Experimental Investigation of the Combined Fault: Mechanical and Electrical Unbalances in Induction Motors Based on Stator Currents Monitoring

Abstract

Numerous studies examine the electrical and mechanical, internal and exterior problems of induction motors separately. However, this type of machines is also susceptible to several combined faults which affect it at the same time. The aim of this work is to study firstly the effects of the mass imbalance with the supply voltage unbalance faults in a combined state, and specifically its effects on the stator currents (distortion of currents waveform and augmentation of current unbalance factor (CUF)). The findings of this research were derived from experimental tests, which enabled us to produce the combined voltage and mass imbalance fault intentionally. The second purpose of this paper is to identify these irregularities. In the field of induction motor fault diagnosis, the stator current analysis techniques have shown to be quite successful and have gained widespread use. Therefore, we used the well-known method motor current signature analysis (MCSA). In addition, we have strengthened the research by using spectral analysis on the Park's components (Id and Iq). The obtained results demonstrate the efficacy of analyzing stator currents and Park components spectra (particularly the direct Park component (Id)) for detecting this kind of electrical and mechanical combined defects.