Biblid: 1821-4487 (2013) 17; 1; p 47-50 Original Scientific Paper

UDK: 621.43 Originalni naučni rad

INDUCTION MOTOR FAULT DIAGNOSIS BASED ON VIBRATION

ANALYSIS – A CASE STUDY
DIJAGNOSTIKA KVAROVA ASINHRONIH MOTORA ZASNOVANA NA
ANALIZI VIBRACIJA – PRIMER IZ PRAKSE
Željko KANOVIĆ, Dragan MATIĆ, Zoran JELIČIĆ, Milena PETKOVIĆ
University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences,21000 Novi Sad Trg Dositeja Obradovića 6, Serbia
e-mail:kanovic@uns.ac.rs

ABSTRACT
In this paper, a case study is presented which demonstrates the efficiency of vibration analysis in induction motor rotor fault de-
tection and diagnosis. Vibration signals of a 3,15 MW induction motor were acquired. The observed motor is specific due to its very
low slip, which can cause some difficulties in fault diagnostic process. Employing some of well-known signal processing and analysis
techniques, characteristic features in frequency domain were observed. Using the previous experience in fault detection and diagno-
sis, it is determined that a rotor fault, a broken bar in specific, is present in the motor. Based on this analysis, a general repair of the
motor was carried out and the diagnosed fault was confirmed. This way, applying the fault detection and diagnosis in early fault
stage, some serious malfunctions and failures were avoided, which resulted in decreased repair costs and undisturbed delivery of
heat energy during the heating season.
Key words: Fault diagnosis, induction motor, vibration analysis.

REZIME
U ovom radu prikazan je jedan praktični primer primene analize signala vibracija za detekciju kvara rotora asinhronog kaveznog
elektromotora. Prikupljani su signali vibracija elektromotora snage 3,15 MW koji pogoni napojnu pumpu kotla u toplani. Ovaj motor
je specifičan jer ima veoma malo klizanje, što može da predstavlja problem kod detekcije kvarova na rotoru. Primenjene su neke od
poznatih tehnika i postupaka za analizu signala vibracija i posmatrana su obeležja signala karakteristična za uobičajene kvarove ro-
tora. Na osnovu literature i prethodnog iskustva u ovoj oblasti, dijagnostikovan je kvar u vidu jedne ili više prekinutih šipki rotora.
Nakon ove analize, sproveden je generalni remont motora, pri čemu je potvrđena navedena pretpostavka. Na taj način, primenom
tehnika za detekciju kvara u njegovoj ranoj fazi, izbegnuta su ozbiljnija oštećenja i zastoji u radu, čime su smanjeni troškovi
održavanja i omogućena je neometana isporuka toplotne energije potrošačima u toku grejne sezone.
Ključne reči: Dijagnostika kvarova, asinhroni motor, analiza vibracija.

INTRODUCTION
Induction motors are the primary movers of the industries
because of their rugged configuration, low cost, versatility, rea-
sonably small size and capability to operate with an easily avail-
able power supply. In the practical applications, however, they
are subjected to the unavoidable stresses, such as electrical, envi-
ronmental, mechanical and thermal stresses, which create fail-
ures in different motor parts (Bonnett and Soukup, 1988). These
failures disturb the safe operation of induction motors, threaten
the normal manufacturing and, accordingly, result in the substan-
tial cost penalties.
The issue of robustness and reliability is very important to
guarantee the good operational condition of the entire industrial
system. Therefore, condition monitoring of induction motors has
received considerable attention in recent years. Early fault diag-
nosis and condition monitoring can reduce the consequential
damage, breakdown maintenance and reduce the spare parts of
inventories. Moreover it can prolong the machine life and in-
crease the performance and the availability of machine.
The condition of an induction motor is mostly examined
from the signals acquired through the sensors and supporting
instrumentation methods. Signals can manifest fault signature
using an appropriate signal processing technique. A number of
induction motor condition monitoring techniques have been de-
veloped, which monitor a certain parameter of the motor and de-
termine its health. These techniques are based on monitoring
various variables, such as acoustic emission, air-gap torque,
electromagnetic field, instantaneous power, vibration, voltage,
stator current and other (Benbouzid, 2000; Finley et al, 2000;
Matić et al, 2010; Matić et al, 2012; Mehrjou et al, 2011).
Rotor is the most inner part of the induction motor, which is
rotated by an electromagnetic field induced in its coils from the
stator field. The rotational force is then applied to the external
equipment. Induction motor rotors are very rugged, but still, ro-
tor defects such as broken bar, cracked end-ring, bent shaft and
eccentricity do occur. These failures do not initially cause motor
to fail, but they bring about secondary effects that lead to a seri-
ous malfunction, so detection of these faults plays an important
role.
This paper deals with detection of broken rotor bar using vi-
bration signal analysis, which is one the oldest condition moni-
toring techniques, characterized by easy measurability, high ac-
curacy and reliability. A case study is presented, where a faulty
3.15 MW induction motor was examined and the presence of
broken rotor bar was detected. The paper is organized as fol-
lows: in section 2 some basics of broken rotor bar detection us-
ing vibration analysis are presented, in section 3 the observed
system, data acquisition equipment and the results obtained us-
ing signal processing techniques are described, and section 4
concludes the paper.
MATERIAL AND METHOD
The rotor bars can be partially or completely cracked during
the operation of induction motor, due to stresses, improper rotor
geometry design or some imperfection in material or rotor pro-
duction process. The bar breakage is the major fault in the rotor
of induction motor. Once a bar breaks, the condition of the

Journal on Processing and Energy in Agriculture 17 (2013) 1 47

 Kanović, Željko et al./ Induction Motor Fault Diagnosis Based on Vibration Analysis – A Case Study

neighboring bars also deteriorates progressively due to the in- number of rotor bars varies from 16 to 60 or more, the value of
creased stresses. To prevent such a cumulative destructive proc- RBPF can be very high, implying the examination of high fre-
ess, the problem should be detected early, that is, when the bars quency domain of vibration spectrum. This demands high sam-
are beginning to crack. pling rates for signal acquisition which is the reason why RBPF
Vibration signal analysis is a fault detection technique which is a parameter not frequently used in fault detection due to hard-
is generally used for mechanical faults diagnosis, such as bearing ware-imposed limitations. Still, when motor operates with very
problems, gear mesh defects, rotor misalignment and mass un- low slip and the reliability of low frequency features (1) and (2)
balance (Kanović et al, 2011; Singh and Al Kazzaz, 2003). How- is questionable, the observation of vibration amplitudes at RBPF
ever, it can also be successfully applied to detect broken rotor and its sidebands can confirm broken bar diagnosis and augment
bar, since this fault excites the electromagnetic field disturbance the overall reliability of the results (Neale et al, 1979; Singh and
and thus intensifies the torque modulations and vibrations of the Kazzaz, 2003).
motor, which can be measured by placing vibration sensors on The subject of the present research was to detect fault(s) on a
motor housing (Climente-Alarcon et al, 2012; Kanović et al, 3.15 MW high-voltage induction motor with fabricated rotor
2012; Neale et al, 1979; Tavner and Penman, 1987). consisting of 56 bar, driving a low- and high-pressure pump in a
Analyzing the obtained vibration signals in frequency do- heating plant, depicted in Fig. 1.
main, using for example Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT), one
can note some fault-specific features in signal spectrum, which
imply the presence of the particular fault.
If a broken rotor bar exists, no current will flow in that bar.
As a result, the field in the rotor around that particular bar will
not exist. Therefore the force applied to that side of the rotor
would be different from that on the other side of the rotor, creat-
ing an unbalanced magnetic force that rotates at one times rota-
tional speed and modulates at a frequency equal to slip fre-
quency times the number of poles, which is known as pole pass
frequency. It means that in vibration spectrum increased ampli-
tudes will occur at the rotation frequency fr and its sidebands
f brb1 = f r ± f p (1)
where fp is pole pass frequency defined as
f p = ( f sync − f r ) ⋅ P (2) Fig. 1. A 3.15 MW high-voltage induction motor driving low-
with P being number of poles and fsync being synchronous and high-pressure pumps in heating plant, which was the subject
speed (Finley et al, 2000). These sidebands occur also in higher of fault detection
harmonics of rotation speed (2fr, 3fr,…). Detection of broken bar The faulty operation of this particular motor was manifested
based on vibration analysis and observation of features (1) and through high level of vibration and acoustic noise and decreased
(2) is common in literature and widely used in practical applica- momentum when operating under load, which implied the pres-
tions (Mehrjou et al, 2011). ence of broken bar. However, the costs of motor disassembling
One must note that pole pass frequency defined in (2) is and rotor removal were considerably high, especially having in
highly slip-dependent. The low value of slip causes the rotation mind that periodic maintenance was not in schedule, so it was
frequency fr to be close to synchronous speed fsync, and sidebands necessary to determine the nature of the fault and to recommend
to be closer to the central frequency, which makes them less dis- the procedure for its elimination.
tinctive in vibration signal spectrum. This fact can cause difficul-
ties if the motor operates under low load, and consequentially RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
with low slip, since in that case fault detection reliability is ques-
Vibration signals were collected through two shear acceler-
tionable. Therefore, vibration signals must be acquired when
ometers, attached by magnetic mount, as shown in Fig. 2.
motor operates close to full load in order to have sidebands that
can be clearly distinguished from central frequencies. This is the
main flaw and limitation when features (1) and (2) are used for
fault detection, since the applicability and reliability of the re-
sults depends on motor load, meaning that low slip is undesir-
able.
If we still need to examine an induction motor operating un-
der low load, some additional features can be considered.
Namely, broken rotor bar will also result in increased vibration
amplitude at rotor bar pass frequency RBPF
RBPF = f r ⋅ Nr (3)
and its sidebands modulated at two times the frequency of the
power source f
fbrb 2 = RBPF ± 2 f (4)
In (3), Nr is number of rotor bars (Singh and Kazzaz, 2003). This
characteristic feature is not slip-dependent and, combined with Fig. 2. Two shear accelerometers with magnetic mounting used
previously mentioned features, it can provide more reliable fault for radial and axial vibration signal collection
detection results in case of low load condition. However, since

48 Journal on Processing and Energy in Agriculture 17 (2013) 1

 Kanović, Željko et al./ Induction Motor Fault Diagnosis Based on Vibration Analysis – A Case Study

Radial and axial vibration signals were recorded, containing 0.2 fr

100.000 samples collected with 10 kHz sampling rate. The sig- faulty motor

|Y(f)| (g) 
nals were acquired from faulty motor and from the other motor 0.15
which was assumed to be healthy, being the same type as the 0.1
faulty one and driving the same type of pumps. The research was sidebands fbrb1
0.05
conducted in the summer period, when the plant was not in op-
eration. The signals were collected at two different operation 0
46 48 50 52 54
point, one with lower load, and the other with higher load level, Frequency (Hz)
approximately 40% and 60% of nominal load, respectively. The
nominal load could not be achieved, since the heating plant was 0.2
healthy motor
not in operation. The slip value, measured using stroboscope,

|Y(f)| (g)
0.15
was 0.0010 (0.10%) for the first operation point and 0.0016
(0.16%) for the second operation point. The rotation frequencies 0.1
were calculated to be 49.95 Hz and 49.9 Hz for the first and sec- 0.05
ond operation point, respectively. The number of poles P equals
0
two and the power source frequency f is 50 Hz, which is also 46 48 50 52 54
equal to synchronous motor speed fsync. Using these data, charac-
teristic features defined by (1) - (4) can be calculated. Fig. 4. Vibration spectra of faulty and healthy motor – low fre-
The time-domain signals were processed using FFT and sig- quency domain, higher load level (slip 0.16%)
nal spectra were obtained for both healthy and faulty motor, de- 0.1
picted in Fig. 3 - 5. faulty motor

|Y(f)| (g)
RBPF 
  0.2 0.05
faulty motor
sidebands frbr2 
|Y(f)| (g)

0.1 0
2700 2750 2800 2850 2900
Frequency (Hz)
0   0.1
46 48 50 52 54 healthy motor
Frequency (Hz) 
|Y(f)| (g)

0.2 0.05
heathy motor
|Y(f)| (g)

0.1 0
2700 2750 2800 2850 2900
Frequency (Hz)

0   Fig. 5. Vibration spectra of faulty and healthy motor – high fre-

46 48 50 52 54
quency domain, higher load level
Fig. 3. Vibration spectra of faulty and healthy motor – low fre-
quency domain, lower load level (slip 0.10%)
In Fig. 3, showing low frequency domain vibration spectra of
both healthy and faulty motor at the first operation point, one can
only note the increased vibration level of faulty motor at rotation
frequency. Since the load level is low, sidebands fbrb1 are not dis-
tinguished. The increased vibration amplitude at the rotation fre-
quency of the faulty motor is notable also in Fig. 4, depicting
low frequency domain vibration spectra at the second operation
point. Although the slip value is still very low, rotation fre-
quency sidebands fbrb1 for faulty motor are distinctive, implying
the presence of broken bar.
Since in both operating points the slip was very low, in order
to increase diagnosis reliability, high-frequency domain features
were also considered. Observing Fig. 5, one can note the in-
creased vibration amplitude of faulty motor at rotor bar pass fre-
quency RBPF and its sidebands fbrb2, which confirmed the fault
diagnosis and led to the conclusion that at least one rotor bar is
broken. Fig.6. The rotor after disassembling; two broken rotor bars at
Based on the presented results of fault detection, the sugges- the end rings can be observed
tion was to disassemble the motor and to remove the rotor in or-
der to be examined in detail, despite high costs of this operation. CONCLUSION
As shown in Fig. 6, after rotor removal it was determined that This paper presents a case-study where vibration signal
two rotor bars were completely broken at their endpoints, which analysis was applied to detect presence of broken rotor bar in
confirmed the results of fault detection procedure. high power induction motor. The vibration signals were col-
lected and processed and some characteristic spectral features

Journal on Processing and Energy in Agriculture 17 (2013) 1 49

 Kanović, Željko et al./ Induction Motor Fault Diagnosis Based on Vibration Analysis – A Case Study
were observed. Since the motor operates with very low slip, be-
side some well-known and widely used low-frequency features,
some additional features in high-frequency domain were also
considered. Based on the results of fault detection procedure, it
was suggested to remove the rotor and inspect its condition,
which confirmed the fault diagnosis, proving that vibration
analysis can be successfully applied in detection of induction
motor rotor faults.
ANOWLEDGMENT: This paper is a result of the research
within the project TR32018, supported by the Ministry of Educa-
tion, Science and Technology, Republic of Serbia.
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Received: 01.03.22013. Accepted: 21.03.2013.
Journal on Processing and Energy in Agriculture 17 (2013) 1