Experimental study of the evolution of a bar breakage process in a commercial induction machine

This paper analyzes the results of a destructive test developed on a commercial induction motor. The test is designed to reproduce in the laboratory the cage degradation process of an induction motor subjected to a high amount of working cycles, which include heavy startups. During each cycle, the main magnitudes related to the motor condition monitoring are registered, at steady state as well as at transient regime. From these magnitudes, some fault indicators described in the literature are calculated, and so, it is possible to follow their evolution. This analysis assesses the use of such small commercial machines in a test bed as a way of developing a failure that can be used to compare the behaviour of the different diagnosis techniques and also the determination of the threshold values for the application of the diagnosis methods, or the necessity to proceed with further modifications or even build a dedicated prototype.