Squirrel-cage

rotor

A squirrel-cage rotor is the rotating part of the common squirrel-cage

induction motor. It consists of a cylinder of steel laminations, with aluminum
or copper conductors embedded in its surface. In operation, the non-rotating
stator winding is connected to an alternating current power source; the
alternating current in the stator produces a rotating magnetic field. The rotor
winding has current induced in it by the stator field, like a transformer except
that the current in the rotor is varying at the stator field rotation rate minus
the physical rotation rate. The interaction of the magnetic fields in the stator
and the currents in the rotor produce a torque on the rotor.

Squirrel cage rotor

By adjusting the shape of the bars in the rotor, the speed-torque

characteristics of the motor can be changed, to minimize starting current or
to maximize low-speed torque, for example.

Squirrel-cage induction motors are very prevalent in industry, in sizes from

below 1 kilowatt (1.3 hp) up to tens of megawatts (tens-of-thousand
horsepower). They are simple, rugged, and self-starting, and maintain a
reasonably constant speed from light load to full load, set by the frequency of
the power supply and the number of poles of the stator winding. Commonly
used motors in industry are usually IEC or NEMA standard frame sizes, which
are interchangeable between manufacturers. This simplifies application and
replacement of these motors.

History
Galileo Ferraris described an induction machine with a two-phase stator
winding and a solid copper cylindrical armature in 1885. In 1888, Nikola Tesla
received a patent on a two-phase induction motor with a short-circuited
copper rotor winding and a two-phase stator winding. Developments of this
design became commercially important. In 1889, Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky
developed a wound-rotor induction motor, and shortly afterwards a cage-
type rotor winding. By the end of the 19th century induction motors were
widely applied on the growing alternating-current electrical distributions
systems.[1]

Structure
 Diagram of the squirrel-cage (showing

only three laminations)

The motor rotor shape is a cylinder mounted on a shaft. Internally it contains

longitudinal conductive bars (usually made of aluminium or copper) set into
grooves and connected at both ends by shorting rings forming a cage-like
shape. The name is derived from the similarity between this rings-and-bars
winding and a squirrel cage.

The solid core of the rotor is built with stacks of electrical steel laminations.
The figure shows one of many lamination sets used. The rotor lamination has
a larger number of slots than its corresponding stator lamination, and the
number of rotor slots should be a non-integer multiple of the number of
stator slots to prevent magnetic interlocking of rotor and stator teeth at the
starting instant.[2]

Stator lamination with a rotor lamination,

with 36 slots for the stator and 40 slots
for the rotor

The rotor bars may be made of either copper or aluminium. A very common
structure for smaller motors uses die cast aluminium poured into the rotor
after the laminations are stacked. Larger motors have aluminium or copper
bars which are welded or brazed to end-rings. Since the voltage developed in
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 the squirrel cage winding is very low, and the current very high, no intentional
insulation layer is present between the bars and the rotor steel.[3]

Theory
The field windings in the stator of an induction motor set up a rotating
magnetic field through the rotor. The relative motion between this field and
the rotor induces electric current in the conductive bars. In turn these
currents lengthwise in the conductors react with the magnetic field of the
motor to produce force acting at a tangent orthogonal to the rotor, resulting
in torque to turn the shaft. In effect the rotor is carried around with the
magnetic field but at a slightly slower rate of rotation. The difference in speed
is called slip and increases with load.

Skewing
The conductors are often skewed slightly along the length of the rotor to
reduce noise and smooth out torque fluctuations that might result at some
speeds due to interactions with the pole pieces of the stator, by ensuring that
at any time the same fraction of a rotor bar is under each stator slot. If rotor
bars were parallel to the stator poles, the motor would experience a drop and
then recovery in torque as each bar passes the gap in the stator.

The laminations shown in the photo have 36 bars in the stator and 40 bars in
the rotor. The greatest common divisor of 36 and 40 is 4, with the result that
no more than 4 bars of the stator and rotor can be aligned at any one time,
which also reduces torque fluctuations.

The number of bars in the rotor determines to what extent the induced
currents are fed back to the stator coils and hence the current through them.
The constructions that offer the least feedback use prime numbers of rotor
bars.
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 Laminations
The iron core serves to carry the magnetic field through the rotor conductors.
Because the magnetic field in the rotor is alternating with time, the core uses
construction similar to a transformer core to reduce core energy losses. It is
made of thin laminations, separated by varnish insulation, to reduce eddy
currents circulating in the core. The material is a low carbon but high-silicon
iron with several times the resistivity of pure iron, further reducing eddy-
current loss, and low coercivity to reduce hysteresis loss.

Rotor bars
The same basic design is used for both single-phase and three-phase motors
over a wide range of sizes. Rotors for three-phase will have variations in the
depth and shape of bars to suit the design classification. Generally, thick bars
have good torque and are efficient at low slip, since they present lower
resistance to the EMF. As the slip increases, the skin effect starts to reduce
the effective depth and increases the resistance, resulting in reduced
efficiency but still maintaining torque.

The shape and depth of the rotor bars can be used to vary the speed-torque
characteristics of the induction motor. At standstill, the revolving magnetic
field passes the rotor bars at a high rate, inducing line-frequency current into
the rotor bars. Due to the skin effect, the induced current tends to flow at the
outer edge of the winding. As the motor accelerates, the slip frequency
decreases and induced current flows at greater depths in the winding. By
tapering the profile of the rotor bars to vary their resistance at different
depths, or by constructing a double squirrel cage, with a combination of high
and low impedance rotor in parallel the motor can be arranged to produce
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 more or less torque at standstill and near its synchronous speed.[3]

Practical demonstration
To demonstrate how the cage rotor works, the stator of a single-phase motor
and a copper pipe (as rotor) may be used. If adequate AC power is applied to
the stator, an alternating magnetic field will revolve around within the stator.
If the copper pipe is inserted inside the stator, there will be an induced
current in the pipe, and this current will produce a magnetic field of its own in
the pipe. The interaction between the stator's revolving magnetic field and
the copper-pipe-rotor's induced magnetic field produces a torque and thus
rotation.

Use in synchronous
motors
A synchronous motor may have a squirrel-cage winding embedded in its
rotor, used to increase the motor starting torque and so decrease the time to
accelerate to synchronous speed. The squirrel cage winding of a
synchronous machine will generally be smaller than for an induction machine
of similar rating. When the rotor is turning at the same speed as the stator's
revolving magnetic field, no current is induced into the squirrel-cage
windings and the windings will have no further effect on the operation of the
synchronous motor at steady-state.

The squirrel cage winding in some machines provides a damping effect for
load or system disturbances, and in this role may be designated as an
amortisseur windings. Large machines may only have amortisseur bars in the
individual pole faces, not interconnected between poles. Because the squirrel
cage winding is not large enough to dissipate the heat of continuous
operation, large synchronous machines often have protective relays to detect
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 when the machine has fallen out of synchronization with the supply
voltage.[4]

Induction generators
Three phase squirrel cage induction motors can also be used as generators.
For this to work the motor must see a reactive load, and either be connected
to a grid supply or an arrangement of capacitors to provide excitation
current. For the motor to work as a generator instead of a motor the rotor
must be spun faster than its stator's synchronous speed. This will cause the
motor to generate power after building up its residual magnetism.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media

related to Squirrel-cage
motors.
AC motor
Induction motor
Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky
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 References

1. Ion Boldea, Syed A. Nasar,

The Induction Machine
Handbook, CRC Press
2010 ISBN 1420042653,
pages 2-3
2. theory and performance of
electrical machines,
J.B.Gupta
3. Gordon R. Slemon,
Magnetoelectric devices,
John Wiley and Sons 1966
pp. 384-389
:
 4. Garr M. Jones (ed.),
Pumping Station Design
Revised 3rd Edition
Elsevier, 2008 ISBN 978-
1-85617-513-5, pg. 13-4

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