Fault detection of broken rotor bars in induction motor using a global fault index

Induction motors play a very important part in the safe and efficient running of any industrial plant. Early detection of abnormalities in the motor would help to avoid costly breakdowns. Accordingly, this work presents a technique for the diagnosis of broken rotor bars in induction motor. Stator voltage and current in an induction motor were measured and employed for computation of the input power of one stator phase. Waveforms of the instantaneous power and line current were subsequently analyzed using the Bartlett periodogram. Different global fault indexes on the instantaneous power spectrum and on the line current spectrum for the fault detection are evaluated. Several rotor cage faults of increasing severity were studied with various load effects. Experimental results prove the efficiency of the employed method.