Modelling and detection of bearing faults in Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors

This paper describes an electromechanical model for bearing fault modeling and detection in Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors. Bearing problems are one major cause for drive failure. Their detection is possible by vibration monitoring of characteristic bearing frequencies. In the new approaches proposed in this work, the vibrations of the rotor shaft due to bearing failure are calculated by solving Hertz's equation contact numerically. This vibrations leads to load torque variations. The spectral analysis of the Park's vector modulus shows the possibility of the model to detect bearing faults.