Current signature based fault diagnosis of field-oriented and direct torque-controlled induction motor drives

In this article, the operation of three-phase squirrel-cage induction motors is analysed under faulty conditions in closed loop with state-of-the-art controllers, namely, the field-oriented control and the direct torque control. The motivation behind this study is to examine the effectiveness of current signature-based fault detection schemes under closed-loop operation, in the presence of inverter harmonics. Various commonly occurring induction motor fault conditions are modelled based on the modified winding function theory, and each fault case is further simulated in a closed-loop framework to verify the fault detectability. The effectiveness of current signature-based diagnostics in varying fault severity, loads and speeds is studied. Furthermore, the faults are artificially seeded in a laboratory test set-up of an induction motor, and the effectiveness of current signature analysis is verified with commercially available field-oriented and direct torque control drives in the closed-loop framework.