To cite this article: M. A. AWADALLAH & M. M. MORCOS (2005): Automatic Fault Diagnosis of Electric Machinery: A Case Study
in PM Brushless DC Motors, Electric Power Components and Systems, 33:6, 597-610
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EMP 33(6) #39082
M. A. AWADALLAH
Department of Electric Power and Machines
University of Zagazig
Zagazig, Egypt
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M. M. MORCOS
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS, USA
1. Introduction
Condition monitoring leading to fault diagnosis and location of electric machinery has
recently become of importance. The topic has attracted increasing attention during the
past few decades for its significant influence on operational continuity of many industrial
processes. Accurate diagnosis and early detection of incipient faults result in fast un-
scheduled maintenance and short downtime for the machine under consideration. It also
avoids harmful, sometimes devastative, consequences on the system. Good performance
of the diagnostic scheme is reflected in considerable financial savings and improved
system reliability.
Although electrical machines are rigid, robust, and reliable, they are likely to ex-
perience fault conditions due to wide ranges of operational parameters and surround-
ing environmental characteristics. Excessive electrical, mechanical, thermal, or magnetic
stresses in the machine, as well as manufacturing imperfections, lead to degradation of
materials or breakdown of parts. Therefore, machine faults could be broadly categorized
597
598 M. A. Awadallah and M. M. Morcos
into electrical, mechanical, and magnetic faults. The different kinds of faults are almost
always manifested in operation imbalance and performance anomalies.
Electrical faults such as winding short and open circuits, insulation failures, cracked
end rings, and broken rotor bars result in electrical imbalance of the machine. For instance,
a sound three-phase induction motor is seen by the supply as a balanced load; however,
stator or rotor winding short-circuits nullify this balance. Another example of electrical
faults is the failure of one (or more) power electronics component of the drive control
system. Manufacturers and users of electric machines have relied on protective relays for
a long time, such as the over-current relay to trip faulty machines. A major disadvantage
of the scheme is that the machine could be seriously harmed before the protective system
trips. Accordingly, a condition-monitoring plan that is capable of detecting incipient faults
while developing inside the machine has been seen as quite essential.
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correlation between a properly-derived set of diagnostic indices, and the existence, sever-
ity, and location of an associated fault. The AI tools are definitely capable of performing
one or more of the following tasks in order to automate the diagnostic process:
• Pattern recognition, parameter estimation, and nonlinear mapping applied to con-
dition monitoring;
• Agent training and database building based on both time and frequency domain
indices obtained through simulation and/or experimentation;
• Modeling systems, learning behaviors, and implementing adaptive techniques to
optimize diagnostic system parameters;
• Data mining and information coding in knowledge bases;
• Real time, on-line, unsupervised learning and diagnosis;
• Fault prediction in the incipient stage due to operation anomalies;
• Operating conditions clustering based on fault types;
• Emulating, implementing, and utilizing human expertise;
• Signal filtering, information search, and feature extraction;
• Fault classification, prognosis, and location;
• Evaluating performance indices using linguistic variables;
• Predicting abnormal operation and locating faulty elements; and
• Data compression, trend learning, and alarm processing.
feedback—for torque control. The switching status of the chopper switches is determined
by the controller upon comparing the instantaneous value of the motor current with the
current command altered by a certain tolerance value. During the current build-up, the
chopping MOSFET (QM ) is switched OFF once the motor current exceeds the current
command plus the tolerance value. The inductor voltage is then applied to the chopping
diode (DM ) and switches it ON to provide a path for the motor current to decay. The
chopping MOSFET (QM ) switches ON if the motor current drops—while decaying—
below the current command minus the tolerance value.
The bridge consists of six legs, each of which has an anti-parallel assembly of a
MOSFET and a diode. It works as an inverter that converts the DC current from the
supply to three-phase currents flowing into the motor during the motoring and plugging
modes of operation. The bridge also rectifies the three-phase currents from the motor and
returns them to the supply during the regenerative braking mode. The switching logic of
the bridge is determined by the controller through the rotor-position signals issued by
three Hall sensors (Figure 2). Rotor position signals define six different switching states
of the bridge. During each state, an upper switch carries the current from the supply
to the motor, and a lower switch returns current back from the motor to the supply.
Accordingly, each switch is ON for one-third of the electrical cycle; each phase carries
positive current for one-third and negative current for another third of the electrical
cycle. The three-phase currents injected to the stator winding create a magnetic field
that rotates inside the machine with discrete jumps (or hops) every 60 electrical degrees.
The discrete jumps of the stator field are synchronized to the rotor rotation through the
rotor-position sensors. Hence, the switching pattern of the inverter bridge maximizes the
electromagnetic torque developed due to the interaction between the stator magnetic field
and rotor MMF which comes from the permanent magnet.
Figure 2. Idealized phase currents and EMFs, Hall sensor signals, and switching states of the
inverter bridge.
and faulty conditions in order to select characteristic signals to identify different faults.
Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS) are used as intelligent paradigms to
automate the diagnosis process. The list of studied faults includes:
• Switch open-circuit faults;
• Open-phase faults;
• Stator insulation-failure faults; and
• Inter-turn short circuit faults.
602 M. A. Awadallah and M. M. Morcos
The study yielded a comprehensive diagnosis and location scheme for electrical faults
of the drive system. Many ANFIS-based modules were developed to identify different
faults by monitoring various characteristic waveforms and processing them using different
DSP tools. The developed modules could be assembled to form a unique automatic
scheme for condition monitoring. Testing results show acceptable performance of the
developed system in diagnosing and locating all studied faults.
when the switch is OFF and a very small value when it is ON. The switch open-circuit
fault is modeled by assigning a permanent high value to the nonlinear resistor that
represents the faulty switch.
Current waveform of the motor DC-link was found best to identify the fault. The
current vanishes during the two switching states that correspond to the faulty switch. Char-
acteristic signals are cyclically identical when the fault occurs across different switches.
A definite-time resolution DSP tool is needed to process the waveform in order to char-
acterize and locate the fault simultaneously. Appropriate diagnostic indices are derived
from the characteristic waveform after being processed using continuous wavelet trans-
form (CWT). A diagnostic ANFIS, which could both identify and locate the fault, is set
up in order to automate the process. ANFIS output is either zero under normal operation
or an integer indicating the open switch under fault.
of the winding. The fault was modeled by deviating machine parameters of the faulty
phase due to the number of shorted turns. Faulty phase resistance, EMF magnitude, and
mutual inductances with healthy phases are proportional to the number of effective turns.
However, self inductance is proportional to the square of the number of effective turns
across the faulty phase.
All faulty-operation current waveforms were identical to those of normal operation
since the configuration of the current source inverter with chopping control makes the
controller (not the machine) form the current waveform. The electromagnetic torque
waveform under faulty operation had noticeable curve dips due to the decrease in the
EMF across the faulty phase. Magnitude of torque dips characterize the number of shorted
turns, and the switching states during which dips exist identify the faulty phase. Classical
DFT applied to the torque waveform could extract a single index that perfectly determined
the number of faulty turns. STFT could derive appropriate indices to locate the waveform
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dips, and hence identify the faulty phase. Two independent ANFIS were successfully set
up to diagnose and locate the fault.
Table 1
Testing results of diagnostic ANFIS modules
Operating point
ANFIS output
Speed, Command,
# RPM A Operating condition Actual Ideal
7 795 11.1 Inter-turn short circuit on 1 turn— 1.057 and 2.012 1 and 2
phase B
8 1190 27.7 Inter-turn short circuit on 5 turns— 4.918 and 0.9998 5 and 1
phase A
are tested based on diagnostic indices derived from simulated characteristic waveforms.
Testing data points are randomly selected within the range of training data without being
explicit elements in the training sets. A sample of testing results of ANFIS is shown
in Table 1, which indicates an outstanding performance of ANFIS in diagnosing and
locating considered faults.
4.6. Experimentation
Performance waveforms were measured in the lab under different healthy and faulty
operating conditions. Experimentally obtained waveforms were compared to simulation
results in order to verify the computed characteristics of the system. Different faults were
artificially inserted into either the inverter bridge or the machine. Open-circuit faults were
done by disconnecting the associated elements; a specially wound machine with certain
taps taken off one phase winding was used to obtain inter-turn fault performance. Simu-
lated and measured current waveforms of phase C, when MOSFET 2 is open, are shown
in Figures 3 and 4, respectively. Simulated current waveform of phase A—when phase C
experienced an open-circuit fault—is shown in Figure 5. The measured waveform of
the same current is depicted in Figure 6. Simulated and measured waveforms of the
fault current circulating inside two shorted turns of phase C are shown in Figures 7
and 8, respectively. Also, the net effect of insulation failures and inter-turn short circuits
on machine torque development is a reduction of the average torque. The percentage
reduction of average torque based on both simulations and measurements is given in
Table 2. Simulated torques are absolutely larger than measured values since simulations
stand for electromagnetic torques developed by the motor, while measured entities repre-
sent output torques. Developed torque is larger than output torque due to rotational and
other mechanical losses. It should be pointed out that the main concern of simulation
validation is the agreement between percentage torque reduction, rather than absolute
torque values. Generally, the agreement between simulation and measurement results is
fairly good, which supports the effectiveness of the diagnostic methodologies proposed in
the study.
Automatic Fault Diagnosis of Electric Machinery 605
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Figure 3. Simulated phase-C current at 1000 RPM and 14 A command with open MOSFET 2.
Figure 4. Measured phase-C current at 1000 RPM and 14 A command with open MOSFET 2.
606 M. A. Awadallah and M. M. Morcos
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Figure 5. Simulated phase-A current at 1000 RPM and 13 A command with open phase C.
Figure 6. Measured phase-A current at 1000 RPM and 13 A command with open phase C.
Automatic Fault Diagnosis of Electric Machinery 607
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Figure 7. Simulated fault current at 2000 RPM and 10 A command with two shorted turns on
phase C.
Figure 8. Measured fault current at 2000 RPM and 10 A command with two shorted turns on
phase C.
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Table 2
Percentage torque reduction due to winding faults
# Speed, RPM Command, A Type Turns Healthy Faulty Reduction Healthy Faulty Reduction
608
1 1000 20 Insulation failure 1 0.6845 0.6737 −1.58% 0.561 0.554 −1.25%
2 1000 20 Insulation failure 4 0.6845 0.6424 −6.15% 0.561 0.529 −5.70%
3 500 10 Inter-turn 2 0.3724 0.3628 −2.58% 0.360 0.350 −2.78%
4 1000 10 Inter-turn 2 0.3745 0.3661 −2.24% 0.350 0.340 −2.86%
5 2000 20 Inter-turn 2 0.7452 0.7306 −1.96% 0.711 0.696 −2.11%
Automatic Fault Diagnosis of Electric Machinery 609
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5. Conclusions
This article presents an overview of the diagnostic principles of electric machines’ faults
along with the automation methods applying AI paradigms. Results of a comprehensive
case study of fault detection and location in PM brushless DC motor drives are reported.
Diagnostic methodologies of four different fault types are introduced including charac-
teristic waveform, signal-processing algorithm, and feature-extraction technique used in
each case. ANFIS modules are developed in order to automate the mission of fault diag-
nosis and location; testing results of ANFIS agents indicate their outstanding performance.
Experimental study of the faulty system is conducted, and some measured charac-
teristics are displayed. Good agreement between measured and simulated performance is
achieved, which verifies analytical results and validates the proposed diagnostic routines.
Plans for the integration and implementation of the developed modules are explored
showing the inherent practicality of the study.
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