Current Park’s Vector Pattern Technique for Diagnosis of Broken Rotor Bars Fault in Saturated Induction Motor

The squirrel cage induction motor is considered to be one of the most important types of motors used in industries. An unexpected failure can lead to unwanted downtime and heavy financial losses to the industries regarding maintenance cost and profits. This paper deals with the problem of broken rotor bars fault diagnosis in saturated induction motor. Several techniques such as those based on vibration, axial leakage monitoring, zero-sequence component, negative sequence current, and motor current signature analysis have been used. However, these techniques do not take into account the effect of magnetic saturation. This paper presents a current Park’s Vector method for diagnosis in squirrel cage induction motor with the presence of magnetic saturation. The use of a current vector pattern demonstrates that deformation of the Current Park’s Vector Pattern trajectory and increasing diameter are indicators for predicting magnetic saturation and broken bars rotor fault. Our experimental results allow us to discriminate between the magnetic saturation in healthy and faulty squirrel cage induction motors.