Thermal-Impact-Based Protection of Induction Motors Under Voltage Unbalance Conditions

Voltage unbalance and mechanical overload generate negative effects on induction motors, producing thermal damages in the stator insulation and a reduction of the motor lifetime. In this regard, the development of protection devices is crucial as they can help to maintain the integrity of the motor and avoid irreversible damages such as insulation system breakdown, short-circuits, and so on. In this work, a methodology to obtain a time-protection model for induction motors from voltage unbalance is presented. The methodology is based on the thermal impact on the motor produced by mechanical overload and voltage unbalance conditions. In general, it consists of the following steps: i) induce in the motor different overloads and voltage unbalance levels and monitor their thermal profiles at the stator winding, ii) obtain the time–overload curve of the motor, iii) determine both the thermal level according to both the time-overload curve and the overload thermal profile, and iv) estimate the parameters of the time-unbalance model using both the thermal level obtained and the unbalance thermal profiles. The model is validated through its implementation in an online protection scheme, the results show a similar behavior between overload and unbalance protections in the safe thermal level defined by the protection models. The protection scheme is carried out over a 750 W three-phase induction motor under different overload and voltage unbalance operating conditions.