A new space vector approach to detect stator faults in induction motors

Although induction motors are robust devices, faults may appear and so reliable and stable operation is required. More aspects need to be addressed nowadays in terms of condition monitoring. It is necessary to extract as much information as possible related to the overall motor condition and health. Also, different levels of diagnosis are required, as well necessity of detecting the fault level severity and avoiding false positive/negative alarms. This paper presents a new method to detect stator inter-turn faults in induction motors using a new space vector approach. This new vector is based on the higher harmonic index of the Park's Vector. It is revealed that the time-representation of this vector offers a reliable diagnostic alarm. Moreover, the frequency spectrum of the proposed vector's modulus can be studied and analyzed to extract more information regarding the fault level severity.