Condition monitoring of variable speed drive systems

The wide-spread use of variable speed drive systems in all sectors of activity generates the need for the development of suitable condition monitoring strategies in order to reduce disturbances to the users. The on-line diagnosis is based on identifying unique patterns in the figures obtained, corresponding to the current and voltage Park´s vectors, which are only characteristic of each particular fault. The authors introduce the application of this technique for diagnosing malfunctions in three-phase semi-converter drives. In particular, experimental results show how failures developed within this type of power electronics equipment could be diagnosed reliably, by monitoring the Park´s vector representation of the three-phase supply voltage and current