1846 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 62, NO.
3, MARCH 2015
Induction Machine Bearing Fault Detection by
Means of Statistical Processing of the
Stray Flux Measurement
Lucia Frosini, Ciprian Harlişca, and Loránd Szabó, Member, IEEE
Abstract—Rolling bearing faults are generally slowly
progressive; therefore, the development of an effective di-
agnostic technique could be worth detecting such faults in
their incipient phase and preventing complete failure of the
motor. The methods proposed in the literature for this pur-
pose are mainly based on measuring and analyzing vibra-
tion and current. Here, a novel technique based on the stray
flux measurement in different positions around the elec-
trical machine is proposed. The main advantages of this
method are due to the simplicity and the flexibility of the
custom flux probe with its amplification and filtering stage.
The flux probe can be easily positioned on the machines
and adapted to a wide range of power levels. This paper
also reports an extensive survey on the stray-flux-based
fault detection methods for induction motors, prior to in-
troducing a novel sensor/diagnostic scheme.
Index Terms—AC machines, ball bearings, electric ma-
chines, fast Fourier transforms, fault detection, fault diag-
nosis, fault location, induction motors, rotating machines,
statistical analysis.
N OMENCLATURE
d Difference between the mean values computed for the
healthy and faulty machine.
fs Supply frequency.
fshort Short-circuit-related frequency.
G Gain.
k Order of the supply time harmonics.
mf Mean value of the harmonics for the faulty machine.
mh Mean value of the harmonics for the healthy machine.
n Constant.
p Number of pole pairs.
Rg External resistance.
s Slip.
S Standard deviation.
Δ Absolute value of d.
Manuscript received January 30, 2014; revised April 22, 2014, June
26, 2014, and August 12, 2014; accepted September 6, 2014. Date of
publication October 3, 2014; date of current version February 6, 2015.
L. Frosini is with the Department of Electrical, Computer and
Biomedical Engineering, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy (e-mail:
lucia@unipv.it).
C. Harlişca and L. Szabó are with the Department of Electrical
Machines and Drives, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 400114
Cluj-Napoca, Romania (e-mail: Ciprian.Harlisca@mae.utcluj.ro; Lorand.
Szabo@emd.utcluj.ro).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIE.2014.2361115
0278-0046 © 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
I. I NTRODUCTION
I NDUCTION machines (IMs) are the most widely used
electrical rotating machines in the industry. Their unplanned
breakdown can have a high economic impact on manufactur-
ing costs due to the expensive process downtimes. Therefore,
much research focuses on their condition monitoring and fault
detection [1].
About 40% of the electrical machine damages are in the
bearings [2]. These do not cause immediate breakdown, but
evolve in time, until they produce a critical failure.
In the literature, diverse methods are proposed for detecting
the bearing faults in rotating electrical machines. A significant
part of the papers deals with the harmonic analysis of the stator
current and vibration, performed for finding some well-defined
specific bearing fault frequency components [3]–[5]. Unfortu-
nately, vibration-based monitoring needs expensive sensors. On
the other hand, current monitoring requires simpler sensors,
which can be placed anywhere on the feeding cables [6], even
if these cables are not always accessible. Both methods can be
also used to detect other faults, as broken rotor bars, shorted
windings, air-gap eccentricity, etc. [7].
Several research teams studied the detection of bearing faults
by measuring the stray flux around the motor. The stray flux of
an electric machine is the flux that radiates outside the housing.
It is inherent and strictly connected to the magnetic state of
the machine. Hence, it can be affected by the presence of the
typical faults in the machine [8]. Its detection has been used in
fault diagnosis for about 20 years as an effective noninvasive
technique.
A survey on this method is given in the next section of the
paper. A synthesis of this survey is reported in Table I, with
reference to the type of fault analyzed, the type of sensor, and
the position of the sensor around the machine.
Other diagnosis methods, as Park’s vector approach (PVA)
[9], or the instantaneous power factor (IPF) monitoring [10] are
also proposed for bearing fault detection. PVA enables the use
of an easy-to-understand graphical fault detector, whereas IPF
monitoring can tolerate small variations of the power supply
frequency. Moreover, a wavelet transform can be used for data
processing [11], [12].
In the past years, advanced artificial-intelligence-based meth-
ods were introduced for bearing fault detection [23]. The
most significant results were obtained by using artificial neural
networks [24], [25] and fuzzy logic [26].
FROSINI et al.: INDUCTION MACHINE BEARING FAULT DETECTION BY MEANS OF STATISTICAL PROCESSING
TABLE I
L ITERATURE S YNTHESIS ON THE D IAGNOSTICS VIA THE S TRAY F LUX
Almost all the fault detection methods can also be applied
online for a more effective protection of the electrical machines
[27], [28].
In this paper, the detection of three types of bearing faults by
means of statistical processing of the stray flux measurements
is presented. The developed noninvasive method requires only
a simple magnetic flux probe and some easy computation
steps. The effectiveness of the proposed bearing fault detection
method was proved by taking into study 32 cases for the four
machine conditions (different flux probes located in a variety of
places relative to the machine having various loads).
II. L ITERATURE S URVEY ON S TRAY F LUX D ETECTION
Here, a literature survey focused on the use of the stray flux
for diagnostic purposes is reported.
In [13], the flux measurements have been carried out on a
three-phase IM (35 kW, four poles, skewed rotor), with many
types of faults: shorted turns in stator winding, broken rotor
bars, static and dynamic rotor eccentricity, and bearing faults.
One of the external search coils described has 200 turns. Its
length is equal to the active axial length of the machine, whereas
its width is equal to two pole pitches. Such a coil can be suitable
only for one size of the machine. The other external search coil
has 200 turns of a 0.2 mm diameter wire and can be mounted
on the non-drive end (fan side). This is the only search coil
proposed in [13] that can be compared with the commercial
probe employed in our research, since both are external and
suitable for a large range of machine sizes. Nevertheless, since
in [13] any other detail is reported regarding this sensor, it
is difficult to evaluate its sensitivity and its diagnostic ability
with respect to other flux probes. The spectral analysis of the
experimental measurements collected with this coil shows the
following observations.
• The only effect of the interturn short circuit is given by an
increase (approximately ten times) in the magnitude of the
fundamental.
• In case of one to three broken rotor bars, characteristic
sideband components appear in the flux spectrum when the
1847
motor is at full load. For lower loadings, these sidebands
drastically decrease. At half load and no-load, only the
three-broken-bar state is detectable.
• This coil is able to detect the dynamic eccentricity but not
the static eccentricity and the bearing fault.
In [14], a technique based on axial leakage flux sensing is
tested to detect an interturn short-circuit fault and to locate its
position in the stator winding, while the motor is operating.
An interesting observation pointed out by Penman et al. is the
following: In case of rotor faults (e.g., broken bars), the stator
winding is used as a “search coil”; the converse of this concept
is that the rotor may be used as a search coil for stator faults.
The technique detects changes in the line current harmonics
indirectly via the axial flux spectrum. For an ideal symmetrical
machine, the axial leakage flux is zero. Any fault causes a
significant asymmetry in the machine, and the axial leakage flux
increases.
Two types of search coils were studied in [14]. In order to
detect an interturn short circuit, a large coil was concentrically
installed around the shaft at one end of the machine. The coil
has about 300 turns of wire wrapped around a Plexiglas former
bolted around the motor shaft. In order to locate the fault
position, four smaller coils were symmetrically mounted in the
four quadrants of the motor at a radius of about half the distance
from the shaft to the stator end winding. These search coils have
approximately 100 turns of wire on a 12.5 cm diameter plastic
former. The frequency components to be detected in the axial
flux component are given by
 
1−s
fshort = fs k ± n (1)
p
where p is the number of pole pairs, fs is the supply fre-
quency, k = 1, 3 (order of the supply time harmonics), s is
the slip, and n = 1, 2, 3, . . . (2p − 1). This technique has been
proven as effective in detecting and locating shorted turns on a
600 V, 150 kW, eight-pole IM, in both load and no-load
conditions. The authors point out that the application of this
technique requires knowledge of a “fingerprint” of the flux
while any fault is present.
In [29], Thomson affirms that there is a lack of industrial case
histories to fully access the reliability of axial flux monitoring
in detecting stator shorted turns when applied to a wide range
of low-voltage IMs of different designs and ratings. The author
also notes that when the frame is of steel, it acts as a magnetic
shunt. Hence, the axial flux signal cannot be of high quality.
Moreover, in case of thick steel frames, the flux penetration
depth is another relevant factor to be taken into account.
A commercial fault detection kit (consisting of a flux sensor,
a portable analyzer, and a specific software) is proposed to diag-
nose stator and rotor winding faults by monitoring the stray ax-
ial flux around the outer frame [15]. The author has carried out a
wide campaign of measurement both on a laboratory test bench
and on different motors installed in industrial environments,
some of them supplied by means of a pulsewidth modulation
(PWM) inverter. The faults analyzed are broken cage bars and
rings and turn-to-turn short circuits in the windings.
1848 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 62, NO. 3, MARCH 2015
In [15], Kokko states that the most interesting leakage fluxes
from the diagnostic point of view are at the stator end winding,
rotor end winding, and rotor end ring. These fluxes leak in
the axial direction outside the motor and can be detected by
external axial flux sensors. The determination of the complex
3D pattern of this leakage flux is difficult but not necessary. In
fact, the condition monitoring of motors by axial leakage flux
is based on the relative changes in certain flux frequency com-
ponents, and their absolute amplitude values are not required.
In [15], the frequencies to analyze in the axial flux spectrum
are identified, on the basis of the literature and of the manual
of the commercial system, and are divided into “low” and
“high” components. The low-frequency components simply are
a function of the supply frequency, slip, and number of poles.
The high-frequency components are supplementary functions
also of the number of stator and rotor slots. Consequently,
the low-frequency components are simple to calculate, even
for motors used in industrial environment, whereas the others
require usually not well-known information. The threshold
values of these axial flux harmonics, which can distinguish a
faulty motor from a healthy motor, are not easy to predeter-
mine, because several factors affect them. For this reason, it
is recommendable to collect a reference measurement of the
axial flux for each healthy motor, to find out experimentally the
relative distribution of these harmonic components. In fact, the
experimental results in [15] show that there are quite significant
differences in the harmonic distributions of various machines
and applications; hence, it is not possible to define general
parameters for diverse machines used in various applications.
Moreover, the result of the stator current analysis cannot be
directly used as a reference value for axial fluxes. The stator
current spectra are quite alike for similar motors; hence, the
spectrum of one motor can be quite reliably used as a reference
value for another similar motor. In the axial flux spectra, there
are so many differences among the various motors that it is
better to set a reference measurement for each machine. In the
case of two nearby installed PWM converter supplied motors,
the flux probe placed near one of the motors also detects the
field induced by the other motor. Moreover, as the sensitivity of
the flux coil is the least at low frequencies, sensitivity problems
can arise for variable-speed-driven motors when working at low
speeds.
Interesting information can be obtained also from the time-
domain analysis of the stray flux, as presented in [15] and [16].
In [16] and in the following papers, the authors use a stray flux
sensor to detect stator winding faults [16], [30], [31], broken
rotor bars [32], [33], and to monitor the gearbox [34]. The
circular air coil stray flux sensor having several hundred turns
has to be placed near the machine body. In [16], it is proposed
that this has to be positioned parallel to the horizontal axis
of the machine (in practice, perpendicular with respect to the
sensor used in [15]). The authors maintain that the diameter
of the sensor has to be much less than the total height of the
machine body, in order to perform the measurement of flux
in an area covering the width of several stator slots. Then, the
dimension of this coil is not independent from the machine size.
The voltage at the coil terminals is proportional to the derivative
of the stray flux; hence, it has a low magnitude and a large-
frequency bandwidth since the derivation tends to increase
the magnitude of high-frequency components. A variable gain
(from 10 to 100) amplifier is connected at the terminals of this
flux sensor. Moreover, a lowpass anti-aliasing filter is used in
order to set the frequency bandwidth to a correct range for the
spectrum analysis. In [16], the tests have been carried out on
an 11 kW four-pole squirrel-cage IM supplied from both the
mains and an inverter, at standstill, at no-load and at rated load.
The leakage flux analysis has been proven more effective to
detect stator faults with respect to the motor current signature
analysis technique. In [30], the same motor is tested in normal
operation, and the stray flux sensor is positioned parallel to the
frontal section of the machine. In [32], different rotor faults
of various IMs have been investigated. The tests have been
carried out for different values of load. Note that to detect
stator short circuits, the frequencies investigated are under
1 kHz, whereas to diagnose broken rotor bars, the harmonic
components of interest are the sidebands (1 ± 2s) fs around
the supply frequency fs . Finally, the broken bar diagnosis has
been investigated by means of the stray flux measurement after
supply disconnection [33].
Another case studied by the same authors is the monitoring of
the stray flux harmonic components induced by a gearbox in a
4 kW four-pole wound rotor and in a 5.5 kW eight-pole squirrel-
cage rotor IM. The motors have been tested at low load fed by
the power grid and at no-load supplied by the inverter. Some
characteristic frequencies due to the gearbox can be observed in
the stray flux spectrum, whereas they cannot be detected in the
stator current spectrum. On the contrary, when the motors are
supplied by the inverter, other harmonic components disappear
from the flux spectrum [34].
In [17], a different type of external flux sensor is proposed: It
is made of 300 turns on a “C” magnetic core, and it is located
on the machine frame. Bellini et al. used it to detect broken
rotor bars. They observed that the right sideband component
amplitude increases with the slip more than the left one because
the measured variable is the flux derivative. The conclusion of
this paper is that line current and stray flux signals can be used
with the same effectiveness in order to detect and quantify rotor
faults. The optimal choice depends on the specific application
and on the easiness of installing flux or current sensors in the
specific industrial environment. This is because stray flux is
induced by stator and rotor currents, but the effect of stator
currents prevails, since the stator acts as a magnetic shield with
respect to the rotor. Hence, stray flux analysis is expected to
convey the same information that can be obtained by conven-
tional stator current analysis [18].
In [19], the axial leakage flux was measured with a circular
search coil of a diameter comparable to the motor. This search
coil was concentrically mounted with the shaft on the rear of
an IM. The frequencies of interest to detect broken bars were
the (1 ± 2s) fs sidebands around the supply main component at
fs . The positioning of the flux coil during the tests was found
to affect the flux spectra. Moving the flux coil by about 10 cm
away from the motor in an axial direction caused the amplitude
of the flux sidebands to increase by about 5 dB relative to the
main flux component. Placing the flux coil at an angle relative
to the motor caused these sidebands to decrease relative to
FROSINI et al.: INDUCTION MACHINE BEARING FAULT DETECTION BY MEANS OF STATISTICAL PROCESSING
the main component. In conclusion, the authors state that the
analysis of the current spectrum offers a more accurate broken
bar fault detection than that of the stray flux spectrum.
In [20], an air coil has been used to measure the external
leakage flux in the radial direction coming from a 3 kW four-
pole squirrel-cage IM supplied by the grid. The spectrum of the
radial flux proves not to be very sensitive to the broken rotor bar
fault. Whereas in the case of stator interturn short-circuit faults,
it is revealed to be more sensitive with respect to the spectrum
of the line current.
In [21], Ceban et al. consider the axial–radial decomposition
of the external magnetic field. The axial field is in a plane
that includes the axis of the machine and is generated by
currents in the stator end windings or rotor cage end ring. The
radial field is located in a perpendicular plane to the machine
axis, and it is an image of the air-gap flux density, which is
attenuated by the stator magnetic circuit and by the external
frame of the machine. These fields can be separately measured
by a convenient placement of a wound flux sensor. When the
sensor is positioned on the body of the machine and parallel
to its longitudinal plane, the flux linked to the sensor is purely
radial. On the contrary, when the sensor is perpendicular to this
position, it measures the radial field, but it also embraces one
part of the axial field. Analyzing the magnetic field spectrum
emitted by an IM, there has been observed the appearance of a
component at sfs , only in the axial field. Its magnitude can be
relatively low for a machine in a healthy condition. Moreover,
in the spectrum of the axial field, the appearance of the 3sfs
harmonic can be observed, generated by rotor broken bars. The
fault diagnosis becomes more difficult for weak loads, because
these harmonics do not appear for a very low slip.
A Bell 7030 Tesla meter fixed in the middle of the stator
frame length to measure the tangential component of the stray
flux is presented in [22]. Vitek et al. affirm that this equipment is
very expensive for practical industrial applications, particularly
for small IMs. With this sensor, dynamic rotor eccentricity and
a bearing fault in the inner race was investigated. It was con-
cluded that the stray flux is advantageous for the detection of
dynamic eccentricity, due to a significant relationship between
the amplitude of characteristic spectral components and the
eccentricity level. On the other hand, the practical utilization
of the magnetic stray flux for observing bearing defect is
controversial, since the amplitudes of the characteristic spectral
components are very low in both stator current and stray flux.
In another approach, giant magnetoresistance (GMR) sensors
are used to measure the stray flux around electrical actuators.
GMR sensors produce a large change in resistance when the
devices are subjected to a magnetic field. They are particularly
suited for such purposes due to their measurement range and
their linearity [35].
III. P ROPOSED FAULT D ETECTION M ETHOD
As was also previously presented, the most interesting fea-
ture of stray flux around an IM is its dependence on the stator
and rotor currents [16]. Therefore, studying the significant
frequency components of the stray flux, stator or rotor asym-
metries can be detected [36].
1849
Performing the survey on the stray-flux-based diagnosis, one
of the main conclusions was that even if the stator current
harmonics excited by bearing faults are theoretically related to
specific frequencies, these do not always appear, whereas some
integer harmonics in the stray flux spectra are amplified when
the bearings are damaged [37].
Based on these considerations, the authors started their re-
search with the idea of finding in the stray flux spectra some
integer multiples of the fundamental frequency, excited in case
of bearing faults. Note that these harmonic components can
be easily determined in the absence of the specific machine
parameters, contrary to other harmonics evaluated, e.g., in [15],
which are functions of the stator and rotor slots numbers.
The proposed fault detection method, being statistical, re-
quires at least ten data acquisitions of the stray flux, performed
under identical conditions, both for the healthy machine (con-
sidered as reference) and the same machine having diverse
bearing faults. The method pursues the following subsequent
steps [38].
• Each integer multiple of the fundamental, between 100
and 1000 Hz, is normalized with respect to the 50 Hz
fundamental.
• For every integer harmonic component taken into account,
a mean value of ten acquisitions is computed, for both the
healthy and the faulty conditions of the machine (mh and
mf , respectively).
• The difference of the mean values mentioned above (d =
mh − mf ) is calculated.
• In order to evaluate the diagnostic content of the processed
data, the absolute value of the difference (Δ = |d|) is com-
pared with the standard deviation (S) of the harmonics in
the case of the healthy motor.
Based on this comparison, three levels of fault significance
are considered [38]:
• low, if Δ > S;
• medium, if Δ > 2S;
• high, if Δ > 5S.
In order to overcome the problems due to noisy references,
a fault is signaled only if at least one of the above conditions
is fulfilled. If none of these conditions are fulfilled, an incipient
bearing failure is impossible to be detected by means of this
method.
The proposed bearing fault detection method based on
statistical computations is actually applicable in industrial
environment as a truly accurate, yet simple and robust fault
indicator [39].
IV. E XPERIMENTAL PART
A. Experimental Setup
The measurements were performed in the Laboratory of
Electric Drives at the University of Pavia, Italy on a test bench
described in detail in [40].
The grid-connected three-phase 2445T4050-type IM (FIR
Elettromeccanica S.r.l.) has the following rated data: power of
2.2 kW, current of 8.7/5 A, and speed of 2800 r/min. It has two
NSK 6205Z-type rolling ball bearings with nine balls, which
1850 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 62, NO. 3, MARCH 2015
Fig. 1. Applied probes.
are lubricated with grease. The IM is joined with a magnetic
powder brake of 5 kW and 100 N · m through an elastic couple.
The load can be set and measured by using the control unit of
the brake.
1) Flux Sensors: For the specific stray flux measurements,
two magnetic flux sensors were applied (see Fig. 1) [40].
The industrial one, produced by Emerson (M-343F-1204
type), has several turns wound around a circular air core [41].
This probe has to be mounted on the fan end of the machine
and can be used to measure only the leakage axial flux. It is
similar to most of the air coils cited in the literature. The other
one is a custom flux probe consisting of a semicircular ferrite
core with 44 mm outer and 40 mm inner diameters. The core
is wound with 300 turns of enameled copper of 0.112 mm in
diameter [42]. The main advantages of this cheap (of only about
a few Euros) flux probe over the industrial ones is its small
size, which enables the measurement of the stray flux anywhere
around the machine, as it was also emphasized in [18]. It should
be mentioned that for both types of sensors, the attenuation of
the output voltage is insignificant, and their frequency range
permits their usage in common ac motor monitoring and diag-
nosis [15].
2) Amplification and Filtering Stage: Upon the practical
experiences of the research team, an amplification and filtering
stage was designed. The signal collected by the flux probes is an
EMF, i.e., the derivative of the flux. The intensity of this signal
around the tested motor is on the order of 100 mV. This signal
is significantly lower than the full scale of the acquisition card.
Therefore, it has to be amplified for better exploitation of the
card resolution, quantization error reduction, and increasing the
SNR. On the other hand, the amplification stage has to take into
account the physical characteristics of the flux probe. As being
a passive probe, it absorbs current; therefore, the amplification
device must have high input impedance.
The INA 128-type instrumentation amplifier was selected,
which has an input impedance of 10 GΩ and a maximum input
current of 5 nA. Its gain G can be set by means of an external
resistance Rg , according to
G = 1 + 50 kΩ/Rg . (2)
In order to make various values of gain readily available
and to better fit the range of flux for each test, a number
of external resistors were selectable by means of jumpers on
the amplifier printed circuit board. This amplifier presents an
adequate passband for the signal of interest (200 kHz at G =
200) and a very low offset voltage (50 μV).
The supply voltages of the amplifier were filtered by means
of 100 nF ceramic capacitors mounted very close to the supply
pins of the integrated circuit and by placing 1.5 mF electrolytic
capacitors near the supply connections.
A lowpass filtering stage was employed between the output
of the amplifier and the input of the acquisition board. Its
purpose is twofold. On one hand, it acts as an antialiasing filter
to avoid frequencies above half the sampling frequencies to
be folded in the base band. On the other hand, it attenuates
all the frequencies above the maximum considered harmonic,
helping to reduce the noise floor in the calculated spectrum.
In the beginning, a second-order active Sallen–Key filter was
tested, but the best results were obtained with a simpler passive
first-order RC topology. The filter components were placed
on sockets, in order to easily tune the values of the filter
components. As far as the choice of the values is concerned, for
a given cutoff frequency, the following considerations apply.
• Too high values of the resistance require too low capaci-
tance values, typically not advisable for the high incidence
of parasitic parameters.
• Too low values of resistance may cause a too high current
absorption, with a consequent reduction in the amplitude
of the signal (note that the integrated circuits have quite
consistent limits on the maximum current).
• Even if the current limit is not hit, a low resistance value
implies a higher capacitance value, which may require the
adoption of electrolytic capacitors.
Electrolytic capacitors exhibit a fairly high stray series in-
ductance with respect to other technologies; consequently, the
impedance of the filter branch connected ground does not
decrease as expected when the frequency increases. Since this
filter aims at strongly attenuating higher frequencies, ceramic
capacitors are mandatory. The values, which are considered
suitable for the type of filtering requested, were a resistance of
1 kΩ and a capacitance of 82 nF [38].
3) Data Acquisition: The flux probes were connected to
a portable National Instruments data acquisition board and to
a personal computer with NI LabVIEW software. The data
acquisition board is of NI USB 6212 type with 16 analog inputs,
16-bit resolution, an input range of ±10 V, and a bus-powered
USB for high mobility. The data acquisition was controlled
through a specially created virtual instrument.
B. Performed Measurements
The custom flux probe was located in three different posi-
tions around the housing of the machine in order to measure the
axial leakage flux and the radial one on both the drive end and
the fan end, as shown in Fig. 2. The commercial flux probe was
positioned outside the fan end coaxially with the shaft axis.
FROSINI et al.: INDUCTION MACHINE BEARING FAULT DETECTION BY MEANS OF STATISTICAL PROCESSING
Fig. 2. Approximate positions of the flux probes.
Fig. 3. Faulted bearings. (a) Crack in the outer race. (b) Hole in the
outer race. (c) Deformation of the seal.
Three bearing faults were caused and studied [37]:
• crack in the outer race, similar to a fault caused by exces-
sive wear [see Fig. 3(a)];
• hole in the outer race [see Fig. 3(b)];
• deformation of the seal [see Fig. 3(c)].
The IM was tested in its healthy condition and having one of
its bearings substituted by a faulty one.
For each of the conditions and the two flux probes in the
positions given in Fig. 2, the machine was tested at no-load,
at 50% of the rated load and at full rated load. Exceptionally,
when the machine was tested with a cracked bearing, the full-
load condition was not possible to be achieved due to the strong
vibrations of the machine, which could cause the destruction of
the IM.
During all the performed measurements, 500 000 samples
were acquired at a 10 kHz sampling frequency. For every case,
ten consecutive acquisitions were collected (with an acquisition
time of 50 s each) and saved in files.
C. Data Processing
All the saved data were processed via fast Fourier transform
in order to obtain the first 20 integer harmonics of each signal.
1851
Fig. 4. Integer harmonics of the axial leakage flux.
Fig. 5. Absolute value of the integer harmonics differences.
Due to the limited length of this paper, power density repre-
sentations are not given here, since in a previous paper [43],
different graphs of the acquisitions, with both flux sensors, are
represented in the time and in the frequency domain.
Next, as an example, two plots are given with reference to
the axial leakage flux measured with the custom probe for
the healthy and the damaged bearing seal condition at rated
load: the bar plots of the integer harmonics (see Fig. 4) and
the absolute value of the differences between these harmonics
(see Fig. 5), plotted to emphasize the dissimilarity between the
harmonic contents.
In the plots, only the harmonics from the second one are
plotted, since all the harmonics were normalized with respect
to the main one. As it can be seen, the differences are clearly
visible at almost all the computed harmonics.
It should be mentioned that due to the direct grid connection
of the machine, the harmonic content of the flux is not influ-
enced by the commutations in a power converter.
The effectiveness of the proposed diagnosis method was
checked for all the 32 cases taken into study. The main results
are summarized in Table II, where the number of integer
harmonics fulfilling the two major levels of fault significance
for all the 32 cases are given.
Upon this summary table, several conclusions can be drawn.
• The proposed flux probe seems to be more effective for
these stray flux measurements than the commercial one.
• The proposed fault detection method can be also used for
detecting damages of the bearing seal, a fault very poorly
investigated in the literature.
• At higher loads, all the three bearing faults can be detected
by means of the custom flux probe, in any of its three
proposed positions.
• The hole in the outer race fault can be the most easily
detected via the methods and flux probes taken into study.
1852
TABLE II
N UMBER OF I NTEGER H ARMONICS F ULFILLING THE T WO M AJOR
L EVELS OF FAULT S IGNIFICANCE
Fig. 6. Δ versus frequency plot for damaged bearing seal condition.
Fig. 7. Δ versus frequency plot for a hole in the outer race condition.
• The fault detection efficiency of the most severe fault
index (Δ > 5S) is relatively poor.
Next, to deepen the understanding of the proposed fault
detection method, two plotted results are given in Figs. 6 and 7.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 62, NO. 3, MARCH 2015
Fig. 8. Integer harmonics of the radial leakage flux measured for two
IMs of the same power.
These were obtained by using the custom flux probe for mea-
suring the radial stray flux on the drive end of the half-loaded
machine. In both plots, the Δ difference values are marked for
each integer harmonic in the range of 100 ÷ 1000 Hz by black
bullets. Via different colored areas, the three fault significance
bands are also highlighted. In both cases, the numerous black
bullets mainly in the Δ > 2S and Δ > 5S fault significance
bands clearly indicate the bearing faults in the IM taken into
study.
To prove the repeatability of the proposed measurements and
data processing, a part of the tests were also performed in the
Electrical Machines Laboratory at the Technical University of
Cluj-Napoca, Romania. An IM having the same power and
number of poles was used. The fluxes were measured with a
similar custom flux probe. The results of the radial leakage flux
measurements on the drive end (performed at 50% of the rated
load) of the healthy machines are given in Fig. 8.
As can be seen, the outcomes of the tests performed in the
two laboratories are very close.
V. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, the benefits arising from the use of a custom
stray flux sensor for the diagnostics of rolling bearing faults in
an IM have been presented. These faults are generally slowly
progressive; therefore, continuous online monitoring aimed at
detecting them in real time is not necessary.
The proposed method, which can be defined as noninvasive
and quasi-online, needs an initial data set as “healthy reference”
for comparisons to the successive measurements during the
motor lifetime. This data set should be collected during the
commissioning of the motor or, anyway, in the first period of
its lifetime (when it can be reasonably considered “healthy”),
possibly by comparing the initial data sets of identical machines
and/or requiring the manufacturer a particular quality control on
the bearings. Note that several other comparison-based methods
are used in the industry for diagnostic purposes (e.g., partial
discharge analysis).
The custom flux probe has been successfully employed to
detect three types of bearing faults, one of them very poorly
investigated in the literature (the deformation of the seal); its
performance has been evaluated in different positions around
the motor and compared with those obtained with a commercial
FROSINI et al.: INDUCTION MACHINE BEARING FAULT DETECTION BY MEANS OF STATISTICAL PROCESSING 1853

air coil, which is designed to be mounted at the fan end and to

measure only the axial stray flux.
The main advantages granted by the custom sensor are
related to its simplicity, small size, low cost, and flexibility,
since it can be easily positioned anywhere around the machine
and adapted to a large range of power. These characteristics
make this sensor more suitable than the commercial probe in
industrial environments, where the machines have to be tested
during their normal operation, and it could be necessary to mea-
sure the magnetic field in different positions around a motor, in
order to define the best location where the flux measurement
is less influenced by other nearby electrical devices. The main Fig. 9. Frequency response of the two flux measuring systems.
technical performances of the magnetic flux measuring systems
using the two flux probes are given in the Appendix.
In order to obtain a simple and robust diagnostic method,
which does not require specific information on each IM, only
the first 19 harmonics multiple of the fundamental of the stray
flux have been analyzed, with an accurate statistical process.
Future works will be focused on the validation of this technique
on other motors and on the evaluation of further harmonic
components, which can theoretically arise from bearing faults.

A PPENDIX
As the magnetic flux measurements highly depend on the
used flux sensor and on its amplification and filtering stage, a
comparison between the two flux measuring systems has been
performed.
The Emerson flux probe is practically an air coil without
nonlinear magnetic materials; therefore, it has linear amplitude
characteristics, and its parameters are very stable in time. The
custom probe has a soft magnetic iron core, which leads to a
significant improvement of its characteristics. The toll to pay
for this enhancement is the loss of linearity at high flux mag-
nitudes and frequencies [44]. As the proposed fault detection
method requires the measurement of weak stray fluxes and
the frequency domain of interest is under 1 kHz, the proposed
custom flux probe always works in the linear domain.
The output characteristics of both sensors have to be defined,
since also those of the industrial flux probe were not specified
in the product data sheet [41]. The performances of the sensors
and the applied measuring system were analyzed only in the
frequency domain of interest for the proposed fault detection
method (50 Hz ÷ 1 kHz).
The frequency response of the two flux measuring systems is
given in Fig. 9.
As can be seen, the response of both systems is linear in this
frequency domain. The frequency response of the custom flux
probe is more constant than that of the industrial one.
Moreover, the sensitivity of the custom probe is better
(240 mV/T) than that of the other probe (80 mV/T).
All these characteristics emphasize the usefulness of the cus-
tom magnetic flux probe used for the proposed fault detection
method.
By normalizing the harmonics with respect to the funda-
mental, the measurement differences due to the unlike sensor
sensitivities are diminished. In order to illustrate this statement,
the normalized harmonics of the axial stray flux measured at
Fig. 10. Normalized integer harmonics of the axial stray flux measured
at the fan end by means of the two types of flux probes.
the fan end by means of both flux sensors, for the fully loaded
healthy machine, are given in Fig. 10.
As it can be seen in Fig. 10, there are no significant differ-
ences between the harmonic values for each frequency. This
means that the proposed statistical-processing-based bearing
fault detection method can be efficiently used with both types
of flux probes.
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Lucia Frosini received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engi-
neering from the University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
She is currently an Assistant Professor with the University of Pavia.
She is the author of about 60 scientific publications, mainly on diagnos-
tics of electrical machines.
Ciprian Harlişca received the B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in
electrical engineering from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca,
Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
He has published more than ten papers, all in the field of bearing fault
detection of induction machines.
Loránd Szabó (M’05) is a Full Professor of electrical machines with
the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. His
research interests include variable reluctance machines, linear motors,
and condition monitoring and diagnosis of electrical machines. He has
published more than 240 papers in these fields.