Condition Monitoring of Electric Components Using 3-D Printed Multiple Magnetic Coil Antennas

The low-frequency electromagnetic radiated field is utilized in this paper for the purpose of condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of electric components. The main purpose is to build arrays of receiving coils that can detect and monitor the radiated electromagnetic field around the electric component and accordingly utilizing the measured fields in condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of various power components. A flexible 3-D printed coil antenna is proposed to be built, which will detect the fault of the electric machines. Primarily, finding the optimum location of the coil antenna to capture the most sensitive stray field from the components is the objective. Using finite-element method, the most sensitive location for the antenna is first identified for the field around the vicinity of the machine in healthy condition. Then, the radiated field of the machine is observed while short circuit occurred in the coil and winding inside the component. Variation in the amplitude of the harmonic orders of the radiated field helps in the identification of the short circuits. The results are then compared based on the variations of the amplitudes of the healthy and faulty fields and sent to the signal processing unit for diagnosis. As the practical implication of the study, the nonintrusive 3-D printed sensor provides the opportunity to locate the faulty winding in various electric components based on their electromagnetic signatures.