Possible problems and solutions when

introducing variable speed drives

M.Didden J.Driesen R.Belmans
K.U.Leuven, Department of electrical engineering-Div.ESAT/ELECTA
Kasteelpark Arenberg 10, B-3001 Leuven-Heverlee, Belgium
Tel(+)32.16.32.10.20 Fax(+)32.16.32.19.85
e-mail ronnie.belmans@esat.kuleuven.ac.be
Introduction
The number of installed variable speed drives (VSDs) to reduce energy consump-
tion is far below the number that is economically justifiable. One of the main rea-
sons for this is the companies fear for possible problems resulting in equipment
damage or process interruptions that would outweigh benefits of energy savings.
This paper gives a review of possible problems that may arise when using fre-
quency converters to supply induction motors, and indicates precautionary meas-
ures that can be taken before installing a VSD and solutions afterwards if prob-
lems arise. The following topics are covered: power quality towards the grid,
electromechanical vibrations, extra losses, acoustic noise, overvoltages when us-
ing long cables, bearing problems and impact of voltage dips on the drive.
Power quality towards the grid
Most VSDs contain a three-phase bridge rectifier with diodes only conducting
when the line voltage in their path is higher than the DC bus voltage. While the
DC load contains inductances smoothing the load current, the line currents at the
AC side consists of current spikes during the conducting period of the diodes. De-
pendent on the line impedance, these currents can result in considerable harmonic
voltages. These harmonics may cause several problems, such as:
- Torque pulsations, reduced efficiency and possible overheating of AC-motors.
- Heating and losses in the transformer core and windings.
- Improper operation of protective relays and breaker failures.
In order to control the harmonics, standards such as IEEE-519-1992 or IEC 1000-
3-x specify recommended practices and requirements. To check whether or not
problems may occur regarding harmonics, some issues should be addressed, such
as capacitor banks without tuning reactors and the short-circuit capability.
2 M.Didden J.DriesenR.Belmans
A harmonic may be required to determine the interaction of VSD and grid. If it
turns out that the harmonic distortion due to the installation of VSDs will rise be-
yond acceptable limits, one of the following measures can be taken:
- Replacing the 3-phase rectifier with diodes by a 12-pulse rectifier with a 30-
degree phase shift or by an active front end, i.e. a fully active PWM-controlled
inverter bridge connected to the grid, capable of producing clean current.
- Installing passive filters with one or more tuned resonant circuits (tuned for the
5
th
, 7
th
and 11
th
harmonics).
- Installing active filters having the ability to compensate current harmonics.
- Lowering the impedance of the main distribution transformer.
Electromechanical vibrations
If the rotor of an electrical machine is not at the centre of the stator bore, a result-
ing force is generated, in general trying to reduce the smallest air-gap even further,
generally referred to as unbalanced magnetic pull. The problems linked to it are
common in larger machines. The so-called critical speed, where abnormal vibra-
tions occur, for radial vibrations is reduced by these magnetic forces. This reduc-
tion may be as much as 30%. In speed controlled drives, the reduced critical speed
can coincide with the drive speed, leading to large and very dangerous vibrations.
Due to flux optimisation of frequency inverters, the critical speed reduction may
change. Due to the static eccentricity (caused by the rotor not coinciding with the
centre of the stator bare), that often occurs in two-pole induction motors, double
supply frequency radial vibrations are generated. If this frequency coincides with
the natural frequency for radial vibrations, large vibrations may be expected.
Torsional oscillations due to harmonic components of supply voltages and cur-
rents from the inverter generate vibration components of the torque, with frequen-
cies six times the supply frequency and its multiples. The high switching frequen-
cies in modern inverters have made this no longer critical in up-to-date drives.
Additional Losses
Induction motors are manufactured for direct grid supply with a constant voltage
and frequency. In order to reduce starting current while increasing the starting
torque, special rotor construction have emerged over the years. If a motor is sup-
plied by a frequency converter, the fundamental frequency is no longer constant
and both current and voltage may contain harmonics.
As the flux is normally kept at a constant value in the air-gap, the magnetic losses
vary with the frequency (hysteresis proportional to the frequency, eddy currents
proportional to the frequency squared). Empirically an increase by a factor of 3.25
is found when the frequency goes from 50 to 120 Hz. At constant current an in-
creased stator conductor loss is found due to skin effect. Therefore, it is sometimes
advisable to use special types of stator windings when high supply frequencies are
used. Mechanical problems should not be overlooked at high speed: increased
Possible problems and solutions when introducing variable speed drives 3
windage and friction losses, mechanical stresses on the rotor, critical speeds, bear-
ing lubrication, etc. Also at low speeds, problems will occur. Especially at con-
stant torque application, as e.g. compressors, losses at low speed may be consider-
able. As induction motors in general are equipped with a cooling fan fixed on the
rotor shaft, cooling is reduced dramatically at low speed. Therefore, such applica-
tions require an independently driven fan. Harmonic voltages produce current
components at high frequency. These current harmonic induce relatively high cur-
rents in the rotor squirrel cage. In inverters of the pre-IGBT type, large addi-
tional losses were found. Due to the introduction of high switching frequencies,
these problems have been reduced dramatically.
Acoustic noise
Induction motors are most of the time cooled by a fan mounted on the machine
shaft, thus having the same speed. Due to the increased speed, not only the fan
power consumption, but also its acoustic noise level increases dramatically. The
importance of the inverter-motor interactions are illustrated by some tests carried
out on a 13.5 kW squirrel cage induction motor. The motor has a single-layer sta-
tor winding and a double-cage aluminium cast rotor. Two inverters were used: a
transistor based inverter having a switching frequency of 1 kHz while the switch-
ing frequency of the second, IGBT inverter can be set in between 1 and 12 kHz. In
general, noise decreases as the switching frequency increases. Especially at low
speed, acoustic noise reduction due to increased switching frequency is noticeable.

Table 1: Acoustic noise (in dB) of different inverters
50Hz Supply IGBT-Inverter IGBT-Inverter Transistor Inverter
1.2 kHz 12 kHz 1 kHz
68.8 71.5 69.4 74.6

When the different inverters are compared with respect to acoustic noise at 50 Hz,
only a 0.5 dB(A) increase is found when compared to the grid supply at a switch-
ing frequency of 12 kHz. At 1 kHz the increase is far more pronounced. A switch-
ing frequency above 10 kHz does not contribute to a noise reduction. The presence
of pure tones is more disturbing to human beings, for a given overall level. Using
random sampling of modern inverters, the pure tones may be avoided.
Overvoltages
IGBTs lead to very steep switching fronts, resulting in travelling waves in the
electrical connection between motor and inverter. A reflection and subsequent
voltage doubling at motor/inverter terminals may occur. The insulation of motor
windings may be destroyed, yielding sparks in explosion-endangered zones. Ap-
plications in such zones require long distances between inverter and motor, as the
inverter always has to be outside ex-zones, while the motor is in it. As the problem
is due to the steep front ends, reducing inverter switching frequency is not a solu-
4 M.Didden J.DriesenR.Belmans
tion. Only damping and smoothing voltage waves using chokes or special cable
types offer a fundamental way out. However, the introduction of chokes reduces
the dynamic drive behaviour and may be inacceptable. Furthermore, they increase
losses and introduce a substantial extra cost (up to 20 or 30% of the overall drive
cost). A lossy contains several isotropic, absorbing materials (Fig. 1).

PVC-isolation
High-frequent absorbing
material EMC/CO
conductor
screen of aluminum tape
PVC outside-screen

Fig. 1: Low pass cable
Bearing problems
Machine models fail in describing and explaining some parasitic effects in inverter
driven machines, especially with respect to bearing currents. The drive (Fig. 2) in-
cluding supply, DC link, switching elements, cables, motor and load machine is as
a complex system. The high-frequency common-mode voltage causes a capacitive
current to flow through parasitic capacitances, grounding system, cable shields
and through parts of motor and inverter. Fig. 3 shows a sketch of an induction mo-
tor. Iinternal distributed capacitances are simplified to concentrated elements:
winding-to-frame =C
WF
, winding-to-rotor C
WR
, rotor-to-frame C
RF
.
Several ways of protecting the bearings against premature failure are applicable:
- bearing current interruption using an electrically non-conducting bearing, e.g.
ceramic balls or rollers or a ceramic coating on the outer ring. An insulated
coupling is necessary if common-mode current flows via the coupling through
the load machine, its grounding system and back to the inverter.
- bearing current can be short-circuited by a brush-slipring-construction. This
solution may be necessary for capacitive shaft-to-ground voltages.
- bearing currents can be minimized or even avoided by access to the common-
mode voltage as source of bearing currents. Filtering at the inverter output is
possible but expensive.

Fig. 2: General configuration of an inverter drive
Possible problems and solutions when introducing variable speed drives 5

Fig. 3: Parasitic capacitances in an induction motor and test setup
Impact of voltage dips on the drive
Voltage dips are a power quality phenomenon in which the supply voltage is re-
duced with 10-99% for a short period of time (typically <1 s). Dips are mainly
caused by the starting of heavy loads or by short circuits. A voltage dip causes the
DC-link not to be loaded to its rated value. Most VSDs are equipped with a mini-
mum voltage protection to prevent damage to the motor or the end product. A
three-phase dip causing the voltage to drop by a higher percentage than this
threshold causes a motor stop (fig 4a).
Other types of dips, called unbalanced dips, result in a different behaviour of the
DC bus voltage. For a two-phase dip at the connection point of the load, the un-
balance in supply voltages causes the rectifier to operate in a single-phase mode as
one phase remains at its pre-event value (Fig.4b). Whether or not the DC bus volt-
age will reach the under-voltage protection level U
min
and consequently trip the
drive depends on the load conditions and size of the dc bus capacitor C. In most
processes, the energy efficiency gain outweighs the costs of voltage dips since the
tripped motor can easily and without any costs be restarted. Alternatively, the re-
start on the fly is a cheap remedy.


U
rat
t
sag t
dc bus voltage
t
dc bus voltage
a)
b)
U
min
U
rat
U
min
t
sag

Fig. 4 DC-bus voltage during a) a three-phase dip and b) a two-phase dip

In some processes, such as extrusion where synchronism of a large amount of mo-
tors has to be taken into account, the failure of a motor can cause considerable
losses. In these cases, installing a boost converter or an active front-end to the DC
6 M.Didden J.DriesenR.Belmans
bus can be an option to mitigate voltage dips. If the DC-bus is not accessible, a
Dynamic Voltage Restorer, a flywheel or a DySC is an option.
Conclusions
The introduction of variable speed drives can help in reducing the energy con-
sumption dramatically. However, the problems discussed in this paper have to be
avoided from the beginning as otherwise the energy savings benefits are jeopard-
ized by the costs of solving these problems afterwards.
Acknowledgement
The authors are grateful to the Belgian Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Vlaanderen, the Instituut voor de aanmoediging van Innovatie door Wetenschap
en Technologie in Vlaanderen, Electrabel and Laborelec for their support of this
work and the Research Council of the K.U.Leuven for granting a concerted re-
search action to support this research. J. Driesen holds a postdoctoral research fel-
lowship of the Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Vlaanderen.
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