STAR DELTA START UP PRINCIPLES

Important that the pause between star contactor switch off and Delta contactor switch is on correct. This is because Star contactor must be reliably quenched before Delta contactor is activated. It is also important that the switch over pause is not too long. For 415v Star Connection voltage is effectively reduced to 58% or 240v. The equivalent of 33% that is obtained with Direct Online (DOL) starting.

If Star connection has sufficient torque to run up to 75% or %80 of full load speed, then the motor can be connected in Delta mode. When connected to Delta configuration the phase voltage increases by a ration of V3 or 173%. The phase currents increase by the same ratio. The line current increases three times its value in star connection. During transition period of switchover the motor must be free running with little deceleration. While this is happening "Coasting" it may generate a voltage of its own, and on connection to the supply this voltage can randomly add to or subtract from the applied line voltage. This is known as transient current. Only lasting a few milliseconds it causes voltage surges and spikes. Known as a changeover transient.

This will be the place for AC/DC motors, drives, starters, soft starts etc. If it pertains to motors than I hope to provide information on it. The links on the left will take you to more detailed info. I am going to start putting images on here to portray certain aspects of working with electrical controls. This is the first to be created by me, as you can see its a motor stop start circuit, its animated so be patient.

Motor users and installers get concerned when they detect unbalanced phase currents on a 3-phase motor. The question is frequently asked: Is there something wrong with the motor? The other question is: How much current unbalance can be tolerated? This paper will attempt to answer those questions. HISTORY In the Good Old Days about the only sources of unbalanced phase currents was either a problem in the motor, such as an unbalanced number of turns in the windings, an uneven air gap or unbalanced phase voltages. Winding or air gap problems are definitely motor related. On the other hand unbalanced phase voltages are a power system problem. Unbalanced voltages will generally produce unbalanced currents that are many times greater than the percentage of voltage unbalance. The ratio used is close to 8:1. In other words, a voltage unbalance of 1% could create unbalanced phase currents of as much as 8%. A very unscientific way of looking at the problem is as follows: Suppose a motor has a nameplate full load current of 10 amps. At full load the amps on each leg of the 3 phases added together would be 10 + 10 + 10 or 30. However, if the load is the same but the phase currents are unbalanced, the total of the 3 legs added together will always be more than the total of the balanced currents. In this case the currents might be 10.5, 11.3 and 12.1 for a total of 33.9. This is a very unscientific way of looking at it, but it is accurate in describing the effect. What this means is that high current on one leg doesnt mean that the other two legs will be reduced by an equal amount. It can be said that unbalanced currents always result in higher operating temperature, shortened motor life and efficiency reduction. The next question is What creates unbalanced currents? In years past, if the motor was not the problem the source of unbalanced currents was unbalanced phase voltages. When measuring line to line voltages from phase A to B, B to C, and C to A, detectable differences in the voltages would show up. The voltage differences would account for the unbalanced currents. In todays world there are other problems that are frequently not detectable with simple voltage tests. One problem of growing concern, is voltage distortion caused by harmonics in the power system currents. This can happen if there are loads in the general area that draw non-linear (harmonic rich) currents from the power system, they can create voltage distortion in the normal voltage sine-wave that, in turn, can cause unbalanced currents in motors even when phase voltage differences are not detectable with a voltmeter. For example, if you were to detect unbalanced motor currents and took measurements with a digital voltmeter on the three phases, they might be very close to one another. The natural tendency under these conditions, would be to blame the motor for the problem. When this happens it is necessary to go a step further to identify or dismiss the motor as the source of the problem. The test is to rotate all 3 phases. If the power phases are labeled A, B and C and the motor leads connected to them are labeled 1, 2, and 3, motor lead #1 might be reconnected to power supply lead B; motor lead #2 would be reconnected to power supply lead C, motor lead #3 would be reconnected to power supply lead A. Moving all three legs will keep the motor rotating in the same direction. The currents are recorded on each power line leg before and after the connections are changed. If the high current leg stays with the power line phase (for example, B), then the problem is a power supply problem rather than a motor problem. If, however, it moves with the motor leg, then it is a motor problem. This test will pinpoint the problem to be either power supply or motor. HOW MUCH UNBALANCE CAN BE TOLERATED? In general, this depends on the conditions that are found. If the motor is driving the load and the highest amperage of the three legs is below the nameplate Full Load rating, then generally it is safe to operate. If the high leg is above the nameplate rating, but within the normal service factor amps (for a motor with a service factor, normally 1.15) then it is probably still safe to operate the motor. Also, it is not unusual to find currents more unbalanced at no load than they will be under load, so the loaded amps should be used. Finally, in general, if the high leg is not more than 10% above the average of the three legs, determined as shown in the example, it is probably safe to operate the motor. EXAMPLE Motor Nameplate FLA = 10.0 Service Factor 1.15 Phase A B C Determine the Average (10.6 + 9.8 + 10.2)/3 = 10.2 amps Determine the % Difference (Highest Phase Average)/Average x 100 (10.6 10.2)/10.2 x 100 = (.4/10.2) x 100 = .039 x 100 = 3.9% The following table shows some of the sources of unbalanced voltages and currents along with possible remedies. TABLE 1 PROBLEM Blown fuse on a power factor correction capacitor bank Uneven single phase loading of the 3 phase system Utility unbalanced voltages SOLUTION Search, find and replace blown fuse. Locate single phase loads and distribute them more evenly on the 3 phase circuit. If the incoming voltages are substantially unbalanced, especially at lightly loaded or no load periods, contact the utility company and ask them to correct the problem. Harmonic distortion Locate the sources of the harmonics and use harmonic filters to control or reduce harmonics. Install line reactors on existing and new variable frequency controls. Loaded Amps 10.6 9.8 10.2

SUMMARY Unbalanced currents on 3 phase motors are undesirable but a small amount can generally be tolerated. Excessive unbalanced currents can shorten motor life and increase energy consumption.

ou can divide the world of electronic motor drives into two categories: AC and DC. A motor drive controls the speed, torque, direction and resulting

horsepower of a motor. A DC drive typically controls a shunt wound DC motor, which has separate armature and field circuits. AC drives control AC induction motors, and - like their DC counterparts - control speed, torque, and horsepower. Application As An Example Let's take a brief look at a drive application. In Fig. 1, you can see a simple application with a fixed speed fan using a motor starter. You could replace the 3phase motor starter with Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) to operate the fan at variable speed. Since you can operate the fan at any speed below its maximum, you can vary airflow by controlling the motor speed instead of the air outlet damper.

Figure 1. Simple VFD / Fan Application

A drive can control two main elements of a 3-phase induction motor: speed and torque. To understand how a drive controls these two elements, we will take a short review of AC induction motors. Fig. 2 shows the construction of an induction motor. The two basic parts of the motor, the rotor and stator, work through magnetic interaction. A motor contains pole pairs. These are iron pieces in the stator, wound in a specific pattern to provide a north to south magnetic field (Fig. 3).

Figure 2. AC Induction Motor Construction

Figure 3. Rotor and Stator Operation

With one pole pair isolated in a motor, the rotor (shaft) rotates at a specific speed: the base speed. The number of poles and the frequency applied determine this speed (Fig. 4). This formula includes an effect called "slip." Slip is the difference between the rotor speed and the rotating magnetic field in the stator. When a magnetic field passes through the conductors of the rotor, the rotor takes on magnetic fields of its own. These rotor magnetic fields will try to catch up to the rotating fields of the stator. However, it never does -- this difference is slip. Think of slip as the distance between the greyhounds and the hare they are chasing around the track. As long as they don't catch up to the hare, they will continue to revolve around the track. Slip is what allows a motor to turn.

Figure 4. Motor Speed Formula (including Slip)

We can conveniently adjust the speed of a motor by changing the frequency applied to the motor. You could adjust motor speed by adjusting the number of poles, but this is a physical change to the motor. It would require rewinding, and result in a step change to the speed. So, for convenience, cost-efficiency, and precision, we change the frequency. Fig. 5 shows the torque-developing characteristic of every motor: the Volts per Hertz ratio (V/Hz). We change this ratio to change motor torque. An induction motor connected to a 460V, 60 Hz source has a ratio of 7.67. As long as this ratio stays in proportion, the motor will develop rated torque. A drive provides many different frequency outputs. At any given frequency output of the drive, you get a new torque curve.

Figure 5. AC Motor Linear Volts per Hertz Ratio

How Drive Changes Motor Speed Just how does a drive provide the frequency and voltage output necessary to change the speed of a motor? That's what we'll look at next. Fig. 6 shows a basic PWM drive. All PWM drives contain these main parts, with subtle differences in hardware and software components.

Figure 6. PWM Drive (VFD) Block Diagram

Although some drives accept single-phase input power, we'll focus on the 3-phase drive. But to simplify illustrations, the waveforms in the following drive figures show only one phase of input and output. The input section of the drive is the converter. It contains six diodes, arranged in an electrical bridge. These diodes convert AC power to DC power. The next section - the DC bus section - sees a fixed DC voltage. The DC Bus section filters and smoothes out the waveform. The diodes actually reconstruct the negative halves of the waveform onto the positive half. In a 460V unit, you'd measure an average DC bus voltage of about 650V to 680V. You can calculate this as line voltage times 1.414. The inductor (L) and the capacitor (C) work together to filter out any AC component of the DC waveform. The smoother the DC waveform, the cleaner the output waveform from the drive. The DC bus feeds the final section of the drive: the inverter. As the name implies, this section inverts the DC voltage back to AC. But, it does so in a variable voltage and frequency output. How does it do this? That depends on what kind of power devices your drive uses. If you have many SCR-based drives in your facility, see the Sidebar. Bipolar Transistor technology began superceding SCRs in drives in the mid-1970s. In the early 1990s, those gave way to using Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) technology, which will form the basis for our discussion. Switching Bus With IGBTs Today's inverters use Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) to switch the DC bus on and off at specific intervals. In doing so, the inverter actually creates a variable AC voltage and frequency output. As shown in Fig. 7, the output of the drive doesn't provide an exact replica of the AC input sine waveform. Instead, it provides voltage pulses that are at a constant magnitude.

Figure 7. PWM Output Waveform (Voltage & Current)

The drive's control board signals the power device's control circuits to turn "on" the waveform positive half or negative half of the power device. This alternating of positive and negative switches recreates the 3 phase output. The longer the power device remains on, the higher the output voltage. The less time the power device is on, the lower the output voltage (shown in Fig. 8). Conversely, the longer the power device is off, the lower the output frequency.

Figure 8. Frequency & Voltage Creation from PWM

The speed at which power devices switch on and off is the carrier frequency, also known as the switch frequency. The higher the switch frequency, the more resolution each PWM pulse contains. Typical switch frequencies are 3,000 to 4,000 times per second (3KHz to 4KHz). (With an older, SCR-based drive, switch frequencies are 250 to 500 times per second). As you can imagine, the higher the switch frequency, the smoother the output waveform and the higher the resolution. However, higher switch frequencies decrease the efficiency of the drive because of increased heat in the power devices. Shrinking cost and size Drives vary in the complexity of their designs, but the designs continue to improve. Drives come in smaller packages with each generation. The trend is similar to that of the personal computer. More features, better performance, and lower cost with successive generations. Unlike computers, however, drives have dramatically improved in their reliability and ease of use. And also unlike computers, the typical drive of today doesn't spew gratuitous harmonics into your distribution system - nor does it affect your power factor. Drives are increasingly becoming "plug and play." As electronic power components improve in reliability and decrease in size, the cost and size of VFDs will continue to decrease. While all that is going on, their performance and ease of use will only get better.

Sidebar: What if you have SCRs? With the large installed base of SCRs, you might want to know how these operate. An SCR (originally referred to as a thyristor) contains a control element called a gate. The gate acts as the "turn-on" switch that allows the device to fully conduct voltage. The device conducts voltage until the polarity of the device reverses-and then it automatically turns off." Special circuitry, usually requiring another circuit board and associated wiring, controls this switching. The SCR s output depends on how soon in the control cycle that gate turns on. The IGBT output also depends the length of time the gate is on. However, it can turn off anytime in the control cycle, providing a more precise output waveform. IGBTs also require a control circuit connected to the gate, but this circuitry is less complex and doesn t require a reversal of polarity. Thus, you would approach troubleshooting differently if you have an SCR-based drive.