Starting And Braking of Induction Motor

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Starting of Induction Motors :
We know that the induction motor is self starting i.e when the supply is given to the motor it starts to
rotate without any external help. When an induction motor is started as there is no resistance initially (i.e,
during starting), there is a tendency of huge current flow through the rotor circuit which may damage the
circuit permanently. To overcome this problem various methods have been introduced to limit the starting
current. Some of the methods are

1. Star delta starter

2. Auto-transformers starter
3. Reactor starter
4. Saturable reactor starter
5. Part winding starter
6. AC voltage controller starter
7. Rotor resistance starter is used for starting of wound rotor motor.
Star Delta Starter :-

In this method, an induction motor designed to operate normally with delta connection is connected in a
star during starting. Thus the stator voltage and current are reduced by 1/√3. The motor torque is
proportional to stator terminal voltage, starting torque is reduced to one-third.

A circuit diagram for a star-delta starter is shown in the figure below. The circuit breaker CBm and CBs
are closed to start the machine with star connection. When the steady state speed is reached, CBs is
opened, and CBr is closed to connect the machine in Delta.

Auto transformer Starter :-

In this method, the starting current and motor terminal voltage are reduced by an autotransformer. The
torque is proportional to the square of the motor terminal voltage, and hence it is also reduced. When the
motor reaches its steady states, it is connected to the full supply voltage. An auto-transformer starter is
shown in the figure below.
In the starting, the CBs1 and CBs2 are closed, and CBm is open. When the motor accelerates at its full
speed, the CBs2 is opened, and CBm closed. Now CB1 is opened to disconnect auto-transformer from the
supply.

Reactor Starter :-
The starting current is reduced by connecting the three phase reactor in series with the starter. When the
motor reaches its steady state, the reactor is removed from the circuit. The reactor starter circuit is shown
in the figure below.
The circuit breaker CBs is closed to start the machine. When the motor reaches its full speed, the
CBs is closed to introduce the reactor at the neutral end of the stator winding. Thus, the starting
current of the motor is reduced to its minimum value.

Saturable reactor starter :-

The saturable reactor is introduced in series with the stator, and it gives the soft start to the
motor. The saturable reactor has DC control winding which controlled the torque of the motor
steplessly. The reactance of the saturable reactance can be varied steplessly by changing the
control winding current.

In the starting, the reactance is set at the higher value, and hence the starting torque is close to
zero. The reactance is controlled smoothly by increasing the winding control current, and this
gives the step less variation of starting torque. Thus motor starts without any jerks and
accelerates smoothly.

Part winding starter :-

Some squirrel cage motors have two or more stator windings, and these windings are
connected in parallel during the normal operation. During starting only one winding is
connected, which increases the starter impedance and reduces the starting current. This
starting scheme is called part winding starting. The machine starts with winding 1 when the
CBm is closed and after the full speed is reached the CBs is closed to connect winding 2.

Rotor voltage controller starter :-

This method connects the rotor resistance in the external circuit. The highest value of current is chosen
to limit the current at zero speed within the safe value. The rotor resistance starter is shown in the
figure below
As the motor accelerates the external resistance are cut one by one by closing contacts and hence the rotor
current is limited between specified maximum and minimum value.
Braking of Induction Motor
Induction motor braking can be done by different methods, which are :-

1. Regenerative braking of induction motor

2. Plugging Braking of induction motor
3. Dynamic braking of induction motor is further categorized as

 AC dynamic breaking
 Self excited braking using capacitors
 DC dynamic braking
 Zero Sequence braking

Regenerative Braking of Induction Motor :-

We know the power (input) of an induction motor is given as.
Pin = 3VIscosφs

Here, φs the phase angle between stator phase voltage V and the stator phase current Is. Now,
for motoring operation φso and for braking operation φs > 90o. When the speed of the motor is
 more than the synchronous speed, relative speed between the motor conductors and air gap
rotating field reverses, as a result the phase angle because greater than 90o and the power flow
reverse and thus regenerative braking takes place. The nature of the speed torque curves are
shown in the figure beside. It the source frequency is fixed then the regenerative braking of
induction motor can only take place if the speed of the motor is greater than synchronous
speed, but with a variable frequency source regenerative braking of induction motor can occur
for speeds lower than synchronous speed. The main advantage of this kind of braking can be
said that the generated power is use fully employed and the main disadvantage of this type of
braking is that for fixed frequency sources, braking cannot happen below synchronous speeds.

Plugging Braking of Induction Motor:-

Plugging induction motor braking is done by reversing the phase sequence of the motor. Plugging
braking of induction motor is done by interchanging connections of any two phases of stator with
respect of supply terminals. And with that the operation of motoring shifts to plugging braking. During
plugging the slip is (2 – s), if the original slip of the running motor is s, then it can be shown in the
following way.

From the figure beside we can see that the torque is not zero at zero speed. That’s why when the
motor is needed to be stopped, it should be disconnected from the supply at near zero speed. The
motor is connected to rotate in the reverse direction and the torque is not zero at zero or any
other speed, and as a result the motor first decelerates to zero and then smoothly accelerates in
the opposite direction.

Dynamic Braking of Induction Motor :-

There are four type of dynamic braking of induction motor or rheostatic braking, we will discuss
about then

1. AC Dynamic Braking
2. Self excited braking using capacitor
3. DC Dynamic Braking
4. Zero Sequence Braking

AC Dynamic Braking-
This type of induction motor braking is obtained when the motor is made to run on a single phase supply
by disconnecting any one of the three phase from the source, and it is either left open or it is connected
with another phase. When the disconnected phase is left open, it is called two lead connection and
when the disconnected phase is connected to another machine phase it is known as three load
connection. The braking operation can be understood easily. When the motor is running on 1-phase
supply, the motor is fed by positive and negative sequence, net torque produced by the machine at that
point of time is sum of torques due to positive and negative sequence voltage. At high resistance the net
torque is found to be negative and braking occurs. From the figure below the two and three load
connections can be understood.

Self excited braking using capacitors :-

The figures above shows the circuit diagram and various characteristics of self excited braking
using capacitors. As we can see from the figure, in this method there capacitors are kept
permanently connected across the source terminals of the motor. The value of the capacitors
are chosen depending upon their capability to deliver enough reactive current to excite the
motor and make it work as a generator. So, that when the motor terminals are disconnected
from the source the motor works as a self excited generator and the produced torque and field
is in the opposite direction and the induction motor braking operation occurs. In the figure (b)
the curve A represents the no load magnetization curve and line B is the current through
capacitors, which is given by
Here, E is the stator induced voltage per phase
The speed torque characteristics under self excited braking is shown in the figure (c). To increase
the braking torque and to utilize the generated energy sometimes external electrical resistance
are connected across the stator terminals.

DC Dynamic Braking :-

To obtain this type of braking the stator of a running induction motor is connected to a DC
supply. Two and three load connections are the two common type of connections for star and
delta connected stators.

.Another diagram is shown below to illustrate how by diode bridge two load coonection can be
obtained within a circuit
 Two Loads DC Dynamic Braking Operation
Now coming to the method of operation, the moment when AC supply is disconnected and DC
supply is introduced across the terminals of the induction motor, there is a stationery magnetic
field generated due to the DC current flow and as the rotor of the motor rotates in that field,
there is a field induces in the rotor winding, and as a result the machine works as a generator
and the generated energy dissipates in the rotor circuit resistance and dynamic braking of
induction motor occurs.

Zero Sequence Braking :-

In this type of braking all the three stator phases are connected in series and single phase AC or DC is
connected across them (as shown in the figure). This type of connection is called zero-sequence
connection, because current in all the stator windings are co-phasal. When the connected supply is AC,
resultant field is stationery in space and pulsates at the frequency of supply, when the supply is DC,
resultant field is stationery and is of constant magnitude. The main advantage of this induction motor
braking is that all the stator phases are uniformly loaded. It does not require large rotor resistance like AC
dynamic braking, it does not require large rotor resistance. The circuit diagram and the speed torque
characteristics are shown below.
The above discussion easily describes the concept of induction motor
breaking.
THE END
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