Wound rotor motor tips for failure analysis,

repair and testing

What about the secondary voltage?
One of the first differences noted, Learn more about wound
before even dismantling a wound rotor rotor motors at the 2013
machine, is the “secondary voltage” convention, where Chuck
(and secondary current) reported on
Yung will cover fail-
the nameplate.
Misconception #1: “They energize ure analysis specific
the rotor too.” to wound rotor motors,
The rotor is not energized by an on-site troubleshooting,
external power source during service. wound rotor winding,
As with a squirrel cage in- and even more testing
duction motor, the rotor is
the secondary winding to
procedures.
By Chuck Yung the primary stator wind-
EASA Senior Technical Support Specialist ing. The secondary voltage on the
nameplate indicates the transformer Popular for crane applications
Wound rotor (WR) motors repre- ratio between the stator and rotor Because of the high torque capabil-
sent only a small fraction of all electric windings. This is used to calculate the ity, the WR motor is popular for crane
motors in service. In reviewing the external resistance required to obtain applications. Pay attention the next
EASA Technical Support call logs, one the desired torque for each step. time someone in your service center
would conclude that there are many In operation, the stator is energized is assembling a large vertical motor.
more wound rotor motors in service. just as a squirrel cage induction mo- It’s likely they will tap-tap-tap on the
Because many of us do not work on tor (SCIM), but the rotor leads are down button to lower the stator over
wound rotor motors often, it is under- connected to variable external resis- the rotor. Each “tap” has the potential
standable that not everyone has a clear tance. This often takes the form of a to cause a rapid re-strike failure (see
understanding of how they differ from series of contactors to a resistor grid, Page 3-20 in EASA’s Root Cause Fail-
a squirrel cage motor. The purpose of with multiple steps to provide dif- ure Analysis manual) of the windings.
this article is to dispel some misconcep- ferent resistance at each step. Figure Predictably, this causes a failure at the
tions about how they work and to offer 1 should look familiar. It’s from the weak link; in a WR motor, the rotor
valuable tips for failure analysis, repair EASA Technical Manual and illustrates lead connection to a slip ring.
and testing. the torque curves that result for each If you inspect a WR motor and find
specific rotor circuit the rotor lead is the point of failure, you
Max. Torque
resistance. By that, have a strong contender for the root
100 I mean that the ex- cause of the failure. If not the operator,
A ternal resistance in it could be a weak magnetic holding
series with the ro- coil on a contactor, damaged contacts
B
tor leads changes, at
PERCENT SYNCHRONOUS SPEED

75
on one of those contactors, or even a
C each step, to provide damaged resistor grid.
maximum torque. Larger machines sometimes use a
50
D Visualize the torque saltwater rheostat with fixed contacts
curve of the motor immersed to varying depth in a con-
E
as following the ductive liquid such as a brine solution.
25 highlighted portion Some controls manually raise and lower
F of those different the contact tong into the solution; but
G torque curves. When most raise and lower the level of the
0 set up correctly, just solution around the fixed tongs.
0 25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200 225 250
as the torque of one Rewinding the stator and rotor are
PERCENT FULL-LOAD TORQUE
step falls off, the op- done just like any three-phase wind-
erator steps to the ing, with the added consideration of
next resistance.
Figure 1. The highlighted path provides the most torque from Continued On Page 2
step to step.

November 2012 • EASA CURRENTS Copyright ©2012 Electrical Apparatus Services Association, Inc. 1
Wound rotor motor tips for failure analysis, repair and testing
Continued From Page 1

securing the rotor windings against 15% of secondary voltage to “ball test”
centrifugal forces. (EASA Tech Note 36 the rotor. Before running the motor,
will help you calculate the amount of Bonus tip #1: Use a replacement with the rotor leads open,
banding required to withstand those garage door roller as a dummy rotor.
apply rated voltage to the
forces.) The more circuits a rotor has, Use sleeving or electrical tape on the
the more it tries to behave like a SCIM. shank to insulate the handle. Keep a stator leads and measure
If a 4-pole rotor has a 4-delta connec- finger on the roller as it turns so you the voltage between slip
tion, consider reducing the circuits and can detect a dead spot or reversed coil. rings. It should be bal-
turns in proportion (and increasing the
Testing tips, after assembly anced and within 10%
wire area in inverse proportion). The of the secondary volt-
motor’s speed control will improve and After assembling the WR motor,
the volts/coil stresses will be reduced. some technicians discover another age as reported on the
Misconception #2: “We can’t have anomaly unique to it. Because the sta- nameplate. For larger
the same number of circuits on the ro- tor and rotor each contain a 3-phase machines, or those rated
winding, the number of slots must be
tor as on the stator.” Or, “If the rotor above 2kV, it is acceptable
divisible by three (3 phases). It also has
is wye, the stator needs to be delta.”
to be compatible with the number of to apply a fraction of rated
The number of circuits for the stator voltage and compare the
and rotor and the selection of wye or poles. That means that there is inher-
delta connection (as well as the jumper ently a “bad” stator slot – rotor slot ratio of applied primary to
arrangement in most cases) are inde- combination (see Table 1). One com- secondary voltage to that
pendent of each other. In other words, mon concern when trying to run a WR of the nameplate.
it does not matter if the stator and rotor motor in the service center is cogging.
have the same circuits, or a different Without the external resistance in the
number of circuits. Either (or both) rotor circuit, cogging or a cusp is likely.
To rule out the eccentric airgap,
stator and/or rotor can be connected Electrical noise is another possibility.
run the motor at half rated voltage. If
wye or delta. The two probable explanations for
the airgap is not uniform within 10%
Both stator and rotor should pass a electrical noise are:
of the average, the motor will be very
surge test. Just as you can apply 15% 1.) a bad stator slot – rotor slot com-
noisy at rated voltage. The magnetic
of rated stator voltage to perform an bination.
flux varies as the square of the voltage
open stator ball test, you can apply 2.) An eccentric airgap. and the decibel scale is a logarithmic
scale. Thus a motor with an eccentric
Table 1. Stator-rotor slot combinations. airgap will not be noisy at half of rated
voltage.
POLES NOISE COGGING CUSP
Before running the motor, with the
2 ±1, ±2, ±3, ±4 ±6, ±12, ±18, ±24 ±2, -4, -10 rotor leads open, apply rated voltage to
4 ±1, ±2, ±3, ±4, ±5, ±6 ±12, ±24, ±48, ±60 ±4, -8, -20 the stator leads and measure the voltage
between slip rings. It should be bal-
6 ±1, ±2, ±4, ±5, ±7, ±8 ±18, ±36, ±54, ±72 ±6, -12, -30
anced and within 10% of the secondary
8 ±1, ±2, ±6, ±7, ±9, ±10 ±24, ±48, ±72 ±8, -16, -40
voltage as reported on the nameplate.
10 ±1, ±2, ±8, ±9, ±11, ±12 ±30, ±60, ±90 ±10, -20, -50 For larger machines, or those rated
12 ±1, ±2, ±10, ±11, ±13, ±14 ±36, ±72 ±12, -24, -60 above 2kV, it is acceptable to apply a
14 ±1, ±2, ±12, ±13, ±15, ±16 ±42 ±14, -28 fraction of rated voltage and compare
16 ±1, ±2, ±14, ±15, ±17, ±18 ±48 ±16, -32 the ratio of applied primary to secondary
voltage to that of the nameplate.
18 ±1, ±2, ±16, ±17, ±19, ±20 ±54 ±18, -36
Assuming the results are as de-
20 ±1, ±2, ±18, ±19, ±21, ±22 ±60 ±20, -40 scribed, we now know that the turn ra-
24 ±1, ±2, ±22, ±23, ±25, ±26 ±72 ±24, -48 tio between stator and rotor is correct.
32 ±1, ±2, ±30, ±31, ±33, ±34 ±96 ±32, -64 Therefore, the turns and connection of
36 ±1, ±2, ±34, ±35, ±37, ±38 ±108 ±36, -72 both rotor and stator are correct. The
48 ±1, ±2, ±46, ±47, ±49, ±50 ±144 ±48, -96 rotor should not rotate during this test.
Continued On Page 3

2 November 2012 • EASA CURRENTS Copyright ©2012 Electrical Apparatus Services Association, Inc.
Wound rotor motor tips for failure analysis, repair and testing
Continued From Page 2

But the more parallel circuits the rotor An optional test is to connect the If the windings are intact, the second-
has, the more likely it will do so. In stator leads together and run the ary voltage test is a useful incoming
virtually all cases, a person can hold motor by energizing the rotor leads test prior to dismantling the motor.
a block of wood against the outside at the rated secondary voltage. One No-load operation to document and
diameter of the shaft to prevent rota- benefit to doing so is that if an eccen- evaluate the magnetizing current of
tion. Caution: Never hold the shaft by tric airgap is suspected, the electrical both stator and rotor is useful. By
hand to prevent rotation! Because this noise will still be present. As with the recognizing the stator-rotor slot com-
is a transformer test, if the rotor was stator test above, operation at half of bination is inherently “bad,” we can
spinning the secondary voltage (and the secondary voltage should greatly avoid wasted time trying to trouble-
frequency) would decrease. To obtain reduce or eliminate the noise. As with shoot a problem that does not exist.
accurate values, the shaft must be the stator test, the magnetizing cur- One final note: This article con-
stationary. rent should compare favorably to the tains five references to other useful
Next, connect the rotor leads to- secondary current on the nameplate. documents created by EASA to help
gether and run the motor as a SCIM. you. n
The magnetizing current should
Summing up
follow the expected norms (see “No- The WR motor offers some unique n n n n n n n
Load Current Basics: Practical Guide- challenges, both to the end users
lines for Assessment” in the February and repairers. By applying the same Editor’s Note: A PDF of this article
2005 issue of Currents). evaluation criteria to each WR motor, is available in the “Engineering/
Bonus tip #2: Be sure the brushes we can accomplish the best possible Technical Article Archive” section of
are fully seated. If you run a WR motor repair and avoid problems created by “Members Only” at www.easa.com.
with brushes that are barely contacting someone else.
the slip rings, the motor may draw high The secondary voltage “trans-
current. former test” is of critical importance.

November 2012 • EASA CURRENTS Copyright ©2012 Electrical Apparatus Services Association, Inc. 3