Simple Sensorless Diagnosis Method
for Open-Switch Faults in SVM-VSI-fed
Induction Motor Drive
Teresa Orlowska-Kowalska, Piotr Sobanski
Wroclaw University of Technology, Institute of Electrical Machines, Drives and Measurements
Wroclaw, Poland
teresa.orlowska-kowalska@pwr.wroc.pl, piotr.sobanski@pwr.wroc.pl
Abstract—In this paper a new simple diagnostic technique of
single IGBT open-circuit faults for a two level voltage inverter-
fed field oriented controlled induction motor drive is presented.
A failure diagnosis is carried out utilizing a reference voltage
vector analysis in stationary coordinates, without additional
sensors. An extraction of fault information is based on
monitoring the voltage vector time presence in specific sectors of
the complex stationary plane. Thanks to diagnostic signal
normalization, high robustness to false alarms is guaranteed. To
validate the proposed method, simulation tests under a wide
range of working conditions of the induction motor are presented
for the direct field-oriented controlled drive system.
Keywords—induction motor drives; condition monitoring; fault
diagnosis; Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation; voltage inverters;
open-switch fault; sensorless
I. INTRODUCTION
Vector controlled induction motor drives are now widely
used in industrial applications for speed and torque regulation.
In such systems induction motors are supplied from voltage-
source inverters with space vector pulse width modulation
(SVM). These inverters mostly use power switches based on
the insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), due to their well
known advantages, such as high efficiency, high switching
frequency and relatively short-circuit current handling ability.
However, inverter-fed AC motors are sensitive to different
faults occurring at the input rectifier, at the power inverter itself
or at the control system stage. All these faults lead to the
interruption of the drive system operation and unprogrammed
maintenance brakes. Unplanned drive stops could lead to high
financial losses, so the development of reliable monitoring and
fast fault detection methods as well as fault-tolerant control
strategies is a current demand of the industry.
Among various types of faults, power converter faults,
related to semiconductor or control circuit damages, are the most
frequent and are estimated to cause up to 60% of power device
failures [1]. So recently quite a lot different fault detection and
localization methods and techniques have been reported in
technical literature [1]-[18]. The most frequently used
approaches are based on the analysis of easily accessible signals,
like current or voltage, thus the methods of an open-circuit fault
detection can be classified as current- or voltage-based ones.
978-1-4799-0224-8/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE
In papers [2]-[11] open-switch fault diagnostic methods
based on the analysis of the current vector hodograph function
in the stationary α-ß complex plane were presented. In the case
of the first technique [2], a failure detection and localization are
achieved if an absolute value of the current vector exceeds
some threshold at the time/ a time threshold, when it takes a
characteristic position in the α-ß coordinate system. According
to a diagnostic technique introduced in [3], the localization of
a faulty inverter phase is realized by an analysis of the current
vector hodograph, however, a faulty switch can be recognized
thanks to the knowledge of phase currents polarity. In the
papers [4], [5], an expansion of the previously described
diagnostic methods was presented. Another approach for the
open-switch fault diagnosis is based on measurements of the
stator current data with clustering and simple pre-processing
algorithms [6], [7]. The identification of the data cluster which
indicates the IGBT switch failure is achieved by utilizing
uncomplicated calculations [6] or, on the contrary, more
sophisticated techniques like artificial intelligence methods [7].
Similar methods consist in the centroid calculation of the
current vector trajectory in the α-ß coordinate system [8], [9] or
in an A-B-C phase system [10]. To increase robustness to false
diagnosis alarms under wide range load condition, a fuzzy
logic based approach can be applied [9]. In the paper [11], the
switch fault diagnostic technique based on a DC link current
measurement was presented, however, it requires additional
current sensor in the DC. All these methods, based on the
current analysis, detect the IGBT open circuit fault in one
fundamental period. They are also sensitive to load changes
and drive transients, which results in low diagnostic efficiency
for low load levels and false alarms during transients.
Time minimization between the fault occurrence and the
fault detection can be obtained using voltage-based approaches
[12]-[18]. In the paper [12] four diagnostic techniques for an
open-switch fault in two-level voltage-source inverters were
presented. To identify the faulty transistor, voltages
measurements in various inverter points are utilized and so is an
analytical model of the inverter. In every considered case, the
switch fault localization procedure is based on a comparison
between measured voltages and their expected references. These
techniques cannot be applied in a wide range of applications in
spite of their simplicity and a short failure localization time
because of additional sensors requirements, which increase
8210
implementation costs. Apart from this, some of them depend on
the machine model and in case of machine unbalancing
contribute to diagnosis malfunctions. Furthermore, the
effectiveness of the considered techniques was improved only in
an open-loop control structure, which means that in the case of
vector-controlled induction drives, due to an influence of a feed-
back control loops, the proposed fault diagnosis method failed.
In the paper [13] one of the previously mentioned voltage based
diagnostic methods was validated by simulations. The technique
requires line-to-line voltage measurements for failure diagnosis.
For fault diagnosis, authors have taken into consideration the
influence of time delays due to switching transistors and showed
how to eliminate false diagnosis alarms caused by this
phenomenon. A similar approach to the transistor fault was
developed in [14]. The main concept of the failure detection is
based on errors between measured inverter pole voltages and
reference values. As the authors mentioned, the errors strongly
depend on the applied drive load torque and the angular rotor
position as well. To overcome this inconvenience, the phase
voltages are calculated using the measured pole voltages and
then they are compared with the required values. It has to be
mentioned, that the switch failure can be localized with certainty
only by analyzing the reference voltage vector in a specific
sector of the α-ß plane. In fact the mean value over the time
period when the reference voltage vector is located in the sector
are taken into consideration. In [15] a similar approach is
suggested. Contrary to the previous one, the influence of
switching dead time [16] on diagnostic procedure was analyzed.
In the paper [17], a detailed analysis of voltage across the lower
transistors under inverter fault modes was provided. According
to the proposed diagnostic method, fault diagnosis in the case of
both lower and upper IGBTs failures is possible using voltages
measurements across lower inverter switches. As it was noticed,
the failure localization time depends on the moment of fault
occurrence referred to the present sector of the α-ß plane in
which a reference voltage vector is localized. Despite the fact
that the considered diagnostic technique is has high
effectiveness, additional hardware requirements make its
industry application strongly limited. Another voltage-based
approach for the inverter failure diagnosis was reported in [18].
The diagnostic method utilizes an average value of errors
between reference and the estimated voltages which are
calculated from a simple current-based flux estimator. However,
a detailed analysis of the proposed method leads to the
conclusion that in the low speed region the voltage estimation
method will be sensitive to motor parameter changes.
To sum up, the current-based methods normally don't
require extra sensors, so an increase in implementation costs
can be avoided. Nevertheless, they have some drawbacks, such
as dependence on the load torque and drive transients. On the
other hand, voltage-based methods are highly robust to false
alarms under full-range drive operations and in most cases they
require additional sensors. Moreover, the proposed methods are
mainly effective only in an open-loop control, while in the
closed-loop control like DFOC or DTC structures these
methods are sensitive to the active operation of the closed flux
or torque and speed loops.
In this paper a voltage-based open-switch fault diagnostic
method which uses a reference voltage vector analysis in the
8211
stationary α-ß coordinates is presented. An extraction of the fault
information is based on the monitoring of the stator voltage
vector presence time in specific sectors of the complex α-ß
plane. Thus the proposed method does not require any additional
sensors in the drive system, and thus it can be considered as
sensorless To avoid false diagnosis alarms, the proposed
diagnostic signal was normalized and thus high robustness of the
proposed diagnostic method was guaranteed. To validate this
method, simulation tests under a wide range working condition
of the IM motor drive were carried out. Additionally, for a
comparison, simulation results of the one of the best from above
described diagnostic methods [18] were presented.
II. OPEN-CIRCUIT FAULT ANALYSIS
A. Influence of a Single IGBT Fault on the Drive system
Operation
The basic scheme of the two-level voltage source inverter
topology, whose failures are considered in this paper, is shown
in Fig. 1. For this inverter only eight switch-status
combinations are possible, so that eight voltage vectors
described as U0,...,U7 can be generated by using the considered
converter, according to Fig. 2.
Fig.1. Standard three-phase voltage source inverter topology
U 1 (100) = U DC e j0 [V]
U 2 (110) = U DC e jπ 3 [V]
U 3 (010) = U DC e j2π 3 [V]
U 4 (011) = U DC e jπ [V]
U 5 (001) = U DC e j4π 3 [V]
U 6 (101) = U DC e j5π 3 [V]
U 0 (000) = 0 [V]
U 7 (001) = 0 [V]
Fig.2. The interpretation of the voltage space vectors for the two-level
inverter
In order to achieve a reference voltage vector for the
vector-controlled induction motor drive, six active voltage
vectors (U1,...,U6) and two zero ones (U0 and U7) are used. The
vectors divide the α-ß plane in six sectors specified by an angle
γ, as in Fig. 2 and Table I. In accordance with the modulation
technique, the average voltage vector Us over the time period
Ts can be obtained by applying the adjoining U1, U2 vectors
(as in the situation of Fig. 2), for the intervals t1 and t2 and the
zero vectors are used for a total duration t0 or t7 [19]. The t1, t2,
t0 and t7 values (which constitute Ts) depend on the assumed
control method, called space vector modulation (SVM).
 TABLE I. DEFINITION OF THE SECTORS III. DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES
Area of the α-ß plane As previously mentioned, in this paper the simple open-
Sector number
defined by γ [rad] circuit faults diagnosis method is presented. The main idea of
I 0, π 3 this technique consists in the reference voltage space vector Us
II (π 3, 2π 3 analysis in the α-ß coordinates. The extraction of the fault
information is based on monitoring the voltage vector presence
III (2π 3, π time tM in specific sectors of the complex α-ß plane. The
IV (π , 4π 3 direction of the voltage vector rotation is related to an angular
motor speed direction. In further consideration it was assumed,
V (4π 3, 5π 3 that under the motor mode of the machine, which rotates with
VI (5π 3, 0) positive speed direction, the voltage space vector rotates with
positive direction as well. This means, the numbers of the
sectors are increasingly changed. Depending on the motor
In spite of implementation complexity, a carrier-based speed direction and fault localization, the reference voltage
space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) method, which vector Us is forced in one characteristic sector during a much
is equivalent to the SVM, is often applied. In the case of this longer time-period than in the case of some other ones.
method, gate pulses are achieved by comparing the reference
modulated voltage signals with triangular ones [20]. In this TABLE II. THE OPEN-SWITCH FAULT SYMPTOMS PATTERNS
paper, the carrier-based SVPWM (Space Vector Pulse Width
Modulation) technique was utilized. Characteristic sector of the α-ß plane
Faulted Motor drive speed
(longer time-period of the voltage Us
switch direction
In the case of transistor faults the commanded voltage presence)
vectors cannot be achieved, so a motor is fed in such a way that ω>0 sector I
T1
ω<0 sector VI
the quality of the drive control decreases considerably. Taking
ω>0 sector II
into consideration transistor T1 failure, it can be assumed that T2
ω<0 sector I
the vectors U3(010), U4(011), U5(001), U7(000) contrary to the ω>0 sector III
U1(100), U2(110), U6(101), U0(111), do not introduce additional T3
ω<0 sector II
control distortion, because these can be successfully obtained. T4
ω>0 sector IV
So it can be concluded, that in some sectors of the α-ß plane the ω<0 sector III
voltage vector tracking analysis delivers more information than ω>0 sector V
T5
in some other, therefore the failure symptoms are more visible. ω<0 sector IV
ω>0 sector VI
For instance, if the commanded vector Us is located in the first T6
ω<0 sector V
sector, both active vectors U1(100) and U2(110), as well as zero
vector U0(111) cannot be correctly achieved. In all of these
This fact is clearly visible even under fast linear motor
cases, despite the forced inverter states, the damaged T1 is not
speed changes, this phenomenon will be demonstrated in the
able to conduct the current. Therefore, after applying one of
next section. According to this reasoning, the failure symptoms
these unavailable inverter states, the current flow through the
of the following inverter switches are integrated in Table II. As
faulty inverter phase decreases to zero during freewheeling
can be noticed when analyzing Fig. 2 and Table II, the
through one diode. Further, if the commanded vector Us is
rotational movement of the reference voltage vectors is slower
located in the second sector, to achieve the Us voltage vector,
in those sectors which are indicated by previously mentioned
the U2(110), U3(010) and U7(000) vectors are utilized. In this
unavailable inverter states (unavailable voltage vectors).
situation, only U2(110) vector is affected by the switch fault, so
that the failure influence on the drive control is weaker than in According to the reference motor speed, the demanded
the previously described case. space voltage vector angular speed is changed. Therefore, in
order to obtain robustness of the diagnostic method to false
However, the additional distortion is introduced because of
alarms, the diagnostic signal tM has to be normalized,
the closed-loop control. Due to the asymmetrical power supply,
respectively to (1):
deformed currents flow through the stator winding the
induction motor. These currents affect the rotating magnetic tM
field induced in the motor. So the effects of the power supply t Mnorm = (1)
aω − b
variations caused by the transistor failures are well visible in where:
hodographs analysis of the rotor flux. Further, excited rotor
tMnorm – normalized diagnostic signal,
currents produce disturbed electromagnetic field in the rotor.
ω – angular velocity of the drive,
The rotating rotor and stator fields affect each other, so the
a, b – parameters dependent on utilized sampling period of a
amplitude of a resulting rotating field in the motor air gap is
time tM measurement system.
variable even under the steady-state. Therefore, the constant
electromagnetic torque cannot be longer generated in the To implement the proposed diagnostic method, a simple
machine, and its oscillations lead also to speed control fault monitoring system was simulated, as shown in Fig. 3 for
deviations. To sum up, the transistor faults cause the speed T1 transistor failure. According to this diagnosis system, a
control disturbances, which are significantly intensified signal carrying the information about the sector number SN is
because of the closed-loop control. converted to logic signals S1,..,S6 respectively.

8212
 to the diagnostic signal normalization, the fault diagnostic
procedure is independent of the motor speed, therefore the
constant value of the threshold T can be successfully assumed.
For the tested drive system operation, the threshold T=1.6 was
fixed. Nevertheless, it has to be mentioned, that in order to
speed up the failure localization procedure, this value can be
decreased.
a)
2 ω =ω n
T=1,6
ω =0,78ω n

tMnorm
1 ω =0,64ω n
ω =0,43ω n
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
SN
Fig. 3. Block diagram of the T1 fault monitoring system
b)
2 ω =ω n
T=1,6
For instance, if the reference voltage vector is located in the ω =0,78ω n

tMnorm
first sector of the α-ß plane, the signal S1 remains set to 1, 1 ω =0,64ω n

otherwise S1 is equal 0. In the same way the signals S1,..,S6 can 0

ω =0,43ω n
1 2 3 4 5 6
be obtained. Next, the value tM is measured by timers, and SN

normalized by utilizing expression (1). In the case the absolute c)

value tMnorm is greater than fixed threshold T, and taking into 2
T=1,6
ω =ω n
ω =0,78ω n
account the angular speed direction, the switch failure can be

tMnorm
1 ω =0,64ω n
successfully localized. ω =0,43ω n
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
SN
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS d)
The direct rotor field oriented control (DRFOC) structure 2
T=1,6
ω =ω n
ω =0,78ω n
tMnorm

operation [20], shown in Fig. 4a, was tested under open-switch 1 ω =0,64ω n
faults of the voltage inverter. To obtain the conditions similar ω =0,43ω n
to the real drive system, the vector controlled active rectifier 0
1 2 3
SN
4 5 6

for feeding the voltage inverter, was simulated [21]. To design e)

the power converter, a SimPower System toolbox was utilized, 2 ω =ω n
T=1,6
which allowed simple fault simulations by applying 0 logic ω =0,78ω n
tMnorm

signal on transistor gates. 1 ω =0,64ω n

ω =0,43ω n
0
UDC 1 2 3 4 5 6
SN
ψrref isxref fx usxref Sa -
PI PI rs x-y usαref f)
- - Sb
usyref usβref 2 ω =ω n
isyref fy α-β T=1,6
PI rs Sc ω =0,78ω n
tMnorm

SV PWM
ωref - INVERTER
PI
-
~ 1 ω =0,64ω n
ω =0,43ω n
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
isx x - y isα α - β isA SN
isB
isy isβ
α-β i
A B C sC Fig. 5. The normalized diagnostic signal tMnorm, during transistors faults: T1 (a),
ex ey γr
ROTOR
A B C T2 (b), T3(c), T4(d), T5(e) and T6(f) under changeable motor speed ω>0
DECOUPLING
ψr FLUX
BLOCK
ESTIMATOR LM EN IM
ω To confirm the reliability of the diagnostic procedure,
further simulation tests were realized. First single open-switch
Fig.4. Schematic diagrams of the DRFOC structure of the IM motor drive
faults under speed steady-state operation, for different values
and directions of the motor speed ω and load torque ml were
As mentioned before, for suitable operation of the
carried out. In Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 chosen simulation results for
proposed diagnostic system the threshold T, which indicates
the transistor T1 and T4 faults in the phase A of the voltage
the transistor faults, has to be specified. For this purpose, the
inverter-fed induction motor are demonstrated. In these figures,
extensive simulation tests for different values of the motor
the faulty phase current isA, the SN signal corresponding to the
speed ω and a full range of the load torque ml changes were
number of the sector, where the reference voltage space vector is
carried out. To simplify the further analysis, the obtained data
localized under the switch fault, the absolute value of the
were suitably preprocessed. In the case of tests realized for
normalized diagnostic signal tMnorm and the diagnostic system
one speed level and different load torque values, the minimum
output signals T1fault and T4fault are shown respectively. It has to be
tMnorm values for different switch failures and characteristic
added, that in Fig.6d and Fig. 7d, Tsim signal corresponds to a
sectors were registered. This approach allowed to avoid false
fault simulator modeled using SimPower System toolbox (as
diagnostic alarms. In Fig. 5 the summarized test results for
mentioned in section III). This means that when the transistor
different speed values are presented. In these diagrams, the red
failure is simulated, the Tsim is equal to one, otherwise – to zero.
line indicates the assumed threshold T. As can be seen, thanks

8213
 a) a)
Fault of T1 Fault of T6
isA [p.u.]

0.5

isB [p.u.]
2
0 0
-0.5 -2
0.45 0.5 0.55 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65
t [s] t [s]
b) b)
6 6
5 5
4
SN

SN
3 3
2 2
1 1
0.45 0.5 0.55 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65
t [s] t [s]
c) c)
|tMnorm | [p.u.]

|tMnorm | [p.u.]
2 T=1,6 2 T=1,6
1 1
0 0
0.45 0.5 0.55 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65
t [s] t [s]
d) d)
T1fault

1 Tsim

T6fault
T1fault
1 T6fault Tsim
0
0.45 0.5 0.55 0
t [s] 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65
t [s]

Fig. 6. Simulation results corresponding to T1 fault under load torque ml=0

and nominal speed ω= ωn: faulty phase stator current isA (a), sector number SN Fig. 8. Simulation results corresponding to the drive operation with ml=0.5ml
of the reference voltage space vector (b), absolute value of the diagnostic and the linear changes of the angular motor speed ω during T6 fault: faulty
variable tMnorm (c) and the diagnostic system output signal T1fault (d) phase stator current isB (a), sector number SN of the reference voltage space
vector (b), absolute value of the diagnostic variable tMnorm (c) and the
a) diagnostic system output signal T6fault (d)
Fault of T4
Next the diagnostic system was tested under linear speed
isA [p.u.]

2
0 changes and various load torques to show its robustness to
-2
0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65
various operation conditions of the vector-controlled drive. An
t [s] example of the proper operation of the proposed diagnostic
b) method in the case of the transistor T6 fault, under linearly
6 increasing reference speed value and half loaded motor is
5
4 shown in Fig. 8. It is seen that despite continuously
SN

3
2 changeable speed values the voltage vector remains longer in
1 sector VI, and clearly determines the fault indicator of the
0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65
t [s] transistor T6 fault in converter phase B.
c)
As mentioned in the introduction section of this paper, the
|tMnorm | [p.u.]

2 T=1,6
high effectiveness and fast operation of the proposed
1 diagnostic technique through the comparison with one of the
0 best sensorless diagnostic method can be confirmed. For this
0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65
t [s] purpose in Fig.9 the proper simulation results of the algorithm
d) based on [18] were presented. The diagnostic signals da, db, dc
T4fault

1 T4fault Tsim are defined accordingly to (2):

0
0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65
t [s]  u f ref − u f est 
d f = ∫  dt
 (2)
 U DC 
Fig. 7. Simulation results corresponding to the drive operation with nominal
load torque ml=-ml and an angular motor speed ω= -0.3ωn during T4 fault: where f=a,b,c, uf ref and uf est mean the reference and estimated
faulty phase stator current isA (a), sector number SN of the reference voltage phase voltage, respectively.
space vector (b), absolute value of the diagnostic variable tMnorm (c) and the
diagnostic system output signal T4fault (d) It has to be noticed, that in case of both described
methods, for suitable operation of the diagnostic system the
It is clearly seen, that for faulty case of the transistor T1 and threshold, which indicates the transistor faults has to be
positive direction of the motor speed, the voltage space vector Us specified. Furthermore, the failure localization time increases
remains much longer in sector I than in others (Fig. 6b), while along with the increasing robustness requirements. For this
under the faulted transistor T4 and negative speed direction this reason, the fair comparison between described methods is
vector stops for some time period in sector III (Fig.7b) – difficult, because the diagnostic threshold are not calculated
according with the information given in Table II. The diagnostic by using one precise optimization criterion.
procedure responds properly in both cases.

8214
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T T
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Nevertheless, it is visible that the method presented in this
paper is competitive to the proposed in [18], considering that
the fault localization procedure can be successfully speed up
by changing the fault threshold, as mentioned before.
The simulation results confirmed the effectiveness and
high robustness of the proposed new diagnostic method. As
can be seen, thanks to diagnostic signal normalization, the
correct diagnostic system functionality was achieved even
under linear changes of the angular motor speed, different
speed directions and different load torques.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper deals with the open-circuit faults diagnostic
method for a two level voltage inverter-fed field oriented
controlled induction motor drive. As opposed to the current
based techniques, mentioned in the introduction, this one is
characterized by simplicity and very low computational
requirements. Furthermore, the proposed diagnostic system does
not require additional hardware, therefore extra implementation
costs can be avoided. Thus the system can be considered as
sensorless, as the switch-fault diagnostic symptoms rely on the
information on the reference voltage vector and the information
on speed direction only. Thanks to the diagnostic signal
normalization, the system functionality is not disturbed by false
alarms, even under transient states of the drive.
This research was supported in part by PL-Grid Infrastructure.
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