Design Requirements of

Motors for VFD application

By
D.K.CHATURVEDI
AGM (ELECTRICAL)
NTPC Ltd.

VFD Application In Industry

VFDs are used in the industry for:

Energy Savings (saving the energy
being wasted in throttle)
Smooth and soft starting of large
motors
Controlling drive speed for process
control

Head

How VFD Saves Energy ?

12
10
7

Flow
7

10

Variable speed control is the most energy efficient control method

VFD Application Area

The area of application includes from fans,

pumps, compressors, Static frequency
Converter (for GTG), conveyors, paddle
feeders and many process application
including soft start requirement of very large
motors.
The rating of soft starter correspond to the
no load rating of the motor in many cases.
E.g. A large fan soft start application VFD
can be of 25-30% of the motor rating.

VFD APPLICATION - Advantages

Increased motor life

No limitation on the number of starts

No contribution to fault current.

One VFD can be used to soft start many

drives

Requirements of Motors for VFD

SPECIALLY DESIGNED MOTOR FOR INVERTER

DUTY

INSULATED BEARINGS TO CHECK SHAFT

CURRENT

STANDARD FOR SURGE ENVIORNMENT

: IEC 6003460034-18 PTPT-41, IEEE 522, NEMA MG
MG--1 PT 31
IEC 60034 PT. 25

Requirements of Motors for VFD

Inverter Grade motors are designed to take
care the following:

THERMAL STRESS

Higher size to take care of

heating due to presence of harmonics and
lower cooling when motors is running at
low speed
Motor heats up more, when fed by Inverter
as compare to sinesine-wave

A normal motor has to be dede-rated to

avoid excess overheating

VFD Inverter Output Waveform & Spikes Generation

Requirements of Motors for VFD

MECHANICAL STRESS
Critical speed should not fall in
desirable operating range
Motor should be designed to have low
vibration & noise in operating range
ELECTRICAL STRESS
Turn to Turn insulation to take care
the Surge voltages

Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor

As IGBT is the latest and widely used

technology, in this session, effect of
fast switching on motor insulation
shall also be discussed

TYPICAL VFD ARRANGEMENT

PULSE WIDTH MODULATION

high speed

low speed

VFD Inverter Output Waveform & Spikes Generation

Why surges in VFD system?

WHEN IGBT SWITCHED FROM ON TO

OFF i.e. CONDUCTION TO NON
NON-CONDUCTION MODE, A TRANSIENT
RECOVERY VOLTAGE TRV APPEARS.
dQ/dt = C dV/dt
This facilitates dissipation of the charge.

Surges at VFD Output

The IGBT inverter is a sine wave

output formed by large number of
square wave generated after PW

Every time voltage changes from

maximum value to zero, it causes
voltage spike at output.

IGBT based VFD - concern

Cont

The winding insulation is subjected

to high dv
dv//dt

InterInter-turn voltage can be 85% of

rated voltage between 1st & 2nd turn

Shaft voltage & Bearing Current

Additional heat loss due to harmonics

LT Motor Winding types

IGBT based VFD - concern

Cont

Transient voltage Spikes generated at

VFD output
Higher the switching Freq. steeper the
surge traveling to motor
Refracted wave phenomena further
increase the surge amplitude
Longer length of cable have high
amplitude surge striking on the 1st coil
Critical Cable length = 500ft/micro500ft/micro-sec.

Motors for VFD ApplicationCont

415V motor shall be rated for 1600V

peak with rise time of 0.1 micro
micro--sec.
dV/dt for inverter grade motor insulation
shall be rated for 12.8kV/micro12.8kV/micro-sec.
Excessive voltage drops in long length
Due to high freq. ground leakage current
dV/dt filter reqd. for length >200ft.
Reactor at VFD output for length<200ft.

SPECIAL DESIGN REQUIREMENTS of

MOTOR

Turn to turn insulation as per IEEE 522/

New IEC 60034
60034--1818-41

Better insulation to Ground

SemiSemi-conductive coating on slot portion of

coil (H.V. formed wound)

Insulated bearing to avoid bearing current

flow or fluting

VFD OUTPUT SURGES CAUSES PARTIAL

DISCHARGE

The insulations of machines having voltage

grade higher than 1100 volts are subject to
considerable electric stress.
When any material is subject to electric
stress, it leads to ionization or partial
discharge.
Partial Discharge (PD) are small electric
spark occurs at voids present in the
insulation or on the surface of coil
insulation.

VFD SURGESSURGES-Mixed Dielectric

Concept

The voltage distribution in series

capacitors is inversely proportional to their
medium dielectric permittivity
If insulation medium permittivity is 5, then
voltage per mm across air shall be 5 times
the voltage per mm across the insulation.
This concept sometimes leads to
breakdown of air medium even at rated
voltage operation of the machine,

Manufacturers recommendation for use of

filter/reactor

Manufacturers recommendation for use of filter/reactor

Manufacturers recommendation for

use of filter

TERMINAL VOLTAGE
CHARACTERISTICS-- VFD FED MOTORS
CHARACTERISTICS

CONCLUSION

Considerations while selection of VFD

motor:
Distance of the Equipment from the Inverter

To check requirement of filter/reactor

Insulation of bearing, especially HT motors

Selection of motor size considering Harmonics
& lower cooling at minimum speed
Extra insulation on few turns to withstand train
of surges of high amplitude due to refracted
wave phenomena

THANKS