International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

ISSN 0974-2190 Volume 8, Number 1 (2016), pp. 13-18

© International Research Publication House
http://www.irphouse.com

Fault Diagnosis of Induction Motor using MCSA

Neelam Turk
Department of Electronics Engineering
YMCA University of Science and Technology,
Faridabad-121006 (Haryana), India.

Abstract

In this paper, the effects of induction motor rotor faults on the current and
voltage of motor are studied through motor current signature analysis. This
technique utilizes the results of spectral analysis of the stator current. The
distortion of current waveform is generally very minute due to fault of induction
motor so it is very difficult. In this paper, power spectrum of motor is taken to
investigate frequency signature of rotor bar fault. The virtual instrument is
developed to obtain the Power spectrum. The Virtual Instrument was build up
by programming in LabVIEW 8.2. A three phase 0.5 hp, 415V induction motor
is used for experiment in which rotor faults are replicated. The experiment
conducted on motor show that Motor current signature analysis is reliable
technique to diagnose the faults of induction motor.

Introduction
Preventive maintenance of electric derive systems with induction motors involves
monitoring of their operation for detection of abnormal electrical and mechanical
conditions that indicate, or may lead to, a failure of the system. The monitoring of the
electrical machines can significantly reduce the costs of maintenance by allowing the
early detection of faults, which would be expensive to repair. Effective online condition
monitoring of Induction motors is critical to improving the productivity, reliability and
safety to avoid unexpected downtime and expensive repair cost. Therefore, the
diagnosing of the health condition of induction motors is receiving more and more
attention from industry in the past decades since it can detect an incipient fault at an
early stage. Because of natural aging processes and other factors in practical
applications, induction motors are subject to various faults. These faults disturb the safe
operation of motors, threaten normal manufacturing, and can result in substantial cost
penalties. The field of motor condition monitoring recognizes those problems, and more
14 Neelam Turk

and more relative research is being devoted to it by industry and academia. With
condition monitoring, an incipient fault can be detected at an early stage [1].
Appropriate maintenance can then be scheduled at a planned downtime, avoiding a
costly emergency. This reduces downtime expense and reduces the occurrence of
catastrophic failures. Broken rotor bars can be a serious problem with certain induction
motors due to arduous duty cycles. Although broken rotor bars do not initially cause an
induction motor to fail, there can be serious secondary effects. The fault mechanism
can result in broken parts of the bar hitting the end winding or stator core of a high
voltage motor at a high velocity. This can cause serious mechanical damage to the
insulation and a consequential winding failure may follow, resulting in a costly repair
and lost production. There are many condition monitoring methods, including vibration
monitoring, temperature monitoring, chemical monitoring, acoustic emission
monitoring, current monitoring, etc. Except for current monitoring, all these monitoring
methods require expensive sensors or specialized tools and are usually intrusive. In
current monitoring, no additional sensors are necessary [2]. This is because the basic
electrical quantities associated with electromechanical plants such as currents and
voltages are readily measured by tapping into the existing voltage and current
transformers that are always installed as part of the protection system. As a result,
current monitoring is non-intrusive and may even be implemented in the motor control
center remotely from the motors being monitored. Therefore, current monitoring offers
significant implementation and economic benefits.

Analysis For Broken Rotor Bar Fault

Modern measurement techniques in combination with advanced computerized data
processing and acquisition show new ways in the field of rotor bar analysis monitored
by the use of spectral analysis. The success of these techniques depends upon locating
by spectrum analysis with specific harmonic components caused by faults. One of the
most frequently used fault detection methods is Fast Fourier transform (FFT). This
technique utilizes the spectral analysis of motor current.
The lower sideband is specifically due to broken bar while the upper sideband is due to
consequent speed oscillation. In fact, researchers show that broken bars actually give
rise to a sequence of such sidebands given by [6, 7, 8]:

fb =(1± 2ks)f1, k = 1, 2,3 (1)

Data Acquisition and Experimental Set Up

In order to diagnose the fault of induction motor with high accuracy, a modern
laboratory test bench was set up. It consists of an electrical machine coupled with rope
brake dynamometer, transformer, NI data acquisition card PCI-6251, data acquisition
board ELVIS and Pentium-IV Personnel Computer with software Lab VIEW 8.2. The
rated data of the tested three-phase squirrel cage induction machine were: 0.5 hp, 415V,
1.05 A and 1380(FL) r/min.
Fault Diagnosis of Induction Motor using MCSA 15

Figure 1: Power spectrum of healthy motor

Figure 2: Power spectrum of faulty motor with 1 broken bar under full load
16 Neelam Turk

Figure 3: Power spectrum of faulty motor with 5 broken bars under full load

Figure 4: Power spectrum of faulty motor with 12 broken bars under full load

A system for fault detection was designed to detect the broken rotor bar fault. Current
measurements were performed for a healthy rotor and also for the same motor having
Fault Diagnosis of Induction Motor using MCSA 17

different number of broken rotor bar. Initially, Test was conducted on healthy motor.
Then, tests were carried out for full loads with faulty motors having up to 12 broken
rotor bars. The rotor faults were provoked interrupting the rotor bars by drilling into the
rotor. The slip was 0.01, 0.04 and 0.08 at no load, 50% load and full load respectively.
The power spectrum of the measured phase currents was plotted. The results obtained
for the healthy motor and those having rotor faults were compared, especially looking
for the sideband components having frequencies given by equation (8).

Results and Discussion

Motor was tested for healthy working condition and for broken rotor bars. The current
measurements were made for one phase at full load. Due to similarity of the 3 phases,
the results for only one of them are presented. Cases were considered where rotor has
1, 5, and 12 broken bars. The figure 1 to figure 4 presents the practical results for these
cases. The frequency components related to broken bar could be clearly recognized in
the current spectrum as shown in figures 2, 3 and 4. These components are marked as
FF (Fault frequency). It can also be observed that the magnitude of the frequency
components increase when the number of broken bars increases. Based on the results
obtained with the systems it can be stated that this method proven to be adequate for
the cases and load conditions considered, as the system was capable to detect the broken
bar fault.

Conclusion
In this paper, broken rotor bar fault is diagnosed Motor current signature analysis. To
diagnose the rotor fault, Power spectrum is obtained using LabVIEW software. Several
experiments were performed on motor under no load condition and with load coupled
to shaft of motor. In this experimental study, the severity of fault was increased from
one broken bar to twelve broken bar. It can be seen that the magnitude of fault
frequencies increases with increase the severity of rotor fault. Based on the results
obtained from the experiments, it can be concluded that FFT based power spectrum can
be effectively used for diagnosis of rotor faults of induction motor.

References
[1] W. T. Thompson, “A review of on-line condition monitoring techniques for three
phase squirrel induction motors – Past, present and future,” in Proc. IEEE Int.
Symp. Diagnostics Electrical Machines, Power Electronics Drives, pp. 3–18,
1999.
[2] P. C. Krause, “Analysis of Electric Machinery.” New York: McGraw-Hill, 1986.
[3] Peter Vas, “Parameter estimation, condition monitoring, and diagnosis of
electrical machines”, Clarendon Press Oxford., 1993.
18 Neelam Turk

[4] P. J. Tavner and J. Penman, “Condition Monitoring of Electrical Machines.

Hertfordshire”, England: Research Studies Press Ltd, ISBN: 0863800610, 1987.
[5] A.H. Bonnett and G.C. Soukup, “Rotor failures in squirrel cage induction
motors”, IEEE Trans. Ind. Apllication. . Vol. IA-22, pp 1165-1173, Nov. Dec.
1986.
[6] W.T. Thomson and R.J. Gilmore, “Motor current signature analysis to detect
faults in induction motor derives-Fundamentals, Data interpretation, and
industrial case histories’, proceedings of 32nd Turbo-machinery symposium,
Texas, A&M university, USA, 2003.