Parameter determination of 0.5 hp induction motor based on load factor test - A case study

Abstract

The load can influence the efficiency of the induction motor. Even if the load has higher or less load factor, it can reduce the efficiency of an induction motor by several percentage. By knowing this, it is important that an induction motor be loaded with an appropriate or load factor of 100%. In this paper, the experiment is conducted to prove that efficiency decreases when the 0.5 hp induction motor's is interfaced under low load factor condition and in this case a 65% load factor. The induction motor is interfaced with a DC generator and a variable resistance as load. In order to determined the efficiency and the mechanical output power of the induction motor, the voltage of the induction motor is varied from 0-415 volt and the appropriate data is taken. This is then analysis and several calculation formulas are used to determine the motor's parameters. After that the losses are segregated and from this we can compare the efficiency values in which it shows low efficiency of 66.62% based on output/input method and 66.34% by using the losses formula. This proofs that at low load factor the efficiency of the induction motor reduces.