Electrical Signature Analysis (ESA) of a Fault injection capable Synchronous Generator for Inter-turn Stator Faults

Synchronous Generators (SG) are used for many notable industrial applications. Inter turn stator faults are a major contributor to SG faults. The industries are always looking for minimizing the faults that occur to reduce the downtime of the machine, as it is cost-effective and profitable. Condition maintenance is performed to identify incipient faults. The hardware SG is closely modeled to simulate fault injection capable SG and tested for 8, 16 and 22 turns short circuit in each phase. Using the signal processing technique, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), on readily available stator currents, the Electrical Signature Analysis (ESA) is done. Since this signature is detected in the incipient stage, the damage caused shall be drastically reduced. The results established using the ESA technique to detect SG faults are encouraging and are presented in this paper.