Short-Circuit Current of Induction Motors and Generators

There has been a rather prevailing opinion that a sudden short circuit of an induction generator would not cause a serious initial rise in current such as occurs in synchronous generators. This has led to the proposal of the use of such machines as a partial solution of the short-circuit problem on a-c. systems. Theoretical considerations and experimental data given in the paper show that, on the contrary, there is in the induction generator, just as in the synchronous machine, a serious initial rush of current which is limited only by the leakage reactance of the machine. The only difference is that the transient is shorter in the induction machine, and the current dies down of course, to zero instead of to the sustained value which occurs in an excited synchronous generator.