Current-Based Algorithm for Mechanical
Fault Detection in Induction Motors
with Arbitrary Load Conditions
Ramzy R. Obaid
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0250 USA
Abstract— Mechanical faults in induction motors can be detected
by monitoring specific components in the stator current
frequency spectrum. Previous work tested some mechanical
conditions for the cases of no-load and full-load conditions in
small induction motors, assuming that the effect of load on the
detection scheme between these two conditions is linear. This
paper presents an algorithm for detecting mechanical conditions
in induction motors under any load condition using spectral
analysis of the stator current. The proposed algorithm takes into
account the load related abnormalities and resonance by
classifying the load-levels into bins and calculating a baseline for
each load bin.
Keywords- electric machines; induction motor diagnostics; fault
detection; condition monitoring
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, utilizing the stator current for induction
motor condition monitoring and fault detection has been
preferred to vibration monitoring techniques. This is because
stator current can provide similar indications of the motor
condition, without the need to access the motor. When
applying these methods, usually certain load conditions are
considered. Loading the induction motor causes the motor to
become stiffer, which dampens the mechanical vibrations. On
the other hand, loading the motor reduces the noise in the
current signal, which makes it more feasible to detect the
components of interest in the current spectrum with load.
Previous work [1] tested some mechanical conditions for the
cases of no-load and full-load conditions in small induction
motors, assuming that the effect of load on the detection
scheme between these two conditions is linear. This paper
proposes an algorithm to detect these mechanical conditions
under any load condition.
Load unbalances and shaft misalignments in induction
motors can be detected by monitoring specific components in
the stator current frequency spectrum [2- 4]. The basic concept
is that a rotating fault modulates the air-gap of the motor,
creating an air-gap eccentricity, which produces stator currents
at predictable frequencies. As a result, harmonics at rotating
0-7803-7883-0/03/$17.00 © 2003 IEEE
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Thomas G. Habetler
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0250 USA
Email: thabetler@ee.gatech.edu
frequency sidebands of the line frequency become evident with
the presence of that fault. It has been shown previously [1] that
the presence of a mechanical condition such as load unbalance
and shaft misalignment in induction motors can be detected by
monitoring the components fe±fr in the stator current frequency
spectrum, where fr is the rotating frequency. This was shown
to give as good indication as monitoring the components n·fr in
the vibration, where n is an integer. It has also been shown [5]
that changing the load level might significantly change the
current and vibration spectra, as resonance might occur at
certain speeds. In this paper, the results of testing different
mechanical conditions with the motor load-level swept from
no-load to full-load are presented, followed by a current-based
algorithm for detecting these mechanical conditions under any
load condition.
II. EXPERIMENTS WITH ARBITRARY LOAD CONDITIONS
To examine how changing the load affects the detection of
mechanical conditions, a four-pole, 5 HP induction motor was
tested in the lab for rotating load unbalance and angular and
radial shaft misalignments. The line frequency, fe was 60 Hz,
and since the motor is a four-pole, fr is 30 Hz at no-load. Each
fault condition was induced mechanically to different degrees
of intensity and the stator current and frame vibration were
measured while the load level was varied from no-load to full-
load. For each mechanical fault condition, the rms values of
the frequency sidebands in the current were computed and
recorded. The computed rms values were then plotted against
the percentage of load for each severity level in each fault
condition.
A. Load Unbalance
Load unbalances were created by adding a steel bolt and
nut on a balanced metal disk. The nut and bolt were placed in
holes drilled at different radial distances from the shaft. The
disk has six holes, drilled in a way to keep the disk balanced, at
radial distances of 2.5, 5.0, 7.6, 10.0, 12.7, and 15.2 cm (1, 2, 3,
4, 5, and 6″) from the motor shaft. Fig. 1 shows a sketch of the
machine stand with the disk used to create the load unbalance.
 Fig. 2 shows a plot of the rms values of the components
60±fr in the current. Each set of rms values is plotted against
the percentage of load for this mechanical condition. It is clear
from this plot that the amplitudes of these components
increase with the increase of the level of load unbalance. In
addition, the amplitudes of these components also drastically
increase from no-load to 50% load.
The change in the trend in the current is mainly caused by
the metal disk that is used for creating the unbalance. It is
shown later that this change does not occur when the disk is
removed while testing for misalignments. The metal disk,
which is installed on the shaft of the motor, seems to be
causing a drastic change in the air-gap of the motor at these
load conditions and, consequently, is reflected as a large
increase in the current.
B. Angular Shaft Misalignment
Angular misalignments were created by rotating the
machine in the horizontal plane at specific angles from the
original position, which was aligned with respect to the shaft of
its coupled load. Four levels of angular misalignment were
tested. Fig. 3 illustrates the way this type of misalignment is
created. Inserting a shim of specific thickness between the
base of the machine and one of the aligning marks will rotate
the machine horizontally against its coupled load.
Fig. 4 shows plots of the rms values of the components
60±fr in the current. It is clear, from Fig. 4 that the amplitudes
of the components 60±fr in the current increase with the
increase of the level of angular misalignment. The components
60±fr also monotonically decrease with the increase of load
level from 0% to 100%. It is important to note that since the
metal disk used for unbalances is not installed in this
experiment, the unusual increase at 25% and 50% load that was
shown in the current for unbalances is not present in the case of
angular misalignment.

A
F

Aligning
Marks

α0 (Angle of Misalignment)

Figure 1. Implementation of load unbalance by using an unbalanced disk.

Figure 3. Implementation of angular misalignment by rotating the machine
horizontally against its coupled load.

200 Unbalance
level 5 level 4 400 Misali g nment
Current (mA)

Level 4
350
level 3 Misali g nment
Current (mA)

level 2 300 Level 3

Misali g nment
100 250 Level 2
level 1
200

Balanced 150
Aligned
100 Position
Misali g nment
0 Level 1
0 25 50 75 100 50
Percentage of Load
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Percentage of Load
Figure 2. Current components, 60±fr (rms) versus percentage of load at
Figure 4. Current components, 60±fr (rms) versus percentage of load at
different levels of load unbalance.
different levels of angular misalignment.

1348
C. Radial Shaft Misalignment
Radial misalignments are created by installing additional
shims of specific thickness under the base of the machine to lift
it upward with respect to the shaft of its coupled load. Four
levels of radial misalignment were tested. An illustration of
how to create this type of fault is shown in Fig. 5. As in the
case of angular misalignment, it is difficult to calculate the
exact amount of force acting on the shaft from this type of
misalignment. The difference between this type of
misalignment and the angular misalignment is that in this type,
the whole machine is lifted in the direction that is perpendicular
to the plane of the load, while in the angular misalignment, the
machine is rotated around a fixed point in the same plane of the
load. The radial misalignment is similar to pushing the machine
to the side in the horizontal plane without rotating it. However,
it is easier to implement this type of misalignment by moving
the machine vertically.
The results of testing this type of mechanical fault were
similar to the results of testing angular misalignments. Fig. 6
shows a plot of the rms values of the components 60±fr in the
current. Each set of rms values is plotted against the percentage
of load for this mechanical condition.
Additional
Shim
(top view)
Figure 5. Implementation of radial misalignment by adding additional shims
to lift the machine up against its aligned load.
400 Misalignment
It is clear from Fig. 6 that the amplitudes of the components
60±fr in the current increase with the increase of the level of
radial misalignment. The components 60±fr also monotonically
decrease with the increase of load level from 0% to 100%.
Again, since the metal disk used for unbalances is not installed
in this experiment, the unusual increase at 25% and 50% load
that was shown in the current for unbalances is not present in
the case of radial misalignment.
III. FAULT DETECTION ALGORITHM
The results presented in the previous section have shown
that load unbalances and shaft misalignments may be detected
by monitoring the frequency sidebands fe±fr in the stator
current. The three tested mechanical fault conditions have
caused detectable increases in these sidebands. For all the
cases tested, the increase in the magnitude of these sidebands
was directly proportional to the increase in the intensity of the
fault condition, even when mechanical resonance was present.
Therefore, it is desirable to develop a generalized current-
based algorithm to detect these fault conditions when the
motor is operated at any load condition.
The basic concept of the proposed fault detection
algorithm is to choose a baseline then set a margin above this
baseline as a threshold. This threshold would be used as a
reference for comparison between the non-faulted and faulted
conditions when the machine is in operation. By examining
the experimental results in Figs 2, 4, and 6, a preferred choice
for the baseline would be the rms value of the components
fe±fr of the non-faulted machine. The components fe±fr are the
induced line frequency sidebands in the stator current
frequency spectrum, which are associated with the presence of
mechanical fault conditions. However, as shown in these
figures, this rms value is not constant for all load levels.
When there is a mechanical resonance, the value of this rms is
sometimes higher than that associated with the highest level of
unbalance or misalignment tested. It is thus necessary to
consider such affects when computing the fault detection
threshold. A simplified way would be to divide the load line
into several bins of load-levels and calculate a different
threshold for each load bin.

350
Level 4 There are two types of constant speed applications. The
first type is when the motor is operated under a constant load
300 level throughout the application. Examples include fans and
Current (mA)

250 pumps. The second type of constant speed applications is

Misalignment
Level 3
when the motor is operated under varying load conditions,
200
such as in conveyers or material handling applications. For
150 the fixed load applications, only one load bin is defined and
Misalignment only one threshold is computed for it. For example, if the
100 Level 2
motor is run constantly at 90% load, then a load bin of 75% to
50
Aligned
Level 1 100% is used. For varying load applications, the load line is
0
Position divided into four bins and a separate threshold is computed for
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Percentage of Load
70 80 90 100
each bin. A typical division of the load line is no-load (0%) to
25% load, 25% to 50% load, 50% to 75% load, and 75% to
Figure 6. Current components, 60±fr (rms) versus percentage of load at full-load (100%).
different levels of radial misalignment.
To avoid missing resonance within any load bin, the
baseline is calculated by sweeping the load throughout the

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load bin and calculating a baseline for each load level within
the bin. The final baseline is computed as the average value
for the calculated baselines. The final averaged baseline is
then used to compute the threshold for the load bin. The
computed thresholds are stored to be used as reference for
determining if a mechanical asymmetry occurs during
machine operation. The computation of these thresholds takes
place during the initialization stage of the algorithm. Once
they are computed and stored, the actual fault detection
algorithm uses these values for determining whether a
mechanical asymmetry exists.
A. Initialization Algorithm
The initialization algorithm consists of two parts. The first
part is computing a baseline for each load bin using the well-
balanced and well-aligned machine. This should be done
when the motor is aligned and balanced after installation such
that no mechanical asymmetry or fault condition is believed to
be present. To compute the baseline, first, a load bin should
be defined (e.g., 25% - 50% load) then the motor should be set
to run at the first level of the defined load bin (i.e., 25% load).
The stator current is then acquired, filtered to remove aliasing,
and notch-filtered to remove the line frequency component.
Next, the FFT of the current is obtained and the components
fe±fr in the stator current frequency spectrum are extracted.
The rms value of these components is subsequently calculated
and stored. This process is then repeated for increments of 5%
of the load level until the highest level of the defined load bin
is reached. The final baseline for the defined load bin is the
average of the baselines computed for each load level within
the load bin.
Define Increase load
load Bin level by 5%
Set load to Acquire
the first stator
level in Bin current
Compute
FFT of
current
Extract the
components
fe±fr
Figure 7. Flowchart of the initialization algorithm.
The second part of the initialization algorithm is to define
what levels of mechanical asymmetries are considered critical,
and an action should be taken to correct them. These levels
are specified by the user and are usually dependent on the
application. It is almost impossible to have a machine well
balanced and well aligned against its load throughout the
course of its operation. In some applications, a slight
misalignment (corresponding to 10% above baseline, for
example) could be critical for the efficiency or safety of the
operation; while in other applications, higher levels of
misalignment would still be considered acceptable. The
suggested level of critical mechanical asymmetries in this
proposed method is when the rms value of the induced
frequency sidebands, fe±fr, is higher than 50% above the stored
baseline rms. The threshold for each load bin, therefore, is 1.5
times more than the value of the computed baseline for that
load bin. The flowchart of the initialization algorithm is
presented in Fig. 7.
It is important to note that when a mechanical resonance
occurs, all the machine vibrations are amplified. Because of
this amplification, the baseline would drastically change at the
operating speed where the machine resonates. The rms value
of the induced frequency sidebands of the well-balanced and
well-aligned machine would be high enough to be mistaken
with an asymmetry. Moreover, any given level of unbalance
or misalignment at resonance would result in an rms value of
the induced frequency sidebands that is several times higher
than its actual value without resonance. This could give a
misleading indication of a severe mechanical asymmetry.
This should be taken into consideration when choosing the
threshold that defines the presence of a mechanical asymmetry
to avoid false alarms.
No
Compute and
Load level is Yes store averaged
last in Bin? baseline for
load Bin
Store RMS as Enter
baseline for acceptable
load level margin as
percentage
of baseline
Calculate the
RMS value
of fe±fr Calculate
and store
Threshold Initialization
for defined Complete
load Bin
1350
B. Online Fault Detection
[4] Kliman, G.B. and Stein, J., “Methods of Motor Current Signature
Once the thresholds are computed and stored, the fault Analysis”, Elec. Mach. Power sys., vol.20, no. 5, pp.463-474, Sept.
detection algorithm can be run every specific period while the 1992.
machine is in operation to identify the presence of a [5] Obaid, R.R. and Habetler, T.G., “Effect of Load on Detecting
mechanical asymmetry. The algorithm consists of the Mechanical Faults in Small Induction Motors,” in press, IEEE
following steps. First, the stator current is acquired and the Symposium on Diagnostics for Electric Machines, Power Electronics
and Drives, Atlanta, GA, Aug. 24-26, 2003.
load-level is determined. Next, the stator current is low-pass-
filtered to remove aliasing, and notch-filtered to remove the
line frequency component. The FFT of the current is then Start
obtained and the components fe±fr in the stator current
frequency spectrum are extracted. The rms value of the
extracted components is consequently calculated. The Determine
calculated rms value is then compared with the appropriate load level No Action!
stored threshold. This should be the threshold corresponding from Current Repeat process
data
to the load bin containing the motor’s present load-level. If
the calculated rms value is greater than the threshold, then a
mechanical asymmetry, such as an unbalance or shaft
misalignment may be present. The flowchart of the online Compute
fault-detection algorithm is presented in Fig. 8. FFT of
current

IV. CONCLUSION
This paper has presented an algorithm for detecting
Extract the
mechanical conditions in induction motors under any load components
condition using spectral analysis of the stator current. fe±fr
Mechanical resonance does occur at certain speeds, and
significantly affects the stator current frequency spectrum. The
proposed algorithm takes into account the load related
abnormalities and resonance by classifying the load-levels into Calculate the
bins and calculating a baseline for each load-bin. The RMS value of
algorithm then determines the load-level, when the motor is in fe±fr
operation, and compares the monitored current frequency
components to the appropriate baseline to detect the presence
of a mechanical fault condition.
Stored No
threshold RMS > T ?
REFERENCES
T
[1] Obaid, R.R., Habetler, T.G., and Gritter, D.J. “A Simplified Technique
for Detecting Mechanical Faults using Stator Current in Small Induction
Motors”, Conference Record of 2000 IEEE 35th IAS, Vol.1 pp.479-483. Yes
[2] Watson, J.F. and Paterson, N.C. “Improved techniques for rotor fault
detection in three-phase induction motors”, Conference Record of 1998
IEEE 33rd IAS (Cat. No.98CH36242) Vol.1 pp.271-277. Alarm
[3] Kliman, G.B. and Stein, J., “Induction Motor Fault Detection via Passive
Current Monitoring” Int. Conf. Elect. Mach., Aug. 1990, pp.13-17. Figure 8. Flowchart of the on-line fault-detection algorithm.

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