Induction Motor Fault Detection Using Hybrid Methods

Abstract

This paper presents the comparison results of induction motor fault detection using stator current, vibration and acoustic methods. A broken rotor bar fault and a combination of bearing faults (inner race, outer race and rolling element faults) were induced into variable speed three-phase induction motors. Both healthy and faulty signatures were acquired under different speed and load conditions. Spectral differences are compared and characterized under constant speed conditions. Experimental results show that the stator current method is sensitive to the broken rotor bar fault while the vibration method is sensitive to bearing faults. The acoustic method is very attractive in that it contains less noise and interference within the analyzing frequency band. With the proper selection of monitoring and analysis methods, induction motor faults can be detected accurately under both stationary and nonstationary states.