International Journal of Electronics and Computer Science Engineering 1629

Available Online at www.ijecse.org ISSN- 2277-1956

Current Signature Analysis for Condition Monitoring

of Motors
Neelam Mehala
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Y.M.C.A University of Science and Technology
Faridabad (Haryana), INDIA
[email protected]

Abstract— This paper presents a novel approach to current signature analysis based on wavelet transform of the stator
current. The proposed method lies in the fact that by using wavelet transform, the inherent non-stationary nature of
stator current can be accurately considered. The key characteristics of the proposed method are its ability to provide
feature representations of multiple frequency resolutions for faulty modes, ability to clearly differentiate between healthy
and faulty conditions, and its applicability to non-stationary signals. Successful implementation of the system for different
types of motors is demonstrated in the paper. Another technique Current Park’s Vector is also discussed in this paper.
The Park’s Vector approach can be used to detect the different types of motor’s faults. An undamaged machine shows a
perfect circle in Park’s Vector representation whereas an unbalance due to winding faults results in an elliptic
representation of the Park’s vector. Thus, faulty motor can be easily detected by comparing both patterns. The park’s
vector pattern for different types of faults of motor is analyzed in the paper.

Keywords-Condition Monitoring, Fault Diagnosis, Electrical Machines, MCSA

I. INTRODUCTION
Fault detection and the diagnostic system of induction motors include at least two important parts: feature extraction
and classification. The goal of feature extraction is to extract features which are related to specific fault modes.
Usually the features are obtained by processing the spectrum of stator current of the induction motors using FFT.
Other possible methods include wavelet transform and Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT). The goal of
classification is to classify faulty mode from normal mode and different fault modes. Artificial intelligence (AI), for
instance, expert system and artificial neural network, are often used. Much work has been reported in the literature
on AI-based fault detection and diagnostic systems [1]. Most of the published methods are based on the features
obtained by FFT spectrum. Unfortunately, not much work is reported on the feature extraction methods which can
be very important for the performance of the whole diagnostic system.
The task of distinguishing faulty conditions from normal conditions based on the resultant FFT spectrum can be
done accurately as long as the signals are stationary, the induction motors are run around full-load condition, and the
terminal voltages are sinusoidal. The stator current, however, is a non-stationary signal whose properties vary with
the time-variant operating conditions of the motors such as fluctuations in load torque and power supply. To remedy
the problems associated with time variations, STFT, which is a very useful time-frequency localization tool, is
usually used. However, STFT is only applicable where the low-pass window function can be suitably chosen and
well localized. To this end, a fixed-width window for all frequency components is usually used by this approach
and, therefore, STFT cannot provide either multiple frequency resolution or temporal resolution [2].
The importance of a study on new feature extraction methods also arises from the two requirements from the current
industry applications. Firstly, most of the induction motors are powered from power electronics equipment, which
generate a lot of harmonics. These harmonics make the FFT-based feature extraction difficult for online detection.
Secondly, for offline detection and the diagnostic system of large induction motors, it is expensive to run the motor
at full-load conditions. While the features obtained from light-load conditions normally cannot ensure an accurate
classification. One method is to do the detection and diagnosis during startup. However, the FFT method is
incapable for such transient signals [3]. Only the wavelet-based method can be used in these cases.
Wavelets are mathematical tools that have recently emerged for applications such as waveform representations and
segmentations, time-frequency analysis, detection of irregularities, feature extractions, and compression of digital
data. The popularity of wavelets is due to properties such as the dilation property that can be used to adjust the width
of the frequency band along with the location of its center frequency, and the translation property that can be used to

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Neelam Mehala et al.

automatically zoom in and out in order to locate the positions of high-frequency and low-frequency changes.
However, the data obtained from wavelet trans- form cannot be used for feature extraction unless by further FFT
analysis, which increases the complexity of the algorithm.
II. SIGNAL PROCESSING TECHNIQUES FOR FAULT DETECTION OF INDUCTION MOTOR
The first step for condition monitoring and fault diagnosis is to develop an analysis technique that can be used to
diagnose the observed current signal to get useful information. There are several signal processing techniques which
are very useful for fault diagnosis purpose. These are classified below [4,5]:
1. Frequency domain
Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)
2. Time-Frequency techniques
a) Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT)
b) Gabor Transform (GT)
c) Cohen class distribution
i) Wigner –Ville distribution (WVD)
ii) Choi-Williams distribution
iii) Cone shaped distribution
3. Wavelet Transform (WT)
4. Time series methods
a. Spectral estimation through ARMA models
b. Welch method
c. MUSIC method
d. Periodogram

III. WAVELET TRANSFORM

In this paper, application of wavelet for fault diagnosis of motors is discussed. Wavelets are functions that can be
used to decompose signals, similar to how to use complex sinusoids in the Fourier transform to decompose signals.
The wavelet transform computes the inner products of the analyzed signal and a family of wavelets. In contrast with
sinusoids, wavelets are localized in both the time and frequency domains, so wavelet signal processing is suitable for
those signals, whose spectral content changes over time [6]. The adaptive time-frequency resolution of wavelet
signal processing enables us to perform multi-resolution analysis. The properties of wavelets and the flexibility to
select wavelets make wavelet signal processing a beneficial tool for feature extraction applications.
Just as the Fourier transform decomposes a signal into a family of complex sinusoids, the wavelet transform
decomposes a signal into a family of wavelets. Unlike sinusoids, which are symmetric, smooth, and regular,
wavelets can be symmetric or asymmetric, sharp or smooth, regular or irregular. The family of wavelets contains the
dilated and translated versions of a prototype function. Traditionally, the prototype function is called a mother
wavelet. The scale and shift of wavelets determine how the mother wavelet dilates and translates along the time or
space axis. For different types of signals, different types of wavelets can be selected that best match the features of
the signal we want to analyze. Therefore, reliable results can be generated by using wavelet signal processing [7, 8].
Wavelet signal processing is different from other signal processing methods because of the unique properties of
wavelets. For example, wavelets are irregular in shape and finite in length. Wavelet signal processing can represent
signals sparsely, capture the transient features of signals, and enable signal analysis at multiple resolutions. Wavelets
are localized in both the time and frequency domains because wavelets have limited time duration and frequency

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Current Signature Analysis for Condition Monitoring of Motors

bandwidth. The wavelet transform can represent a signal with a few coefficients because of the localization property
of wavelets.
Figure 1 show multi-resolution analysis for healthy and faulty motor respectively and allow us to find the different
bands where wavelet will be applied.
The band covered by wavelet decomposition starts with  f s ; f s  and then will decreases as When a fault is occur
2 4
 
in the motor, not only an unbalance appears in currents but also fault harmonics due to it. The harmonic variation
can be noticed in the expected bands for this fault in range of low frequencies from 25 to 200 Hz. The Figure 1(b)
has shown that significant variations have been observed in detail seven which corresponds to bandwidth where
faulty frequency appear. The figure show that wavelet analysis achieves good results in field of fault diagnosis of the
induction motor.

(a) Healthy motor (b) Faulty motor

Figure 1: Multi-resolution analysis for healthy and faulty motor

IV. PARK’S VECTOR APPROACH

In three phase induction motors, the connection to the mains does not usually use the neutral. Therefore, the
main current has no homo-polar component. A two dimensional representation can then be used for describing three
phase induction motor phenomena, a suitable one being based on the current Park’s vector [11,12].
As a function of mains phase variable ( i , i , i ) the current Park’s vector components ( i , i ) are [12]-[15]:
a b c d q

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2 1 1
…..(4)
id = ia − ib − ic
3 6 6
1 1 ….(5)
iq = ib − ic
2 2
Under ideal conditions, three phase currents lead to a Park’s vector with the following components:
6
….(6)
id = I sin ω t
2
6  π …..(7)
iq = I sin  ω t − 
2  2
where
I= maximum value of the supply phase current
ωs =supply frequency
t=time variable

(a) Healthy motor (b) Faulty motor

Figure 2: Current Park’s vector pattern for healthy and faulty motor

Its representation is a circular pattern centered at the origin of the coordinators as illustrated by Figure 2. This is very
simple reference figure that allows the detection of abnormal conditions by monitoring the deviations of acquired
patterns. Figure 2 shows a Current Park’s vector pattern for healthy motor which is a perfect circle where
instantaneous magnitude is constant. An unbalance due to some faults results in different representation of the park’s
vector is shown in Figure 2(b). It could be seen that current pattern for faulty motor is clearly different from current
pattern of the healthy motor. The shape of the current's phasor in figure 2(b) is not of perfect circular shape. The
elliptical shape of current’s phasor indicates fault in the squirrel cage induction machine. Thus, by comparing the
current pattern of healthy and faulty motor, the different types of faults can be easily diagnosed.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper presents the application of wavelet transform and current Park’s vector in field of condition
monitoring and fault diagnosis of induction motor. Wavelet signal processing is different from other signal
processing methods because of the unique properties of wavelets. Wavelets are irregular in shape and finite in
length. Wavelet signal processing can represent signals sparsely, capture the transient features of signals, and enable
signal analysis at multiple resolutions. Due to these unique features, this technique may diagnose the faults of
induction motors more reliably. Current Park’s vector is another method which is presented in this paper. The

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Current Signature Analysis for Condition Monitoring of Motors

analysis of the three-phase induction motor can be simplified using the Park transformation. This method is based on
the visualization of the motor current Park’s vector representation. The techniques discussed in this paper can be
used in laboratory as well as in industries to diagnose the common faults of induction motor. The results obtained
from these techniques are also presented in this papers which reveals that these techniques may be helpful in
industries to reduce the downtime of equipments and to improve the overall efficiency of production system.

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