A fault detection scheme based on minimum identified uncertainty bounds violation for broken rotor bars in induction motors

In this paper, a novel method for broken bars fault detection in the case of three-phase induction motors and under different payloads will be presented and experimentally evaluated. In the presented approach, the cases of a partially or full broken rotor bars are being also considered, caused by: (a) drilling 4 mm and 8 mm out of the 17 mm thickness of the same rotor bar and (b) fully drilled (17 mm) one, two and three broken bars. The proposed fault detection method is based on the Set Membership Identification (SMI) technique and a novel proposed minimum boundary violation fault detection scheme, applied on the identified motor's parameters. The system identification procedure is being carried out on the simplified equivalent model of the induction motor, during the steady-state operation (non-fault case), while at the same time the proposed scheme is able to calculate on-line the corresponding safety bounds for the identified variables, based on a priori knowledge of the measuring corrupting noise (worst case encountered). The efficiency, the robustness and the overall performance of the established fault detection scheme is being extensively evaluated in multiple experimental studies and under various time instances of faults and load conditions.