Static eccentricity fault detection method for electrical rotating machines based on the magnetic field analysis in the air gap by measuring coils

Electrical rotating machines have a great economic significance as they enable conversion of energy between mechanical and electrical state. Reliability and operation safety of these machines can be greatly improved by implementation of continuous condition monitoring and supervisory systems. Especially important feature of such systems is the ability of early fault detection. For this reason, several methods for detection and diagnosis of the machine faults have been developed and designed. As fault detection methods can largely differ in the types of detectable faults, machine adoptability and price of the system, a novel method was developed that can be used for cost-effective detection of various faults of electrical machine. Machine fault detection technique presented in this paper is based on the measurement of magnetic field in the air gap. Numerous studies have proven that crucial information about the machine condition can be determined based on measurement and analysis of the magnetic field in the air gap. It has also been confirmed that analysis of the air gap magnetic field can be used to detect, diagnose and recognize various electrical faults in their very early stage. Proposed method of positioning and installation of the measuring coils on ferromagnetic core parts within the air gap region of the machine enables differentiation of various faults. Furthermore, different faults can be detected if measuring coils are placed on the stator teeth then when placed on the rotor side. The paper presents method on how to analyse and process the measured voltages acquired from measuring coils placed within the machine, especially in the case of rotor static eccentricity detection. The methodology is explained by means of finite element method (FEM) calculations and verified by measurements that were performed on the induction machine. FEM calculation model was used to predict measurement coil output of the induction motor for healthy and various faulty states (at different amounts of static eccentricity). These results were then confirmed by measurements performed in the laboratory on the induction traction motor that was specially modified to enable measurements of faulty operation states of the machine. Measurements comprised of several machine fault conditions broken one rotor bar, broken multiple rotor bars, broken rotor end ring and various levels of rotor static eccentricity. Other methods used for faults detection are primarily based on the monitoring of quantities such as current and vibration and their harmonic analysis. This new system is based on the tracing the changes of induced voltage of the measuring coils installed on the stator teeth. Faults can be detected and differentiated based on RMS value of these voltages and the number of voltage spikes of voltage waveform i.e. without the need of harmonic analyses. If these coils are installed on the rotor it is possible to detect the stator winding faults in a similar manner