Automatic Classification of Field Winding Faults in Synchronous Motors Based on Bicoherence Image Segmentation and Higher Order Statistics of Stray Flux Signals

Abstract

In this work, the application of the bicoherence (a squared normalized version of the bispectrum) of the stray flux signal is proposed as a way of detecting faults in the field winding of synchronous motors. These signals are analyzed both under the starting and at steady state regime. Likewise, two quantitative indicators are proposed, the first one based on the maximum values of the asymmetry and the kurtosis of the bicoherence matrix obtained from the flux signals and the second one relying on an algorithm based on the bicoherence image segmentation of the obtained pattern for each analyzed state. The results are analyzed through a comparative study for the two considered motor regimes, obtaining satisfactory results that sustain the potential application of the proposed methodology for the automatic field winding fault detection in real applications.