Single phase Induction Motor

Anandarup Das
Asst. Professor
Room-402A, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Delhi.
anandarup@ee.iitd.ac.in
Content
• Chapter 7 in PC Sen’s book

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 Single phase induction motor
• A large majority of low power applications which require motors are made of
single phase induction motors.
• Usually used at low power (less than one kW). Used in domestic fans, pumps,
hand held machines, refrigerator etc.

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Construction
• The rotor is a squirrel cage rotor where the
windings are short circuited and very similar to
three phase induction motor.
• The stator has single phase winding.
• It also has capacitors connected externally.

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Limitation
• Single phase induction motor cannot self start,
unlike the three phase type.
• This is because of the pulsating magnetic field
produced by a single phase in the stator
winding. There is no rotation of the magnetic
field.
• A voltage is induced in the rotor by transformer
action, but it cannot cause rotation.

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Pulsating field
• A pulsating field (mmf or flux) is equivalent to two
rotating fields of half the magnitude but rotating in
opposite directions with the same speed.
• For a sinusoidally distributed stator winding, the mmf
at any position θ is given by,

• Let
• Then,

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Pulsating field
• The same analysis can also be done graphically.

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Two fields
• This means that for analysis purpose in a single phase induction motor, we
can assume that there are two rotating mmfs in opposite directions.
• Both these mmfs produce torque but in opposite direction.
• At standstill, the two torques are
equal in magnitude and the
resultant torque is zero. Hence the
motor has no starting torque.
• At any other speed, the net torque
(bold curve) drives the rotor.
• If we start the motor by an auxiliary
mean, then the motor can continue
to rotate.

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Slip
• The slip with respect to forward field is,

• The slip with respect to the backward field is,

• The rotor equivalent circuit is shown for forward

and backward fields.

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MMF
• Forward field
• The rotor current induced by the forward field has a frequency of sf. The rotor mmf is
at a slip frequency with the rotor but at synchronous frequency with the stator.
• The resultant of forward stator mmf and forward rotor mmf creates a forward air gap
flux, which generates an emf Ef.
• Backward field
• The rotor current induced by the backward field has a frequency of (2-s)f. The
corresponding rotor mmf is rotating backward at synchronous frequency with the
backward stator mmf.
• The resultant of backward stator mmf and backward rotor mmf creates a backward air
gap flux, which generates an emf Eb.

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Forward and backward flux
• At standstill, the forward field circuit and backward
field circuit have equal flux, emf, impedance and
current.
• When the rotor is in motion, the impedance of the
backward circuit falls in magnitude and the power
factor lowers.
• As such, the backward rotor circuit current increases
in magnitude compared to forward rotor circuit.
• The backward field rotor flux is now stronger than
forward field rotor flux. Hence, the net backward flux
in the air gap reduces in magnitude as compared to
the forward flux.

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Forward and backward flux
• As a result, as the speed increases, the forward
flux increases in magnitude and the backward flux
decreases in magnitude.
• However, the resultant flux in the air gap remains
constant to generate an induced voltage in the
stator winding which will oppose the supply
voltage.
• Hence, as the rotor rotates, the forward torque
increases while the backward torque decreases.

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 Modified torque speed curve

• At any speed, the forward torque magnitude is several times more than the
backward torque magnitude.

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Equivalent circuit at standstill
• When rotor is standstill, the equivalent
circuit is shown.
• The sum of Ef and Eb adds up to E.

• What is the circuit at any slip s?

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Equivalent circuit
• The rotor circuit as reflected in the stator due to the
forward air gap flux is shown.
• The rotor circuit as reflected in the stator due to the
backward air gap flux is shown.
• Zf >Zb and Ef> Eb at running condition.

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Calculations
• The forward and backward impedances are
given by,

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Calculations
• The air gap powers are given by,

• The torques are given by,

• The resultant torque is,

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Calculations
• The mechanical power is given by,

• The output power is,

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Calculations
• The rotor copper loss due to the forward
field is,

• The rotor copper loss due to the backward

field is,

• Total copper loss is,

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How to self start the motor?
• The single phase induction motor has no starting torque.
• We can create starting torque by doing the following:
• Introduce an auxiliary winding
• Introduce a capacitor in auxiliary winding
• Some of these solutions improve the starting performance but degrades
the running performance.

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Auxiliary winding
• The stator has two windings, main and auxiliary.
These two windings are set 90 electrical degrees
apart in space in the stator.
• The auxiliary winding is designed to be switched
out of the circuit at some set speed by a
centrifugal switch.
• The impedances of the two circuits are such that
the currents in the main and the auxiliary
windings are phase-shifted from each other.
• Usually the auxiliary winding has higher R/X ratio
than the main winding, so that the current in the
auxiliary winding leads the current in the main
winding.

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Auxiliary winding
• The higher R/X ratio is achieved by using a
thinner wire in the auxiliary winding. The
auxiliary winding is used only during starting so
current rating need not be high.
• This type of motor where an auxiliary winding is
used is also called split phase winding motor.
• By changing the winding terminals of the
auxiliary winding, reversal of rotation is possible.

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Flux density

• The position of flux density due to auxiliary winding is displaced by 900 to

the position of flux density due to main winding.
• The current in the auxiliary winding leads the current in main winding.
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 Flux density

• BA will initially peak and then BM will peak, causing a net rotation of the magnetic
flux density in air gap.
• We thus get a moderate starting torque.
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Capacitor start motor

• We can get more starting torque by inserting a capacitor in the auxiliary

winding.

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Capacitor run motor
• Often the capacitor is left in the circuit. Then it is
called the capacitor run motor.
• Power factor and efficiency during running
condition is better in this case.
• But starting torque is less.

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Capacitor start capacitor run motor
• Two capacitors, one for starting and one for
running, are used.
• Provides the best performance but is
expensive.

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Comparison

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