High Efficiency Motors - Performance' Economy &

Reliabitity, bY OPtimisation

P. Caselottir,A. Conchetto',P. J. Tavnert

I MarelliMotori SPA
2
FKI Engineering

I Introduction
and outputs with a tough
The TEFC machine is designed to standard dimensions
interchangeable motor that can
enclosure and blow_ove. .ùling to give a rugged,
be usedin a wide variety of applications'
to achieve requirements
Historically manufacturers hàne perfected their products
resultedin machines with improving power-
as economicallyas possible.This has
i
weightratios,asshowninFigurel,takenfromGlew'Refl'soelectricmotors
havebecomeprogressivelycheaper'
TEFC motors has not
However, the hgure shóws that the power-weight of
increased at the same rate as larger machines, in recent years there.has been a
-deteriorate.
tendency for the power-weight to This is due to the poor heat transfer
which have air-blown
in TEFC machine, "onlpu.éd to modern large machines'
of standards that confine
internal active parts. It is also due to the limitations
for manufacturersto
outputsto particular frame sizes.Therefore it has been harder
the power-weight further'
make TEFC motors more competitive, by increasing
without deteriorating the noise and efficiency of the machine'
and the European
The challenge of the efficiency initiatives in North America
reducing power-weight by adding
union is to improve performance without
materialsand increasingcost.
where the key area
This has been the subjict of other papers, Haataia et al Ref2,
hasbeenidentified as reducing loss'
of heat_transferin the
This paper suggeststhat addrJssingthe fundamentalproblem
possible to improve
TEFC machine, in addition to ràducing loss will make it
performanceand still provide competitive products'

2 Heat Transfer & Temperature Rise in TEFC

Machines
compromise the
The TEFC motor has evolved from earlier geometries,which
need to protect
designer,sneed for cooling air in the active parts with the user's
been adopted in the
the motor flom its enviroiment. The present geometry has
96

majority of motors in the range0.15-75kW. The problemwith the geometryis that

all heat from the active parts, the core, rotor and stator windings, must be extracted
fiom the interior of the machine, passedto the ribbed barrel and removed by
convectionby the blow-over air. There are four weaknesses in this arrangement:
r The internal air does not remove much heat flom the active parts.
o Heat from the rotor to the ribbed barrel crosses3 interfaces,the air gap, the
stator insulation and the core/barrel interface.
r Production factors affect these interfaces and increase their thermal
resistance.
o The convectiveheattransferis inefficient.
In consequence the bulk heattransfercoefhcientof the TEFC motor, relating total
losses to stator winding temperaturerise and motor surface area, is typically
l5W/m2K, much lower than for larger electricalmachinesat 300 Wm2K. There
are some referencesthat addressone or all of the weaknessesin TEFC machines,
for examplePickeringet al Refl3.

3 Interaction betweenLosses.Efficiencv & Power-

Weight
The lossesin a motor can be classifiedas follows:
i. Load DependentLossesincluding:
o Joule lossesin the statorwinding;
. Joule lossesin the rotor winding;
o Stray losses.
ii. ConstantLossesof load, including:
r Iron loss;
. Mechanicallossesincludine fan. bearineand shaftseal.

In small and medium sized motors ], no*, tolo ,n. Joule lossesrepresentthe
significant proportion of total losses, typically around 50%. Therefore their
reductionmust be one of the principal objectivesin raisingmotor efficiencies.
Haataja in ReB implied the reduction of lossesis the only way to develop high
efficiency motors and this must increasethe volume of active parts. He quotes
Applebaum et al, Re?l, who show increasingefficiency for increasedvolume of
active materials. But this is only so if currents, fluxes and materials remain
constant. No selÈrespectingmanufacturer improves his machines by keeping
every,thingthe same.
This paper is arguingthat one can increasepower-weightby raising the bulk heat
transfercoefficient in the machineand increaseefficiency.This could increaseloss
density,reducingefficiency,but only if the materialsand designare not changedto
challengethat increase.
To investigatethis point one can comparemotors of standardand high efficiency
designs, selectedffom the cataloguesof Europeanmanufacturers.We consider
 97

identical constructions,using aluminium frames, to eriminate

variability due to
structuralmaterials,exposingthe variationdue only to the activeparts.
Resultsof a comparisonbetweenstandarddesignsand an earty
irigrr efficiency 2_
pole design are shown in Figure 2. This demonstrates,
for thií range, higher
efficiencies by reducing power-weight by at reast 20yo. Figure
3 compares the
samedesignwith another,optimised,high efficiencydesign.ihis
showsoptimised
resultsachievedwithout the samereductionin power_weight.

4 Production Factors & Optimisation

To reachhigher performancecompetitivelyone must optimise:
i. Performanceparameterssuchas:
o Losses& efficiency.
o Noise.
r Startingcurrent& torque.
ii. Productionfactors
o Improved processesto reduceloss.
r Choice of core frame diameters.
o Cost of production.
The cost consistsofthree components:
i. Material.
ii. Direct labour.
iii. Overheads.

The first two are influencedby the processtech-norogiesand the third is a function
of the organisationof the company. To reducethosà first two,
designand process
choicesmust be made that minimise cost but still focus on p.ifor,nlnce.
It is also
necessaryto improve.the variability of processesand materials.
The following
areasfor optimisationhave been identified:
i. Designcalculations;
r Electromagnetic;
o Thermal;
o Ventilation.
ii. Materials;
r Use improved steels;
o Low loss bearingseals;
r Reducematerialvariance.
iii. Processes;
o Better impregnationto improve heatffansfer;
o Limit tool wear to reduceloss& wear variance;
o Improved statorwinding to reduceloss;
o Improved rotor cageconstruction;
r Improved core/barrelfit.
9B

5 Temperature Rise,Insulation & Reliability

An important performance area, linked to loss and efficiency, is temperaturerise in
the insulation system. Modern insulation materials are capable of withstanding
higher temperatures.Most Class F insulation systems are now capable of
withstandingClass H. If a Class F seriesof motors were operatedto Class H an
immediate improvement in power-weight could be achieved but at the expenseof
higher Joule and iron lossesand a potentialdecreasein efficiency.
On the other hand a high efficiency motor has lower lossesthan a standardmotor
and has less thermal problems. Reducing temperature rise enables ventilation
losses to be reduced, which in the case of 2 pole motors are a significant
proportion of the total, enabling funher increasesin efficiency and a significant
reductionofnoise. A reducedtemperaturerise also confersincreasedreliat ility, as
predictedby the Arrhenius Law. This suggeststhat high efficiency rnachineswith
modernhigher temperatureinsulationsystemswill have an extendedlife.
On the other hand, for a motor supplied from an inverter, one must consider the
dielectric withstand of the insulation on the life of the motor. It is noted that PWM
inverters with IGBT technology have increasedthe speedof commutation.This
imposes voltage spikes on the winding, whose severity are related to the
commutationrise time and the length of cable feedingthe machine,see IEE Ref5.
Therefore the insulation withstand needsto be improved for inverter supply. When
taken with the lower temperaturesobtainable in motors of high efficiency this
could convert into increasedreliability but motors on inverter supply experience
additional heating that may efface that advantage.

6 Industrial Experienceof Reliability

The reliability of a motor is defined by the Mean Time BetweenFailures(MTBF)
AS:

MTBF (Motor) hrs:1/(Sum of FailureRatesfor each Subsystemof the

Motor)

The IEEE conducts surveys on industrial electrical plant reliability and has
establisheda standard,Ref6. This describeshow to carry out a reliability survey
and how equipmentcan be designedto achievehigh reliability. Ref6 also contains
reliability surveys for elechical equipment including motors, published in the
IEEE Transactions,for example RefsT-S.Their data gives us the opportuniry to
consider the reliability of TEFC Induction Motors. We have reviewed those
surveys and identified relevant results in Table I showing MTBFs of over
150000hrs.The Arrhenius Law gives a stator winding insulation life at Class F
temperaturesof 100000hrs.An analysisof failure modesin service,Table II, taken
 oo

from three sources,shows that bearings rather than windings are the principal
failure mode. The higher MTBF figures found in the surveysthereforeshow that
real winding life must be much longer than 100000hrs. So, although higher
temperatureswould reduce insulation life, the failure modes show that this will
have little effect in reducing the life of a motor, compared to the bearings.
Similarly a reduction in reliability due to commutationpulsesis onlv goirrg to be
significant if it substantiallyreduceswinding life. In other words raising motor
temperaturesis both feasible from a winding point of view and is unlikely to
significantlyreducereliability from currenttypical figuresof 150000hrs.

7 Conclusions
Improving the efficiency of TEFC motorsdoesnot necessarilymean increasingthe
volume of material and thereforecost, but does necessitateoptimising design and
production factors. An important byproduct of such work could be reduced
winding temperaturesand a potential increase in the reliability of the high
efficiency motor. In fact operatingsuch motors at higher temperaturesis unlikely
to reduce motor reliability below 150000hrs. However, reliability may be
compromisedwhen the motor requiresan invertersupply.

Acknowledgements

This paper is published with the permissionof the Directors of FKI Engineering
and of MarelliMotori SpA.

8 References
I
t 1 l Glew N, Design and manufactureof energy efficient and environmentally
friendly large machines,IEE Colloquium 1999, pplll-115.
tzl Haataja J, PyrhonenJ, Improving three phaseinduction motor efficiency in
Europe, the challengefor manufacturers,IEE EMD Conf, Cambridge, 1997,
P u b l n4 4 4 ,p p 1 9 0 - 1 9 4 .
t3l Pickering S, Lampard D, Hay N, RoylanceT F, Heat transferfrom the stator
end windings of a low voltage concentricwound induction motor, IEE EMD
Conf, Durham,1995,Publn412, pp 477-481.
t4l Appelbaum J, Fuchs E F, White J C, Optimisationof three-phaseinduction
motor design,IEEE Trans,Vol EC-z,1987,No 3, pp 401-422.
t5l Various papers, Effects of high speed switching on motors and drives,
Birmingham,June1999,IEE Colloquium99l144.
t6l IEEE Std 493-1991, RecommendedPracticefor Desisn of Reliable Industrial
and CommercialPower Systems.
100

tll O'Donnell P, Report of large motor survey of industrial and commercial

PartI, IEEE TransIA, Jul/Aug 1985,pp 853-872.
installations.
t8l Thorsen OV, A survey on induction motors in offshore oil industry
petrochemical industry gas terminals and oil refineries, IEEE Trans IA,
Sept/Oct1995,pp I 186-l 196'

Table I: Industrial Sur

Machine Type Source Unit-Years No. of MTBF, hr'
of Information Surveyed Failures Surveyed,
Industrial
AC Motors Induction 0-1000VIEEE 1985,RefT I 080 89 1 0 6 3I1
AC Motors L V l 1 - 5 0 k w RefS
IEEE 1995, l 5 6 5 8 832 164972
AC Motors LV Sumof above 16738 921 r59021

Table II: ComparingProportionsof Failures - ,. -

Subsystem Proportion Proportion Proportlon
of Failures, Of Failures, Of Failures
FKI Customer IEEE. RefS
Predicted Measured Measured
'7 95Vo 5lVa
Bearings 5Vo
Stator winding 9Vo 2Va l6Vo
Rotor Winding 6Vo l7o 5Vo

Fig 1 Weight Per unit outPut as a

function of year, Ref I

F s 0
P40
fso --I*TEFC
È
.-'T_GENERAL
È 2 0
.H 10
' o
t900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000

Year
 101

Fig 2Improved vs Standard Motors

tE0.0

'a
È
l-r5.o I

Fig 3 New Designvs StandardMotors

27o.r I-À;;--__l
l**ì*ì* u't,I
wrg
l'r'sro I
1+Ncw nes.w&q I

m<^ {

'a

180.0 E

135.0

90.0
l0tl