Rotor Slot Design of Squirrel Cage Induction Motors with Improved Rated Efficiency and Starting Capability

Di Nardo, Mauro; Marfoli, Alessandro; Degano, Michele; Gerada, Christopher

Abstract

Among the electro-mechanical devices transforming energy from electrical to mechanical, the squirrel cage induction motor can be surely considered a workhorse of the industry due to its robustness, low cost and good performance when directly fed by the a.c. grid. Being the most influencing motor topology in terms of energy consumption, optimizing the efficiency of squirrel cage induction motors could lead to a great impact towards the reduction of the human environmental footprint. The induction motor design aided by finite element analysis presents significant challenges because an accurate performance prediction requires a considerable computational burden. This paper makes use of an innovative fast and accurate performance evaluation method embedded into an automatic design procedure to optimize different rotor slot geometries. After introducing the performance estimation approach, its advantages and limits are discussed comparing its prediction with the experimental tests carried out on an off-the-shelf induction motor. Different rotor cage structures with increasing geometrical complexity are then optimized in terms of starting and rated performance adopting the same design optimization process, the same stator geometry and constituent materials. The analysis of the optimal solutions shows how it is possible to improve the rated efficiency without compromising other performance indexes. The presented results can be used as general design guidelines of squirrel cage induction motors for industrial applications.

Citation

Di Nardo, M., Marfoli, A., Degano, M., & Gerada, C. (2022). Rotor Slot Design of Squirrel Cage Induction Motors with Improved Rated Efficiency and Starting Capability. IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 58(3), 3383-3393. https://doi.org/10.1109/TIA.2022.3147156

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 24, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Jan 31, 2022
• Publication Date: Jan 31, 2022
• Deposit Date: Apr 6, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 6, 2022
• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications
• Print ISSN: 0093-9994
• Electronic ISSN: 1939-9367
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 58
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 3383-3393
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TIA.2022.3147156
• Keywords: Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering; Control and Systems Engineering
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7710532
• Publisher URL: https://ieeexplore-ieee-org.nottingham.idm.oclc.org/document/9696361
• Additional Information: © 2022 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.