2013 IEEE 1st International Conference on Condition Assessment Techniques in Electrical Systems

Detection of Simultaneous Unbalanced Under-

Voltage and Broken Rotor fault in Induction Motor

Sridhar. S K. Uma Rao

Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Engineering Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
RNS Institute of Technology R. V. College of Engineering
Bangalore, INDIA Bangalore, INDIA
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract— In recent years voltage unbalance and fault • Excessive heating

analysis in induction motor independently has been researched • Decreased average torque
by engineers dealing with power quality issues. The exposure of
• Reduced efficiency
the motor to unbalanced supply, combined with broken rotor bar
fault significantly increases the temperature and reduces the
efficiency and life of the motor. In this paper the effect of As rotor bar fault is an ‘incipient fault’ as it represents a
unbalance on broken rotor bar fault of the squirrel cage small and often slowly developing continuous fault. Its effects
induction motor is analyzed. The performance of the induction on the system in the beginning are almost unnoticeable. The
motor is studied using symmetrical component analysis for the resistance of the rotor becomes a time varying parameter, and
extracted stator current. The electromagnetic torque is analyzed, hence the impedance of the rotor is no longer balanced upon
and is found to give sufficient information about the fault and the the occurrence of the fault. Several diagnostic methods have
unbalance condition. The simulation of the proposed been applied for the identification of rotor bar fault in the
methodology is done using MATLAB SIMULINK. induction motor. Motor Current Signature Analysis (MCSA) is
one of the powerful technique for the diagnosis of the motor
Keywords—Induction motor, symmetrical components, faults.
unbalanced condition, broken rotor bar fault
Many researches are normally focused on the
I. INTRODUCTION unsymmetrical supply voltage, load oscillation and monitoring
Induction motor is widely used because of its ruggedness, techniques to ensure a high degree of safety of induction motor.
low cost, simplicity, high torque, low inertia and high Detection of motor fault under unbalance supply voltage in the
reliability. Hence, induction motors play a pivotal role in early stage is needed to avoid the reduction in efficiency,
industry and there is a strong demand for their reliable and safe heating and consequently, the damage to the induction motor
operation. The modern industry has widely used condition [5]. There are many reasons for unbalance in the supply, such
based and reliability based maintenance strategies to reduce as generators terminal voltages, load currents, faults, power
unexpected failures and downtime. There are many published factor correction equipment and voltage regulators in the utility
techniques [1-3] and many commercially available tools to distribution lines [6]. According to National Electrical
monitor induction motors to ensure high degree of reliability. Manufacturers Association (NEMA) the unbalanced voltage
In spite of these condition monitoring tools, many companies percentage is given by (1):
are still facings unexpected system failures and reduced motor
lifetime. Environmental, duty, and installation issues may Uunb = (maximum voltage – rated voltage) / rated voltage (1)
combine to accelerate motor failure far sooner than the
designed motor lifetimes. The major faults of electrical
machines can broadly be classified as follows [4]: The general rule of thumb is that for every 1% voltage
unbalance, a 7% current unbalance is expected which is
1. Stator faults (38%) equivalent to the negative sequence voltage that causes
2. Rotor faults (10%) negative braking torque. Unbalanced currents in stator winding
3. Bearing balls faults (40%) occur due to the unequal line voltage of induction motor. The
4. Other faults (12%) allowable variation in voltage is ±10% when the frequency is at
its rated value and ±5% in frequency when the voltage is at its
Mechanical faults contribute for more than 95% of the rated value [7]. These allowable may vary between utilities
overall failures. Fault in electrical machines produces one across different countries.
or more of the following.
• Unbalanced air gap flux and line currents The main aim of this paper is to evaluate the performance
• Increased torque pulsation of induction motor subjected to broken rotor bar fault and
• Increased losses unbalanced under voltage supply simultaneously. The fault is

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 2013 IEEE 1st International Conference on Condition Assessment Techniques in Electrical Systems
simulated using MATLAB SIMULINK software. An induction winding and Rb is the rotor bar resistance. The unbalance
motor of 1.1KW, 380V, 50Hz, 4 pole was selected to perform created due to rotor broken bar produces positive and negative
the simulation. The rotor bar is broken at 0.3 sec after the start sequence currents in the rotor. The positive sequence rotor
up in the steady state region and an unbalanced under voltage current results in positive sequence emf and a positive
of 7% in magnitude of the supply voltage was introduced in sequence stator current in the stator with angular frequency
one phase at 0.3 sec for a period of 0.2 sec (i.e upto 0.5 sec).
Symmetrical component analysis is performed for the stator ωr + sω = ω (1 - s) + sω = ω (3)
currents, there by extracting the magnitude of negative The negative sequence rotor current results in emfs and
sequence component. The electromechanical torque and the currents of frequency in the stator
negative sequence component were simultaneously analyzed to
capture the pattern in them, to enable detection of both broken ωr - sω = ω (1 - s) - sω = (1- 2s)ω (4)
rotor bar fault and unbalanced under voltage simultaneously. where ωr is the angular frequency in rad/ sec of the rotation of
the rotor shaft and ‘s’ is the slip of the induction motor. The
II. ROTOR FAULTS rotor asymmetry induces the current in the stator with
Rotor failure account for 8-10% of the total induction frequency (1-2s)f. Due to the interaction of (1-2s)f component
motor failure. Rotor faults are of the following types [8-10]; of flux, an oscillation is seen in the torque at 2sf frequency as
in equation (5)[16]. Where ‘f’ is the supply frequency.
• Broken or cracked (high resistance) rotor bars or end
rings. 3
• Bad or high resistance connection between rotor bars T(t) = pψInrsin(2sωt- (Φψ – Φnr)) (5)
and end rings.
2
• Short circuit rotor laminations. Where ‘p’ is the number of pole pairs, Inr is the amplitude of
the stator current component originating from the negative
sequence rotor current, Φψ and Φnr (rad) the displacement
A. Broken rotor bar fault referring to the fundamental component of current and ψ (wb)
The main reasons for a broken rotor bar in squirrel cage is the amplitude of the magnetic flux in induction motor.
induction motors are [11]
III. PERFORMANCE OF INDUCTION MOTOR UNDER
• Residual stress due to manufacturing problems. UNBALANCE SUPPLY VOLTAGE
• Thermal stress due to thermal overload and An unbalanced voltage applied across the stator of a three
unbalance, hot spots or excessive losses, sparking phase symmetrically wound induction motor can be resolved
(mainly in fabricated rotors). into positive, negative and zero sequence components. The
effect of applying unbalanced voltage can be obtained by
• Magnetic stress caused by electromagnetic forces, superposing the effects due to positive, negative and zero
unbalanced magnetic pull, electromagnetic noise and sequence components of voltages.
vibration.
Positive sequence voltages induce positive sequence rotor
• Dynamic stresses arising from shaft torque, currents which circulate at ‘s’ times the supply frequency
centrifugal forces and cyclic stresses. (where ‘s’ is the slip of the induction motor) and produces a
• Environmental stresses caused by contamination or positive torque. The negative sequence voltage induce negative
abrasion of rotor material due to chemicals or sequence rotor current at (2-s) times the supply frequency in
moisture. the reverse direction and hence produce negative torque.
Torques produced by positive and negative sequence
• Mechanical stresses due to loose laminations, fatigue component is
parts or bearing faults.
2 2
Broken rotor bar model should reflect the amount of 3I pr Rr 3I nr Rr
Tp = and Tn =
severity of the fault and their locations. However, this process sω s (2 − s )ωs
is very complicated [12]. Rotor bar fault are simulated by
increasing one of the rotor phase resistance [12-14] while Where Tp = positive sequence torque, Tn = negative sequence
neglecting the inductance involved. This is because the change torque, Ipr = positive sequence rotor current, Inr = negative
in the inductance is not significant, if only very few rotor bars sequence rotor current, Rr = rotor resistance referred to stator,
are assumed to be broken. The incremental resistance ωs = synchronous speed. The net output torque is given as
corresponding to the broken bar to be considered in the
3Rr ⎛⎜ I pr I nr ⎞⎟
2 2
external rotor circuit is computed as follows [15].
T = Tp + T n = − (6)
n (2 N s ) 2 ω s ⎜⎝ s 2 − s ⎟⎠
∆Rinc = × × Rb (2)
( N / 3) − n N /3 Though the resultant torque is due to both positive and negative
Where ‘n’ is the number of contiguous broken bars, N is the sequence component, the variation in the torque is mainly
number of rotor bars, Ns is the turn number of stator phase because the variation in the negative sequence component.

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 2013 IEEE 1st International Conference on Condition Assessment Techniques in Electrical Systems
Since the negative sequence varies predominantly under state region are zero and one per unit respectively, which
broken rotor bar fault and unbalanced under voltage supply indicates that it is a healthy machine with balanced supply.
condition, the stator current analysis is done for the negative
sequence component which gives a clear indication of both
unbalance and broken rotor bar fault. Since zero sequence
voltages do not produce any net torque, they are not considered
for the analysis in this paper. The nature of variation in the
torque is investigated for the following cases.
• Healthy machine with balanced supply.
• Healthy machine with unbalanced supply.
• Faulty machine with balanced supply.
• Faulty machine with unbalanced supply.

Faulty machine, in this paper is referred to broken rotor bar

fault only. The MATLAB simulation model used for this work
is presented in Fig. 1

Fig. 3. Magnitude of negative sequence stator current of healthy motor with

balanced supply.

Fig. 1. MATLAB SIMULINK model for the proposed techniques

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

case 1:Healthy machine with balanced supply
Fig. 4. Electromechanical torque of healthy motor with balanced supply.

case 2:Healthy machine with unbalanced supply

Fig. 2. Stator current waveforms of healthy motor with balanced supply

Fig 2 to Fig 4 corresponds to the waveforms of stator currents,

negative sequence component and electromechanical torque of
a healthy motor with balanced supply. It is observed that the
current in all the three phases of the induction motor attain Fig. 5. Stator current waveforms of healthy motor with unbalanced supply
steady state after 0.2 sec. The magnitude of the negative from 0.3 sec to 0.5sec
sequence current and electromechanical torque in the study

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 2013 IEEE 1st International Conference on Condition Assessment Techniques in Electrical Systems
frequency of variation in the magnitude of the torque is twice
the supply frequency with a peak magnitude of 1.4A as seen in
Fig.7. The FFT of the stator current in Fig. 8 indicate the
presence of additional frequency component at 5 Hz along with
the fundamental due to unbalance.
case 3: Faulty machine with balanced supply

Fig. 6. Magnitude of negative sequence stator current of healthy motor with

unbalanced supply from 0.3 sec to 0.5sec.

Fig. 9. Stator current waveforms of IM with balanced supply and fault from
0.3 sec onwards.

Fig. 7. Electromechanical torque of healthy motor with unbalanced supply

from 0.3 sec to 0.5sec.

Fig. 10. Magnitude of negative sequence component of stator current with

balanced supply and fault from 0.3 sec onwards.

Fig. 8. FFT of stator current.

Fig 5 to Fig 8 corresponds to the waveforms of stator currents,

negative sequence component, electromechanical torque and
FFT of the stator current of a healthy motor with unbalanced
supply. The magnitude of the negative sequence stator current Fig. 11. Electromechanical torque of induction motor with balanced supply
is increased because of unbalance. It is observed that the and fault from 0.3 sec onwards.

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 2013 IEEE 1st International Conference on Condition Assessment Techniques in Electrical Systems

Fig. 15. Electromechanical torque of induction motor with unbalanced supply

Fig. 12. FFT of stator current from 0.3 sec to 0.5sec and fault after 0.3 sec

Fig 9 to Fig 12 corresponds to the waveforms of induction

motor with balanced supply and fault being present from 0.3sec
onwards. The variation in the negative sequence components of
the stator current appeared due to the reaction to the rotor
asymmetry. The effect of the newly induced stator currents,
which are the reaction of the induction motor to the oscillating
torque is also seen. The variations in the magnitude of negative
sequence and torque from 0.3 to 0.5 sec, indicating the
presence of unbalance. As seen from the FFT waveform of the
stator current, an additional frequency component is introduced
at 35Hz due to presence of unsymmetrical rotor.
case 4: Faulty machine with unbalanced supply
Fig. 16. FFT of stator current

Fig 13 to Fig 16 corresponds to the waveforms of induction

motor with simultaneous unbalanced supply from 0.3 to 0.5 sec
and fault being present from 0.3 sec onwards. The variation in
the magnitude of negative sequence and torque waveforms
from 0.3 to 0.5 sec, indicating the presence of both unbalance
and fault. The high frequency oscillation in the magnitude is
observed because of the difference in the frequency of the
asymmetrical rotor induced stator current and the frequency of
the unbalanced supply. As seen from the FFT waveform of the
stator current, an additional frequency component is introduced
at 35Hz, 68.5Hz, 78.1Hz and 132Hz due to presence of both
unsymmetrical rotor and unbalanced supply. It is observed that
the peak value of the torque is 2.34 (pu). Magnitude of torque,
Fig. 13. Stator current waveforms of IM with unbalanced supply from 0.3 sec positive sequence, negative sequence and Total Harmonic
to 0.5sec and fault after 0.3 sec. Distortion (THD)[18] for a healthy and faulty motor are
presented in Table 1 and 2 respectively.

TABLE I. TORQUE, SEQUENCE COMPONENTS AND THD OF A HEALTHY

INDUCTION MOTOR

Magnitude of Magnitude of
positive negative
Torque
sequence sequence THD
(pu) component component
(%)
(pu) (pu)
Balanced
1.05 1.4 0 0.01
condition
Unbalanced
1.4 1.47 0.436 0.84
condition

Fig. 14. Magnitude of negative sequence component of stator current with

unbalanced supply from 0.3 sec to 0.5sec and fault after 0.3 sec

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 2013 IEEE 1st International Conference on Condition Assessment Techniques in Electrical Systems
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centered maintenance, where an incipient fault can be detected
at the early stages before the degradation is large enough to
trigger, protection relays. This would lengthen the life of the
machines and improve the efficiency of their performance.
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