Detection of Rotor Bar Faults in Field Oriented Controlled Induction Motors

Abstract

In this study, a new method has been presented for the detection of broken rotor bar (BRB) faults in inverter driven induction motors controlled via Field Oriented Control (FOC). To this end, a FOC controlled induction motor with a BRB fault was modeled using the Matlab/Simulink program. Experiments were carried out using the prepared simulation model at various loads and operating speeds. The motor current and speeds were monitored for healthy, 1, 2 and 3 BRB faults. The Resampling Based Order Tracking Analysis (RB-OTA) method was applied to the monitored signals. The obtained results were compared by using the classic Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) method. When the obtained results were analyzed via the FFT method no information regarding any faults was determined in the run up or run down regions of the motor and the presented method gave very good results. The reliability of the proposed method was validated with experimental results. The main innovative part of this study is that the RB-OTA method was implemented on the induction motor current signal for detecting BRB faults.