IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 14, No.

3, September 1999 553

HIGH STARTING TORQUE FOR AC SCR CONTROLLER

Antonio Ginart * + Rosana Esteller + A. Maduro , R. Piiiero ,R.Moncada

* ECE Department Center for Electric Power
0 Dpto. Conversih y Transporte de Energia
Tennessee TechnologicalUniversity +Universidad Simcin Bolivar
Cookeville, TN 38505, USA Caracas, Venezuela

Abstract.- A control strategy is proposed for AC thyrlstor AC thyristor controllers have been traditionally used for
controllers. The main feature of the proposed technique is that starting induction motors to reduce the current, commonly
motors can start with high torque, while using an economical referred to as “soft start.” Typical “soft start” configurations
design. This allows the use of AC thyristor controllers for a wlde are shown in Figures 1.a- 1.d. The widely used configurations
range of applications, where they have not been used before. are the ones in Figures 1.a and d because they do not need
The method employs the AC thyristor controller as a discrete
frequency inverter that increases the frequency until the access to the internal winding connection.
frequency of the line is reached (6OHz in this case). These The reduction of the starting current in induction motors
discrete frequencies produced by the control are sub-multiples (especially with reference to big motors) reduces the
of line frequency. They are generated by omission or inclusion amplitude of flicker in the power system voltage.
of line frequency half cycles. Voltage sequences are predefined The underlying principle of soft-start is to reduce the
for each sub-multiple of line frequency. In order to obtain voltage applied to the terminals of the motor at starting. An
positive torque for all these frequencies, the system is open-loop control system advances the firing angle of the
unbalanced. The proposed control Is simulated (using EMTP), thyristors as a function of time. To start the motor, the
and built. Comparisons are done with the traditional AC
voltage is increased slowly to maintain a small positive
thyristor starter. Results show reduced R M S starting current,
increased starting torque and the possibility to operate at low acceleration torque. This causes the desired reduction of the
speeds. normally high starting current. Problems can occur due to the
quadratic relationship between voltage and electro-magnetic
Key words: AC Controllers, SCR, EMTP, inverters, induction torque. A small reduction in voltage produces a considerable
motors, motor drivers, soft start, flickers, high starting torque, drop in electro-magnetic torque, which may cause a motor
voltage sequences. with load to stall 191. This implies that the traditional “soft
start” method has limited applications. One of them is with a
I. INTRODUCTION motor that does not have a mechanical load at start. Another
application is when the torque is a function of velocity, such
In the last few decades, the production of power electronic as with fans or pumps.
drivers has been plentiful and diverse. Some of these drivers
are GTO’s, power MOSFET’s, IGBT’s, and MCT’s [1]-[2].
Even with these new devices, the basic thyristor still provides
a robust, simple, and economical device that has many useful
.
applications Several of these applications are trimmers,
furnace controls, power factor correction in transmission and
distribution systems, electronic breakers [3], and soft start
applications for induction motors [4]-[8].

PE-511-EC-2-07-1998 A paper recommended and approved by the

IEEE Electric Machinery Committee of the IEEE Power Engineering
Society for publication in the IEEE Transactions on Energy
Conversion. Manuscript submitted August 11, 1997; made available
for printing July 2, 1998.

Figure 1: Soft Start Topologies

Unfortunately, many induction motor applications have a

load at startup and cannot use the traditional “soft start”
method. Thus, in this paper an alternative starting method is
proposed for the applications where there is a load on the
motor at standstill.

0885-8969/99/$10.00 0 1998 IEEE

554

reduction of R M S current with respect to the traditional

11. DESCRIPTION method showed in Figure 3(a). Another advantage, shown in
Figure 3(b), is the production of high starting torque. The
AC thyristor controllers are used like inverters [lo] by benefits of the DFC can be noted in both figures from 0.5 to
increasing the frequency in discrete steps up to the line 1.O slip, corresponding to the voltage discrete frequency
frequency. These discrete steps are sub-multiples of the line increments from zero up to 30Hz.
frequency. They are obtained by triggering the SCRs to omit Another application allows the operation of an induction
or include selected half cycles of the line frequency. This can motor for a short time at a low velocity near full torque. In
be appreciated in Figure 2, where the half cycles of the line addition, by applying negative sequence currents the motor
that are included, are shaded. This figure shows the half can act as a braking system. The extended and traditional
cycles used for generation of 12,30 and 60Hz, considering a applications are shown in the Figure 4.
60Hz line frequency. Some other discrete frequencies that
can be generated from a 60Hz line are 20, 15 and 7.5H.z. Standard Application /.+ “IwVe

12 Hz 30 Hz 60 hz

,
Figure 2: Synthesis of Sub-multiples of the Line
Lad staning Approximition speed
Frequency mquirerncnr
Extended Application
For a three-phase balanced system, the sequences of the
sub-multiple frequency voltages are predefined. This does Figure 4: Standard and Extended Applications
not ensure the generation of positive torque; therefore, a
solution to this problem is to unbalance the system. Voltage
imbalance is achieved by changing appropriately the 60Hz 111. THEORY OF DISCRETE
FREQUENCY
half cycles that will be omitted, such that the generated METHOD
frequency remains the same, but the phase shift varies. SCRs
are triggered using as a reference the zero crossings of the
60Hz wave. This implies that the possible phase shifts are An analysis of DFC method is presented below. Equations
limited as is analyzed in section 111. are developed to explain the behavior of this process. From
the system voltages, we can produce sub-multiple frequencies
The Discrete Frequency Control (DFC) method emulates
the starting with inverters. Therefore, applying this method in of the line frequency. The line frequency (qine)is related to
combination with a “soft start” scheme will allow the motor the discrete frequency (mgm) as,
to start at near full load. This can be accomplished by
increasing the frequencies in discrete steps until 30Hz. At ~ l i ~ ~ =(1)~ ~ ~ ~ ’ r
that moment, the traditional method to reduce the current at where r is an integer.
the line frequency must be used. One advantage of this
process is the For a balanced system, positive sequences must be
generated. This implies that there is a 120-degree phase shift
between phases. Taking phase A as the reference, phase B of
the generated signal yields:
2.n
o,,.t--=O (2)
3

The zero crossings of the 60Hz-phase B voltage are given by:

(a) (b)
Figure 3: Current and Torque for a Start with 100% and
mlinp. t --2.n
3
=n.n (3)
75% of Nominal Voltage, and for a System with DFC
Method (a) Current vs. Slip (b) Torque vs. Slip where n is an integer.
 555

The sub-multiples that can be generated and provide (7)

systems with positive sequences, can be derived from
equations (1)-(3).
2.n
3.n n.n-
r=-+I (4) aphiul.ec =- 3 (8)
2

Repeating the same process for negative sequence yields: Thus, the first harmonic of the generated voltages is:

r = -3.17
-l (n. II t ----)
2.n
2 Vb=Vsin(wl,,, . t - r 3 ) (9)
This means the predefined sub-harmonic sequences and
respective frequencies are:

Table 1: Sequences of the Generated Sub-harmonics for a

It should be noted, that the number of zero crossings of the

generated kequency in a 60Hz period (n,), is given by:
NB: No Balanced
nz = 2 r (11)

In order to obtain positive sequence, the 30Hz system must -

Table 2: Case of 30Hz Solutions for n where r=2
be unbalanced.

2 ,

1- From the sixteen possible unbalanced systems, we choose

C m the most balanced one, which corresponds to the highest
positive sequence. The sequences are evaluated for each
..... C30Hz possibility using the Fortescue transformation. Choosing the
phase angles for the highest positive sequence gives the
following system.
Figure 6: Negative Balanced Sequence for the 30Hz Case

JI/
Va=VF
Previous calculations are for generated balanced systems,
but for any generated system (not necessarily balanced) we V b = V h
can define a set of generic equations as follows:
UP". !-U = 0 (6) vc=vpJ vc
Va

Figure 7: Most Positive Sequence for the 30Hz Case

Assuming again phase A as the zero phase reference, from
equations (I), (3) and (7), phases B and C of the generated
system can be expressed as: Figure 8 shows how the system is unbalanced in phase in
order to obtain positive sequence.
556

Va t

Figure 8: Positive Unbalanced Sequence for the 30 Hz Figure 11. Most Positive Sequence for the 20Hz Case
Case
For other non-positive sequence discrete frequencies, the
The resultant composition for this frequency is: analysis is similar.

IV.SIMULATION
t 0.91
0.24 p.u 0.33 p.u

A Sequence + Sequence. Sequence 0

Although the practical implementation of the SCR-AC
controller is relatively simple, the analysis is complex due to
the SCR’s turning off when the current mives to zero. Then
the set of differential equations generates a transcendental
system with no closed form solution. The numerical analysis
was presented by Lip0 [4] three decades ago. Since then,
Figure 9: Resultant of the (+), (-), and zero Sequences for several software packages have been developed, and among
the 30Hz Case Shown in Figure 8. them, EMTP-ATP [I 11 is widely used.
The induction machine is simulated using the UM
(Universal Machine) routines that employ the d,q
Since the system is unbalanced, the motor has a reduced transformationto compute the torque and the speed, returning
positive torque. This is shown in Figure IO. the currents to the original system A, B, C. The DFC strategy
is implemented using the facilities of tacs (see Figure 12).
2.5 ,

-Total

I 02 0.4 0.6 0.8

-0.5f
S

Figure 10: Resultant of Torque Figure 12. EMTP Simulation

With a three-phase model, various control schemes were

Applying the same analysis for the case of 20H2, 36 simulated using EMTP. Results showed a reduction in the
possibilities are obtained (including any combination of the RMS current during motor starting. The instantaneouscurrent
phase angles) shown in Table 2. obtained from the EMTP simulation was used to compute the
RMS current value per cycle, which are plotted on Fig. 13 for
Table 2: Case of 20 Hz.where r=3 three cases of no load motor starting. One of the plotted
I n 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 curves shows the motor starting with full voltage, other with
reduced voltage (“soft-start”), and the third one with Discrete
Frequency Control. The y-axis represents the RMS starting
current. In DFC, three frequencies (15Hz, 30Hz, and 60Hz)
The most positive sequence for the unbalanced system of were used in the simulation to start the motor, and we can see
20Hz is shown in Figure 11. how the current fluctuates as the frequencies change. The
frst local minimum is at 15Hz. When the frequency is
changed to 30Hz, the current initially increases due to an
increasing slip. As the slip decreases, the current is reduced
to its steady state value, which is approximately two and a
half times greater than the nominal current in this simulation.
At that point, the frequency is increased to 60Hz and the
RMS current increases to match the “soft-start” curve.

100

80

a 60
40 Figure 15: The Corresponding Motor Speed of Fig.14.
- - ..- .Soft star
20
-DFC
0
0 50 100 150 200
v. EXPERIMENTAL, RESULTS
w(rad/s.)
The built system is shown in the Figure 16. The discrete
Figure 13: RMS Current for Three Motor Starts with no frequency changes used were 7.5, 15, 30 and 60Hz with a
Load predetermined angle a in order to obtain the desired torque
and current. With the aim of inhibiting the quantity of pulses
An example of transition from 15Hz to 60Hz was
needed to change the frequency, a simple digital control was
simulated using EMTP. The corresponding current and speed
implemented. Its control signals are obtained from the zero
are shown in Figures 14 and 15. In this case, the mechanical
crossings of the neutral-phase voltages. It is based on a four-
torque was 86% of the full load torque. In order to obtain a
zoom on the transition frequency, the initial velocity was set bit counter. Each controller phase has a counter, which
performs the frequency division. This kind of controller is
to 10 rad/% Fig. 14 allows to see how after 0.4 s the machine
very inexpensive, since it implies a little modification to the
arrives to “15Hz steady state”, where the slip is relatively
control logic of the soft-start controller.
low, and hence the current remains in a low RMS value. In
this condition, the RMS current was computed yielding 200%
greater than the nominal current. After 0.5 s in “15Hz steady-
state” condition, at 0.9 s the frequency is changed to 60Hz. In
this condition, the slip grows and thus, the current does so
too. This example shows that the current value during the
“1 5Hz steady-state” condition was twice the nominal one.
Having only twice the nominal current would allow operation
of the induction motor for a short period of time [12].

150 I I

Figure 16: Scheme of the DFC System

Figures 17 and 18 show voltage and current of the motor

operating in a no load condition at 30Hz. The wave of
voltage is fairly sinusoidal. This occurs because an induced
voltage of frequency close to 30Hz appears across the motor
Figure 14: Current in Phase A during Motor Startup at terminals when there is no conduction (SCRoff).
15- with a Discrete Change to 60Hz.
558

200

S
ID
Figure 17: Line to Neutral Motor Voltage at 30Hz 7.5
Frecuency

Figure 20: Stator Current and Voltage THD

The precise time estimation of how long the motor can

operate in this condition is determined by the thermal model
of the machine [12][13]. In any case, taking into account the
thermal transient time and the capacity of the motor to
support full starting current, this time is estimated to be at
least several seconds.
The current THD could affect weak systems due to the
-15 1 S high level of harmonics injected to it. Pulsating torque was
Figure 18: Stator Current at 30Hz observed and its evaluation over the motor would be an
interesting topic to investigate.
The analysis of harmonics for the waves of voltage and Figure 21 shows the torque developed by the machine
when the DFC is used. The current is maintained at a nominal
current (Figure 19) shows a relative little harmonic content
value (16A) for the different frequencies (7.5, 15. 30 and 60
for the voltage. This is achieved due to the induced voltage
Hz). The torque reduction is compared with the theoretical
present in the motor.
equivalent for nominal current.
1

0.8

0.6
a 0.4
0.2

0
0 300 600 900 1200 1500 1800
r.p.m
Figure 19: Stator Current and Voltage Harmonics at
Figure 21: Comparison of the Torque Developed by the
30Hz
Machine at Nominal Current
In general, the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) grows as
the Frequency decreases, because of the reduction of the VII. CONCLUSIONS
motor induced voltage (Figure 20). However, in the case of
the current, it tends to have low variation around 1.5 in p. u., The DFC method is an alternative control that increases
with a slight decrease at low frequencies. This is because for the future of traditional “soft-start” methods. The analysis
low frequencies more line cycles are available to generate the presented here, shows how to generate balanced or
wave of discrete frequency. It is clear that this kind of unbalanced discrete-frequency systems with positive
distortion does not allow the motor to operate in steady state, sequences to reduce the starting RMS current. The DFC
except for short periods of time, operation with a high torque method allows an induction motor to start at nearly rated
is possible. torque with a reduced starting current.
 559

Using DFC, an induction motor has the ability to operate at Appendix

low speeds with a load for a short period. Simulated results in
this case show that the current was two times the nominal Motor Data:
RMS rated current. Experimental results confirm the DFC as VL,,=208 IL = 16 A P,=4Kw
a simple, economical and high potential technique for motor 4 poles Nominal r.p.m = 1780
starters. r,= .3 i2 L,,= 1.91 mH rtr=O. 142R
L,,’= 1.91 mH L,= 68.9 mH
ACKNOWLEDGMENT Where VLL, Po, r,, L,, L,,, and L,,,, represent the line to line voltage, the
The authors gratefully acknowledge Rangarajan M. Tallam output power, the rotor resistance,the leakage stator inductance, the leakage
rotor inductance, and the magnetizing inductance, respectively.
for his constructive critiques of the original manuscript.

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