Experience with efficiency measurement of VSD fed induction

motors using calorimetric loss measurement technique

Rahul S. Kanchan1, Ingo Stroka1, Ville Srksmki2
1

ABB AB Corporate Research, Sweden,

ABB Oy, Finland

Abstract
Accurate measurement of the motor and/or motor drive system losses is very important in view of
upcoming stringent standard requirements. The EU eco-design directives 2005/32/EC through
Commission Regulation (EC) No 640/2009 is pushing for use of higher efficiency class motors for
industrial applications through the upcoming efficiency standards for motors and drive systems. For
motors of higher efficiency classes, the measurement of efficiency becomes more critical since small
errors introduced by measurement system have large effect of estimated efficiency. There are well
known established procedures to measure the efficiency of motors fed from sinusoidal supply as
outlined by IEC 60034-2-1 standard. The efforts are made in to draft a new technical specification IEC
60034-2-31 to address the methods to measure the additional losses incurred associated with
Variable Speed Drives (VSD) supplied motors [10] [21]. Similarly, the work is ongoing to describe
methods for measuring the system efficiency of complete motor-drive system for VSD fed motor
drives [7][6]. This draft specification describes either electrical input-output or calorimetric loss
measurement as preferred methods to measure efficiency of motor drive system.
This paper addresses our experience with measuring the VSD fed motor efficiency using calorimetric
loss measurement technique and comparing the measurements with other preferred efficiency
measurement methods. A calorimetric loss measurement system is built for measuring the losses of
motor supplied from a sinusoidal supply mains or VSD. The calorimeter is an open type two phase
system. The thermal equilibrium is established by running the test motor inside the calorimetric
chamber, and then the same thermal equilibrium is re-established using a heating resistor element
supplied from a DC power source. The power fed to the heating resistor at the thermal equilibrium is
subsequently interpreted as the motor losses. A series of tests were performed using calorimeter to
measure the motor losses at different load conditions. The measured losses are then compared with
losses measured with the direct input-output efficiency measurement method. The uncertainties of
calorimetric loss measurements are also established by considering all possible heat leakage points
and instrumentation error sources. Finally both electrical and calorimetric loss measurement results
are compared.
Keywords:- IEC60034-2-1, IEC 60034-2-3, Direct input-output efficiency measurement, calorimetric
loss measurement technique

The technical specification is still in draft stage, the publishing date is scheduled to be in late 2013. http://www.iec.ch

Introduction
The motor efficiency can be measured in a number of ways, IEC 60034-2-1 standard describes
methods for testing induction motors and also suggests the accuracy requirements of different
equipment used for measurements. The direct method (Method 2-1-1A) is the most common and
straightforward way of measuring motor efficiency; it involves testing the motor by coupling it to a
separate load machine together with a torque measurement device on the shaft. The test motor input
and output power is thus directly measured for several load points. The accuracy of the direct
efficiency measurements have been discussed extensively in literature and general observation is
that the method can lead to large measurement errors since it involves measurement of two large
quantities. A slight error in any of the quantity will result into large error in the efficiency. The other
popular and more accurate technique- called the summation of loss method, in fact measures
different loss components like no load losses and load losses separately using no load and load tests.
The additional stray load losses are either estimated by linear regression analysis on measured load
loss (Method 2-1-1B) or by using an assigned value as described by the standard (Method 2-1-1C).
The applicability of which method should be used is also described by the standard. Accordingly, the
stray load loss shall be determined from residual loss for motors up to 2 MW and it is to be calculated
from assigned value for higher than 2 MW machines.
Even with the use of a consistent and accurate efficiency measurement method, variations in the
results for the same motor do occur. This is primarily due to test equipment and instrument
characteristics, and in the case of non-automated testing, due to personnel factors. The situation is
very different when the motor is supplied from Variable Speed Drives (VSD), as the existing standard
is no longer applicable. The effect of PWM voltages applied by the VSD is increase in motor lossesthese are mainly the additional harmonic losses. A new draft specification IEC 60034-2-32 is under
preparation which describes the methods to measure motor efficiency under VSD supply [10][21].
Motor efficiency measurement methods involve use of standard equipment like power meters which
have higher measurement error margins under PWM supply voltages as compared to sinusoidal
voltage condition [23]. Both IEC 60034-2-1 and 60034-2-3 specify the necessary accuracy
requirements for different instrumentation used in the electrical loss measurements. Mainly the
instrumentation used for the electrical loss measurements shall have an accuracy class of 0.2 in
accordance with IEC 60051 and the instrumentation used for measuring mechanical quantities should
have accuracy range of 0.2% of full scale [3]. It has been reported that even when the same motor
has been tested in different laboratories, it was not possible to reproduce the same efficiency values
[6] [9]. This topic has been under review in the standards committee and efforts are being made in to
improve the accuracy of electrical test methods. As of now, more precise loss measurement under
these situations can be done using calorimetric loss measurements. The uncertainty associated with
calorimetric loss measurement is much lower than input-output method while measuring the higher
efficiency systems/components as reported in [22].
Calorimetric system measures actual loss in terms of generated heat of the machine, which is very
much different in principle from other methods described in the above standard specifications. The
heat dissipated in the test objects results in the temperature rise of the cooling medium. The
temperature rise is measured together with the coolant flow inside the calorimetric chamber. By
knowing the relative humidity, absolute pressure and temperature rise, the actual heat loss can be
calculated. This approach is termed as closed cycle calorimetric loss measurement.
In another approach, referred to as an open type calorimetric system, the measurements are carried
out in two stages. In the first stage- calibration phase, the induction motor is driven with specific load
and the respective temperature rise at known coolant flow rate is established. Then in the second
stage- balance phase, the DC power is fed to a known resistor network placed inside the box. This
power fed to the resistor is adjusted until the same thermal equilibrium as calibration phase is
achieved, which is then taken as the motor loss during the calibration phase. The open type
calorimetric loss measurement is simpler, mostly uses air as cooling medium and with proper care for
considering heat leakages, accurate results can be obtained.

The technical specification is still in draft stage, the publishing date is scheduled to be in late 2013. http://www.iec.ch

Still calorimetric loss measurements often involve more complex and time consuming tasks and thus
this method cannot be used for routine testing but rather should be used as an evaluation tool for
confirming the accuracy of efficiency measured by other methods. This is the main motivation for this
paper. The paper presents construction of a test setup which is capable of performing both
calorimetric loss measurements and electrical efficiency measurements simultaneously. The paper
addresses some common issues with calorimetric loss measurement systems involving electric
motors as test objects. The paper is organized as follows. First a literature overview of the calorimetric
loss measurement method is presented, with more focus on application to measurements involving
the electric motor as test object. Then the common issues, and difficulties associated with loss
measurements are discussed, and solutions are proposed. The main cause of heat leakage which
deteriorates the accuracy of measurements, and methods to account for these losses is described.
Then the actual measurement results by calorimetric loss measurement method performed on a test
motor at different load conditions are presented and compared with the losses measured by electrical
direct input-output power measurement method.

Overview of calorimetric loss measurement

The calorimetric loss measurement technique has been in use for loss measurements for many years.
The initial usage can be found for chemical engineering processes. In recent years, its applications
have been reported for measuring losses on electrical machines and power electronic systems. A
good overview about earlier calorimeters and subsequent attempts for measuring losses in electric
machine can be found in [14]. The calorimeters can be classified into different categories based on
the principle of their operation and cooling medium used. Direct calorimeters measure the heat
produced by the test object directly, whereas indirect calorimeters uses an auxiliary resistor and
create a similar heat generation. Thus indirect calorimeters may perform two tests-first using the test
object for heat generation and second for mimicking the similar thermal condition using a resistance
heating element. Double chamber calorimeters are also reported in literature- one chamber for
housing the test object while a second chamber is used for heating the resistor element. The cooling
medium also differs, open type generally uses air as heat transfer medium. When liquid or gas
coolants are used, the calorimeter also consists of a heat exchanger to take out the heat from coolant.
The reference [14] provides an overview of different calorimeter types and also presents advantages
and dis-advantages of the same. The accuracy of calorimetric system is of prime importance to justify
investments in such a complex system and the time required for testing.
Important requirements for calorimetric loss measurement
The main challenges in calorimetric loss measurements for measuring motor efficiency can be
described as below-

Minimize and estimate the heat loss from the walls and other sealing places

Temperature control and precise measurement

Mounting of motor inside calorimeter and arrangement for shaft opening and sealing
arrangement.

Accurately control and measure the air (or other mass) flow rate, minimize disturbance by
motor fan

The last two requirements is very specific to the measuring motor losses. Since the heavy motor mass
has to be securely mounted inside the calorimeter and the shaft has to be brought out. It is very
important to contain any heat leakage either from shaft opening or through the motor mounting bolts
in such situation. This heat leakage from different sources has to be calculated and used to readjust
the measured motor losses through dissipated heat loss. The next section of the paper presents
construction of the calorimetric measurement system and describes novel solutions to minimize the
heat leakages from both of the above mentioned points.

Calorimetric loss measurement system

The calorimetric loss measurement system is based on an open type calorimeter. The main control
function during calibration phase is to attain a steady temperature rise between air inlet to outlet by
controlling the blower fan speed. This is followed by the balance phase during which the blower fan
speed is kept constant, equal to the blower speed recorded during calibration phase and then the
power to the heating resistor is controlled until the same temperature rise is obtained.
The main assumption for power balance during calibration and balance phase is that the room
ambient conditions remain unchanged; else the results will have significant errors. In past, some
calorimeters have been reported which use a preheater stage to control air inlet temperature. In our
case, the room temperature is controlled by a separate air conditioning system, thus there is no need
for a separate preheater stage. Although utilizing a separate preheater does reduce the risks of errors
due to room temperature variation.
Mechanical constructionThe schematic diagram of the calorimeter is shown in the Figure 1. The calorimeter chambers inside
dimensions are 1000 x 1000 x 1000 mm, designed to handle power losses up to 3 kW. The
calorimeter walls consist of 150 mm of polyurethane sandwiched in between two fiberglass plates.
The box houses the test motor, heating resistor and an array of temperature sensors.

Figure 1: A schematic of the calorimetric loss measurement system

The motor is supported on a metal plate which is bolted to the metal table structure on which the
calorimeter is placed. Heating resistor is mounted on the aluminum plate and the PT100 sensor
elements are supported on the ceiling. There are 6 sensors on top level and 6 sensors at middle of
the chamber. The chamber has openings for motor shaft, inlet and outlet air pipes. The calorimeter
can be opened from two sides for easy mounting and dismounting of the test motor. The inlet and
outlet air pipes houses four PT100 temperature sensors for accurately measuring the air temperature.
Motor and chamber mounting
The schematic of motor mounting is shown in Figure 2(b). A 5 mm thick aluminum baseplate is used
below the chamber and inside on the chamber floor. The aluminum plates help in reducing risks of
damage to the calorimeter chamber due to uneven weights and uneven pressures by mounting bolts.
The heating resistor is secured to the inside aluminum plate. The motor is mounted on a 20 mm thick
steel plate placed on top of aluminum plate using normal steel bolts as shown in Figure 2(b). The
mounting arrangement for the steel plate is critical since any mismatch will result into shaft
misalignment causing extra stress on the shaft assembly.

The motor shaft assembly

The mechanical assembly of the calorimeter should minimize the heat leakage from the box. The
possible leakage points are the motor shaft hole and the chamber (motor) mountings which must be
designed carefully to minimize any heat leakage. Motor shaft assembly consists of a long shaft
supported by two elevated bearings, one inside the calorimeter and one outside the calorimeter. This
shaft is coupled to the motor shaft through a flexible backlash free compact elastomer coupling which
minimizes any heat conduction through the motor shaft to connecting shaft. The other end of the shaft
is connected to torque transducer through a flexible bellow coupling. The load machine is connected
to the torque transducer at the other end.
To avoid any heat leakage through the shaft hole, special rubber sealing are inserted in the shaft hole
as shown in Figure 2(a). The calorimeters reported in literature, as in [12], mount the test motor first
and then place the calorimeter on top of it, which causes large unsealed portions around the shaft
opening and thus are major source of heat leakage. The steel plate is secured to the mounting table
using four fiber glass bolts as shown in Figure 2. The holes are reinforced with fiber glass tube to
avoid any heat leakage and hard fiber bolts are used instead of metal bolts. The use of fiber glass
bolts as described above also minimizes any heat flow through motor baseplate.
The shaft height is maintained such that 160 frame size motor can be coupled directly to the
interconnecting shaft. Any lower frame motor can also be connected by using additional baseplate,
but a larger than 160 frame size motor cannot be tested on existing setup.

Figure 2: (a) Details of shaft hole, (b) Chamber support arrangement

Air inlet and outlet pipes
The air enters the calorimeter chamber from the top on one side and leaves from the bottom on the
opposite side. The blower fan is connected at the outlet pipe which draws the air from inside the
chamber. The blower fan is controlled by a separate VSD which runs at the reference speed
determined by the control system. Four temperature sensors are mounted on the inlet and outlet
pipes to measure the air temperature. The long inlet pipe ensures that the air is thoroughly mixed
before entering the chamber.
Electrical cable connections and motor control
The electrical wiring schematic is shown in Figure 3. The load machine is connected to a variable
speed drive (ABB ACS800 drive) which is configured in torque control mode. The drive controls the
load motor to apply a constant torque to the motor shaft. The test object (motor) can be connected
directly to the supply mains for performing loss measurements under sinusoidal supply conditions or
alternately it can be connected to a test drive (ABB ACS850) which can rotate the test motor at
variable speeds. Two power meters are utilized to measure test converter input and output powers
respectively. The current sensors are used to provide current interface to the power meters whereas
the voltage inputs are directly connected. A torque sensor and associated acquisition system provides
5

measurement of the mechanical speed and torque at the motor shaft. Both test and load motor
converters can be controlled from the central control system.

Supply
mains

L1
L2
L3

Load
Converter
Load machine

DC power
supply

Supply
mains

Current
Sensors

Test
Converter

L1 L2 L3
Current
Sensors

Heating
Resistor

Test Object

Calorimeter

Torque, Speed

Acquisition

I
Precision power
analyzer

U
Precision power
analyzer

Figure 3: Electrical wiring schematic

Communication interface
The overall instrumentation system is as shown in Figure 4. All the peripheral instruments, as well as
power converters are connected to standard Ethernet network. 4 wire PT 100 elements are used to
measure temperature at various places of interest like, various points inside calorimeter, air inletoutlet pipe, motor housing and motor winding temperatures and ambient temperature. The
temperature sensing elements are connected to temperature data acquisition instrument, which send
the temperature data to main data acquisition and control computer over Ethernet network. Blower
fan is driven by a separate variable speed drive (ABB ACS355). The drive receives the command
signals from main data acquisition and control system over Ethernet network and also sends the drive
data for control and monitoring purposes. The test motor drive also configured to communicate with
the main control system computer over Ethernet. The load motor drive receives the command in
terms of analog signals from test motor drive.

Figure 4: Communication interface between different instruments and control computer

The power meters used in the calorimeter system are Precision power analyzers [23], which are
connected to Ethernet network. The speed and torque signals from torque transducer are fed to one
of the power meter as analog and digital signals respectively. The DC power supply which is used to
provide power to heating resistor elements is also connected to Ethernet network and receives
commands from main computer through Ethernet network.

Control system
The control system is designed on LabVIEW platform which runs on a control and data logging
computer. The LabVIEW comes with basic library function to establish interface with wide variety of
sensing, data acquisition and monitoring equipments and instruments. The interface to temperature
data logger, DC power supply, power analyzer is designed using these standard functions. The
interface with the test, load and blower fan drive is build using standard Modbus over Ethernet IP
protocol. The main tasks of the control system are described as below-

Data acquisition from peripheral sensors, instruments drives.

Data logging at specified interval

PID control for controlling speed of blower during calibration phase

PID control for controlling heating resistor power during balance phase

Basic protection functions for chamber, motor over temperature and motor over speed

Experimental tests on an induction motor

The calorimetric measurement system is used to measure the losses of the test induction motor at
different load conditions. The induction motor used in the experimental study is a 15 kW, IE2
efficiency class (400 V, 50 Hz, 1500 rpm) induction motor. The motor is tested for efficiency under
sinusoidal supply conditions. The motor efficiency is measured as per test methods specified in
IEC60034-2-1. First the heat run test performed at different loading conditions and the efficiency is
measured as per direct input-output method. This is followed by indirect efficiency measurement as
described in method 2- summation of losses, residual losses estimated from stray losses.
Electrical efficiency measurement
Table 1 summarizes the results from direct and indirect efficiency measurement tests with sinusoidal
supply. As per IEC 60034-2-1, the motor efficiency from indirect loss measurement can be expressed
7

in two ways- first as function of input power (Pin) and losses (PL) and secondly as a function of losses
(PL) and output power (Pout). The efficiency calculation using both methods is shown in Table 1.This is
followed by calorimetric loss measurements at rated load point.
Table 1: Summary of motor efficiency measurement using electrical methods
Load Torque [%]
Efficiency (%)
Indirect method

(Pin - PL)/Pin
Pout/(Pout + PL)
Direct input-output power measurement

115

100

75

50

25

90.5
90.4
90.2

91.2
91.2
90.2

91.9
91.9
90.9

91.6
91.6
91.6

88.1
88.0
91.2

Figure 5: Efficiency of induction motor measured from standard measurement methods

Calorimetric loss measurement tests

The motor is started by directly connecting to line supply and nominal load is applied from the load
motor. The reference temperature gradient of 300 C is set between inlet and outlet air. The calibration
phase is continued until the air blower fan speed is stabilized at a constant value. The room ambient
conditions are maintained constant during the test. Since the test object is iron mass, it takes long
time to bring it to a constant temperature. In order to speed up the process, the power is also fed to
the heating resistor during the initial time to rapidly increase the chamber and motor temperature. The
electrical power to the motor during calibration phase is also logged using the data logging system.
The PL* in Table 2 denotes the motor loss (1598.2 W) obtained by subtracting output power Pm
measured by torque transducer from electrical input power Pe_in during calibration phase.
The balance phase is carried out right after calibration phase. As the motor is already at thermal
equilibrium, it helps to speed up the balance test. The DC power is supplied to heating resistor and
the blower fan is set to run at the speed recorded during the calibration phase. A PID controller
controls the power to the heating resistor in such a manner that the temperature rise between inlet
and outlet is equal to the temperature gradient during calibration phase. The recorded power Pres at
the thermal equilibrium is be equal to 1651 watts as show in Table 2.

Table 2: results summary of calorimetric loss measurement at rated load

Calibration
phase

Balance phase 1
(motor standstill)

Balance phase 2
(motor running at nominal speed)

Temp Diff, T
Blower speed, Nblower
Blower freq
PL* (Pe_in-Pm)
Heating res. Current, Ires.

C
RPM
Hz
W
A

30.0
3199.6
53.30
1598.2
-

30.0
3198.1
53.30

30.0
3198.1
53.30

17.8

17.1

Heating res. Voltage, Vres.

Heating res. Power, Pres.

V
W

92.9
1651

89.7
1534.8

Air circulation inside calorimeter during calibration and balance phase

There is one fundamental difference between the air circulation inside calorimetric chamber during
calibration phase and balance phase. During calibration phase, there is very good air circulation
because of the test motor fan inside the calorimetric chamber. But during balance phase, there is no
air circulation inside the calorimetric chamber. This results in the large temperature gradient inside the
chamber.

Figure 6: Temperature profile at various points during balance phase (a) outlet pipe, (b) input
pipe, (c) motor, (d) heating resistor power, (e) motor side temperature inside calorimeter, (f)
air blower speed
This is shown in Figure 6 (e), the motor side temperature sensors show around 12 degrees difference
between the top and middle temperature sensor. This even creates a temperature gradient inside
9

motor body which is evident from Figure 6(c). The temperature sensors mounted inside motor at
different locations show different temperatures. One option to create similar air circulation during
balance phase is to rotate test motor with the help of load motor in the same direction. The load motor
drive is now configured in speed control mode and controls the speed of the motor equal to the speed
during calibration phase. The temperature gradient diminishes as the test motor is started (at 18:00 hr
as shown in Figure 6). The balance phase after this point is referred as balance phase 2. The
heating resistor power during both balance test phases was found to be equal to 1651 W and 1552
W, the different between these two readings is ~100 W.
The main reason for this variation is that the thermal equilibrium (and air circulation) under both
balance phase conditions is very different to each other. When the test motor is driven from load
machine, the friction losses in the test motor are supplied by load machine through motor shaft. This
causes reduction in the power in the heating resistor. Thus the friction losses supplied by load
machine plus heating resistor power shall be considered as total losses during balance phase 2. The
shaft power recorded by torque transducer is equal to 107 watts in balance phase 2. As mentioned
above, the difference in the heating resistor power during balance phase 1 and balance phase 2 is
~100 W. Thus it can be concluded that when the test motor is rotated using the load drive to avoid
temperature gradients, part of the losses (which are mainly friction and windage losses inside test
motor) are supplied by load motor. This power should be considered together with heating resistor
power is determine total power loss inside calorimeter during balance phase.
Still the mechanical power measured by torque transducer (as described above) can be very
erroneous as the torque value in above case is a few percent of the rated torque for the transducer.
This can lead to significant errors in torque or power measurements under this condition.

Determination of friction and windage loss

It is possible to estimate the power input through shaft during the balance test 2 using the calorimetric
loss measurement system. A separate set of calibration and balance test are performed for this as
described below
-

During the calibration phase, the test motor is rotated using load machine but no power is fed
to the heating resistor. During this phase, the losses inside the calorimetric chamber are only
friction and windage losses inside test motor. The temperature rise and blower fan speed is
recorded when the thermal equilibrium is reached. It should be noted that in this phase, since
the power losses inside the chamber are very small, the temperature gradient is set to very
low value, to achieve reasonable blower speed. Otherwise the blower fan may run at very low
speed. For better accuracy, the calibration phase is first performed with temperature gradient
setting of 4 0C and then again with 2.7 0C to obtain two different blower fan speeds for thermal
equilibrium. The recoded blower speed at thermal equilibrium is both cases were 1440 rpm
and 2170 rpm respectively.

This is followed by a balance phase in which the temperature gradient and blower speed
obtained from calibration phase are set as reference and the DC power to heating resistor
elements is controlled to obtain desired temperature gradient. The resulting heating power,
blower speed and temperature gradient for two independent temperature gradients of 4 0C
and 2.7 0C (i.e. the friction losses) are equal to 94 watts and 113 watts. Again this closely
matches with the 100 W power difference recorded during balance phase 1 and 2 described
in previous section.

The main conclusions from above tests are summarized as below

-

The test motor can be rotated using load machine during the balance test to maintain the
homogeneous temperature distribution inside calorimeter. This avoids large temperature
gradients which otherwise can be generated inside the box because of no air circulation
during balance phase.

In this condition, the total power loss in the balance test is the sum of power input to heating
resistor and motor friction and windage losses which are fed by the load motor through motor
shaft.

10

This part of loss i.e. motor friction and windage loss, fed by load motor can be measured from
torque transducer or a separate set of calibration and balance test can be performed. The
results from this balance test closely match with the power recorded by torque transducer.

Summary and comparison of motor efficiency measurement at rated power

Table 3 shows the summary of the determined efficiency using electrical and calorimetric loss
measurements at rated load under sinusoidal supply conditions. The motor efficiency in case of
calorimetric loss measurement is determined assuming the electrical input power during calibration
phase. It can be seen that the results are in very close agreement using both type of balance tests.
The real advantages with Balance test 2 is that the possibility of large temperature gradients inside
calorimeter is eliminated by utilizing motor fan for air circulation.
Table 3: Summary of efficiency measurements at nominal operating condition
Test
Electrical
measurements
(Calibration phase)
Balance phase 1
(test motor standstill)
Balance phase 2
(test motor rotated at
nominal speed)

Input power, [W]

16715

Measured loss, [W]

1598.2

Motor efficiency [%]

90.4

---

1651

90.1

----

1647.8(1534.8 heating
resistor + 113 friction
loss from load motor)

90.1

Separate fans for air circulation

An alternate way to maintain good air circulation inside the calorimeter chamber is using separate
fans mounted at suitable location on the calorimeter chamber ceiling, as shown in Figure 7. In such
situation, power fed to the air circulation fans also result in additional losses inside chamber and thus
shall be subtracted from losses measured in balance phase.
A balance test is performed wherein the air circulation fans were used for air circulation both during
calibration and balance phase. The motor is loaded with nominal torque and speed as before. In this
situation, the power measured by calorimeter is approximately 1670 watts, thus measuring
approximately 20 watts more than the previous results shown in Table 3. The power to the auxiliary
fans is measured using power meter during the test, which was equal to 22 watts. This additional 22
watts gets reflected in the total power loss measured during balance test.

Aluminium plate
Heating
resistor

Steel
plate

heater side
temp.
sensors

Middle temp.
sensors

Air circulation
fans

Motor

Motor side
temp.
sensors

Figure 7: Use of separate fans on calorimeter ceiling for air circulation inside the calorimeter
The difference in temperature between upper and lower temperature sensors during balance tests
with use of auxiliary fans is compared with balance test 1 described in pervious section. Figure 8
11

shows the temperature gradient between top and bottom temperature sensors at three different
locations shown in Figure 7; "motor side" refers to the temperature sensors towards motor side,
"heater side" towards heater side, and "middle" is in between heater and motor. The reduction in the
temperature gradient is clearly evident. The largest reduction in temperature gradient is obtained
directly under the circulating fan (for ex. Heater side temperature difference is reduced from 22.3 0C to
1.8 0C. On the other hand, the reduction in temperature is only 6.10 (from 17.5 0C to 11.4 0C) in the
central part. Thus placement of the circulation fans is very important. It is recommended that more
number of small fans shall be used rather than using one big fan.

Figure 8: Effect of air circulation fans on temperature gradient inside the calorimeter at three
locations

Motor efficiency measurement under VSD supply

The similar procedure is followed to measure the motor efficiency under VSD supply conditions. This
section summarizes the results obtained from direct input-output power measurement and calorimetric
loss measurement for different four load conditions.

Calibration phase
First calibration test is performed for four different load conditions at rated speed with suitable
temperature gradient. The results are summarized in Table 4. A higher value of temperature gradient
T is required for nominal load conditions to handle higher loss inside calorimeter and it is gradually
decreased for partial load conditions. Thus the motor ambient temperature for all load conditions is
not similar. The blower speed Nblower at thermal equilibrium is summarized in Table 4 for different load
conditions. The electrical measurements like motor input power Pe_in, output (mechanical) power Pout,
and so the motor loss PLoss, motor is also recorded during the test so that the motor efficiency as per
direct input-output methods is known instantaneously.

Balance phase 1
The balance phase 1 is performed right after calibration phase and the test motor is rotated using load
motor in this phase to maintain the air circulation. The temperature gradient T and blower speeds
Nblower obtained in calibration phase are used as input variables and the calorimeter is allowed to
settle at thermal equilibrium by controlling the DC power fed to heating resistor elements. The heating
resistor power Pres. at thermal equilibrium condition is taken as the heat loss inside the calorimeter. As
the motor is rotated using load motor, the mechanical power from torque transducer is also recorded
which indicates the friction and windage losses for the test motor. Instead the second approach (as
described in previous section) is followed to estimate this power flow into the calorimeter through
motor shaft (i.e. the friction and windage loss supplied by load motor) by performing a separate set of
calibration and balance phase experiment. During the calibration phase, the tests motor is driven by
12

load motor and thermal equilibrium is established. As the friction and windage loss is a small
percentage of the total loss handling capacity of the calorimeter, the errors in the measurement are
anticipated. To increase the measurement accuracy, a constant power of 500 W is fed to heating
resistor as a bias power. The thermal equilibrium at temperature gradient of 5 0C is established at
1800 rpm. The blower speed value obtained at thermal equilibrium is used as reference value during
balance phase. The corresponding DC resistor power was found to be equal to 613 W under thermal
equilibrium. Thus the friction and windage loss power supplied from load motor is equal to the 113 W
(500 W being the bias power). This is used as mechanical power input Pmech during calculation of
total losses during balance phase 1.

Balance phase 2
A second set of balance tests is performed in which the air circulation inside calorimeter is maintained
using separate fans. The DC power fed to these auxiliary fans Pfan is also measured with power
meters, and kept constant around 22 W. The resulting heating resistor power Pres. at thermal
equilibrium for blower speed Nblower and temperature gradient T values obtained from calibration
phase for different load conditions is summarized in Table 4.
Table 4: Summary of calorimetric loss measurement tests with PWM supply conditions

Calibration phase

Balance Phase 1

Balance Phase 2

Motor loss
Direct input-output
Calorimetric- Balance phase 1
Calorimetric- Balance phase 2
Efficiency
Direct input-output
Calorimetric- Balance phase 1
Calorimetric- Balance phase 2

Load Torque
Pe in
Pout
PLoss, motor
T
Nblower
T
Nblower
Pres.
Pmech
Ptotal_1
T
Nblower
P res.
Pfan
Ptotal_2

[%]
kW
kW
W
0
C
RPM
0
C
RPM
W
W
W
0
C
RPM
W
W
W

100
16.8
15.0
1837.3
20.0
1447.7
20.0
1444.9
1729.9
113.0
1842.9
20.0
1445.8
1793.3
22.0
1815.3

75
12.6
11.4
1156.0
9.0
2008.4
9.0
2006.9
1069.6
113.0
1182.6
9.0
2010.3
1163.4
22.1
1185.5

50
8.6
7.8
812.4
5.0
2516.9
5.0
2507.9
691.0
113.0
804.0
5.0
2501.8
804.4
22.1
826.5

25
4.3
3.7
608.7
5.0
1628.0
5.0
1614.0
434.7
113.0
547.7
5.0
1614.0
515.7
22.3
538.0

PLoss, motor
Ptotal_1
Ptotal_2

W
W
W

1837.3
1842.9
1815.3

1156.0
1182.6
1185.5

812.4
804.0
826.5

608.7
547.7
538.0

%
%
%

89.1
89.0
89.2

90.8
90.6
90.6

90.6
90.7
90.4

85.9
87.3
87.5

The summary of motor loss and motor efficiency values determined based on above calibration and
balance phase tests are also given in Table 4. The results obtained with direct input-output and
calorimetric loss measurement system are in close agreement with each other. The only exception is
at 25% load torque where the electrical measurements deviate from calorimetric loss measurements
by approximately 50 W. The power loss inside calorimeter in this situation is small, thus small errors in
loss measurement leads to large variation in efficiency value.

13

Estimation of heat leakage from the calorimeter

The accuracy of calorimetric loss measurement greatly depends upon the minimizing any heat
leakage from the calorimeter. The main source of heat leakage is through the motor shaft and
mounting bolts along with the heat dissipated through the calorimeter surface. It should be noted that
the accuracy of calorimetric loss measurement is independent of actual value of heat leakage. But it is
dependent upon the difference between heat leakage during calibration and balance phase. The heat
leakage through the above three locations is determined as described below

Motor shaft
The heat flow through the motor shaft occurs due to different surface temperature inside and outside
the calorimeter. Two temperature sensors are mounted at these locations and used to monitor the
temperatures during the tests. Then the actual heat conduction through motor shaft is determined
based upon the temperature gradient, cross section area, and length of shaft between the
temperature sensors as

pshaft kA
Where

Tshaft

(1)

pshaft is heat conduction through shaft, k is the thermal conductivity (Wm1K1), A is the area of

cross section (m2), Tshaft is the temperature difference (K), and x is the distance of heat flow (m) [12].
For steel shaft, the diameter is 42 mm, the thermal conductivity of the steel is 50 (Wm1K1) [20], and
the distance between the inner and outer temperature sensor 150 mm (insulation width). The
corresponding values of heat flow through shaft are given in Table 5 for both calibration and balance
phase (the analysis is only performed for balance phase 1 described in previous section). It should be
noted that the temperature gradient across the shaft is a negative value for 20%, 50% and 75% load
condition. This is due to the local heat produced by the supporting bearing on the interconnecting
shaft. It is found that the outer bearing is producing more heat than the bearing inside calorimeter and
thus the actual heat flow is in reverse direction.

Mounting bolts
The motor baseplate is secured to the foundation using four glass fiber bolts. Two temperature
sensors are mounted on top and bottom of the one of the bolts to measure the heat conduction
through these bolts and the temperature measurements at these points are recorded during
calorimetric tests. Since the glass fiber bolts are good resistors of heat (thermal conductivity of glass
fiber is 0.04 (Wm1K1)), the heat flow through the bolts is very small. Thus the temperature recorded
by temperature sensors mounted on outer side of bolt does not show any influence from the
temperature inside calorimeter (although it is changing with respect to change in ambient room
temperature, this is indicated by Bolt_ambient in Table 5). It can be concluded that the heat leakage
through the mounting bolts can be neglected.

Calorimeter surface
The heat flow through calorimeter surface can be expressed as,

psurface U surface .S surface .Tsurface

(2)

where U surface is heat transfer coefficient of calorimeter wall material, S surface is the surface area and

Tsurface is the temperature gradient between inner and outer surface of the calorimeter [12]. The
temperature of the inner surface is very difficult to measure. Even though the proper heat circulation
inside the calorimeter chamber is maintained, the inner surface temperature at different points is not
constant due to local vertical temperature gradients. Therefore average of the temperature measured

14

by sensors inside calorimeter is considered as inner surface temperature. The total heat leakage
pleakage from calorimeter is determined as below
(3)

pleakage psurface pshaft

The estimated value of heat dissipation according to the above described procedure is summarized in
Table 5 for calibration and balance phases.
Table 5: Estimation of heat leakage through different points
Calibration phase

Load Torque
Temp, Shaft inside
Temp, Shaft outside

Tshaft
pshaft

75
46.1
47.0

50
41.3
44.8

25
39.2
46.8

6.6

-1.0

-3.5

-7.6

W
C
0
C
0
C
0
C

3.1
42.4
20.6
21.5
21.8

-0.4
31.7
21.3
22.6
10.4

-1.6
26.8
21.0
21.7
5.9

-3.5
24.5
19.9
21.1
4.6

Bolt ambient
Surface

1.0

1.3

0.8

1.2

20.3

9.2

5.4

5.1

W
C
0
C
0
C

50.2
51.6
51.2
0.4

22.9
40.6
46.8
-6.2

13.4
36.5
45.9
-9.4

12.6
37.4
46.9
-9.5

0.2
43.4

-2.9
29.0

-4.4
22.8

-4.4
23.6

21.4

20.6

20.4

20.2

22.2
8.4
1.6

21.1
2.3
0.7

21.1
3.4
1.0

psurface
Temp, Shaft inside
Temp, Shaft outside
T

pshaft

Temp, Bolt inside

Temp, Bolt outside

Temp, inlet
Bolt
Bolt ambient
Surface

Tsurface
psurface
pleakage

100
55.8
49.2

Temp, Bolt inside

Temp, Bolt outside
Temp, inlet
Bolt

Tsurface
Balance phase 1

[%]
C
0
C
0

Calibration phase
Balance phase 1
Difference

C
0
C
0

22.7
22.0
1.3

20.8

7.4

3.6

4.9

W
W
W

51.6
53.3
51.8
1.5

18.4
22.4
15.5
6.9

9.0
11.8
4.7
7.1

12.1
9.0
7.7
1.3

It can be seen from Table 5 that the biggest portion of the heat leakage is from the calorimeter
surface whereas the heat leakage from motor shaft and mounting bolts is comparatively small. As
mentioned earlier, the accuracy of the calorimetric loss measurement is dependent upon the
difference between the heat leakage during calibration and balance phase. This difference is very
small compared to the actual loss measured during the tests as shown in Table 5. Thus its addition to
the actual measured loss will not result into big variation in the efficiency values which are presented
in Table 4. This also confirms the superior construction of the calorimeter.

15

Conclusions
The main purpose of the work is to validate the electrical (direct input-output) efficiency
measurements procedures being used extensively in ABB using alternate efficiency measurement
methods like calorimetric loss measurement. A calorimetric loss measurement system is built for this
purpose and series of the tests were performed to measure the efficiency of the induction motor at
different load conditions. The special construction methods are followed to avoid any heat leakage
through motor shaft and motor mountings. These are the main concerns (points of heat leakage)
when measurements on electric motor are performed inside calorimeter. The electrical efficiency is
determined as per direct input-output method and this was followed by calorimetric loss measurement
on rated load condition under converter supply. Because of the cooling fan of the motor, the air
circulation inside calorimeter is gets affected during calibration phase. To maintain the similar
conditions as calibration phase, the test motor is rotated with the help of load machine during balance
phase. The additional power flows inside calorimeter through motor shaft during this condition which
is the friction and windage losses inside test motor and this power should be accounted in the total
losses during calibration phase. A separate set of calibration and balance phase is performed to
measure this power flow from motor shaft. The measured friction and windage loss is then considered
together with heat resistor power to determine the total loss under different load conditions. The
resulting loss and efficiency values are in close agreement with the direct input-output method.
The heat leakage by conduction through shaft is calculated based on measured shaft temperature
inside and outside of calorimeter. Similarly, the non-variation of temperature recorded by temperature
sensor at outer side of mounting bolt indicates that there is no heat leakage through the mounting
bolt. It is seen that the estimated value of leakage loss is smaller as compared to the power loss
measured by calorimeter and thus considering the leakage value in total loss will not change the
estimated efficiencies considerably.
It is also observed that the calorimeter accuracy can be further enhanced by controlling the
temperature of the inlet air to the calorimeter. Since the calorimeter stability is based on temperature
gradient between inlet to outlet temperature, any slight variation in inlet temperature will cause the
whole motor mass inside the calorimeter either to absorb or dissipate the heat. This introduces errors
in the loss measurement. Clearly, the situation can be avoided by use of external inlet temperature
controller. Another source of error is the friction loss produced by the supporting bearing used for
interconnecting shaft. One of the support bearing is inside the calorimeter. The heat produced by this
bearing also contributes to the heat inside calorimeter. Thus the losses measured by calorimeter are
higher than the actual motor losses. Suitable methods to measure and compensate for these bearing
losses are the next steps towards accurate loss measurements using calorimetric method.

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17