Experimental Fault Assessment on Multiphase PM Generators with Fractional-Slot Concentrated Windings

In this paper, a fault assessment of a multiphase permanent magnet generator designed for 'more electric engine' aeronautic applications is presented. The distribution of various electrical faults occurring in three-phase machines that is available in the literature helped the authors to identify the most probable fault types. The six-phase machine under observation is tested under these faults both in Finite Element Analysis (FEA) as well as experimentally. In the experimental analysis, the generator supplies a resistive load through rectifier bridges when faults are introduced at its terminals. For a variety of fault situations, the measured machine response is compared with the finite element results in order to validate the accuracy of the implemented FEA model. The comparison show an extremely good match between simulated and measured results, without the need of particular fine-tuning of the model.