Fault Detection in Variable Phase-Pole Machines based on Harmonic Plane Decomposition

Multiphase electrical machines have the inherent advantage of fault tolerance as compared to conventional three-phase machines. A special category of multiphase electrical machines are variable phase-pole machines, which allow a change between phase-pole configurations without hardware reconfiguration, but merely through current control. This paper proposes an open-fault detection method for variable phase-pole machines; fast, non-invasive, parameter- and operation-independent. The method analyzes the space harmonics of the current distribution using the harmonic plane decomposition theory, which is already used to perform a seamless switch between phase-pole configurations. Simulation results demonstrate the feasibility of the approach.