Experimental Uncertainty in Estimation of the Losses and Efficiency of Induction Motors

This paper presents an analytical study of experimental uncertainties in determining the losses and efficiency of induction motors. Existing testing standards vary in methodology, procedure and required instrumentation accuracy, leading to the possibility of significant differences in experimentally determined efficiency for the same motor tested to the same standard at different test sites as well as differences in the accuracy between different standards. This paper investigates these uncertainties and their respective weighted influence on the losses and efficiency and then proposes a realistic perturbation-based estimation (RPBE) method which incorporates all the significant error sources in finding the overall accuracy of loss and efficiency estimations with regard to the method and instrumentation used. The aim of this paper is to assist in interpretation of measured efficiency data and in guiding mitigation measures to be taken to improve accuracy cost-effectively