Diagnosis of stator winding short-circuit faults in an interior permanent magnet synchronous machine

Permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSM) have been widely used in various applications due to their characteristics of high power density, high efficiency, and high torque to current ratio. However, PMSMs are not immune to electrical faults, which requires an efficient and reliable condition monitoring method to avoid downtime or even catastrophic failures. This paper introduces a novel diagnostic method for PMSM stator winding short-circuit faults, which are of the most common type of faults that could occur in PMSMs. The implementation of this new diagnostic method is based on pattern identification of the loci of the machine´s current space vectors. This method is computationally efficient and does not require voltage or position sensors. Experimental verification shows that such a method can detect the short-circuit fault at an incipient stage better than other existing diagnostic methods.