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1s IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics. Intelligent Control and Energy Systems (ICPEICES-2016)

Automated Test Bench for an Induction

Motor using Lab VIEW

l 2
Kunal B. Chavhan and R.T. Ugale
1,2Electrical Engineering Department, College of Engineering Pune, India
I 2
E-mail: [email protected]. [email protected]

Abstract- The testing of electrical machines is necessary LabVIEW. Also, with motor testing and monitoring, one
for val i dating the desi gn of a mach ine. Induct ion Motor (IM) can stay updated with the motor condition by performing
is wi dely used in the industrial applicat ions. More than 90%
motor testing which will help in identitying motor
motors used are of squirrel cage type in the industry. With
efficiency [6]. Though there are many papers related with
the development of sensors and var ious automat ion
online parameter monitoring and testing, very few papers
components, the testing process can be automated us ing
software such as LabVIEW, Pro grammable Lo g ic Controller
discuss LabVIEW based control of the motor along with
(pLC), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisi tion (SCADA) data acquisition.
etc. LabVIEW is a graph ical pro gramm ing langua ge which is The objective of this work is to develop an automated
w i dely used throu ghout the industry, as weil as research and LabVIEW based test setup for the IM. The aim is to
academic labs, for data acquisi tion and as an instrument minimize the testing time and to have a single GUI to
control software. LabVIEW is compatible w ith W indows,
perform various tests such as no load test, blocked rotor
Mac OS X, and L inux. The tradi tional motor test ing method
test, load test on the IM [7]. The current transducers (CTs)
possesses many d isadvantages such as more time
requirement, lack of rel iab il ity, and stab il ity of measur ing
are used for the measurement of input currents of the IM
instruments in the production env ironment. This paper a ims and the DC generator, transformers and voItage
at development of an automated test bench for Induct ion transducers are used to measure AC and DC voItages
Motor using data acquisi tion and controll ing of the motor by respectively. Motor speed is measured by buiIt-in encoder
develop ing su itable Graph ic User Interface (GUI) and of the setup and torque is calculated on the basis of motor
inte gration of sensing components into the system.
speed and estimated values of losses. DC dynamometer is
Keywords-Data Acquisition (DAQ); Graphical User
used in the set up to apply load. The output of these
Interface (GUl); Induction Motor (IM); LabVIEW
sensors is first conditioned using signal conditioning
I. INTRODUCTION board and then acquired by the Data Acquisition (DAQ)
module. The results of the tests are processed and
Energy requirements of the electric motor drives
displayed by using LabVIEW. IM operation and it's
throughout the world is significantly high. The majority of
loading, unloading is controlled by using DAQ interface
these motors are IMs and that's why it is important to
which helps in performing LAN based testing. In
record and study its losses and efficiency by using various
developed setup, a proportional integral (PI) controller is
tests [1]. It is necessary to measure motor efficiencies
implemented which assures constant DC generator
accurately to understand the energy consumption of the
terminal voItage for all loading conditions with the data
motor's system. Testing practices for induction machines
have been developed over the years and documented in logging feature.
detail in various Standards. Maintenance of IM is done 11. LABVIEW BASED SIMULATION MODEL OF AN
off-line so it causes many unnecessary shutdowns. INDUCTION MOTOR (IM)
The simulation model of an IM is presented in [2]. In
this paper, model of the IM is buiIt using LabVIEW A. LabVIEW Platform
software. The simulation model is used in measuring the
The term LabVIEW stands for Laboratory Virtual
performance of the motor. The data is compared with real
Instrumentation Engineering Workbench. It is flexible to
time acquired data and operating considerations of the IM.
MATLAB based IM testing and its performance use. By using LabVIEW, it gets easy to implement
evaluation are presented in [3]. Attempts are also made for measurable designs, controlling, and testing applications
automated efficiency testing of the IM using LabVIEW with less amount of cost. It has front panel (for preparing
[4]. A method for online power, speed, constant losses, GUI) and block diagram for graphical programming. By
torque and efficiency estimation of three phase IM using using LabVIEW, it is easy to interact with the real time
MATLAB has been presented in [5]. The design of remote signals to analyze the data for more information.
control is possible by using Ethernet. It is used to establish Irrespective of experience in programming, the user can
communication between the computer and the PLC or work easily and quickly with LabVIEW.

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1s IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics. Intelligent Control and Energy Systems (ICPEICES-2016)

In LabVIEW, the graphical programm ing (also called Where,

as datatlow programming) is used. When compared PROT - Rotational loss
LabVIEW to text programming, LabVIEW proves to be Above equations are used to build a simulation model
more user-friendly, as it is possible to develop the using LabVIEW and the simulation results are obtained.
program that can connect various relevant blocks by Figure 1 shows series of performance plots obtained
wiring. The programs in LabVIEW are named as virtual by the LabVIEW based simulation of delta connected IM
instruments (VI), due to their appearance and similarity of rating 2.2kW, 415V, 0.85 power factor, 1435 rpm. By
with the operations to other measuring and monitoring changing the input parameters, its effect on corresponding
instruments. parameter values and motor operation is obtained in the
form of graphical representation. By varying the load on
Mathematical Modeling
the motor, motor speed and torque changes are achieved
Synchronous speed of an IM is given by: and their corresponding characteristics are displayed
120f
nsync = -p- (1) graphically considering the core losses to be constant
Where, value.
nsync - Synchronous speed of magnetic fields
f - System frequency """....,., .. 'M """ '� I

n - No. of poles ':l=+:r:

:
Jo v
��1
••
Slip of the rotor is defined as,
(nsyncnm) -H-+-+-+-H-t---il
s= nsync (2) 0. ,.;. .Go 1_ .. mo .. Be
....

Where, _.­ ... . y<: )

.

s - Slip of the machine

nm - Shaft speed of the motor
Frequency of the rotor can be stated as,
fr = sf (3)
Or,
p
fr = 120 (nsync - nm) (4)
Where,
fr - Frequency of the rotor
In the general IM, electromagnetic torque can be
expressed as: Fig. I: Performance Plots of LabVIEW based IM Simulation Model
z
sEzRz
T = __ 3 X (5) By simulation resuIts, the rated efficiency is 87% and
2rrns R�+(SXz)Z power factor is 0.85 at rated current of 4.1A.
Where,
R2 - Rotor resistance III. DEVELOPMENT OF LABVIEW BASED
X2 - Rotor Reactance AUTOMATED TEST BENCH
Other terms are specified as,
Stator copper loss (Psed: In today's motor manufacturing industry, automated
PSCL= IiR1 (6) testing platform can play a significant role in saving the
Here, time while continuous testing and providing more reliable
I) - Stator Current and accurate measurements with the use of high quality
R) - Stator resistance sensor interface and acquisition software.
Rotor copper loss (PRCL):
A. Hardware Design
�CL=q� m
Input power (Pin): Two main Hardware components developed to
Pin = 3VphlpheosC/J (8) integrate with the test setup for the purpose of data
Air gap power (PAG) : acquisition and control are elaborated here:
PAG = Pin - (PSCL + PeoRE) (9)
J) Signal conditioning hardware
Here,
PeoRE - Core loss of the motor. Two separate signal conditioning boards are designed
Mechanical Power (Pm): for IM and the DC generator are as shown in fig.2 and
Pm = PAG(l - s) (10) fig.3 respectively. These consist of Potential Transformers
Output power (POUT): (PTs), Hall Effect type Current Transducers (CTs) and
POUT = Pm - PROT (11) voItage transducers (VTs).

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1s IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics. Intelligent Control and Energy Systems (ICPEICES-2016)

Signal conditioning restrains the loss of data and • NI-DAQ Chassis: The NI cDAQ-9184 (compact
ensures accurate measurement. Specifications of these DAQ) is a 4-slot Ethernet chassis designed for
components are as folIows: remote or distributed sensor and electrical
• Potential Transformers (PTs): Acquires AC voItage measurements. Its capacity is up to 128 channels
(three phase IM voItage). Single-phase 230/9 ratio with the combination of more than 501/0 modules.
and 50/60Hz PTs (3 nos.). • NI 9205 module: The NI 9205 is a C Series module
• Current Transformers (CTs): Acquires AC and DC which consists of 32 single-ended or 16 differential
currents (three phase IM current, field and armature analog inputs with 16-bit resolution, and a sampling
current of DC generator). Make: LEM, model: LA rate of 250 kS/s. It is used here to acquire data from
55-P, The CT ratio is 1: 1000, prirnary nominal the sensor output. Each channel has programmable
current: 50A RMS value and measuring range is input ranges of 200 mV, ±1, ±5, and ±1OY.
from 0 to 70A, (6 nos.). • NI 9401 module: NI 9401 is an 8-channel, 100NS
• VoItage Transducer: Measures DC voItage (field and Digital 1/0 module where all 8 channels can be
armature voItage) Make: LEM, model: LV 25-1000, configured as an input, output or combination of
primary nominal voItage is 1000V RMS and both. It is mainly used for the control purpose to
is 0 to 1500V. generate signal. It provides output voltage up to 5V
which is used in relay switching.
• NI 9225 module: The set up consist of NI 9225
analog input module that can measure voItage up to
300V RMS. It is has 3 channels and 50 kS/s per
channel sampIe rate, 24-bit resolution even while
measuring all channels sirnultaneously.

3) Controlling unit

It mainly consists of relay boards of the configuration

12V, lOA and contactors of the rating 25A, 415V. Apart
from this, rectifier and MOSFET switching circuit is used
to control the field voItage of the DC generator.
• Controlling of an IM using GUI:

NI9401

Fig. 2: Signal Conditioning Hardware (IM)

lABVlEWGUI

Fig. 4: Generated Signal Flow

The IM is operated using LabVIEW front panel by

using relay-contactor switching logic. Sirnilarly, DC
dynamo-meter, blower and field voItage is also controlled
Fig. 3: Signal Conditioning Hardware (DC Dynamometer) via GUI using pulse width modulation (PWM) signal and
its duty cycle. The NI 9401 DI/O DAQ card is used to
2) LabVIEW hardware generate signals for switching these relays are shown in
Fig. 4. Emergency switch is also introduced in the GUI for
National Instruments (NI) data acquisition (DAQ)
safety purpose.
hardware composes an interface between a computer and
signals from many kinds of sensor, transducers. Its B. Test Setup and Experimental Results
primary function is to digitize incoming analog signals.
The DAQ system mainly consists of input/output signals, In order to perform load-test, the setup consists of an
DAQ hardware, driver software and application software: IM coupled with the DC dynamometer to which a resistive

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1s IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics. Intelligent Control and Energy Systems (ICPEICES-2016)

load bank is connected. Signal condition boards are • Basic Parameter Measurement:
connected to the IM and DC dynamometer and their The basic parameters of an IM such as phase voItages
output is connected to the DAQ module of the LabVIEW (V" V2 and V3), phase currents (I" 12 and 13) and their
as an analog input. DAQ module digitizes these signals waveform are shown in fig.7 and fig.8. All the power
and passes them to VI for further process. Power supplies elements just as active power (PI, P2 and P3), reactive
and resistive load bank are interlocked with relays and powers (Q" Q2 and Q3), apparent powers (S" S2 and S3)
contactor to control switching operation via GUI.Field and power factors (pf" pf2 and pf3) are also calculated
voItage is controlled via GUI by using PWM technique. using these acquired current and voItage values. Along
The 'Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX)' with these, frequency (t), speed (N), shaft torque (Tsh) and
software is used for the configuration purpose of NI shaft power (Psh) are also evaluated. In the DC generator,
hardware and software. This experimental setup is field current (If), armature current (la), field voItage (Vf)
developed at Electrical Machine Laboratory (EML) by and armature voItage (Va) are measured under different
using existing all in one electric machines test bench. loading conditions and from these values, the output
Fig. 5 shows a block diagram of the complete power and efficiency of the generator is obtained.
experimental setup. The speed of the motor is sensed by magnetic pickup
sensor fitted on the test bench, torque value is calculated
J) Testing results and validation and compared with the strain gauge output torque value.
The load test is performed on the IM of rating 2.2kW, Along with these speed of the motor is sensed by magnetic
415V, 0.85 power factor, 82% efficiency. The load is pickup sensor fitted on the test bench and torque value is
increased from no load to full load in an increasing order calculated and compared with the strain gauge output
and all the parameters are evaluated. The full load (FL) torque value. Along with these parameters, slip, shaft
torque of the IM is 14.5 Nm. The result data is validated torque, air gap power and other required values are also
by using the standard Yokogawa CW240 c1amp on power calculated using IM formulas. Then all the performance
analyzer. plots are shown on the graph and stored using data logger.
Figure 9 shows all the acquired and calculated values
displayed in GUI. The Boolean tabs at the bottom side are
for the switching control of IM and load bank resistors.
This acquired data is stored in a excel sheet by holding the
'Save Data' button given in same GUI.

Cu,r� Wavnorm
12
10
,

r-

E
4

, 2
fiOmi" � 0
Fig. 5: Block Diagram of the Setup � -2
�
..
f,;;;;- -6

-e

-10
(""oncCotfI ·12,
- . 0 0.005 0111 0.015 0.02
Time[$J

Fig. 7: Current Waveform

Fig. 6: Experimental Setup

Figure 6 shows the automated test setup developed

and existing at the electrical machines lab. All
performance parameters and plots evaluated by using
acquired data. The value of shaft torque is calculated using
output power formula where constant core and rotational
losses are considered and is validated by the torque sensor
installed in the test panel. Fig. 8: Voltage Waveform

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1s IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics. Intelligent Control and Energy Systems (ICPEICES-2016)

TABLE 1: TEST PARAMETER OBTAINED BY STANDARD METERS AND FROM LABVIEW

Load lavg l1avg Vavg V1avg Nrpm N1rpm Tsh T1sh Vf V1f Va V1a la l1a If I1f
NL 2.658 2.7 232.57 232.27 1488.64 1493 1.98 2.3 90.98 86 275.64 275 0.797 0.73 0.874 0.79
NL 2.758 2.7 232.14 232.04 1481.05 1493 3.91 4.1 208.55 216 410.58 415 1.174 1.11 1.831 1.91
LI 3.224 3.32 232.05 232 1469.36 1471 7.13 7.1 219.86 216 406.91 408 2.315 2.2 1.893 1.9
L2 3.780 3.77 231.98 231.9 1457.88 1457 10.05 10 220.91 216 399.65 400 3.396 3.25 1.891 1.9
L3 4.493 4.45 231.83 231.78 1439.89 1441 12.92 12.7 220.88 216 391.77 392 4.478 4.29 1.883 1.89
L4 4.478 4.45 231.58 231.47 1442.35 1441 12.98 12.9 219.59 217 391.50 392 4.463 4.3 1.872 1.88
L4 4.470 4.43 231.56 231.43 1436.20 1441 13.01 13 216.87 217 391.43 392 4.485 4.3 1.87 1.88
L4 4.496 4.45 231.51 231.38 1446.50 1441 12.91 12.9 214.24 216 391.88 392 4.478 4.31 1.885 1.89
L5 5.234 5.27 231.38 231.1 1423.13 1425 15.65 15.3 214.20 215 383.84 384 5.498 5.27 1.875 1.88
L5 5.255 5.27 231.21 231.1 1426.82 1425 15.70 15.3 220.02 215 383.85 384 5.499 5.27 1.875 1.88

(Pout) vs %Efficiency (%1) ) of the IM, Current (IavJ vs

shaft power and output power (Pout) vs power factor (pt).
These performance plots shows the nature and properties
of the motor and helps in deciding the application.
.. _.

IJU IU'4 7UJll

UUi2 lIUt6 11.1811

- D52.J9 O.7!6J12 INYo1 I"";..s O.0J7U2 11.J1D1

<-> llU.l6 •.-7 ua72 1"'2'» G.-:J UJ1lJ

., .1»as I"� 1'•.l 0.117. u.o:m

�J6 o.mJt, 2lII2 \Wl) O.o!JlM9 lum

_.$1 •. mus 2lII2 u.. ..: O� I'*,

Fig. 10: Front Panel of Data Retrieva1 for Loading Analysis

Fig. 9: Measurement Parameters and Switching Contro1
Similarly, Fig. 12 shows the output plots of the DC
C. Comparative Results generator which includes Armature Current (Ia ) vs
%Efficiency (% nJ of the DC generator, Field current (If )
The Table I shows the comparative resuIts of actual
vs Armature VoItage (Va ), Speed vs Armature VoItage
values and LabVIEW interfaced data acquisition values of
(Va ) and Armature Current (Ia ) vs output power (PJ.
an IM and generator at various loading conditions.i.e. the
load test is performed and validated using a single GUI IV. CONCLUS10N
and all the parameters and performance plots of an IM and
DC generator are compared with the actual values and Many tests need to be performed on the motor for
theoretical nature of these characteristics. The reading verification of the performance and integrity of the newly
shown in table with suffix ' l' are actual measured values purchased motor. It does not add any significant value to
using standard test meters whereas, the other readings are the purchaser while inducing extra time and cost.
LabVIEW acquired values. Actual values are obtained Automated Test Bench provides a platform for motor
from the all in one test panel and the Yokogawa power testing and remote access to it with single GUI developed
analyzer. using LabVIEW. The stored data can be used for analysis
The error allowed for each test is set to be 2%. Each of the performance of an IM and comparative resuIts along
test has been performed at different loading conditions by with simulation model helps to differentiate ideal and
using various loads LI, L2, L3, L4 and L5. Here, lavg is practical behavior of the IM. Same application can be used
the average value of all three phase currents and Vavg is in testing of Generators and other electric motors.
the average voItage value of all three phase voItages.

D. Data and Waveform Logger/storage

All measurement parameters i.e. numerical data,

waveforms and performance plots are stored in MS-Excel
format sheet using TDMS file format. One can retrieve
these values via same GUI to analyze the nature of
different parameters and behavior of the characteristic
curves.
Figure 10 shows the retrieved data values of the
parameters after completion of the load test. This data
includes input power, shaft power, IM efficiency and
generator efficiency values along with other basic
parameters. Fig.l l illustrates the performance plots of the
IM which includes Torque-slip characteristics, shaft power Fig. 11: 1M Performance Plots

978-1-4673-8587-9/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE [5]

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1s IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics. Intelligent Control and Energy Systems (ICPEICES-2016)

REFERENCES

[I] Finley W.R., Norwood O.H., Hodowanec M.M., Hussain and K.S.
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purpose.

ACKNOWLEOGEMENT

The authors would like to thank Govt. of India

(MHRD) for supporting this work throughout by TEQIP
and CoE SRES grants.

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