SPECIFIC DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR AC INDUCTION MOTORS
CONNECTED TO ADJUSTABLE FREQUENCY DRIVES
Dr. Radu Curiac
Member, IEEE
Siemens Industry, Inc.
4620 Forest Ave, Norwood, OH 45212
radu.curiac@siemens.com
Abstract - There has been an increased usage of
adjustable frequency drives (AFD) coupled with induction
motors due to the demand for higher operating efficiency
levels. Due to the starting requirements, motor
manufacturers are forced to employ high resistivity rotor
bars which lead to higher losses and lower motor
efficiency. This paper will show that AFD offer the
advantage of decreasing the energy consumption by
eliminating the constraints of starting requirements.
Short rise time voltage pulses produced by AFD may
adversely affect the stator winding insulation and
accelerate its aging process. The paper will discuss how
motor manufacturers have addressed this problem by
introducing surge resistant insulation materials, turn
insulation and reinforced ground insulation.
The voltage waveform harmonics of an AFD could also
lead to higher motor temperature rise. Therefore, additional
thermal consideration should be given. The paper will
review the new IEC standards which define the stator
winding insulation requirement when the induction motor
operates with AFD.
Another aspect discussed in the paper, related to the
design of an induction motor coupled with an AFD, is how
to minimize the magnetic noise that may be generated if
higher frequency voltage harmonics are present in the
AFD.
Index Terms – Induction motor, AFD, PWM, starting,
stator winding insulation, harmonics, magnetic noise.
I. INTRODUCTION
Induction motor is the most common prime mover used in
the pulp and paper industry. Compared to DC motors and
permanent magnet (PM) motors, the major weakness of
induction motors is their starting capability. While the
torque angle of DC motors and PM motors can be set at 90
electrical degrees to provide maximum torque/amps ratio
[1], the torque angle between the stator magnetic field and
rotor magnetic field of induction motors during starting is
much smaller than 90 degrees causing the torque/amps
ratio to be low. Double cage, deep and narrow bars, and
high resistive bars are a few options to overcome low
starting torque and high starting current. These rotor slots
shapes and bar materials provide higher starting torque
and lower starting current by increasing the starting
resistance and reducing the starting reactance of the
motors. The drawback of this practice is the sacrifice of the
978-1-4244-5674-1/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE
Harry Li
Member, IEEE
Siemens Industry, Inc.
4620 Forest Ave, Norwood, OH 45212
harry.li@siemens.com
motor efficiency and increased costs of production.
Furthermore, the frame size might need to be increased
due to the excessive heat from high resistive bars.
Among many applications, the AFD’s has been used to
save energy consumption by matching supply with
demand. The frequency of the power supply is changed to
alter the speed of the motor, in turn the flow rate of air or
liquid. By supplying the exact amount of flow, all the energy
losses associated with over supplying are eliminated. In
addition, AFD provides the motor manufacturer with
another way to design more efficient motors.
When customers purchase an AFD-motor package to
save energy, sometimes they fail to utilize the advantage of
the AFD in motor starting by requiring bypass starting
capability on the AFD-motor package, which prohibits
motor manufacturers from designing a more efficient motor
for the AFD application. As mentioned above, bypass
starting (across line starting) requires traditional deep bar,
and or high resistance bar designs that reduce the motor
efficiency. In addition, reliable modern drives make it
possible to deploy drive-motor system without the by-pass
function which is used in case of a drive failure [14].
The AFD consists of two major types: Current Source
Inverter (CSI), and Voltage Source Inverter (VSI). The early
VSI has been replaced by Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
type. Voltage source converters of PWM type have been
largely used in medium voltage (MV) drives over the last
10-15 years. One most common concern related to PWM
converters is the negative impact of the short rise time of
the voltage surge applied to the stator winding. This leads
to additional stresses on the insulation and could reduce
motor insulation life.
At the same time, additional losses could be generated
by the AFD inverter due to its higher harmonic content. The
majority of the PWM harmonics are at the switching
frequency. However, today’s PWM inverters have lower
magnitude of harmonics or filtered output and their output
waveforms are closer to a sinusoidal shape.
II. INDUCTION MOTOR STARTING
A. Starting Requirement
When an induction motor is purchased, two requirements
are included in the purchasing contract. One is that the
motor has to be able to accelerate the driven load from
standstill to the rated running speed and the starting torque
should be at least 60% of the full load torque as described
in NEMA MG1 20.10.1. The other is that the starting
current of the motor should not exceed a maximum limit
such as 650% of the full load current due to the limitation of
the power supply on site. In order to fulfill the above
requirement during starting, motors are designed with
various shapes of rotor slots to increase rotor resistance
and decrease rotor reactance. Various methods for
starting induction motors are used in industry such as direct
line, reduced voltage, autotransformer, wye–delta, part
winding and solid state (soft start) starting, respectively.
B. Rotor design for starting
Due to the skin effect, the induced currents are mainly
concentrated in the top portion of the rotor bar. Therefore,
the top of the rotor bar is crucial in determining the motor
starting characteristics. For large induction motors, copper
bars are mostly used. One frequent method to improve the
starting capability is to use high resistance bars. The
shape, cross section and materials of the rotor bars all play
importance roles in determining the resistance of the bars.
When slip is small, the rotor circuit is reactive and rotor
current is only slightly off phase with stator current,
therefore, the magnetic fields created by these two currents
are only slightly apart, and in turn, the torque angle
between these two fields is small.
The AFD’s ability to alter the frequency of the power
supply to the motor provides a unique advantage in slip
control, which means that the slip frequency can be any
frequency on demand. Therefore, the angle between the
stator magnetic field and rotor magnetic field can be
controlled and adjusted to be near 90° in order to produce
the maximum torque during starting [11], [12]. As the motor
accelerates, the frequency of the supplied power ramps up
accordingly to maintain the max torque during the entire
starting period.
C. Rotor slot design
In AFD application, the slip frequency is controlled to be
at the normal running slip such as 0.5-2 Hz. Therefore, the
rotor resistance and reactance do not change during
starting. Furthermore, this slip frequency control increases
torque angle to almost 90 degrees, reaching the optimal
torque generating condition. The slip frequency changes
from 60 Hz to 2 Hz, which represents a thirty time increase
of the effective rotor resistance, since the effective
resistance is inversely proportional to the slip. This
frequency change is significant because it changes the
torque angle from 20 degrees and smaller to almost 90
degrees. When the torque angle is small, the electrical
energy flows to the rotor circuit and generates heat. When
the torque angle is large, the most electrical energy is
converted to mechanical energy.
Without an AFD, the special rotor designs are utilized to
improve the torque angle, in turn, the starting torque. The
negative consequences of these special rotor designs are
less efficient motors, larger frame size and higher
temperature rises. The AFD offers the perfect solution in
controlling the torque angle in motor starting by enabling
motors to operate with 90° torque angle in the whole
accelerating period.
In order to achieve the slip frequency control, the
controller has to monitor the motor speed in order to
provide the power at the right frequency. A tachometer is
often mounted on the motor shaft to provide the speed
feedback. Sensorless technologies employ software
techniques to estimate the motor speed.
Due to the skin effect in the rotor bars, the parameters of
the circuit model, rotor resistance and leakage reactance,
depend significantly on the frequency, therefore a single-
cage equivalent circuit with constant parameters can only
predict the torque at the same operation point where these
parameters are defined. Methods based on the time-
harmonic finite element analysis (FEA) have been
developed, where the rotor is modeled with multiple
branches and the same circuit model is capable of
analyzing a wider operation range of the motor [13].
III. LOSSES IN MOTORS CONNECTED WITH AFD’s
TABLE I shows a typical distribution of the losses in a
4000HP, four pole induction motor with a copper rotor bar
configuration [2]. Standard rotor bars section shows the
losses and their percentages of the total losses for motors
designed with CDA110 bars. They serve as base values for
comparison. When CDA230 bars are used, the rotor losses
increased from 14.1 to 35 kW. When deep rotor bars are
used in the motor design, the rotor losses increase from
14.1 to 15.4 kW.
When a motor is designed for AFD application, which
means there is no inrush limits on the design, the flux
density can be increased to its maximum admissible value.
Therefore, both the stator and rotor losses decrease while
the core losses increase from 11.4 to 16.7 kW.
Stator resistive losses are mostly related to the stator
resistance. In a given stator slot size, motor voltage and
optimum copper wire size will influence the stator losses. In
addition, starting current requirements increase the number
of turns of the stator winding for a given voltage, thus
imposing additional losses to the stator.
Rotor losses are determined by starting torque and
starting current. Core losses are determined by flux
densities and stray load losses are related to rotor current.
Based on statistical data, IEEE has published the stray
load losses in percentage values of the rated horsepower.
In TABLE I, the stray load losses are assumed to be 0.9%
of rated horsepower. Mechanical losses are speed and
enclosure type related. It can be seen from TABLE I that
the high resistance bar CDA 230 increases the rotor losses
and motor losses substantially.
IV. STRESSES ON STATOR WINDING INSULATION
DUE TO AFD
Experience of medium voltage motors (2300<voltage
<7200) connected with AFD shows that the stator insulation
could be negatively affected by the impulse voltage of AFD.
 Typically, this is made of mica tape bonded with epoxy in
TABLE I conjunction with the vacuum pressure impregnation (VPI)
LOSSES DISTRIBUTION UNDER VARIOUS ROTOR DESIGNS process.
Standard rotor bars (CDA 110, 100% Conductivity)
Losses(kW) Percentage
Stator I2R 18.5 18.8
Rotor I2R 14.1 14.3
Core 10.9 11.1
W&F 28.1 28.5
Stray 26.9 27.3
Total 98.5 100.0

High resistance rotor bars (CDA 230, 37% Conductivity)

Losses(kW) Percentage
Stator I2R 18.3 15.3
Rotor I2R 35 29.2
Fig.1. Induction motor form-wound stator.
Core 11.4 9.5
W&F 28.1 23.5
Stray 26.9 22.5
Total 119.7 100.0

Deep rotor bars (CDA 110)

Losses(kW) Percentage
Stator I2R 18.5 18.4
Rotor I2R 15.4 15.3
Core 11.5 11.5
W&F 28.1 28.0
Stray 26.9 26.8
Total 100.4 100.0

ASD (CDA 110)

Losses(kW) Percentage
Stator I2R 12.9 13.6
Rotor I2R 10.6 11.1
Core 16.7 17.5
Fig.2 Form-wound insulation components
W&F 28.1 29.5
Stray 26.9 28.3 Also, in the slot portion of the coil, a layer of semi-
Total 95.2 100.0 conductive tape is applied on top of the ground-wall
insulation in order to avoid partial discharges that could
occur in the space between the ground-wall insulation and
A form wound coil consists of a group of strands of flat the slot side. In order to avoid partial discharges, the
wires and it is formed or shaped before being inserted into electric stress should be uniform, therefore a “stress
the stator slots as shown in Fig. 2. The following is a brief grading” tape is used outside the slot region.
description of the form wound stator. In general, three The overhangs are also fixed tightly together with flexible
types of insulation are used: strand insulation, turn braces to withstand the high magnetic forces.
insulation and ground insulation.
Strand insulation is usually a film coating (armor) or a Stresses on stator winding insulation due to AFD
single layer of glass wrapped on the magnet wire. The turn
insulation is used between the turns and is typically made It is imperative that the motor manufacturer be provided
of mica tape. Ground-wall insulation (or main insulation) with certain information about the AFD, such as the pulse
serves the role to separate the copper conductors from the rise time, peak surge voltage, maximum frequency etc.
stator iron core.
MV drives may generate thousands of short rise time
surges per second [3]. The repetition of short rise time
voltage impulses may cause a voltage surge at the motor
terminals between the turns of the first coil. Partial
discharged could also occur if any voids are present in the
insulation. The turn insulation should be designed in terms
of the voltage step rise time, magnitude and the switching
frequency of the AFD.
If the voltage waveform from an AFD has significant
harmonic content, this could lead to considerable
overheating of the motor winding. Therefore, the
temperature rise of the stator winding will increase and this
will accelerate the aging process of the insulation.
Fig.4 shows the improvement on harmonic content from
six pulse inverter to modern PWM high switching frequency
inverters. The reduction of harmonics eliminates the
additional heating on the motor. As the switching frequency
goes higher, the switch time gets shorter and the motor
insulation encounters higher stresses due to the uneven Fig.3. Voltage step at motor terminals for AFD operation
distribution of the impulse voltage.
The line coil withstands a larger portion of the voltage
depending on the rise time of the applied voltage. Extra
turn insulation is employed to ensure the insulation
between turns is sufficient for this type of voltage impulse. 18 %
Re-enforced ground-wall insulation is also necessary when
16 % PW M R ect i f ier
the neutral of AFD is shifted due to switching.
18 - Pulse
14 %
12 - Pulse
12 % 6 - Pulse

V. MAGNETIC NOISE 10 %

8%

The magnetic noise could vary significantly with load. 6%

Load related magnetic noise requires considerable effort to
identify, due to the fact that a routine factory test is usually
performed at no-load [4]. Even if the factory includes a load
test, the test stand equipment may have its own noise
levels which may exceed that of the motor, and the
magnetic noise generated by the motor under load will be
difficult to quantify. Therefore, it is very important to
minimize the risk of magnetic noise under load condition
from the design stage.
When the induction motor is coupled to an AFD, the
change of operating frequency may shift the magnetic
excitation frequencies closer to the stator resonant
frequencies and could cause higher magnetic noise.
The increase of magnetic noise could also be a result of
the additional magnetic forces from the higher harmonic
content of the VFD voltage waveform. This could translate
into an increase of noise level up to 2-6 dB for a six-pulse
inverter drive and 5-9 dB for a PWM drive [5].
Magnetic noise levels can be reduced by adjusting
various motor design parameters such as stator-rotor slot
dimension and slot combination. By modifying the stator
slot size, the resonant frequencies of the core and tooth
would be changed. For instance, a reduction in slot height
will increase the stator tooth resonant frequency.
Another way is to vary the number of rotor slots, which
will change the forcing frequencies and the vibration modes
of the stator core.
The force acting on the stator tooth is proportional to the
square of the magnetic flux density in the air gap; therefore,
4%
2%
0%
5t h 7t h 11t h 13 t h 17t h 19 t h 2 3 rd 2 5t h
Fig.4. Harmonic content for several pulse inverters [15]
by increasing the active magnetic core length or motor size,
one can reduce the magnitude of the flux density and
consequently the magnetic forces. However, when the
designers make changes in regard to the slot combination,
they should take into account not only the noise level, but
other negative effects that these changes could impact,
such as rotor crawling during motor start-up.
Since the slotting effect contributes substantially to the
creation of magnetic force wave, one can improve the
noise level by using magnetic wedges in the stator slot,
thus reducing the tangential forces acting on stator teeth.
Magnetic noise can also be reduced by increasing the
active material in the stator, either by building the motor for
that particular power rating on a longer core length, or by
increasing the frame size to reduce the magnetic forces on
the stator and rotor components. Larger machines have
also an increased overall stiffness of the stator teeth and
back iron, leading to lower noise and vibration.
 VI. STANDARDS RELATED TO INDUCTION MOTOR
OPERATION WITH AFD
The main concern of the motor and AFD manufacturers
and end-users has been the reliability of the AFD system in
regard to the stresses on the stator winding insulation.
NEMA MG1 part 31 requires motor windings in inverter
applications to survive a voltage impulse test with a
magnitude of 3.1 times the rated phase-to-phase voltage
for low-voltage (<600 V) and 2.04 times for medium voltage
(>600 V) motors [6].
The IEC Technical Committee (TC 2) have worked since
2002 to develop a technical specification defining insulation
tests for the stator windings of low and medium voltage
motors to ensure their design suitability for operating with
AFD’s. In 2006, standard IEC 60034-18-41 was accepted
for low voltage stator insulation systems [7]. A new
technical specification IEC 60034-18-42 is currently under
development by the IEC working group for medium voltage
converter driven motors [8]. This new document proposes a
series of qualification tests for each component of the
insulation system.
The noise limits and testing procedures are specified in
NEMA MG1 part 9 [9]. Table 9.1 and 9.2 indicates the
noise limits for induction motors at rated voltage at no-load,
while Table 9-3 shows the increase in noise levels when
the motor operates under load condition. NEMA MG1 part
31 only mentions that the magnetic noise could be
impacted by the use of an AFD with the motor, without
going into any further details. The magnetic noise in
induction motors associated with the use of AFDs has been
covered in the IEC standard 60034-25 [10]. This standard
specifies that based on industry experience, in the case of
AFD’s with pulse frequencies less than 3 kHz, the forcing
frequencies could be close to motor core resonant
frequencies for medium and large motors, while for
frequencies of 4 kHz or higher, the resonance could
possibly occur on smaller motors. For PWM with lower
switching frequencies, the noise could increase up to 15
dB(A).
VII. CONCLUSION
Starting torque and current requirements force motors to
be designed less efficient. In turn, these higher losses due
to the lower efficiency sometimes increase the size of a
motor for certain horsepower ratings. The advantages of an
AFD system could remove the constraints of the starting
requirements and allow motors to be designed for its
running condition rather than the starting condition so
motors can be designed to be more efficient.
To ensure the system design reliability for the end user,
the motor manufacturer should give careful consideration to
several factors, such as stresses on stator winding
insulation, temperature rise and magnetic noise.
NEMA and IEC standards formulate technical
specifications for induction motors connected with AFD’s
and provide useful guideline to end users and motor
manufacturers in dealing with specific applications relating
to AFDs.
VIII. REFERENCES
[1] A. E. Fitzgerald; C. Kingsley; A. Kusko, “Electric
Machinery” McGraw-Hill Inc., 1971.
[2] H. Li, R. Curiac ; “Designing more efficient large
industrial induction motors by utilizing the advantages of
adjustable speed drives”, IEEE PCIC, pp. , Sept. 2009.
[3] G.C. Stone, et al. “Stator insulation problems
associated with low voltage and medium voltage PWM
drives”, IEEE Cement Industry Conf., 2007.
[4] R.Curiac, S.Singhal, “Causes and reduction
techniques of electromagnetic noise” IEEE Pulp and Paper
Industry Conf., pp. 39-44, June 2009.
[5] W.R.Finley, “Noise in induction motors- causes and
treatments”, IEEE Trans. on Industry Applic., vol.27, No.6,
Nov/Dec. 1991.
[6] NEMA MG 1-2006, part 31, “Definite-purpose inverter-
fed polyphase motors”.
[7] IEC 60034-18-41, “Evaluation and Qualification of
Electrical Insulation Systems used in Rotating Electrical
Machines when Fed from Voltage Converters”, 2006.
[8] IEC 60034-18-42, “Qualification and Acceptance Test
for Type II Electrical Insulation Systems used in Rotating
Electrical Machines fed from Voltage Converters (under
development).
[9] NEMA MG 1-2006, part 9, “Rotating Electrical
Machines – Sound Power Limits and Measurement
Procedures”.
[10] IEC 60034-25, “Guide for the design and performance
of cage induction motors specifically designed for converter
nd
supply”, 2 edition, 2007.
[11] R. F. McElveen; M. K. Toney, “Starting High-Inertia
Loads” IEEE Transactions on Industry, Vol. 37, pp. 137-
144.
[12] L. Manz; J. Oldenkamp, “Starting High Inertia Loads
on Adjustable Speed Drives”, IEEE Industry Applications
Magazine, January/February 1998.
[13] Repo A.-K., Niemenmaa A., Arkkio A, ”Estimating
circuit models for a deep-bar induction motor using time
harmonic finite element analysis. Proceedings –
International Conference in Electrical Machines, ICEM
2006, No. 614, Crete, Greece, September 2006.
[14] D. Eaton; J. Rama; P. Hammond, “Neutral Shift”, IEEE
Industry Applications Magazine, pp. 40 -49, Nov/Dec 2003.
[15] A. Delgado, N. Lang, E. Thornton, “Adjustable speed
drives applied to large AC induction motor and pump
systems”, presentation at Intern. Pump Users Symp., April
2008.
 IX. VITA

Radu S. Curiac (S’ 2000 – M’ 2004) received the B.Sc. and

M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the
Polytechnic University Bucharest, Romania in 1994 and
1995, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in Applied
Electromagnetics from the University of Manitoba,
Winnipeg, Canada in 2007.
He is currently a senior product engineer for Siemens
Industry, Inc. in Norwood, OH, working on developing
Above NEMA and IEC induction motors. Dr. Curiac’s
activity is reflected in more than 15 technical papers
including IEEE journal and international conference
publications in areas of electromagnetic field computation
and electrical machines design.

Harry Li (M’ 1995 – 2009) received his BSEE in electric

machines from Hunan University in Hunan, China in 1982,
M.S. in Health Physics from University of Cincinnati in 1991
and M.S. in Energy Systems from University of Texas at
Austin in 1998. Currently he is working toward his MBA
degree in Kelley Business School direct program of Indiana
University.
He has worked as a design/development engineer in
various motor manufacturers for over 20 years. His
experience ranges from fractional horsepower, PMDC to
large electric machines. He is currently a consulting
product engineer in Norwood motor plant of Siemens
Industry, Inc. His primary technical interests are in the
areas of better understanding of electric machines and
adjustable frequency drives. He is a registered professional
engineer in the state of Texas.