Dufoo Ochoa

Electrical drives play an important part as electromechanical energy converters in transportation, materials handling and most production processes. Most electrical motors are used in constant-speed drives that do not need to be controlled except for starting, stopping or protection, but there is an important portion, where torque and speed must be matched to the need of the mechanical load. The squirrel-cage induction motor represents almost the 95% of the motor industry; it consists of a series of conducting bars laid into slots carved in the face of the rotor and shorted either end by large shorting rings. In some cases, due to fabrication defects or wrong operating conditions, one or more of these bars could be damaged inducing undesirable effects during the control process. In our research center we are trying to determine how to detect these broken rotor bars and also how these negative effects can be decreased in order to obtain a satisfactory torque control.