1

Diagnostic of broken bar in squirrel cage of

induction motor by MCSA method
Ivan Gomez Suarez, IEEE Spain Member Board, EU, Spain

Abstract—Dynamic rotary electrical machine testing allows us
to know significant variables of induction motor condition. In
this case described, in the presence of the possibility of broken
bar, it’s will be diagnosed by analysis the FFT of the stator
current.
in the software, we perform the analysis of the signal captured.
This essay is cited in section 4.3.10 of the IEEE 1415:2006
standard.

The checked induction motor has the technical characteristics The test is carried out by installing current and voltage
referred at section I. clamps on the secondary voltage and current measurement
Index Terms—Broken Bar, All Test Pro, MCSA transformers, as you can see in the figure 2 and 1.

I. I NTRODUCTION

D Inamic rotary electrical machine testing allows us to

know various significant variables of electrical induction
motor condition. In this case, upon suspicion of the presence
of a broken bar, diagnosed by the vibration analysis of the
machine, a load test is carried out to analyse by the FFT
(Fast Fourier Transform) analysis of the stator current signal
the components that allow to discern the presence of such
anomalies in the rotor squirrel cage.
The induction motor checked is a motor of the brand Alconza
and with the following technical characteristics:

Voltage: 6600V Current: 140 A Speed: 1490 min−1

And more detailed as the following table I:

Fig. 1. How to install the current and voltage clamps
TABLE I
T ECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Type Induction
Power 1200Kw
Speed 1490
Phases 3
Poles 4
Rotor Bars 50
Torque 7684Nm
CT relationship 40.00
PT relationship 54.54
Fig. 2. Example of All Test at CT

The test is carried out with the ATPOL II equipment of It is necessary to know the transformation ratio of voltage
the firm All test. This equipment, through software specially and current in order to configure the software correctly and
dedicated to the analysis of networks and diagnosis of any obtain reliable results.
type of electric motor and in a very simple way, allows to
capture the current signal of the stator and performs the FFT. Ivan Gomez Suarez
Subsequently and after configuring the motor characteristics October 13, 2019
 2

A. Results II. C ONCLUSION

The equipment only needs one minute to be able to pick Based on the results, the decision is made jointly with
up and process the voltage and current signal from the motor. the client to transfer the motor to our workshop for the
disassembling and physical verification of the broken bars.
After this minute we are already to visualise the following When the electrical motor was dismantle we were able to
spectrums monitoring: verify that the diagnosis was correct, as can be seen in the
section A-A.
• Graph of harmonic columns in current and voltage.
• Current and voltage waveform.
A. At workshop
• Current and voltage waveform.
• High frequency spectrum of voltage and current. After the electrical motor is disassembled in the workshop,
• Voltage and current spectrum demodulation. the correct diagnosis is certified. We are indeed two broken
• Low current spectrum. bars, resulting in breakage in the welded joint of bars and
hoop short-circuit. As you can see at figure 5
The spectrum monitoring offered by the software would
allow us to accurately evaluate the condition of the engine,
however, to determine the presence of a broken bar we should
only look at the graph in figure 3.
1) Discussion: Even though it’s software is fully capable
of diagnosing intelligently, I recommend you that is necessary
to know what it’s based on.

The software is based on the absolute value of the Db

difference between the point 0 (peak value corresponding to
the frequency of line) to the side bands corresponding to the
frequency pass pole (FPP). Fig. 5. Broken bar in squirrel cage.

Determined the difference in Db between the line frequency A PPENDIX A

and the side bands separated at a distance +- equal to the
frequency pass pole (FPP), the software displays the diagnosis
from the following table reflected in the figure 4 :
And the meaning of this table is:
• SB Top: Difference in Db over the line frequency of the
side band located at the right of that line frequency.
• Lower SB: Same as the previous one but referred to the
upper band to the left of line frequency.
• RB Index: Dimensional calculation used for cage status
trending.
In this case the severity level takes a value of 6. This one
value it’s determinate based on the table II.
It’s important that an effort be made to calculate the
frequency of the pole passage in order to ”look for them” in
the spectrum of the current, it must be identified and they
must coincide with those that appear in the spectrum. In
this way, in addition to not forget ”why” we can ensure the
diagnosis.
The latter is important because the technician’s ”technique”
must be preserved, if we do not trust too much in the
measurement tools, although it becoming more reliable, are
still essential the intuition and common sense provided by the
technicians with experience and with deep knowledge about
the machines that analyses.

A. Calculation
TABLE II
S EVERITY C HART
The key data to perform the calculation of the frequency of
the side bands at the frequency line are:
Db Rotor condition assessment Recommended action • Number of rotor bars.
60 Excellent None • Synchronous speed.

54..60 Good None • Real speed of the rotor.

• Poles number.
48..54 Moderate Trend condition
42..48 Cracked bars Increase test frequency Soon we realise that the number of rotor bars, we usually
don’t know, in this case, the computer software will be
36..42 Broken rotor bars Plan repair or replace
entered the value -1.
30..36 multiple cracked or broken bars Repair or replace
..30 Severity rotor faults Repair immediately To calculate then frequency line bands, first have to calculate
the slipping, then:
 3

Fig. 3. FFT spectra to determinate broken bar exists

Fig. 4. All test automatic diagnostic char

So, I van Gomez was born in 1980 at Barcelona.

Ss − N s 1500 − 1490 He currently works as an engineer, technical di-
S= = = 0.006 (1) rector and COO at Carboelectric S.l, a com-
Ss 1500
pany dedicated to maintenance. Member of board
Now,to calculate the left side-band: for IEEE Spanish section is also the author of
the book”Electromechanical maintenance of electric
motors”.
((1 − 2) ∗ S ∗ F (2)
So, like frequency is 50 Hz, left side-band is:
((1 − 2) ∗ S ∗ F = ((1 − 2) ∗ 0.06 ∗ 50 = 49.33Hz (3)
And for right side-band:
((1 + 2) ∗ S ∗ F (4)
then,
((1 + 2) ∗ S ∗ F = ((1 + 2) ∗ 0.06 ∗ 50 = 50.66Hz (5)
This side-band clearly appears at figure 3.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
To Carboelectric S.l and IEEE.

R EFERENCES
[1] IEEE Standard, IEEE Std 1415:2006, 30 April 20007.
[2] https://www.paraninfo.es/catalogo/9788428342711/mantenimiento-
electromecanico-de-motores-electricos, , January 2020.