Effects of Voltage Disturbances on Induction Motors
and Adjustable Speed Drives
Fatma Zohra Dekhandji, Hamid Bentarzi and Abdelmadjid Recioui
Laboratory signals and systems; Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
University M’hamed Bougara of Boumerdes
Boumerdes, Algeria
fzdekhandji@yahoo.fr
Abstract— The aim of this work is to study and analyze
induction motor adjustable speed drive characteristics under
voltage unbalance conditions. This paper tries to cover the main
possible magnitude and phase unbalance. Two systems are
considered: first, three phase induction motor connected directly
to a three phase voltage source and the second is the three-phase
adjustable speed drive, are simulated using MATLAB software.
Increased torque ripple and decreased efficiency are the main
effects of voltage unbalance on induction motor. Also, increased
thermal stress on the power electronic switches and DC-link
capacitor are the main effects of voltage unbalance on the
converter.
Keywords-power quality; voltage unbalance; induction motors;
adjustable speed drives
I. INTRODUCTION
Because of various techno-economic benefits the induction
motors are widely used in industrial, commercial and
residential systems. Once the voltage is unbalanced, the ill
effects on induction motors will cause enormous impacts [ ].
With the development of the power electronics technology,
increase of different types of nonlinear loads, rapid growth in
electric railways in some developing country, and uneven
distribution of load, power quality problem has become a
major concern for both electric utilities and customers.
Voltage unbalance exists due to the incomplete transposition
of transmission line, unbalance load, uneven distribution of
single phase loads which is considered as the one of the most
important aspect of power quality disturbances.
The voltage unbalance in three phase system is practically
impossible to be eliminated due to their inherent causes and
further this problem is aggravated by the fact that the presence
of small unbalance in three phase system will cause the non-
proportional unbalance in the line current.
Studies concerning a three-phase induction motor operation
under unbalanced voltage conditions could be found since the
1950s. Williams proved that an induction motor operating
with unbalanced voltage would have efficiency reduction.
Further studies conducted by Gafford in 1959 concerning
temperature rise of an induction motor under unbalanced
voltage. Gafford pointed out that unbalanced voltage can
cause extra temperature rise of an induction motor, which is
likely to shorten the machine’s life. In 1963, Berndt presented
a method to calculate rating of an induction motor. In the last
decade, researches in this field were mostly focused on the
protection strategies [1]. Over-voltage unbalance is defined as
978-1-4673-6673-1/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE
unbalance due to the positive-sequence voltage component
being higher than the balanced rated voltage. Most of the
research has been focused on voltage unbalance caused by
under-voltage. While over-voltage cases often occur in the off-
peak periods. Most of the regulations about voltage unbalance
only specify the percentage of voltage unbalance factor (VUF)
without indicating the unbalance conditions. But the reality is
that there are many voltage unbalance cases which have the
same voltage unbalance factor. If only VUF is mentioned then
neither the exact voltage unbalance situation can be estimated
nor can the impacts on the power system due to voltage
unbalance be evaluated. This project investigates the effects of
different voltage unbalances with the same voltage unbalance
factor on induction motor and power electronic converter
where direct torque control technique will be used to adjust the
output of the inverter.
II. INDUCTION MOTORS AND VOLTAGE UNBALANCE
The level of voltage unbalance (VU) that is present in a
system can be specified using two commonly used definitions.
The first definition is the NEMA (National Electrical
Manufacturers Association of USA) standard definition which
is given by [5]:
The second definition is the Voltage Unbalance Factor
(VUF) or the International Electro-Technical (IEC) definition
[4]. It originates from the theory of Symmetrical Components
which mathematically breaks down an unbalanced system into
three balanced systems. These three are called positive
sequence, negative and zero sequence systems. For a perfectly
balanced system both negative and zero sequence systems
would be absent.
A. Effects of voltage unbalance on induction motors
The greatest effect of voltage unbalance is on three-phase
induction motors. Three phase induction motors are one of the
most common loads on the network and are found in large
numbers especially in industrial environments.
 Fig.1. Typical adjustable speed drive (ASD) system.
The unbalanced motor voltage contains positive and negative
sequence components which have opposing phase sequences,
i.e., “abc” and “acb”, respectively. The positive sequence
voltage produces the desired positive torque, whereas the
negative sequence voltage produces an air gap flux rotating
against the rotation of the rotor, thus generating an unwanted
negative (reversing) torque. In addition, the negative
sequence component in the unbalanced voltages generates
large negative sequence currents due to the low negative
sequence impedance, which increases the machine losses and
temperatures.
B. Effects of voltage unbalance on ASDs
Power electronic converters serve as the interface for many
large electronic loads ranging from three-phase uninterruptible
power supplies to motors operating at variable speeds through
the use of ASDs. Most of these converters contain a diode
rectifier front-end, as shown in Fig. 2.1, and dc-link capacitor
to convert the incoming ac voltage to a low-ripple dc voltage
[4].
Three-phase converters with diode rectifier front-ends draw
non-sinusoidal currents rich in odd harmonics. For rectifier
systems supplied by balanced voltages, the input current
characteristic harmonics are determined by:
Fig. 2 The complete simulation setup
h: harmonic order.
k =1,2,3,...
Under the conditions of utility voltage unbalance, the input
current harmonics are not restricted to the converter
characteristic harmonics, and uncharacteristic triplen
harmonics can appear such as the 3rd and 9th harmonics.
The voltage unbalance may cause excessive current in one
or two phases, which can trip overload-protection circuits. The
increased current can also cause excess heating of the diodes
and decrease the life of the capacitor or require the use of a
larger capacitor.
III. SIMULATION OF VOLTAGE UNBALANCE EFFECTS
The simulation set up used to investigate voltage unbalance
effects on ASD is shown in Fig. 2.
A. Simulation Results under Balanced Condition
The torque and speed characteristic curves of the simulated
system are shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 Rotor speed and developed torque.
The load is applied at t = 1s. From the above figure, it can be
noted that the torque has a fast response because inverter
voltages fit directly the torque and flux requirements. Also the
torque ripples appear clearly due to the hysteresis comparator
used to control the torque. Under the condition of balanced-
voltage, three-phase converters with diode rectifier front-end
draws a two pulses per half cycle non-sinusoidal currents rich
in odd harmonics.
There is a difference between the THD of input current,
stator current and rotor current which are 42.81%, 8.24% and
9.15% respectively.
Fig. 4.7 bellow shows the DC-bus voltage.
Fig. 4. ASD input current (phase-a) under balanced condition.
Fig. 5 DC-bus voltage under balanced condition.
Fig. 6 ASD input current (phase-a) under 3 Φ-UV unbalanced condition.
B. Simulation Results Under Voltage Unbalance Conditions
Fig. 6 shows how the ASD draws a current, under unbalance
condition, with one pulse per half cycle instead of tow pulses
per half cycle under balanced condition (Fig. 4.4). This leads
to increase the odd harmonics amplitude (for example the 5th:
from 38.94% to 45.28% and the 7th: from 14.92% to 21.35%
under balanced and unbalanced voltage condition
respectively). Under unbalance condition triplen harmonics
appear with considerable values (for example the 3rd is 79.02%
and the 9th is 8.96%). This increase in the harmonics
amplitude forces the THD to increase from 42.81% to 95%.
From comparison between FFT analysis of motor currents
under balanced voltage and unbalanced voltage condition, the
following can be noted:
For stator current there is a small increase in the low order
odd harmonics for example the 5th from 0.64% to 1.24%, the
7th from 0.37% to 1.13% and the 11th from 0.43% to 0.95%.
For rotor current there is a smaller increase of harmonics
amplitude compared with the increase happened in stator
current.
Fig. 7 shows the DC-bus voltage under 3Φ –UV. It is evident
from comparison between Fig. 5 and Fig. 7 that the amplitude
of voltage ripples of the DC-bus under 3Φ –UV is greater than
the one under balanced condition.
Fig. 7 DC-bus voltage under 3Φ –UV.
 IV. CONCLUSIONS Transactions On Industry Applications, Vol. 44, No. 6, pp 1, 825-
1833November/December 2008.
In this paper, voltage unbalance effects on induction motor
[11] Shashi Bhushan Singh — Asheesh Kumar Singh; Precise Assessment of
and adjustable speed drive are investigated through the Performance of Induction Motor under Supply Imbalance Through Impedance
application of eight voltage unbalance cases to induction Unbalance Factor; Journal of Electrical Engineering, Vol. 64, NO. 1, 2013,
motor connected directly to disturbed source. The same cases 31–37
are applied to an ASD.
The effects of voltage unbalance on induction motor
include:
- Efficiency reduction due to increased copper loses
and insertion of ripple in torque and speed which
reduce the net value of them,
- Increase mechanical stress which appears as vibration
and acoustic noise due the effects of positive and
negative sequence components (torque ripple),
- Increase thermal stress on the windings mainly
windings’ insulator.

The voltage unbalance effects on a system, consists of

adjustable speed drive include:
- Increase thermal stress on the rectifier diodes,
subjected to currents which have more than
recommended values of THD and current.
- Increase thermal stress on DC-link capacitor due to
increased ripple magnitude in DC-link voltage.

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