AC Current Measurements with DLI Clampon Current Transducer, item # 8525

Applications
The current clamp may be used whenever you wish to measure the spectrum and/or time waveform of an alternating current. Such measurements are usually made to investigate the mains line frequency, and they are generally made at very high resolutions -- sometimes up to 6400 lines. The data is saved and can be printed directly to a printer from the DC-7. One use for such measurements is the current waveform at the input of variable frequency motor speed controller. Such devices are notorious for distorting the mains power waveform in many industrial plants. Another application is the detection of rotor bar problems in induction motors by examining the spectrum of the motor input current, as follows: If the bars in the slots of an induction motor rotor develop cracks causing high resistance or complete breaks causing open circuits, the result is an amplitude modulation of the mains current supplying the motor and heating of the rotor. The rotor heating represents a power loss, and the motor efficiency goes down, as well as the fact that the heating causes uneven expansion of the rotor and more rapid degradation of the bars. The amplitude modulation will be at twice the slip frequency of the motor, or twice the difference between actual speed and synchronous speed. The 2 times slip frequency is actually the rate at which the rotating magnetic poles pass the rotor bars, and is often called the "pole pass" frequency. This modulation causes sidebands spaced by the pole pass frequency to appear in the current spectrum. It must be borne in mind that anything that varies the torque in an induction motor will also cause modulation of the mains current, and this includes all types of load variation such as vane pass rates in pumps, gear mesh frequencies in gearboxes, etc. This means the current spectrum will generally have quite a large number of sideband pairs. Therefore it is important to know the exact motor speed so the correct sidebands due to rotor bar effects can be identified. The level of these pole pass sidebands correlates quite well with rotor bar condition in the motor. If all the bars had zero resistance, there would be no such sidebands at all, and as their resistance increases, the sideband levels increase. In general, it is safe to say that if twice slip sidebands are more than 50 to 60 dB below the level of the 60 Hz peak, the motor can be said to be healthy. If the sidebands rise to 30 dB below the 60 Hz peak, the motor should be watched carefully, and if the sideband levels rise to 10 to 20 dB below the main current peak, the motor should be repaired. It is important to note that all testing of motor current for rotor bar fault detection must be done with the motor at rated load. An unloaded motor will produce very little if any rotor bar sidebands because there is so little current induced the bars.

The Current Transducer

The DLI 8525 clamp-on current transducer has built-in over voltage protection and its sensitivity modified to optimize operation with the DC-7. The sensitivity is 10 mV per Ampere, and this allows alternating currents up to about 670 A RMS to be measured.

Test Procedure
The current transducer is simply placed around the electrical conductor whose current is to be measured. If the circuit being measured is 3phase, be sure only one conductor is inside the current clamp loop! Each phase may be measured in order if desired, or all three phases can be measured simultaneously if you have three current transducers available. This "triphasic" test is also good for measuring current balance between the phases, which is important information in diagnosing motor stator problems. The current transducer is connected to the DC-7 through the triaxial accelerometer connector on the standard barcode scanner cable, # 8547. You can use either the cable item # 8530 or # 8570 to interface with the dynamic signal inputs. The test setup may be performed in the Off Route mode as described in example 6 above. If the current test is a part of a route, the route should be set up in ExpertALERT to include the unit of dBAmp in the units table, and the reference can be set at any convenient level such as 1 Ampere. The units table will be downloaded into the DCCaution 7 with the route information. If the Off Route function is selected from within If you download a route containing newthis route, the same units table will apply. If, however, you enter the Off Route units into the DC-7, the existing routes mode directly from the main menu, the units table that goes with the DC-7 may be in the data collector must be re-loaded used, and it does not contain this unit. See The Util Function in Chapter 3 for more to correctly re-establish their units information on the Units Table.
tables.

If you have no dBAmp in your units table, you should do the current test by using Volts Dynamic and EUdB for units and scaling, as shown in example 6 above. The sensitivity should be set to the appropriate value (Usually this will be 10 mV/EU with conventional current probes). The reference dB value will be 1 Ampere, and the relative dB levels of the sidebands and the line frequency peak will be valid.

In the case of certain large motors, a built in current transformer is often a part of the motor switch gear. This transformer can be conveniently used to monitor the motor current instead of the current transducer. Be sure to set the DC-7 input sensitivity to When working with non-DLI current the correct value for the transformer.

Caution

clamps and current transformers, be careful not to exceed the DC-7's Exact calibration of the sensitivity is not very important, since the level of the twice maximum AC voltage input level of slip sidebands in relation to the level of the mains frequency current is important 6.7 V RMS.

rather than their absolute values.

For electric current measurements, a spectral resolution of 3200 Hz or more with an overlap of 50% and about 6 averages, usually provides a stable and repeatable spectrum. The frequency span can be set at 70 or 80 Hz to encompass the sidebands. After the spectrum is collected, the DC-7 Zoom In key can be used successively to effectively separate the sidebands farther from the line frequency. See Chapter 6 for more information on analyzing the spectrum.

The figure below shows a current spectrum from a 2 hp motor with sideband levels about 60 dB below the mains frequency peak, indicating no rotor bar damage.

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Document AC Current Measurements 2004 DLI Engineering Corp. - All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.