IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 20, NO.
3, SEPTEMBER 2005
Multiple Reference Frames Theory: A New
Method for the Diagnosis of Stator Faults
in Three-Phase Induction Motors
Sérgio M. A. Cruz, Member, IEEE, and A. J. Marques Cardoso, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—This paper proposes the use of the multiple reference
frames theory for the diagnosis of stator faults in three-phase
induction motors. The development of a simplified mathematical
motor model allowed the establishment of the equivalent circuits
of the motor, in 0 axes, in the presence of stator interturn
short circuits. The use of the stationary reference frame, clockwise
and counterclockwise synchronous reference frames, allows the
extraction and manipulation of the information contained in the
motor supply currents in a way that the effects introduced by
the fault are easily isolated and measured. A severity factor is
defined and the simulation and experimental results presented
demonstrate its independence in relation to the working conditions
of the motor, such as the load level and unbalances in the voltage
supply system. Although the technique is here introduced for the
diagnosis of stator faults, it is possible to extend its use for the
diagnosis of other asymmetries such as broken rotor bars and
air-gap eccentricity.
Index Terms—Fault diagnosis, induction motors, multiple refer-
ence frames (MRFs).
I. INTRODUCTION
F AULTS in the stator circuit of three-phase induction ma-
chines represent a significant percentage of motor failures.
Included in this category are the faults in the stator windings,
such as interturn short circuits, and in the magnetic circuit. In
the first case, the internal asymmetry will cause the circulation
of extremely high currents in the portion of the winding affected
by the fault, thus contributing to the degradation of other por-
tions of the windings. The lead time between the initial start
of the fault and the complete failure of the machine depends
on several factors, namely the initial number of shorted turns,
winding configuration, rated power, rated voltage, and environ-
mental conditions, among others. Nevertheless, due to the de-
structive nature of the extremely high currents induced in the
windings, this time is not as long as the lead time related with
the occurrence of other faults such as rotor faults, for instance.
On the other hand, faults in the magnetic circuit of the motor are
a much more “soft fault,” leading to much longer lead times be-
tween the initial stage of development of the fault and the com-
plete failure of the motor. Some industrial cases, documented
Manuscript received September 25, 2003. This work was supported by
PRODEP III. Paper no. TEC-00266-2003.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer En-
gineering, University of Coimbra, Coimbra P-3030-290, Portugal (e-mail:
smacruz@ieee.org; ajmcardoso@ieee.org) and also with the Instituto de
Telecommunicacões, Coimbra P-3030-290, Portugal.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEC.2005.847975
0885-8969/$20.00 © 2005 IEEE
611
by the authors, have proven that a motor with a magnetic cir-
cuit fault can run for several months, thus allowing a scheduled
stop of the machine [1]. In either case, it is important to detect
the fault as soon as possible, in order to avoid extra damages to
other parts of the machine, thus increasing the repair cost.
Several diagnostic techniques have been developed with the
aim to detect stator faults. Identification of the rotor slot passing
frequencies in the motor supply current spectrum, analysis of
the axial flux, measurement of the negative-sequence compo-
nent of the supply currents, artificial intelligence-based diag-
nostic techniques, or analysis of the motor negative sequence
impedance are just a few examples of techniques proposed to di-
agnose this type of fault [1]–[16]. Unfortunately, some external
factors, namely the degree of unbalance of the supply voltages,
the intrinsic motor asymmetries, and the load level variations
affect the effectiveness of the majority of these techniques. To
overcome those limitations, it is proposed in this paper the use of
the multiple reference frames theory for the diagnosis of faults
in three-phase induction motors, with special emphasis on the
ones that occur in the stator windings.
II. MULTIPLE REFERENCE FRAMES THEORY
A. Introduction
The first public reference to the method of multiple refer-
ence frames (MRFs) dates back to 1968 [17]. In that work, this
method is used for the analysis of steady-state modes of sym-
metrical induction machinery with any periodic phase voltages
applied to the stator, being presented as an alternative to the
method of symmetrical components. According to the method
of multiple reference frames, the stator voltages applied to the
motor can be first transformed to a stationary reference
frame. Each one of the two voltage components can be
subsequently expressed in a Fourier series expansion and trans-
formed to a synchronously rotating reference frame. It is proved
that, regardless of the form or relationship between the unbal-
anced or nonsinusoidal voltages applied to the motor, balanced
sets will appear in the synchronously rotating reference frame.
If the rotor speed is constant, the voltage equations that describe
the behavior of the motor are linear and the principle of super-
position can be applied. Choosing a different reference frame
for each one of the balanced sets, so that in each one of these
reference frames the variables appear as constants, the currents
or other relevant quantities can easily be determined using dc
circuit theory. The whole performance of the motor can then be
612
obtained by the addition of each one of the individual contri-
butions, calculated in these multiple reference frames, referred
back to the stationary reference frame or to phase coordinates.
After this initial work, this method was also used for the anal-
ysis of rectifier-inverter induction motor drives [18]. Later on,
the method was applied to the analysis of the behavior of dif-
ferent kinds of electrical machines and drives such as a multi-
stack variable-reluctance stepper motor [19], an unsymmetrical
two-phase induction machine [20], a single-phase induction ma-
chine with a shifted auxiliary winding [21], and a brushless dc
drive [22]. More recently, the multiple reference frames theory
was also used to build a synchronous estimator/regulator for a
permanent-magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) [23].
B. Diagnosis of Stator Faults Using the MRF Theory
1) Simplified Motor Model: To use the multiple reference
frames theory, a motor model must be developed. Al-
though this is not a difficult task for the case of a symmetrical
motor, when it develops a stator fault the problem is more com-
plicated—even though it is possible to find in the literature some
simplified models for the analysis of an induction motor with in-
terturn short circuits in the stator windings [24], [25].
The simplified model proposed by the authors in this paper
closely follows the one presented in [25] but one of the initial
assumptions is different, which consists in the distribution of the
leakage inductance between the two stator subwindings origi-
nated by the appearance of the short circuit. In fact, several re-
searchers have reported difficulties in finding good agreement
between the experimental values of the short-circuit current and
the ones obtained by simulation. Some experimental tests con-
ducted by the authors in a special test machine showed that this
is due to the wrong assumption that the leakage inductances
of the subwindings are directly proportional to their number
of turns. The obtained results showed that a much better ap-
proximation of the reality is to consider the leakage inductance
of each subwinding as being proportional to its squared turns
number.
According to the proposed simplified model, the motor has
three stator windings, which have a sinusoidal distribution along
the inner periphery of the stator and are displaced by 120 elec-
tric degrees like in the case of a symmetric motor. The three
rotor windings are symmetric and magnetically coupled with
the stator windings (Fig. 1). In order to keep the model as gen-
eral as possible, no specific type of connection is imposed to the
stator windings at this stage.
When an interturn short circuit arises, the affected winding
is split into two subwindings located along the same magnetic
axis. According to this model, four and three voltage equations
can be written for the stator and rotor windings, respectively.
After some mathematical manipulations, the two equations re-
lated to the winding affected by the fault can be merged into
just one equation, thus obtaining a total of six voltage equations
representing all of the windings of the motor, plus an additional
voltage equation related to the loop containing the fault. At this
point, the aforementioned six equations, written in phase coordi-
nates, are transformed to axis rotating at an arbitrary an-
gular speed . The final voltage equations for
the stator and rotor windings, as well as the short-circuit current
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 20, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2005
Fig. 1. Simplified model of a motor with a stator interturn short circuit.
and the electromagnetic torque developed by the motor are pre-
sented in (1)–(5). In these equations, , , and
represent the stator voltages, the stator currents, and rotor cur-
rents, respectively, is the short-circuit current, is the ratio
between the number of shorted turns and the total number of
turns in series per phase, and is the number of pole pairs.
All variables and parameters are referred to the stator windings.
The quantities not defined in this text have the usual meaning as
shown in (1)–(5) at the bottom of the next page.
The analysis of (1) and (2) allow us to conclude that the
second member of these equations is identical to the one cor-
responding to a healthy motor. The first term can be regarded as
the sum of the supply voltages of the motor plus two additional
voltage components introduced by the fault. Hence, based on
these equations, it is possible to establish the equivalent circuits
in axes shown in Fig. 2, which rule the behavior the
motor with a short circuit in the stator windings.
The stator and rotor flux linkage components shown in the
circuits presented in Fig. 2 are calculated exactly in the same
way as when the motor has no faults
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
It should be noted that when the stator windings are delta-con-
nected, the fault will produce a circulating current in the closed
loop formed by the delta connection. This circulating current
corresponds to the homopolar component of the stator winding
currents shown in Fig. 2(c). The existence of this component
was later on verified both by simulation and experiments. On
the other hand, if the stator windings are star-connected, the ho-
mopolar component of the stator currents cannot circulate and,
instead, a homopolar voltage will appear in the three-phase volt-
ages of the stator windings, as mentioned in [6].
CRUZ AND CARDOSO: MULTIPLE REFERENCE FRAMES THEORY
Fig. 2. Equivalent circuits of a three-phase induction motor with a stator
interturn short circuit, in a system of axis rotating at an arbitrary speed ! :
(a) d-axis circuit; (b) q -axis circuit; (c) 0-axis circuit.
2) Development of the Diagnostic Technique: In order to de-
velop the proposed diagnostic technique, some additional con-
siderations should be made.
613
Neglecting the high-order harmonics, the short-circuit current
can be expressed as
(10)
where and stand for the amplitude of the short-circuit cur-
rent and angular supply frequency, respectively. The angle is
an initial phase angle whose value will depend on the extension
of the fault, its location, and on the values of the resistance and
leakage reactance of the stator windings of the motor.
On the other hand, in a synchronous reference frame
(11)
where the plus and minus signs apply for the counterclockwise
and clockwise direction of rotation, respectively. Consequently,
taking this into account, each additional term of the voltage
components in the first members of (1) and (2) is the product
of two trigonometric functions at the angular supply frequency.
Therefore, after some mathematical simplifications, these addi-
tional terms can be expressed as the sum of a constant plus a si-
nusoidal function at the double supply frequency. The additional
term of the homopolar component of the winding voltages is an
exception and is seen, in any reference frame, as a sinusoidal
function at the supply frequency. It should be noted that the
and homopolar components of the stator quantities are linked by
the short-circuit current and, consequently, are not decoupled.
However, if we consider the short-circuit current as an indepen-
dent variable, we can analyze the and homopolar compo-
nents separately. This is the approach followed in this paper.
It is also known that the major effect of a stator asymmetry is
the appearance of a negative-sequence component in the motor
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
614 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 20, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2005
supply currents. This negative-sequence component will also
exist in the stator winding currents and, in this way, by trans-
forming the positive- and negative-sequence components to
axis, one can write the relation
(12)
where superscripts and stand for the positive- and negative-
sequence components, respectively. In a similar way, the rotor
currents referred to the stator circuit can be given by
(13)
It is easily shown that in a counterclockwise synchronous ref-
erence frame, and are constants while and
are sinusoidal functions at the double supply frequency.
Conversely, in a clockwise synchronous reference frame,
and are constants while and are trigonometric
functions at the double supply frequency. This property can be
exploited in order to extract or eliminate selectively each one of
these current components and will be used later on throughout
the diagnostic process.
Considering the rotor speed constant, (1) and (2) are linear
and can be split into two different equations: one resulting from
the grouping of the constant terms in both members of the orig-
inal equation, and another one corresponding to the grouping of
the terms at the double supply frequency. The first of these two
resulting equations is the one that will be used for diagnostic
purposes, as this is the equation that deals with the effects intro-
duced by the fault in the positive-sequence component. The use
of the other equation is avoided because it contains not only the
effects introduced by the fault but also the effects of any unbal-
ance in the voltage supply system or the effects of some motor
residual asymmetries, thus making the discrimination of these
phenomena very difficult.
According to the previous considerations, the following equa-
tions can be written:
(14)
(15)
At this point, it is noteworthy to comment the aspect of these
expressions. First, the additional term is constant and
proportional to the short-circuit current and to the number of
shorted turns. Second, in this form, (14) shows that the motor
can be regarded as being supplied by the voltages applied to the
stator windings plus an additional component due to the pres-
ence of the fault. Lastly, due to the assumption of a constant
rotor speed, which is a good one because the torque oscillations
at the double supply frequency caused by this kind of fault are
heavily damped by the rotor inertia of the motor in most of the
cases, the superposition principle can be applied. In view of this,
it is not difficult to show that the components of are equal
to the values they would have, without the existence of any fault,
plus an additional component caused by the presence of the in-
terturn short circuits. Therefore, in the presence of the fault, the
current components corresponding to the positive-sequence
component of the supply currents, in a counterclockwise syn-
chronous reference frame, are equal to
(16)
(17)
In these equations, superscript stands for healthy conditions
while superscript stands for the additional current components
due to the presence of the fault. The fault indicator is thus the
vector . Moreover, this quantity does not de-
pend on the negative-sequence component that may exist in the
supply currents due to the stator asymmetry or due to an unbal-
ance in the voltage supply system, as long as the value of the
short-circuit current is not strongly affected by this unbalance.
We can go even further in this analysis and establish an ap-
proximate relationship between the extension of the fault (pa-
rameter ) and its effects on ( and ). For this pur-
pose, and taking into account the fact that simulation studies
and experimental tests carried out demonstrate that the ampli-
tude of the short-circuit current does not depend significantly on
the motor load level, (14) and (15) can be particularized for the
case of no-load operation. Using the superposition principle, the
effect of the fault on is the one introduced by the voltage
component . In these circumstances, it can be shown
that the two components of the fault vector are approximately
given by
(18)
where stands for the phase shift between the voltage measured
across the winding directly affected by the short circuit (
in Fig. 1) and the short-circuit current. The relationship
given by (18) clearly demonstrates that the effects of the fault
are related with the number of shorted turns as well as with the
amplitude of the short-circuit current. Moreover, the modulus of
the fault vector is given by
(19)
Because the short-circuit current is not a measurable quan-
tity, the calculation of the fault indicator involves the calcula-
tion of and . To obtain these quantities, the negative-se-
quence component of the supply currents should be eliminated,
which corresponds to the elimination of . This is easily
done in a clockwise synchronous reference frame because in
this reference frame will appear as constant. After re-
moving this component, the resulting currents are transformed
to a synchronous reference frame rotating in the counterclock-
wise direction (this last reference frame should be chosen so that
the supply voltages expressed in this same reference frame are
aligned with the -axis). In this last reference frame, the
current components will appear as constants and correspond to
CRUZ AND CARDOSO: MULTIPLE REFERENCE FRAMES THEORY
the quantities and mentioned in (16) and (17). The step
that follows is the calculation of and for the specific value
of rotor speed at which the motor is running. If the motor param-
eters are known, the calculation of these quantities is straight-
forward. Otherwise, an approximate value must be used, based
on the knowledge of the nameplate information and amplitude
and phase information of the no-load current of the motor
(20)
(21)
where
(22)
(23)
In the previous equations, the subscripts and 0 stand for the
rated condition and no-load condition, respectively. All of the
quantities have the usual meaning.
At this point, the fault vector is easily calculated by the sub-
traction of and from and .
The final step of the diagnostic process is the definition of
an adequate severity factor, which corresponds to the normal-
ization of the modulus of the fault vector. Because analytical
and simulation studies have proved that the short-circuit current
is limited mainly by the resistances and leakage reactances of
the windings of the motor, an appropriate normalization quan-
tity appears to be the locked-rotor current of the motor . The
severity factor can now be defined as
Severity Factor (24)
C. Implementation Details of the MRF Technique
In practice, to implement the method, it is necessary to sample
two line-to-line voltages, two supply currents, and measure the
rotor speed. The acquisition of the current and voltage signals
should be made over an integer number of cycles or, if it is not
possible to do so, the sampled data should be truncated to this
number. The voltages are then processed in order to remove an
eventual negative-sequence component that may be present in
the supply system. With the voltage phasor angle information,
the supply currents are transformed to the clockwise synchro-
nously rotating reference frame. In this reference frame, the av-
erage value of each one of the current components is calcu-
lated and subsequently subtracted from the corresponding cur-
rent component. At this point, the currents no longer contain
any negative-sequence components. The operation that follows
is the transformation of these resulting current components
615
Fig. 3. Block diagram illustrating the use of the different reference frames in
the diagnostic process.
Fig. 4. Stator winding arrangement of the motor used in the simulation study
and in the experimental tests.
to the counterclockwise synchronously rotating reference frame
in a way that the -axis is aligned with the supply voltage. Using
the obtained current values in this last reference frame together
with some motor parameters (or nameplate data as mentioned
before) and the value of rotor speed, it is possible to calculate
the value of the severity factor which is the final indicator about
the extension of the fault. Fig. 3 contains a block diagram sum-
marizing the sequence of calculations involved in the use of the
different reference frames.
III. SIMULATION RESULTS
In addition to the simplified model mentioned before, the au-
thors developed a more rigorous and detailed motor model in
order to overcome the heavy assumptions inherent to any sim-
plified model and to generalize the obtained conclusions for mo-
tors with different winding arrangements (series and/or parallel
connected, with or without equalizer connections), type of con-
nection, number of poles, etc. Using this model, which is fully
described in [26] and [27], the user can introduce all of the infor-
mation regarding the positioning and the connection of the in-
dividual coils/turns of the stator windings. Moreover, the model
takes into account phenomena such as all stator and rotor space
harmonics, skewing of the rotor bars, rotor skin effect, and finite
width of the stator and rotor slots, among others. Different kinds
of mechanical loads such as compressors, fans, and pumps can
also be emulated.
The simulated motor is a 15-kW, 400-V, 50-Hz, 29.5-A,
1450-r/min, four-pole induction motor, whose stator windings,
lodged in 36 stator slots, have two parallel paths per phase,
each one with 147 turns (Fig. 4).
616
Fig. 5. Evolution of the short-circuit current with the number of shorted turns.
Before continuing and because it was previously demon-
strated that the amplitude of the short-circuit current is an
important variable in the quantification of the extension of the
fault, some results will be shown to validate the initial assump-
tion mentioned in this paper that the leakage reactances of the
subwindings affected by the fault are directly proportional to
the squared turns number of each one of these subwindings.
Fig. 5 shows the simulation results obtained with the detailed
motor model, regarding the evolution of the amplitude of the
short-circuit current as a function of the number of shorted turns,
when the motor was supplied at a reduced voltage of 50 V. The
experimental results are also shown for comparison purposes.
In the simulation study, two situations were considered. The
case of bolted turns and the case where a contact
resistance of 12 m were considered.
The results obtained for the case of bolted turns show that in
opposition to what sometimes is assumed, the short-circuit cur-
rent decreases with the increase of the extension of the fault.
Taking into account the fact that both the induced voltage in the
portion of the winding affected by the short circuit and the re-
sistance of that same portion of circuit are directly proportional
to their turns number but the corresponding leakage reactance
is proportional to the squared turns number, it is recognized that
the total impedance offered to the circulation of the short-circuit
current increases faster than the induced voltage, thus resulting
in a decrease in the amplitude of the short-circuit current with
the increase of the number of shorted turns.
By inspection of the experimental results, we can distinguish
two regions in the plot of Fig. 5. In the first region, the short-cir-
cuit current increases with the number of shorted turns. The ex-
planation for this fact is related to the way how the short cir-
cuits were introduced. Several tapings were connected to the
stator coils and the other ends of these wires were connected to
a terminal box where they were subsequently shorted according
to the required number of turns to be short circuited. For low
numbers of shorted turns, the resistance of these wires is not
negligible and may even dominate the internal impedance of-
fered by the motor to the circulation of the fault current, thus
resulting in an increase in the short-circuit current with the ex-
tension of the fault. This justifies the behavior of the short-cir-
cuit current for extensions of the fault up to six shorted turns.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 20, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2005
TABLE I
EVOLUTION OF THE SEVERITY FACTOR WITH THE EXTENSION
OF THE FAULT (DELTA CONNECTION)
TABLE II
EVOLUTION OF THE SEVERITY FACTOR WITH THE EXTENSION
OF THE FAULT (STAR CONNECTION)
For higher numbers of shorted turns, the internal impedance of-
fered by the motor to the circulation of the short-circuit current
dominates the resistance of the tapings. The overall behavior
of the system is thus identical to the one already described for
the case of bolted turns. If the resistance of the tapings is taken
into account in the simulation study as a contact resistance, the
agreement between the simulation and experimental results is
very good, thus validating the previous analysis.
Now, some simulation results will be presented regarding the
use of the proposed diagnostic technique.
Table I shows the obtained results when the motor, delta-
connected, is supplied by a perfectly balanced voltage supply
system. The middle column of the table contains the value of
the fault indicator in complex form, while the last column gives
the value of the severity factor defined for this type of fault.
Table II shows the obtained results for a star connection of
the stator windings.
As can be concluded by the analysis of the results presented
above, the increase of the number of shorted turns produces an
increase in the value of the fault indicator and, consequently, an
increase in the severity factor. This is the expected behavior of
a suitable severity factor.
Comparing the results obtained for the star and delta connec-
tions, it can be concluded that the type of connection does not
influence significantly the results given by the defined severity
factor, thus making general the use of the proposed diagnostic
technique.
The previous results were obtained with the motor running
under no-load conditions. Now it is important to consider other
CRUZ AND CARDOSO: MULTIPLE REFERENCE FRAMES THEORY
TABLE III
VARIATION OF THE SEVERITY FACTOR WITH THE MOTOR
LOAD LEVEL (15 SHORTED TURNS)
motor load levels to test the immunity of the severity factor re-
garding this variable.
The results presented in Table III were obtained for different
load levels, when the motor was running with 15 short-circuited
turns.
These results demonstrate that the values assumed by the
severity factor are highly independent of the motor load level.
This is due to the fact that the amplitude of the short-circuit cur-
rent is highly independent of the rotor slip value at least when the
motor is operating in the normal operating speed range (smaller
rotor slip than its nominal value). When the motor load level
is progressively increased, until the extreme case of a blocked
rotor is reached, the severity factor decreases slightly.
This behavior of the severity factor follows closely the varia-
tion of the amplitude of the short-circuit current in relation to
the rotor slip. It is noteworthy to stress that, as anticipated by
(19), for a given number of shorted turns, the percentage varia-
tions of the severity factor and the percentage variations of the
amplitude of the short-circuit current are identical. Thus, it is
possible to conclude that when the motor operates in the normal
torque-speed region, the short-circuit current and, consequently,
the severity factor, are highly independent of the motor load
level.
Let us now test the independence of the severity factor in re-
lation to a hypothetical unbalance in the voltage supply system
of the motor. For this purpose, we considered different degrees
of unbalance in this system, which are here defined as the ratio
between the negative- and the positive-sequence components
of the line-to-line supply voltages. We observed that the value
of the short-circuit current and, consequently, the value of the
severity factor depend not only on the degree of unbalance but
also on the phase shift between the positive- and negative-se-
quence components of the supply voltages. In view of this, the
results presented in the following were obtained for the worst
case, which happens when the short-circuit current exhibits
higher variations with the voltage unbalance (that is, when the
phases of the positive- and negative-sequence components of
the voltage measured across the winding directly affected by
the short circuit are the same or opposite).
Table IV shows the obtained results for different degrees of
unbalance of the voltage supply system, when the motor runs
with 15 shorted turns.
The values given by the severity factor do not depend sig-
nificantly on the degree of unbalance of the voltage supply
system, even for moderate degrees of unbalance of the supply
617
TABLE IV
EFFECTS OF AN UNBALANCED VOLTAGE SUPPLY SYSTEM IN THE SEVERITY
FACTOR (MOTOR RUNNING WITH 15 SHORTED TURNS)
voltages. The small variations of the severity factor documented
in Table IV can be attributed to the variations of the amplitude
of the short-circuit current caused by the voltage unbalance.
As was claimed before, the main effect introduced by the
negative-sequence component of the voltage supply system is
removed, thus obtaining a fault indicator very insensitive to
voltage unbalances. On the other hand, the amplitude of the
negative-sequence component of the supply current, here mon-
itored just for comparison purposes, is strongly affected by the
voltage unbalance and any diagnostic technique based solely on
the analysis of this quantity would give erroneous results about
the extension of the fault.
The previous results were obtained for a delta-connected
motor but similar conclusions could be drawn for the case of a
star connection.
In addition to the results presented in this paper, a compara-
tive simulation study in which motors with different number of
pole-pairs and with different winding arrangements, including
the existence of equalizer connections between the phase bands
of the stator windings, demonstrate that the results obtained by
the use of this new technique are almost independent of these
parameters, thus making the use of this technique completely
general [27].
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
To validate the results obtained by simulation, several experi-
ments were conducted in the laboratory, using a special test rig.
Basically it consists in a 15-kW, 400-V, 50-Hz, four-pole in-
duction motor, identical to the one used in the simulation study,
whose stator windings were modified in order to have accessible
several tapings that can be used to introduce interturn short cir-
cuits, with a different number of turns and different locations
along the stator windings. In order to protect the stator wind-
ings of the motor from overheating due to the high short-circuit
currents, all of the experimental tests were conducted at a re-
duced voltage.
Some experimental results obtained for different fault condi-
tions are presented in Table V.
Comparing these results with the ones obtained by simula-
tion (Table I), it can be concluded that there is a good agree-
ment between them. The major difference between the simu-
lated and experimental results can be found in the negative sign
of in the experimental results obtained for small extensions
of the fault. Due to a residual asymmetry in the stator windings
of this motor (even without the introduction of any short circuit,
the three supply currents are different), it is believed that this
618 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 20, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2005
TABLE V
EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS CONCERNING THE EVOLUTION OF THE SEVERITY
FACTOR WITH THE EXTENSION OF THE FAULT
TABLE VI
EFFECTS OF ANUNBALANCE IN THE VOLTAGE SUPPLY SYSTEM
(MOTOR WITH 12 SHORTED TURNS)
negative sign is due to the compensation of the residual asym-
metry which occurs for small extensions of the fault. Neverthe-
less, because the severity fault uses the modulus of vector , motors,” Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng., Electr. Power Appl., vol. 148, no. 6, pp.
this fact does not prevent the detection of the fault even when it
is in an incipient stage of development.
The results presented in Table VI were obtained when the
motor, with 12 shorted turns, was supplied by a symmetrical
voltage supply system and when supplied by a supply system
with an unbalance of 15.88%.
Even for such a high degree of unbalance in the supply volt-
ages, the value of the severity factor is not significantly affected.
In conclusion, the experimental results corroborate the ones
obtained by simulation, thus proving the effectiveness of the
proposed diagnostic technique for the diagnosis of stator faults
in three-phase induction motors.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper presents a new method for the diagnosis of stator
faults in three-phase induction motors. The proposed method,
which is based on the multiple reference frames theory, proved
to be very sensitive and adequate for the detection of stator
faults, even when they are at an early stage of development, and
independently of the working conditions of the motor and de-
gree of unbalance of the voltage supply system. In this context,
this new method overcomes some of the traditional limitations
found in the diagnosis of stator faults.
Although the multiple reference frames theory is here pro-
posed for the diagnosis of stator faults, its use can be extended
for the diagnosis of other faults such as broken rotor bars and
airgap eccentricity in three-phase induction motors.
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Sérgio M. A. Cruz (S’96–M’04) was born in
Coimbra, Portugal, in 1971. He received the E.E.
diploma, the M.Sc. degree, and the Dr. Eng. degree
from the University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal,
in 1994, 1999, and 2004, respectively.
Currently, he is an Assistant Professor in the De-
partment of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Coimbra, where he has been since
1994. His teaching and research interests cover
the areas of rotating electrical machines, power
transformers, and electric drives, with special em-
phasis on diagnostics, modeling, and control. He has authored many technical
conference and journal papers.
Dr. Cruz is a member of the Portuguese Federation of Industrial Maintenance
(APMI).
619
A. J. Marques Cardoso (S’89–A’95–SM’99) was
born in Coimbra, Portugal, in 1962. He received
the E.E. diploma and the Dr. Eng. degree from the
University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal, in 1985
and 1995, respectively.
Since 1985, he has been with the University of
Coimbra, where he is currently an Associate Pro-
fessor in the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering and Director of the Electrical Machines
Laboratory. His teaching interests cover electrical
rotating machines, transformers, and maintenance of
electromechatronic systems, and his research interests are focused on condition
monitoring and diagnostics of electrical machines and drives. He is the author
of Fault Diagnosis in Three-Phase Induction Motors (Coimbra, Portugal:
Coimbra Editora, 1991) (in Portuguese) and about 100 papers published in
technical journals and conference proceedings.
Dr. Marques Cardoso is actively involved in the field of standardization on
condition monitoring and diagnostics, both at the national and international
level, where he has been acting as a convenor of ISO/TC 108/SC 5 Advisory
Group D (Condition Monitoring and Diagnostics of Power Transformers) and
ISO/TC 108/SC 5 Working Group 10 (Condition Monitoring and Diagnostics of
Electrical Equipment), and also a member of several Working Groups/Balloting
Committees of ISO, IEEE, and CEN. He was a member of the Overseas Advi-
sory Panel of Condition Monitoring and Diagnostic Technology (a journal pub-
lished by the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing between 1990–1993),
and he is currently a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal
of Condition Monitoring & Diagnostic Engineering Management, published by
COMADEM International, U.K., an Honorary Member of the International Bi-
ographical Centre Advisory Council, Cambridge, U.K., and also an Honorary
Professor of the Albert Schwitzer International University, Geneva, Switzerland.
He is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, European Power Elec-
tronics and Drives Association (EPE), Electrical Machines and Industrial Drives
Committees of the IEEE Industry Applications Society, Portuguese Federation
of Industrial Maintenance (APMI), and a senior member of the Portuguese Engi-
neers Association (ODE). He has been listed in Who’s Who in the World, Who’s
Who in Science and Engineering, and BEST Europe.