On-line detection of rotor eccentricity for PMSMs based on hall-effect field sensor measurements

Rotor eccentricity in permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) increases unbalanced magnetic pull and motor vibration resulting in accelerated aging of motor components. If eccentricity remains undetected, it can increase in severity, and increase the risk of stator-rotor contact, which causes forced outage of the motor and driven process. Detection of eccentricity currently relies on off-line testing and on-line vibration/current spectrum analysis, which are inconvenient or cannot provide reliable detection as they are influenced by other mechanical non-idealities in the motor or load. In this paper, the feasibility of using the signals from analog Hall-effect field sensors for detecting eccentricity is investigated. It is shown that Hall sensors already present in machines for motion control can be used for measuring the variation in the flux inside the motor due to eccentricity. 3-dimensional (3D) finite element analysis (FEA) and experimental results performed on an interior PMSM (IPMSM) show that the proposed method can provide sensitive and reliable detection of dynamic and mixed eccentricity with minimal hardware modifications.