IET-UK International Conference on Information and Communication Technology in Electrical Sciences (ICTES 2007),

Dr. M.G.R. University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Dec. 20-22, 2007. pp.333-339.

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION INTO PERFORMANCE

OF THREE-PHASE INDUCTION MOTOR UNDER SINGLE
PHASING USING STATIC CAPACITOR PHASE
CONVERTER
S.D. Naik
Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering
Shri Ramdeobaba Kamla Nehru Engineering College
Email-sdnaik_ngp@yahoo.co.in

Keywords: Induction Motor, Single Phasing,Torque-Speed formers. Also, since the use of converters debates the three
Characteristics , Static Phase Converter phase motor s and it is Possible to get only 70% of full load
power, farmer s use motor s ( I .e. pumps ) of higher rating
Abstract This Results in financial loss on side of farmers too. This
also results in increase in load, active power loss and
This paper analyses the performance of a threephase decrease in the power factor .The object of this paper is to
induction motor under single phasing condition. A static investigate continuous s ingle phase running of three-phase
converter using a capacitor is used to generate the third phase induct ion motor near synchronous speed, including the
of the threephase supply. The induct ion motor is coupled to a derivation of the permissible cur rents and the corresponding
DC generator for loading purpose. The s tatic phase converter mechanical output , as compared to original three-phase
can be easily built as a composite unit & will be very useful design rating of the motor
for defence purposes & in rural areas. Using this device the
motor can be loaded nearly to full load without sacrificing 2 Single Phasing & Its Causes [3]
much of the performance.
Loads using three-phase power sources are subject to loss of
1 Introduction one of the three phases from the power distribution System.
This condition is known as single phasing. When one of the
Currently, our country is reeling under severe energy crisis. fuses blows of f , the other two phases continue supply to the
To overcome and compensate for this crisis, the single motor . This may appear as two voltages supplying the motor
phasing policy was under taken. During evening hour s (peak , but actual ly only one voltage appears across the motor
load) ,the farmer s are discouraged from using their motor terminals , which is resultant of two supply voltages .1) The
pump sets, which operate on three-phase supply. This i s loss of a single phase on a three-phase line may be due to a
achieved by single phasing the supply to alternating groups of downed line or a blown pole top fuse on the utility system. 2)
feeder s in rural areas . Single phasing involves cutting of f Loss of a single phase may also result from a single-phase
one of the three phases so that three phase pump sets cannot over load condition causing one fuse to blow 3) A tree falling
operate but s ingle-phase light s & appliances in households on one of the phases 4) Equipment failure at customer s
can. However , many farmer s operate their three phase pump facility, such as an open pole on a damaged motor starter
sets on two-phase supply using a dummy capacitor bank. contact, an open over load relay or an open conductor in the
This in turn increases the peak demand. I t led to higher wiring to the motor or in its winding 5) Single phasing
energy losses as the use of converter s is only able to enhance occurs when one line on the motor side or secondary side of
power output to about 70% of that of name plate KW rating the trans former is opened. This can be caused by storm
of three phase load. Thus , to satisfy 100% load demand, damage, loose connect ions or insulation problems in the
motor of higher rating needs to be used. [1] For instance, wiring that blow fuses. I f a one-phase conductor supplying a
when only one phase supply is given, farmer s drive the water 3-phase running motor is opened the motor usually continues
and irrigation pumps using converter s ( i .e. capacitor s) , to run as a single-phase machine. But cur rent drawn by the
which convert available two phases to three phases. Due to operating phase is greater than design conditions for the
this, extra load gets added on to the distribution trans winding. You may not discover single phasing until the

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 IET-UK International Conference on Information and Communication Technology in Electrical Sciences

winding is damaged. Under some conditions, you may not s top. In any case the motor could be ser iously damaged.
recognize it at all. Prevent in trouble is s impetuses over load The ef fects of s ingle phas ing on s tar and del ta
protector s in al l three phases. connected motor s are di f ferent . They are given below
a) Star connected winding: - I f the motor is star
3 Effects of Single Phasing [3] connected, then l ine and phase cur rent s wi l l be
1.732xI where I is the cur rent under threephase
The loss of one phase or "leg" of a three-phase line causes balanced operat ion. Also cur rent wi l l f low through
serious problems for induct ion motors. two phases only.
1. The motor windings overheat due primarily to the f low of b) Del ta connected winding: - I f the motor is del ta
negative- sequence cur rent . The loss of a phase also connected then the l ine cur rent is 1.732xI , wi th
inhibits the motor 's ability to operate at its rated heavi ly loaded phase car rying twice the phase cur
horsepower . rent under heal thy operat ing condi t ions as normal
phase cur rent is equal to I/1.732.Single- phasing of
2. During single phasing, the product ion of negative phase
the secondary causes the motor amperage on the
sequence cur rents has following facts :
remaining two l ines to increase by 173%, whi le the
a) During single phasing, the positive sequence thi rd l ine drops to zero as shown in Fig.1
component reduces and results in low power delivery.
An unbalance of only 5% (R phase = 415 V, Y phase
= 415 V, B phase = 436 V) can reduce the out put by
25%, even though the motor continues to draw the
same cur rent as at the time of balanced condition.
This means that the motor cur rent has to increase
under unbalanced condition in order to deliver the
same power. This increase will result in motor
heating.
b) Moreover , negative sequence cur rents f low through
the stator windings . This results in induct ion of
negative sequence voltage in the rotor windings. Since
the rotor is short circuited, this will result in abnormal
cur rent f low in the rotor and damage the rotor
winding. A voltage unbalance of the order of 3% can
increase the heating by nearly 20% in the rotor.
4. On single phasing in both the above cases , motor will
c) The negative sequence impedance of the motor is operate as s ingle-phase induct ion motor . The motor
approximately same as the locked rotor impedance, when al lowed to run on 45 to 50% of the motor KW
which in turn is approximately one sixth of normal rating can produce serious overheating. For load beyond
motor impedance. Due to this even small voltage 65% the motor will actually stal l .
unbalance can produce large negative sequence cur
5. If single phasing occurs when a motor is rotating, the
rent in the motor.
torque produced by the remaining two positively rotating
d) The f requency of the negat ive sequence cur rent fields continues to rotate the motor and develop the torque
induced in the rotor wi l l be equal to ( supply f demanded by the load. The negatively rotating field, the
requency) x (2- sl ip) Hz. This is due to the fact that i t field associated with the lost phase, produces currents in
is revolving in the oppos i te di rect ion. This f inductive loads resulting in voltages in the faulted leg of
requency wi l l be typical ly around 99 Hz dur ing the three-phase supply. These voltages may be nearly
normal motor operat ion. Due to skin ef fect , high f equal to the phase voltage that was lost. Therefore,
requency negat ive sequence cur rents encounter high detecting a single-phasing condition by measuring the
rotor resis tance. Thi s in turn resul ts in over heat ing. voltages at the motor terminals is usually unproductive.
The increased res is tance is typical ly 5 t imes the
6. To produce rated torque under s ingle-phasing condiions ,
normal pos i t ive sequence resi stance
motor s will draw a l ine cur rent of 173 to 200% of
3. Depending on several factor s, a motor may cont inue to normal . The over load devices will open to protect the
run, but wi l l draw exces s ive cur rent in the remaining machine in this case. However , this will occur only
two phases, overheat and lose torque & mechanical s t res where the motor s are being operated at or near thei r
s. The motor wi l l lose speed, become noisy and poss ibly nameplate ratings . Loss of a s ingle phase to a three-

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Experimental Investigation into Performance of Three-Phase Induction Motor under Single Phasing using Static Capacitor Phase Converter

phase motor reduces the power output of that motor to

approximately 57%. I f the motor is lightly loaded,
circulating cur rent s may damage or destroy the motor
windings without the over load devices removing the
motor from the line. This will also occur where motor s
are over sized for their application. For example, a 5
horsepower motor is used where the load is only 3
horsepower . To provide adequate protect ion from s
ingle-phasing conditions , the over load devices must be
sized to the actual ful l - load RMS cur rent . This may be
determined with a clamp-on meter while the motor is
running at its normal full load. For applications where the
load is variable, another means of s ingle-phasing protect
Here, a typical unit uses a potential - type motor starting relay
ion will be required.
to regulate the larger s tar t capacitor , while a smaller ( in
7. Although three-phase motor s may continue to run, but value) capacitor provides continuous power to run the motor .
they are not capable of starting on a s ingle phase. I f after As the motor speed increases , the potential relay removes the
the over load devices on the energized phases isolate the star t capacitor from the circuit , and the motor operates.
motor , later at tempting a restart on that s ingle-phase
supply will cause the motor to draw locked rotor cur rent . B. Connected between the two heal thy phases and the
third open phase
4 Static or Capacitor Type Converters
In this method we connect two capacitor s , may be of
The phase converter will artificially generate the third leg of different ratings , between the heal thy phases and the open
a three-phase sys tem from the two poles of a s ingle-phase phase as shown in Fig.3 To select the capacitor sizes that will
system. The static phase converter is the basic building block be needed is generally just trial and error method, as the
for any phase converter . With the s tat ic phase converter the capacitor sizes will depend on the motor . For balancing the
motor will only receive about 80% of its normal operating input to the motor , fine- tuning of the two capacitor s is
power . Additionally, a separate static phase converter i s necessary
needed for each phase of three-phase motor . These are the
primary drawbacks to the static phase converter . However ,
the s tat ic phase converter is very simple to build. This loss
of power is balanced by the lower cost of the static phase
converter. The significant cost savings is why static
converters are so popular .Static converter s can be used in
two ways:

A. Connected to one of the phase inputs and the third

leg of the motor
In this method, the two-phase wires are connected to two of
the input s on a 3-phase motor . A capacitor is then connected
to one of the phase input s and the third leg of the motor A
phase shi f t through the capacitor al lows the voltage to be To fine-tune your capacitors, the voltages between each
displaced in time from i ts parent voltage. The result is a phase of the motor are needed to be checked. To check the
voltage distinct from the 2 phase lines. If the capacitor 's phase voltage, a probe from a voltmeter is placed on the
value- - its ability to process electrical cur rent - - is sufficient respective phase. If one of the phase voltages is low, and the
, the motor will operate. A motor requires about 6 times as other high, the capacitors are to be adjusted until these
much cur rent to star t as i t does to run, so a static-capacitor voltages get closer.. This process is quite cumbersome; hence
phase converter must have some means of switching a large we prefer the first method to this method
group of capacitor s in and out during motor starting as
shown in Fig.2

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 IET-UK International Conference on Information and Communication Technology in Electrical Sciences

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Experimental Investigation into Performance of Three-Phase Induction Motor under Single Phasing using Static Capacitor Phase Converter

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 IET-UK International Conference on Information and Communication Technology in Electrical Sciences

5 Experimental Analysis

In this experiment , a DC generator set is coupled to the shaft

of the induct ion motor rated 5 Hp, 415 V, 7.2 A, 1425 rpm,
delta (can be connected in star also) connected. The generator
output is loaded by using a loading rheostat . This is nothing
but per forming a load test on Induct ion motor . The
experiment has been per formed with s tar and delta connect
ion of the stator windings and the motor performance
characteristics are plotted. The delta connected capacitor
bank is used with one terminal unconnected for operation
under single phasing [2] . The performance characteristics of
three phase Induct ion Motor (Delta & Star Connected)
Under Single Phasing using a static capacitor converter are
shown in fol lowing f igures (Fig.4 to Fig.13}

6 Inference
1) Torque – Speed Characteristics a) In the operating region,
it is observed that output torque increases at the cost of
speed. b) At full load, torque produced is found to be
highest for 3KVAr capacitor in ∆ connection and KVAr
capacitor in Y- connection and least under single
phasing.c) While increasing capacitor KVAr from lower
to a higher value, the slip at full load is decreasing i.e. the
slip is highest for single phasing condition and it reduces
as the capacitor KVAr rating increases. d) The full load
toque for highest capacitor KVAr used is about 70% for
that of 3-phase operation.e) The full load torque produced
by using capacitors of appropriate capacitor KVAr rating
is almost twice as compared to that during single phasing
condition.
2) Speed –Power Characteristics a) Speed decreases as
output power increases.b) Power output increases faster
with speed for KVAr rating capacitors used.c) Power
output at full load is highest for 3KVAr capacitor in Y
and 5KVAr capacitor in ∆ and least for single phasing
condition. It is about 75% of 3-phase power at full load.
3) Power – Current Characteristics
a) Current increases with increase in output power
demand.
b) Rate of rise of current is higher for 0 KVAr capacitor
and this rate goes on decreasing as we increase the
capacitor KVAr rating.
c) Power output at rated current is highest for 3KVAr
capacitor in Y and 5KVAr capacitor in ∆ connected
winding, and is about 75% of 3phase power at same
current.
4) For ∆ connection the current in phase ac is about twice
that in the other two phases is phase ab and phase bc.

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Experimental Investigation into Performance of Three-Phase Induction Motor under Single Phasing using Static Capacitor Phase Converter

5) For Y connection the current in healthy phases is found to This is undesirable in the energy deficient surrounding. The
be about 1.732 times the current during 3phase balanced basic reason because of which the use of static converters
supply operation. can’t yield 100% output is the use of capacitors. The current
6) Both above inferences matches the theoretical inferences discharged by the capacitors into the open phase is not fully
“stated in effects of phasing” given in section. sinusoidal, but it is of peaky nature and not present for the
complete duration of sinusoidal waveform of input signal. So
lots of harmonics are present in the current, which results in
7 Conclusion
overheating and noise and reduction in maximum motor
The inferences derived from the laboratory experiments agree
satisfactorily with the theoretical effects due to Single output. Also the phase shift produced by capacitors is not
phasing and use of static converters. It has been observed that 1200 but it is only 900. Hence balanced input conditions
the three-phase motor cannot start can’t be achieved with the use of static converters and the life
of motor is reduced. However the use converters improves
on single phasing. Theoretically, the reason can be stated as the performance of motor to about 75% output, and hence
the lack of production of three phase revolving flux in the air they should be preferred during single phasing condition
gap. From the study it is clear that the motor continues to run
as single phase motor if one of the three phases blows off References
i.e.single phasing occurs while running and can drive 45%
load. But this operation is not allowed for longer period as it [1] M.H.El-Maghraby, R.H.Thejel, M.M.Ibrahim. “New approach
for analysis of three- phase induction motor of different ratings
leads to overheating, high noise, induction of harmonics in
connected to single phase supply”, IEE Proceedings-B, Vol.139,
the input supply, reduction in motor life and damage to the No.3, May 1992.
motor if proper protection is not incorporated. It is advisable [2] J.H.H.Alwash “Predicting performance of three phase
that the motor should not be operated on single phasing but induction motors connected to single- phase supplies”, IEE
can be satisfactorily driven by using static converters on 75% proceedings on Electr.Power Appl.Vol.143, No.4,1996
full load without much overheating all day. The laboratory [3] Kersting W.H.,” Causes and effects of single phasinginduction
experiments also verify this. But it is also observed that the motors”, Rural Electric Power Conference, 2004
three-phase machine is derated and the efficiency is reduced.

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