An experimental method for diagnostic of incipient broken rotor bar fault in induction machines

Abstract

Induction Motors (IMs) have multiple advantages, as they are robust and easy to maintain. A small fault in a single rotor bar could cause the break of this bar, subsequently breaking a large adjacent bar number because of the oscillations created by the unbalance of the rotor. For this reason, early detection of any small failure is recommended to remove some posterior damage and the maintenance expenses. This work proposes a new and original method that uses the cyclostationnarity of the electrical signal instead of the vibratory signal to detect the incipient failure. The experimental data has been manipulated. The results prove that this new designed strategy can identify and classify the level of cracking that occurs in a single rotor bar, even under various loads.