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Condition Monitoring of Rotating Electrical Machines

Article · January 2008

DOI: 10.1049/PBPO056E · Source: OAI

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Published in IET Electric Power Applications

Received on 23rd June 2007
Revised on 13th November 2007
doi: 10.1049/iet-epa:20070280

ISSN 1751-8660

Review of condition monitoring of rotating

electrical machines
P.J. Tavner
School of Engineering, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK
E-mail: peter.tavner@durham.ac.uk

Abstract: Condition monitoring of rotating electrical machinery has received intense research interest for more
than 30 years. However, electrical machinery has been considered reliable and the application of fast-acting
digital electrical protection has rather reduced the attention operators pay to the equipment. The area based
upon current literature and the author’s experience is reviewed. There are three restrictions: only on-line
techniques for rotating machines are dealt with; specific problems of variable speed drives are not dealt with,
except in passing; conventional rather than emerging brushless, reluctance and permanent magnet machines
of unusual topology are concentrated upon. The art of condition monitoring is minimalist, to take minimum
measurements from a machine necessary to extract a diagnosis, so that a condition can be rapidly inferred,
giving a clear indication of incipient failure modes. The current state of the art is reviewed in the following
ways: survey developments in condition monitoring of machines, mechanically and electrically, over the last
30 years; put that work in context alongside the known failure mechanisms; review those developments
which have proved successful and identify areas of research which require attention in the future to advance
the subject.

k integer stator winding MMF space harmonic

Nomenclature number, 1, 3, 5, 7. . .
bn,2 (t) nth harmonic of airgap flux density in rotor l integer stator time or rotor winding fault
frame, Tesla harmonic number
B̂n, 2 peak nth harmonic of airgap flux density in M integer current harmonic number
rotor frame, Tesla N1 or 2 integer stator or rotor side winding turns
db rolling element diameter, mm Nr integer rotor slot number
Db rolling element pitch, mm N shaft rotational speed, rev/min
F factor relating to bearing geometry n integer voltage harmonic number, 0, 1, 2, 3. . ..
f1 or 2(t) stator or rotor side instantaneous MMF, ampere nb integer number of rolling elements in bearing
turns
P integer pole pair number
fse stator side electrical frequency, Hz
p(t) instantaneous power measured at stator
frm mechanical rotational frequency, Hz terminals, Watts
I1 or 2 stator or rotor side winding current, q integer phase number
amperes
R shock pulse meter reading
Îmq peak mth harmonic of current in qth phase,
s asynchronous machine rotor speed slip, 0 – 1
amperes
t time, s
ke eccentricity order, 0 for static eccentricity, 1, 2,
3 . . . for dynamic eccentricity V̂nq peak nth harmonic of voltage in qth phase, Volts

IET Electr. Power Appl., 2008, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 215 – 247 215
doi: 10.1049/iet-epa:20070280 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2008
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f rolling element contact angle with races, degrees
fnq phase angle between Înq and V̂nq , degrees
u 1 or 2 angular displacement on rotor or stator, degrees
vse stator side electrical angular frequency, rad/s
vsm stator side mechanical vibration angular
frequency, rad/s
vrm ¼ mechanical rotational angular frequency, rad/s
2 p N/60
vrm ¼ for a synchronous machine, rad/s
vse/p
vrm ¼ for an asynchronous machine, rad/s
(1 – s) vse/p
ulk l vse t þ (q 2 1) (2p k/3) relation between
winding angular displacement, degrees
1 Introduction
This paper reviews condition monitoring methods for rotating
electrical machines based on the literature of the past 30 years
and the author’s experience. It covers the failure modes and
reliability of electrical machines and the application of
electrical, mechanical and other techniques to condition
monitoring to improve that reliability. The paper takes a
holistic view of the subject and describes the methods in
relation to the structure of machines and their usefulness.
Therefore it is suitable for practitioners and researchers.
The art of condition monitoring should be minimalist, to
take the minimum measurements necessary and by analysis
extract a detection and diagnosis of the machine. A
condition can then be inferred, in minimum time, giving a
clear indication of incipient failure modes.
The paper deals with this concept logically in four sections:
1. Considering previous survey publications on the subject.
2. Considering machine reliability from surveys made from
1975 to the present, identifying which parts of electrical
machines make the greatest contribution to failure.
3. Giving an account of specific monitoring techniques,
starting with thermal and chemical degradation methods,
progressing to mechanical and electrical methods,
considering first terminal conditions and finally discharge
monitoring of electrical machine insulation systems.
4. Considering the application of artificial intelligence (AI)
to condition the monitoring and use of condition-based
maintenance (CBM) for the asset management of a plant.
The paper seeks to critically review the direction in which
the monitoring of electrical machines is going, giving key
references for each technique, but there is insufficient space
to review each publication. However, in its conclusions, the
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paper identifies those areas which have proved fruitless and
those which demonstrate success or future potential.
In particular, the author asks the reader to use the
information in the paper to relate the potential future of
individual condition monitoring methods to detecting real
faults that occur in rotating electrical machines in service.
2 Previous reviews
The paper has a comprehensive bibliography.
The first modern book on the subject was [1] followed by
[2] and the most up to date is [3], aimed at winding and
insulation problems. The journal literature on condition
monitoring of electrical machines is growing rapidly,
although not necessarily in directions most useful to
industry. There are a number of general survey papers of
condition monitoring techniques for machines of which the
most relevant are [4], describing large machines; [5], giving
a guide to machine trouble-shooting; [6], dealing with
induction machine and drives; [7], looking at electrical
equipment in general and [8], the most recent review,
dealing with monitoring and diagnostics.
3 Reliability
3.1 Failure sequence and effect on
monitoring
It is useful to put condition monitoring in context alongside
the known machine failures. The sequence from operation to
failure for a specific failure mode in a typical component, such
as, for example, the main shaft of a machine, is drawn in
Fig. 1.
The duration of a failure sequence depends on the failure
mode, operation and ambient condition of the machine.
Fig. 2 demonstrates the timeline for such a process,
described by a normal distribution. Fig. 2a shows the
Figure 1 Cause and effect diagram, relationship between
failure sequence and root cause analysis. Example: failure
by fracture of a main shaft initiated by corrosion cracking
or overload
IET Electr. Power Appl., 2008, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 215– 247
doi: 10.1049/iet-epa:20070280

Figure 2 Timeline for such a process, described by a normal
distribution
a Failure sequence, fast speed fault
b Failure sequence, slow speed fault
rapid progression of a fast fault from a reliable to unreliable
operation at, for example, the 50% life point. Fig. 2b
repeats the sequence for a slow speed fault. This process
is at the heart of condition monitoring. If a failure
sequence is rapid, as in Fig. 2a, effective condition
monitoring is impossible and this is the situation for
electrical faults detected by protection, where the period of
action may be only seconds or cycles. However, if the
failure sequence is days, weeks or months, like the slow
fault in Fig. 2b, then condition monitoring has the
potential to provide early warning of impending
failure. Therefore condition monitoring must concentrate
on root causes and failure modes that exhibit a slow failure
sequence.
IET Electr. Power Appl., 2008, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 215 – 247
doi: 10.1049/iet-epa:20070280
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3.2 Typical machine root causes and
failure modes
It is important to distinguish between root causes, which
initiate the failure sequence and can be detected by
condition monitoring, and the failure mode, which
terminates it. After a failure, operators are used to trace the
sequence back from the failure mode to the root cause, in
the process called root cause analysis, to determine the true
cause of failure, as shown by the left arrow in Fig. 1. On
the other hand, the designer of a condition monitoring
system must keep in mind the need to predict the reverse
of that process, tracing how a failure develops.
The most common root causes and failure modes in
rotating electrical machines, defined by [9 – 12] are set out
in Table 1. It is surprising how few root causes and failure
modes there are and it should be noted that they are generic.
3.3 Reliability surveys
Reliability is notoriously difficult to establish but information
on mean time between failures (MTBF) is available from
surveys, mostly conducted in the USA under the auspices
of the IEEE, including [9 – 16]. Information about the life
of electrical machines has also come to light from recent
experience in the defence and wind industries, [17, 18].
MTBF can be deceptive, representing the prospective life
of the machine, assuming it has a constant failure rate, as
shown in the constant failure rate region of the bathtub
curve, Fig. 3. One could consider that there would be a
50% probability of failure before the MTBF and 50%
probability of failure afterwards. Table 2 extracts data from
the surveys of electrical machines above, giving MTBFs
and failure rates for a range of machines, showing a
remarkable degree of consistency with MTBFs ranging
from 18 to 33 years for a large steam turbogenerator at the
top end. It should be noted that larger surveys are
dominated by induction motors because of the ubiquity of
that machine. Table 2 also gives an idea of the significance
of each survey by noting the number of machines surveyed
and the number of failures recorded.
The distribution of failures within the machine is also
important because it can guide the condition monitoring
applied. The data in Table 3 comes from the same surveys
and they show a consistent trend in failure areas in the
descending order of importance:
† Bearings
† Stator related
† Rotor related
The distribution, in particular the relative weighting of
stator to rotor winding failures, is affected by size, voltage
and type of machine.
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Table 1 Root causes and failure modes in electrical machines
Root causes
defective design or manufacture; material or Electrical: core insulation failure; stator winding or insulation
component; installation; maintenance or operation failure; rotor winding or insulation failure; brushgear failure; slip
ring failure; commutator failure; electrical trip
ambient conditions
Mechanical: Bearing failure; rotor mechanical integrity failure;
overspeed stator mechanical integrity failure
overload
low cycle fatigue or shock load
high cycle fatigue or excessive vibration
component failure
excessive temperature: in windings in bearings
excessive dielectric stress: steady or transient
debris, dirt or corrosion
For example small, low-voltage induction machines,
exemplified by the first two columns of Table 3, are
dominated by bearing failure modes, as low-voltage
windings experience very few faults. Smaller machine
bearings are usually rolling elements and their reliability
depends heavily on the standard of maintenance. Induction
machines show a much lower proportion of rotor or squirrel
cage faults compared with stator winding faults, because of
the ruggedness of cage construction.
Larger, high-voltage machines, exemplified by the next
three columns of Table 3, receive a higher proportion
of stator winding failure modes because of dielectric
stress and vibration, as these may be high-voltage
windings. Large machine bearings are usually of a sleeve
construction, with constant lubrication and are more
reliable than smaller machine bearings. Thus, in larger
machines, stator winding and bearing faults can be of
similar significance.
Figure 3 Aggregate hazard function or failure rate for a
population of components forming a piece of machinery,
known as the bath-tub curve
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Failure modes
3.4 Relation to literature
An aspect of this analysis is the attention being paid to
different failure modes in the literature. The author used
the search engine IEEEXplore to consider IEEE and IEE
Journal papers in the period 1980 to date searching the
metadata under the following headings:
† Broken bars in induction motor rotor cages, 35 papers
† Discharge activity in MV and HV stator windings in
motors and generators, nine papers
† Stator winding faults excluding discharge activity in
motors and generators, 19 papers
† Bearing faults in electrical machines, 17 papers.
The spread of these 80 papers is shown alongside the
relevant failure areas in Table 3. It shows that more
publishing effort in electrical journals has gone into the
study of the least prevalent rotor faults than into the more
prevalent bearing faults, although the balance of the
literature on stator faults appears about right. Induction
motor rotor cage faults can be detected through
perturbations of the airgap magnetic field, described later in
the paper. The study of the effects of eccentricity in
induction motors, the most numerous of machines, which
also can be a guide to bearing failure, can also be elicited
from the literature which has recorded 36 papers on this
subject since 1980.
4 Temperature monitoring
4.1 Introduction
Limits to the rating of electrical machines are set by the
maximum permissible temperature for insulation.
IET Electr. Power Appl., 2008, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 215– 247
doi: 10.1049/iet-epa:20070280
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Table 2 List of typical measured failure rates and MTBFS for electrical machines obtained from the literature

Machine type No of Machine No of Failure rate, MTBF, Source of data

machines in years in failures in failures/ hrs
survey survey survey machine/yr
Large steam Not known 762 24 0.0315 2 73 750 Dickinson, 1974
turbogenerators [10] also IEEE Gold
Book [9]
Motors greater than 75 kW 6312 41 614 1474 0.0354 2 47 312 Albrecht, 1986
generally MV and HV [13]
induction motors
Wind turbine generators 643 5173 710 0.0400 2 19 000 Tavner, van Bussel,
,2 MW Spinato, 2006 [18]
Induction motors 601- Not known 4229 171 0.0404 2 16 831 Dickinson, 1974
15000 V [10] also IEEE Gold
Book [9]
Motors greater than 11 kW 2596 25 622 1637 0.0639 1 37 109 Thorsen, 1995 [15]
generally MV & HV
induction motors
Motors greater than 1141 5085 360 0.0707 1 23 735 O’Donnell, 1985
150 kW generally MV & HV [12] also IEEE Gold
induction motors Book [9]

Table 3 Distribution of failed subassemblies in electrical machines obtained from the literature

Subassemblies Predicted by MOD survey, tavner, IEEE large Motors in Motor Survey Proportion
an OEM 1999 [17] motor Utility Offshore and of 80 Journal
through survey, Applications, Petrochemical, Papers
FMEA 1985, Albrecht, Thorsen, 1995 published in
techniques, O’Donnell, 1986 [16] [11] IEEE and IEE
1995-7 [
] 1985 [15] on these
subject
areas over
the past 26
years
types of small to small LV motors and motors motors motors greater all machines
machines medium LV generators , 750 kW, greater greater than than 11 kW
motors and generally squirrel cage than 75 kW generally MV &
generators induction motors 150 kW generally MV HV induction
,150 kW, generally & HV motors
generally MV and HV induction
squirrel cage induction motors
induction motors
motors
bearings 75% 95% 41% 41% 42% 21%
stator related 9% 2% 37% 36% 13% 35%
rotor related 6% 1% 10% 9% 8% 44%
other 10% 2% 12% 14% 38% —


Private communication from Laurence, Scott & Electromotors Ltd

IET Electr. Power Appl., 2008, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 215 – 247 219
doi: 10.1049/iet-epa:20070280 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2008