Influence of modulation frequency on the

properties of the induction motor, which is

supplied from frequency converter
Ji Kubn

Eva Konen

Department of electrical enginering

Technical university of Liberec
Liberec, Czech republic
Jiri.kubin@tul.cz
AbstractFrequency converters are used today in a

Department of electrical enginering

Technical university of Liberec
Liberec, Czech republic
Eva.konecna@tul.cz
output alternate voltage with the aid of pulse-width
modulation (PWM). Output voltage is formed by two
waveforms, first one is sinusoidal with frequency
proportional to desired rotation speed of motor. The
second one is modulation signal. It has constant
amplitude and oscillates at modulation frequency,
which is several times greater than synchronous
frequency. This frequency corresponds to synchronous
speed of induction motor. Complex frequency
converters allow changing modulation frequency in the
specified range. Siemens Simovert Masterdrives
converter enables to operate drive at modulation
frequency form 2 to 16 kHz. Experimental
measurements demonstrate the effect of that parameter
on drive dynamics.

large extent in the industry, while they allow continuous

regulation of the rotation speed of the induction motor.
There are different families of the frequency converters
on the market. The simple ones allows only U/f control,
and very simple changes in the control structure, the
complex ones have also vector control and direct moment
control and their control structure can be changed
significantly. User can affects number of parameters
(thousands) and achieves very various quality of the
drive.

I. INTRODUCTION
Laboratory of Department of electrical engineering is
equipped with frequency converter from Siemens
company Simovert Masterdrives Vector Control. It is
indirect frequency converter with DC-link. Converter
consists of uncontrolled rectifier, DC link with
smoothing capacitance and output converter. The
converter transforms DC voltage from DC link to

Figure 1. Schematic wiring of the testing workplace

steps. At first there were adjusted nominal parameters

of the asynchronous motor into the converter. Then
was choosed the desired control loop variation, the
minimal value of modulation frequency (2 kHz) was
set up and the auto-tuning procedure was passed
afterwards. The parameters of speed controller were
adjusted to achieve the shortest start-up time and the
ramp-function generator was decommissioned to
realize unit step of speed setpoint.

II. WORKPLACE DESCRIPTION

The experimental workplace consists of machine set
(fig. 1) that allows to measure basic electrical and
mechanical quantities important for evaluation of
dynamic behaviour of the asynchronous drive.
Electrical drive is composed from three-phase induction
motor drive and load drive (DC motor with separate
excitation). Both machines are connected togethet by
the shaft coupling. Nominal parameters of the induction
motor are: Un = 3 x 400 V, In = 3,9 A, Pn = 1,5 kW,
cos = 0,75, nn = 1000 rpm.
Induction motor is supplied from frequency converter
Simovert Masterdrives Vector Control (Simovert VC)
6SE7016 1EA61 with rated current In = 6,1 A. The
block diagram of the control structure contains speed
and current controllers, which controls the run of the
induction motor with constant rotation speed or with
constant torque. The speed control loop was used for the
experiment purposes while the parameters of the current
controller were kept on the default factory adjustment,
because producer does not recommend changing these
parameters.
It is possible to operate the controller in five control
loops:
Version A vector control without speed encoder
Version B U/f control with speed encoder
Version C vector control with speed encoder
Version D U/f control with speed encoder
Version E control of the torque

The run-up was carried out with the lowest modulation

frequency and the actual speed waveform was
recorded. The actual value of speed is measured by the
IRC optical speed sensor with 1024 pulses per
revolution. The sensor is evaluated by converter for
regulation purposes. Simovert Masterdrive control unit
can record up to 8 signals into the internal data memory
and then transfer them in the PC through serial data
link RS232 to post-processing.
The similar measurement was carried out for higher
modulation frequencies 8 and 16 kHz. Every change of
the control variants leads to the new autotuning
procedure to optimize the parameters of control
structure. This automatic setting was performed only at
beginning when the lowest pulse frequency was set.
When the new modulation frequency value is the
integer multiple of prewious value, the autotuning
procedure is not necessary.
The figure no. 2 and no. 3 present actual speed values
of variant A and B. Variants C and D have very similar
shape and therefore they are not showed.

III. INFLUENCE OF MODULATION FREQUENCY ON NOLOAD RUNNING

The measurement, which reveals the influence of

modulation frequency, was realised only for A, B, C
and D variant of control loop and consists from several
120

100

actual engine speed (%)

80

60

40

n/f(set),
20

2 kHz
8 kHz
16 kHz

0
0

0,5

1,5

2,5

3,5

-20
time (s)

Figure 2. Curves of the actual rotation speed at no-load start and at different pulse frequency (variation A)

120

100

actual engine speed (%)

80

60

40

n/f(set),
20

2 kHz
8 kHz
16 kHz

0
0

0,5

1,5

2,5

3,5

-20
time (s)

Figure 3 Curves of the actual rotation speed at no-load start and at different pulse frequency (variation B)
and 8 kHz are identical. The small differences can be
found in the initial oscillations. It follows from the
graph no.2 that the oscilations are the highest for the
lowest modulatin frequency. Oscilating of actual speed
at the beginning of the start can be caused by the
sensing error of encoder due to variance of
instantaneous speed values. For more exact evaluation
of the actual speed we shoud use an encoder with more
pulses per revolution.

The individual curves overlap in variant A,

nevertheless the difference is apparent in the speed of
the grow of the rotation speed at higher pulse
frequency.The difference is very small and makes
0,02s. The actual speed overshoot is higher for higher
pulse frequencies, the difference is very small about
one percent.
On the other side the ramp-up time is the slowest at 16
kHz in variant B. Drives run-ups for pulse frequency 2
120

actual engine speed (%)

100

80

60

40
n/f(set),
2 kHz
8 kHz

20

16 kHz

0
0

0,5

1,5

2,5

time (s)

Figure 4 Waveform of the actual speed at load step with different pulse frequencies (variation A)

3,5

120

actual engine speed (%)

100

80

60

40
n/f(set),
2 kHz
8 kHz
20

16 kHz

0
0

0,5

1,5

2,5

3,5

time (s)

Graph 5 Waveform of the actual speed at load step with different pulse frequencies (variation B)
IV. DESCRIPTION OF THE LOADING MEASUREMENT
Electric drives are determined for operating under
specific or nominal load. Therefore it is interesting to
reveal the influence of pulse frequency value on the
actual speed waveform if the drive runs up.
The load measurement consists again of several steps.
The converter was adjusted at desired control version
with the monitored value of the pulse frequency. The
induction motor was loaded with 10% of the rated load
torque produced by the DC-drive. After 0,3 s the load
torque steps at nominal value. The signal of actual
speed of the motor was recorded by the same way as in
the no-load measurement. The same measurement was
carried out for variant A D and desired values of the
pulse frequency. The final curves are displayed in the
graphs 3 5. Variation D is very similar to variation B
and therefore is not showed.
The start of induction motor is not affected by the
magnitude of pulse frequency (as well at no-load run)
when the load torque steps if the A version of control
structure (vector control without speed encoder) is
used.
From measured graphs 2 to 5 follows, that the start of
induction motor at spring loading in the case of
variation A (vector control without speed encoder) is
not affected with magnitude of pulse frequency as well

at no-load running. The actual speed rise to desired

value of the steady-state speed in the same time at any
pulse modulations, although the starting build-up is
steeper. Revolutions for all three pulse frequencies
drop about 22 % at 100 % load.
I the case of B variation (U/f control with speed
encoder) is the magnitude of the drop maximal 8 %, the
backspace to steady-state value is very slow and reach
the original value in the 2,5 s. The influence of pulse
frequency is minimal in this case and so the individual
curves of the rotation speed coincide.

The absence of the speed encoder shows at C variation

(U/f control with speed encoder). The pulse frequency
16 kHz caused the drop about 23 %, at the pulse
modulations 8 and 2 kHz was the drop even to 28 %.
There are also high overshoots in this case that
decrease with the pulse frequency reduction.
The overshoot is 4,6 % for 16 kHz and 3,7 % for 8
kHz. The value of pulse frequency affects also the
actual speed regulation time if the load step occurs. The
actual speed returns to the steady-state value after 1,5 s
at pulse frequency 16 kHz and after 3 seconds if 8 kHz
is used. The regulation action takes longer than 5s at 2
kHz.

120

actual engine speed (%)

100

80

60

40
n/f(set),
2 kHz
8 kHz
20

16 kHz

0
0

0,5

1,5

2,5

3,5

time (s)

Figure 6. Waveform of the actual speed at load step with different pulse frequencies (variation C)
V. CONCLUSION
From the measurements, that deal with the influence of
the pulse frequency on the start-up of induction motor
results that very different situation happen in the case
U/f control and vector control. The magnitude of pulse
frequency has no influence on the drive dynamics
either at the no-load start or at the load start. The
increasing pulse frequency has minimal influence on
dynamic of the drive start-up at U/f control.
Other situation comes up if vector control is used. In
this case it is possible to improve the dynamic of the
drive with the increasing of the pulse frequency. This
change is most apparent by absence of speed encoder.
In the other side the converter hardware demands rise
up with pulse frequency growth. The converter has to
perform higher amount of the numerical operation that
slows down the transient processes at start. If the
number of numerical operation is too high, the
converter can stop the drive due to overload of internal
CPU with failure message.
REFERENCES

[1]
[2]

[3]

Compendium Simovert Masterdrives

Pavelka, J.,eovsk, Z.,
Javrek J.: Elektrick pohony, skripta
VUT Praha 2001,
Kubn J.,: Modellierung
vernderlicher Belastung eines
Asynchronmotors durch den
Stromrichter gespeiste

[4]

Gleichstrommotor, [pednka na HS
Zi/Gr], Zittau, jen 2001,
Kubn J. : Vyuit stejnosmrnho
stroje napjenho zenm
usmrovaem jako zt elektrickho
pohonu, SYMEP 2004, Praha.