Title: Impact of inverter on losses and thermal characteristics of induction motors

Authors: Xiaofeng Ding, Chunting Chris Mi

Addresses: University of Michigan-Dearborn, 4901 Evergreen, Dearborn, MI 48128, USA; Northwestern Polytechnical University, 127 Youyi Xilu, Xi'an Shaanxi, 710072, China. ' University of Michigan-Dearborn, 4901 Evergreen, Dearborn, MI 48128, USA; Northwestern Polytechnical University, 127 Youyi Xilu, Xi'an Shaanxi, 710072, China

Abstract: This paper investigated the losses and thermal characteristics of induction motors operated from pulse width-modulated (PWM) voltage supply in comparison to that operated from sinusoidal voltage supply. It was concluded that due to the abundant harmonics in the PWM waveforms, significant losses are induced in the motor by the inverter supply. The temperature ascends correspondingly. Switching frequencies of the PWM inverter at 3.5 kHz to 9 kHz were investigated to evaluate their effect on the excessive losses. Experiments were conducted with no load and with load conditions. The losses and thermal characteristics were calculated using finite-element analysis (FEA) and validated by the experiments.

Keywords: finite element analysis; FEA; harmonics; pulse width modulation; PWM; power electronics; frequency converter; induction motors; inverters; losses; thermal characteristics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPELEC.2011.042805

International Journal of Power Electronics, 2011 Vol.3 No.6, pp.641 - 651

Received: 13 Sep 2010
Accepted: 23 Dec 2010

Published online: 31 Jan 2015 *

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