Detection and severity estimation of static and dynamic eccentricity in induction motors using finite element analysis

This paper presents a diagnostic scheme to detect the presence of static eccentricity (SE) and dynamic eccentricity (DE) faults in induction motors (IMs) by finite element analysis (FEA). Novel methods have been developed to detect these two faults and distinguish them so that suitable safety measures can be taken to mitigate these faults. Power spectral density (PSD) analysis on the stator currents provided the identification index to determine the presence of the faults and to determine its severity level. This scheme is simple as it uses commercially available finite element package - Maxwell, and also does not require complicated calculations. The procedure will be useful in identifying the level of fault with reasonable accuracy at higher loads with the simulation models; based on experimentation on the real motor only under healthy condition. Simulations have been performed with varying load conditions and different levels of eccentricity and these results have been compared with the experiments to verify the effectiveness of this diagnostic scheme.