Performance evaluation of three phase induction motor using rotor frame 0.35 mm and 0.50 mm of non-oriented steel sheets

In this project, the three phase AC induction motor have been thoroughly investigated and analyzed in terms of the induction motor parameter, efficiency, power factor and loss segregation. Throughout this project, the performance of the three phase induction motor when it design and modeling by using two (2) different thickness, 0.35 mm and 0.50 mm, of non grain oriented electrical steel sheets with 10 mm rotor bar size. The first part of comparison is done with simulation using FEM Software. The results from FEM Software were compared in terms of power loss, magnetic flux density, eddy current density, torque vs. speed, power loss vs. speed, efficiency vs. speed and power factor vs. speed. The second part is the hardware comparison between two (2) fabricated rotors with sizes of lamination thicknesses 0.35 mm and 0.50 mm respectively. The size of rotor bars for both rotors is 10 mm. In this part, the two (2) different thicknesses for rotor frame were tested with no load test, blocked rotor test, and direct current (DC) resistance test methods to obtain the difference of efficiency, losses and power factor improvement. From the overall experiment of software and hardware, results shows that 0.35 mm thickness rotor does increase the efficiency by 1.4% and reduce losses by 13.27 watts compared to 0.50 mm rotor. An economical aspect is presented to show the amount of energy and billing that can be saved from replacing the 0.50 mm with the 0.35 mm rotor lamination steel. As for the annual energy saving (AES) and total cost saving (TCS), the 0.35 mm lamination thickness rotor manage to save 40.32 kWh per year and utility billing by RM 13.54 per year per motor. Finally a rough estimation of 100,000 pieces induction motor that have been replaced with the 0.35 mm thickness for rotor frame is assumed and shows that it will save approximately RM 1.35 million per year.