An educational tool for monitoring electrical power components in induction machines

This paper presents an educational tool for illustrating the measured power in induction motors. This tool is integrated by hardware and software elements. The software uses a virtual instrument which is developed on the LabVIEW programming language. This instrument helps to perform online measurements of the quantities: power, apparent power, reactive power and power factor, as well the energy usage. A phasor diagram shows the three-phase current and voltage quantities; at the same time, a spectral analysis is also computed. The hardware uses a three-phase power amplifier and a set of Hall-effect sensors which are easily found on the market. Measurements are taken when the induction motor is in at standstill and under loaded conditions. The tool was tested in a 0.5 HP, 220V and 60 Hz induction motor.