases are often
distributed asymmetrically  radians, in order to avoid
a parallel position of two phases on the same magnetic axis
[6], [7]. Otherwise the transformation matrix onto orthogonal
subspace will be linearly dependent and non-inversive.
The conception and the transformation developed for the
stator with  -phase can be directly extend for a rotor with
 -phase, where    .
The inductances of machines phases can be calculated
applying the winding function approach for non-skewed
concentrated winding [11], [12] and for skewed distributed
windings [13], [14]. This method is applied for determination
of the parameters of a ve phase squirrel cage induction
machine whose rotor has skewed slots [15]. The machine
parameters are analytically obtained and compared with a
nite element method (FEM)-calculation and experimental
results. The behavior of the analytical model shows a
good correlation with the experimental results, although
the inductances and resistances of the bars, as well as
the resistances of the rotor rings are not determined
experimentally. The aforesaid paper does not describe the test
procedure and calculation method for gathering the machine
parameters by experimental tests.
Multiphase machines are generally modeled by dividing
the squirrel cage rotor into several circuits [11], [12], [15],
[16]. In this approach, each circuit is composed of two
consecutive bars which incorporates electrical couplings in
the resistances and leakage inductances matrices and this fact
makes difcult the determination of the rotor parameters in
the natural reference frame ( -
 coordinates) by standard
experimental tests.
This paper presents an analytical model expressed in the
natural reference frame is developed for a squirrel cage
DSIM with distributed stator windings. The rotor has skewed
bars and is admitted to be concentrated and  -phase
electrically isolated from each other. Machine models in the
stationary and synchronous reference frame ( -  and
-  coordinates) are derived and equivalent circuits have
been obtained for steady state operation. From the no load
and locked rotor tests are carried out in order to calculated
the parameters in the synchronous reference frame and from

AbstractThis article deals with the modeling of distributed

stator windings of a double-star induction machine (DSIM)
and its application to obtain their parameters from no-load
and blocked rotor tests. The squirrel cage rotor is modeled as
multiphase concentrated windings without electrical connections
between them, and the effect of the number of rotor bars on the
value of inductances is also addressed. From the equations in
the natural reference frame ( - coordinates), the models in
the stationary and synchronous reference frame (-   and
  coordinates) are derived in order to achieve the equivalent
circuit at the steady state operation and the parameters are
obtained by a standard no-load and blocked rotor test. Finally,
the model of the DSIM in the natural reference frame is
validated by simulations and veried by experimental tests.

I. INTRODUCTION
Multiphase AC machines exhibit a phase number higher
than three. Connected with an inverter of the same number of
legs, the setup offers several advantages over the three-phase
counterpart: power and current reduction per phase for the
same output power [1], increased reliability, controle of space
harmonic air gap magnetomotive force (MMF), reduced
torque pulsations and current ripples in the DC link and
possibility of higher torques per ampere current [2][5].
For double-star induction machines (DSIM), a greater
reduction in torque pulsation is achieved, if the two
three-phase stator winding sets are displaced by  electrical
radians [6], [7]. Doing so, a smoother torque generation can
be observed if the motor is fed by a voltage source inverter
(VSI) in six-step mode, although this comes along with a
higher amount of unwanted current harmonics [8].
Multiphase drives exhibit the ability of decoupling the
fundamental wave from certain spatial harmonic content by
choosing a proper transformation of the machine states, as is
shown in [9], in which variables of DSIM are mapped onto
three orthogonal subspaces: the rst subspace refers to the
fundamental component and   harmonic content,
the second refers to the    harmonic content and the
third subspace refers to the    , where    . In turn,
a generalized form of this transformation onto orthogonal
subspace for multiphase machines is presented in [4], [10].
Multiphase machines with an odd number of phases
general have a symmetric phase distribution over the stator
circumference, i.e., the electrical angle between the phases

l-)))



these results it is done the conversion to natural reference

frame. Finally, the models are validated by digital simulations
and veried by experimental tests.

parameters in the natural reference frame by standard

experimental tests.

II. M ATHEMATICAL M ODEL

A. Natural reference frame
The model for a DSIM in the natural reference frame is
developed with distributed stator windings composed of two
sets of three-phase spatially shifted to each other by 
electrical radians [6], [7], [9], and a squirrel cage rotor with
 bars and skewed slots. The rotor is modeled with 
phases and concentrated windings. The equations of DSIM
can be expressed in the general form

     

      

           
           

(a)

(b)



(1)

where:


  Stator voltage vector
  




   Stator current vector
  




   Stator ux vector

  Rotor voltage vector

 

  


   Rotor current vector
  


   Rotor ux vector
     Electrical resistance matrix of stator
     Electrical resistance matrix of rotor
       Magnetizing inductance matrix of stator
       Magnetizing inductance matrix of rotor
     Mutual inductance matrix stator-rotor

  Identity matrices of dimension
resp. 

 


















(c)















  Phase resistances of stator and rotor

  Leakage inductances of stator and rotor

  Speed and rotor position in electrical angles

Figure 1: Squirrel cage rotor: (a) Rotor bars; (b) Equivalent

rotor winding. Winding function of a phase rotor ( ): (c)
Odd number of rotor bar  (  ); (d) Even number of
rotor bar  (  ).
The squirrel cage rotor with skewed bars is visualized in
Fig. 1(a). In our proposal each pair of adjacent rotor bars as
a isolated short-circuited winding with  turns, then each
bar is replaced so that the slot is lled by winding of two
different phase electrically isolated from each other. In this
way,  rotor phases are obtained as shown in Fig. 1(b). This
technique eliminates any electrical coupling in the resistance
and leakage inductance matrices of the rotor model. The so
obtained winding arrangement is concentrated with a pitch
of     radians, where  is the number of rotor
bars.
As stated by [13], the mutual inductance between any two
windings can be calculated by integrating the product of their

The electromagnetic torque is expressed according to [11],

[16], [17]:
 
  
 
(2)



where  is the number of poles of the motor.

 

(d)

B. Determination of the motor inductances

An illustration of a skewed squirrel cage rotor is shown
in Fig. 1(a). Unlike traditional representation of rotor in
which all the bars are short-circuited and thereby dening
non-diagonal matrices of the rotor resistance and leakage
inductance [16], which makes difcult to obtain the rotor



 Mutual inductance between stator phases

Taking the winding functions of the stator phases into
account, the mutual inductance between the stator phases

can be numerically calculated by using equation (3).
For a sinusoidal distribution this would result

winding functions along the air gap, given by

              



 
 and  are the winding functions of phase


(3)

i and
where
j,  is the magnetic permeability of air, l is the length in
radial direction of the rotor core, r is the average radius of
the air gap, g is the axial length of the air gap,  is the
position of the rotor in electrical angle,  and , the variables
of integration in the axial and radial direction.
The winding function for a phase is the magneto-motive
force (MMF) per unit of the respective phase current, i.e.,
[12]:

    

   




  


  
 
  

  


(4)

The winding function for a rotor phase with odd number

of bars is shown in Fig. 1(c). In this case, the number
of phases  is equal to the number of bars  . The
phase windings are distributed symmetrically over the rotor
circumference and each phase is displaced from each other
of  radians.
However, if the number of rotor bars is even, the rotor
phases can be reduced to a half, since the phases on the
opposite side are linearly dependent and thereby a single
phase has the double of turns ( turns), as shown in Fig.
1(d). For this case, the number of rotor phases  is half
 . If  is odd,
the number of bars  , i.e., 
then the phases are symmetrically displaced each other of
  radians; in turn, if  is even, then the phase

are asymmetrically displaced each other of 
radians. This procedure is similar to an even number of stator
phases, as explained in [6], [7], [18], [19].
The equations for the winding functions are presented in
Tables I and II.


 



 






     and




and







0

 


 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 




  


 

 
 


 

 

 






..
.

..
.

..
.

..


 

 

..
.



(6)

    

 
   .



(7)

where 
For a rotor with an even number of bars it is





 
  .
 ..

 with an odd









..
.

..
.

..




.. 
.






  



    


  



(8)

which is only dened by its magnetizing inductance

given by

(9)

Note that the dimension of the mutual inductance matrix

for a rotor with an odd number of bars is   ,
whereas for a rotor with an even number of bars it is ,
since the phase number is reduced to the half.
Mutual inductance between stator and rotor phases
The mutual inductance between any stator and rotor phase

 is numerically calculated according to equation (3). In
Fig. 2, the result for the stator phase a and rotor phase 
is visualized depending on the rotor position.
The waveform of the mutual inductance 
   is
independent on the number of rotor bars. However, the
amplitude of the even case is twice the amount of the
odd number case.
For symmetry reasons, the mutual inductance characteristic
between any stator and rotor phase is identical but spatial



another cases

, z



  


      and
    


      and    
    



 and
       

     and

 

where the magnetizing inductance is

Table II: Winding function of the rotor phase  with an even

number of bars ( )

 


 
 


, z

 

(5)
Mutual inductance between rotor phases
From the functions dened in the Tables I and II the mutual
inductance between any pair of rotor phases can be obtained
by using equation (3). The resulting mutual inductance
matrix  for a rotor with an odd number of bars can be
written in the form

Table I: Winding function of the rotor phase

number of bars ( )

another cases





















 



 

 








  

 


 
 

 


 
 

 
 










-matrix,

as is given by

C. Vector equations in stationary reference frame

In this subsection the machine behavior is represented
by three mutually uncoupled models which incorporate
the fundamental as well as the third and fth harmonic
components. For each component a model in the stator-rotor
stationary reference frame (- / m-n) is achieved, as present
in [9].
A   coordinate transformation matrix  is dened
in order to map the machine states. For the stator, the
component-corresponding orthogonal subspaces are given by

         























 
   
  
   
  

           
 
 
   
  
   
  





   
 
  





  

  



















 


 



 

 

 
   
  




..


 

 





 

 

   

   
   

   

 

 






















 





 





 


 









(10)


 




 


 



  



 








 


 

(13)






  harmonic ( )

(11)

..
.



 




As in this study, the number of phases of the rotor and of

stator may be different, the rotor transformation matrix 
is given by


 
 
 
  
  

  
 
 
..
..
 ..
. .   .  
 
 


In this paper, the power variant transformation is

employed, where    is used for the stator with
six phases and    for the rotor with  phases,
respectively. For the power invariant
 transformation these
 ,
factors would result in     and  
according to [2], [16], [17], [20].
Applying the transformation matrices  and  to
Eq. (1) results diagonal matrices for resistances ( ),
self-inductances (   and mutual inductances ( ). This
fact yields to machine states independent to each other [4].
Only the mutual inductance matrix of stator-rotor  
introduces a cross coupling between the  and  coordinates
of the fundamental component.
Then the machine states can be mapped onto three different
complex planes, according to their harmonic contribution:
 ,  and  , for the fundamental component,  
and  harmonics, respectively, as shown in [4], [9], [21].
However, for a DSIM without connection between neutral
wires, the   harmonic current is zero. Representing only
the fundamental and  harmonic, the respective equations
are as follow:
 Fundamental component ( )

Figure 2: Mutual inductance between stator and rotor.

shifted. This fact results in a

equation (10).

  

 


 
 

 


 
 

 
 



 
 


(12)

where the harmonic index  represents the highest rotor

eld harmonic. If  is odd then      or else, if
 is even, then    . For the latter case, the last line
should be removed from  , because the matrix dimension
is in any case equal to 
 .





 






  




(14)

where  and  are the magnetizing inductances of

stator and rotor,  is the peak value of mutual inductance
function between the stator and rotor.
As the magnetizing inductance of the  harmonic is
zero, the rotor circuit will never be excited, such that its
contribution to the torque generation is zero. The stator circuit
is modeled by only a resistance and leakage inductance,
which leads a high unwanted current harmonics [8].
The torque expression is given by
 




 

   





   




(15)

D. Vector equations in the synchronous reference frame

Transforming the stationary model for synchronous model
reference, as it is given in [16], one obtains
  

 

 

where


   

   

       

Dening     , 
 

and   
, it
can be stated that


  

 

 
 


 


 harmonic ( )


   
    

   

(18)

(a)

(b)

Figure 3: Equivalent circuits in synchronous reference frame:

(a) Fundamental Component ( ); (b)  harmonic ( ).

Figure 4: Workbench test.

The magnetizing and leakage reactance of the stator and

rotor are given by

   


   


(23)

Simulations and experimental tests were performed to

validate the model in the natural and synchronous reference
frame. A DSIM with a rating of 10kVA, 400V/50Hz, 4 poles,
12 bars is investigated, which is driven by two inverters with
10 kHz switching frequency. The experimental workbench
consists also of a permanent magnet motor (PMM) which
is used as the load and powered by a third inverter.
The complete system is controlled by a real time system
(dSPACE), as shown in Fig. 4.



Applying the transformation (16) to torque equation (15)

results
 


    
 



(19)

E. Equivalent circuit
The behavior of a DSIM at steady state operation can be
expressed in a equivalent circuit. For a squirrel cage rotor,
the rotor voltages are zero and the circuits in the synchronous
reference frame is shown in Fig. 3.

III. S IMULATION AND E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS



(22)

(17)

(21)


Note that the magnetizing and leakage inductances of the
equivalent circuits ( ,  , 
 and  ) are different from
the model in the natural reference frame ( , 
,  , 

and  )


where  is the electrical angle between synchronous and
stationary reference frames and h is the harmonic order.
Applying the aforementioned transformation to the Eqs.
(13) and (14) turns to
Fundamental component ( )


   
    

 
 

  
    


     
  





 
  
 


  




(16)

 


   

       
 
 
 
 
   





  



   


A. Obtaining the machine parameters

The parameters of the fundamental equivalent circuit can
be obtained by a standard no-load and blocked rotor test.
The parameters of the  harmonic equivalent circuit can
be obtained at any rotor speed, since there is no coupling

(20)



Table III: Parameters in synchronous reference frame

Value
0.4
0.85
5.3
5.3
1.05
158.1

Unit

1800
1600

Speed [ ]

Parameters














mH
mH
mH
mH

1400
1200
1000
800
600
400

200
0
0

Table IV: Parameters in the natural reference frame

Value
0.4
0.85
1.05
3.1
54.1
160.3
74.5

10

Unit

(a)

mH
mH
mH
mH
mH

Speed [ ]

Parameters








Time [s]

1500
1000
500

between stator and rotor and the leakage inductance does not
depend on the rotor slip.
The parameters of the DSIM in the synchronous reference
frame are summarized in Table III. The parameters of
the DSIM in natural reference frame are associated to
parameters determined in the synchronous reference frame
from equations (22) and (23) and they are shown in Table
IV.

0
0

10

Time [s]

(b)

30



Current[]

20

B. Evaluation of the Model

In order to evaluate the model in the natural reference
frame, simulations and experimental tests were carried out.
As shown in Fig. 5 the mechanical speed of the model is
similar to the measurements, but the envelope of the stator
phase currents in the experimental test is a little bit smoother
than the one of the simulation results.
In Fig. 6 the results of a load step of 60 N.m. are shown.
As it can be seen, the initial and nal values of the measured
stator phase currents are equal to the simulated results. The
main difference is that during the experimental tests it is not
possible to apply a load step as fast as the one applied in the
simulation.

10
0
10
20
30

10

Time [s]

(c)

30



Current[]

20
10
0
10
20
30
0

10

Time [s]

IV. C ONCLUSION
This paper has presented a modeling approach of a squirrel
cage DSIM. The rotor circuit is modeled as a concentrated
windings without electrical couplings between them. This
fact makes it easy to obtain the parameters of the DSIM
in the natural reference frame, which are calculated from
the synchronous model parameters that were obtained of
the standard no-load and blocked rotor tests results. The
modeling has worked well and the simulation results in the
natural reference frame are consistent with those obtained by
experimental startup and load step tests.

(d)

Figure 5: Start-up test: (a-c) Simulation; (b-d) Experimental; (a-b) Speed;

(c-d) Phase Current.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to thank Capes, CNPq and FAPESP
for the nancial support.



70

[6]

Torque [N]

60
50
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[7]

20
10
0
10
0


0.5

[8]

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Time [s]

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