Modeling and fault diagnosis of broken rotor bar faults in induction motors

Due to vast industrial applications, induction motors are often referred to as the “workhorse” of the industry. To detect incipient faults and improve reliability, condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of induction motors are very important. In this thesis, the focus is to model and detect broken rotor bar (BRB) faults in induction motors through the finite element analysis and machine learning approach. The most successfully deployed method for the BRB fault detection is Motor Current Signature Analysis (MSCA) due to its non-invasive, easy to implement, lower cost, reliable and effective nature. However, MSCA has its own limitations. To overcome such limitations, fault diagnosis using machine learning attracts more research interests lately. Feature selection is an important part of machine learning techniques. The main contributions of the thesis include: 1) model a healthy motor and a motor with different number of BRBs using finite element analysis software ANSYS; 2) analyze BRB faults of induction motors using various spectral analysis algorithms (parametric and non-parametric) by processing stator current signals obtained from the finite element analysis; 3) conduct feature selection and classification of BRB faults using support vector machine (SVM) and artificial neural network (ANN); 4) analyze neighbouring and spaced BRB faults using Burg and Welch PSD analysis

Rotor Bar Fault Monitoring Method Based on Analysis of Air-Gap Torques of Induction Motors

A robust method to monitor the operating conditions of induction motors is presented. This method utilizes the data analysis of the air-gap torque profile in conjunction with a Bayesian classifier to determine the operating condition of an induction motor as either healthy or faulty. This method is trained offline with datasets generated either from an induction motor modeled by a time-stepping finite-element (TSFE) method or experimental data. This method can effectively monitor the operating conditions of induction motors that are different in frame/class, ratings, or design from the motor used in the training stage. Such differences can include the level of load torque and operating frequency. This is due to a novel air-gap torque normalization method introduced here, which leads to a motor fault classification process independent of these parameters and with no need for prior information about the motor being monitored. The experimental results given in this paper validate the robustness and efficacy of this method. Additionally, this method relies exclusively on data analysis of motor terminal operating voltages and currents, without relying on complex motor modeling or internal performance parameters not readily available

Detection and Diagnosis of Motor Stator Faults using Electric Signals from Variable Speed Drives

Motor current signature analysis has been investigated widely for diagnosing faults of induction motors. However, most of these studies are based on open loop drives. This paper examines the performance of diagnosing motor stator faults under both open and closed loop operation modes. It examines the effectiveness of conventional diagnosis features in both motor current and voltage signals using spectrum analysis. Evaluation results show that the stator fault causes an increase in the sideband amplitude of motor current signature only when the motor is under the open loop control. However, the increase in sidebands can be observed in both the current and voltage signals under the sensorless control mode, showing that it is more promising in diagnosing the stator faults under the sensorless control operation

A Comparative Study of Time-Frequency Representations for Fault Detection in Wind Turbine

To reduce the cost of wind energy, minimization and prediction of maintenance operations in wind turbine is of key importance. In variable speed turbine generator, advanced signal processing tools are required to detect and diagnose the generator faults from the stator current. To detect a fault in non-stationary conditions, previous studies have investigated the use of time-frequency techniques such as the Spectrogram, the Wavelet transform, the Wigner-Ville representation and the Hilbert-Huang transform. In this paper, these techniques are presented and compared for broken-rotor bar detection in squirrel-cage generators. The comparison is based on several criteria such as the computational complexity, the readability of the representation and the easiness of interpretatio

A new method of accurate broken rotor bar diagnosis based on modulation signal bispectrum analysis of motor current signals

Motor current signature analysis (MCSA) has been an effective way of monitoring electrical machines for many years. However, inadequate accuracy in diagnosing incipient broken rotor bars (BRB) has motivated many studies into improving this method. In this paper a modulation signal bispectrum (MSB) analysis is applied to motor currents from different broken bar cases and a new MSB based sideband estimator (MSB-SE) and sideband amplitude estimator are introduced for obtaining the amplitude at (1±2s)fs(1±2s)fs (s is the rotor slip and fsfs is the fundamental supply frequency) with high accuracy. As the MSB-SE has a good performance of noise suppression, the new estimator produces more accurate results in predicting the number of BRB, compared with conventional power spectrum analysis. Moreover, the paper has also developed an improved model for motor current signals under rotor fault conditions and an effective method to decouple the BRB current which interferes with that of speed oscillations associated with BRB. These provide theoretical supports for the new estimators and clarify the issues in using conventional bispectrum analysis

Induction Machines Fault Detection Based on Subspace Spectral Estimation

International audience—The main objective of this paper is to detect faults in induction machines using a condition monitoring architecture based on stator current measurements. Two types of fault are considered: bearing and broken rotor bars faults. The proposed architecture is based on high-resolution spectral analysis techniques also known as subspace techniques. These frequency estimation techniques allow to separate frequency components including frequencies close to the fundamental one. These frequencies correspond to fault sensitive frequencies. Once frequencies are estimated, their corresponding amplitudes are obtained by using the Least Squares Estimator (LSE). Then, a fault severity criterion is derived from the amplitude estimates. The proposed methods were tested using experimental stator current signals issued from two induction motors with the considered faults. The experimental results show that the proposed architecture has the ability to efficiently and cost-effectively detect faults and identify their severity