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In this article, online short-circuit estimation of permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) are presented, which is essential for postfault ac drive operations. For this purpose, initially, the PMSM model with interturn short-circuit fault (ITSC) is extended to cover motors with saliency. By utilizing ITSC model voltage equations and voltage reference equations, the amplitude and phase relationship between short-circuit current and the phase reference voltage is established. In the next step, second harmonics in the reference voltage and feedback current are used to extract the short-circuit current information. In order to efficiently use ac drive microcontroller bandwidth, the proposed short-circuit current estimation method is executed after the ITSC fault is detected, not continuously. Instead of running the proposed short-circuit current estimation continuously, it is reasonable to run it after an ITSC fault detection to efficiently use ac drive microcontroller bandwidth. Therefore, two intermediate steps, a simple ITSC fault detection and severity estimation algorithms are proposed as well. The proposed technique can estimate the fault current and severity without the knowledge of fault location and valid for all PM motors. The findings are experimentally tested using two PMSMs to demonstrate the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed estimation technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early diagnosis of interturn short circuit (ITSC) fault is essential to prevent catastrophic electrical machine failures. Along with the detection, locating the faulty winding at its incipient stage is also critical to reduce the outage duration and operation losses. This article proposes a practical method to detect the ITSC fault and locate the faulty winding in permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) through stray magnetic flux monitoring. It is shown that relying on the fundamental stray flux component can potentially underperform at certain operating conditions leading to fault negative error. To compensate this shortcoming, the third harmonic component of stray flux is comprehensively analyzed and proposed as a complementary ITSC fault indicator. Furthermore, its reliability over the wide range of motor operation is verified to eliminate potential fault negative errors. It is also shown that the proposed method is independent of the fault severity which is a major advantage for practical applications. The findings are supported through 2-D-FEA PMSM drive system simulations and experiments under two different fault severity cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel method to estimate the number of shorted turns in a permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) following the detection of interturn short-circuit (ITSC) fault and its location. In this proposed method, PMSM is excited through a low sinusoidal voltage at standstill condition to obtain the winding resistance and synchronous inductance by current response. It is shown that the ITSC fault introduces variation in the current response, which can be used to calculate the number of shorted turns under zero fault resistance assumption. Using this practical procedure, the fault severity can be estimated directly in a straight-forward manner. In other words, the severity estimation for a given machine can be done without complex machine modeling or experiments on ITSC prototype with multiple taps. The findings in this paper are essential for a comprehensive solution including fault mitigation algorithms and postfault operations. In order to verify the findings, a three-phase equivalent circuit model supported by finite element analysis results is used to take saturation and space harmonics into account. In addition, experimental results are presented to demonstrate the validity and practicability of the severity estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a detailed analysis of short-circuit current behavior during interturn short-circuit faults in permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) by considering the short-circuit contact resistance. For this purpose, an finite element analysis (FEA)-based equivalent circuit model is developed to understand the circulating current behavior in the shorted turns. Various fault resistance and number of shorted turn combinations are examined at different torque and speed levels. To include saturation due to high fault currents, the inductance matrix of faulty machine is created in FEA environment and incorporated into the equivalent circuit model as four-dimensional lookup tables. In order to take loop responses into account, the model is controlled through field oriented control (FOC) with closed speed and current loops. An experimental setup is built to verify the simulation results using a PMSM with several winding taps. It is shown that the experimental results and the simulations are quite consistent with each other. The findings from this study are essential to predict fault severity, develop mitigation techniques and determine the safe operating area for faulty machines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of permanent magnet synchronous machine stator winding impedance variation in inter-turn short-circuit and eccentricity faults. The phase impedances are monitored through an extended self-commissioning procedure at the standstill mode before or after operation, and hence are agnostic to well-known issues caused by transients, load/speed level, or controller coefficient dependency. Moreover, the effect of stator iron core saturation on the electrical parameters is analyzed in depth. In order to distinguish the inter-turn shorts from the eccentricity fault which exhibits similar behaviors, a classification algorithm based on the saturation effect is introduced and analyzed on the machines with different pole-slot combinations. Both two-dimensional finite element analysis simulation and experimental test results are provided to show the efficacy of this analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a detailed magnet defect fault detection analysis through fluxgate sensors by monitoring the leakage flux around permanent magnet synchronous motors. The flux spectra of electric machines contain direct and most critical information to monitor and characterize magnet defect faults and their progressions. In the mainstream diagnosis techniques based on phase current and back-EMF analysis, the fault corresponding signature characteristics may vary and cause misleading results depending on motor topology, winding configuration, number and location of defective magnets, and controller parameters. In this paper, it is shown that leakage flux analysis provides some superior results for magnet defect diagnosis. For this purpose, the fault patterns in the leakage flux spectrum are exhaustively analyzed at different torque/speed profiles. Simulation and experimental results show that the deployment of a direction sensitive fluxgate sensor in magnet defect fault detection yields very promising results both in time and frequency domain analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study on the topology-dependent magnet defect fault signatures in permanent-magnet motors. A new analytical approach is introduced to characterize the fault signatures in stator back electromotive force (EMF) and current waveforms using magnetic equivalent circuit. Stator winding configuration, winding connection type and location of damaged rotor magnets are some of the physical properties affecting the fault signature characteristics. Several cases with different number of pole and slot are investigated through the proposed method. In addition, different winding connections (including star and delta connection), different winding configurations (including single and double layer, fractional and full coil pitch), and different magnet defect number and location are scrutinized. It is shown that there are some cases exhibiting different fault patterns than the ones obtained through well-known fault models defined in the literature. It is essential to take these discrepancies into account in order to avoid false alarms. In addition, it is observed that some of the fault signatures show up in the stator back EMF spectrum but not in the current spectrum due to location and severity of magnet defect, and design specs. Comparative 2-D finite-element simulations and experimental results justify the theoretical magnet defect fault analysis and show the efficacy of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper deals with the discernment of broken magnet and static eccentricity faults in permanent magnet synchronous motors through the stator phase current. Broken magnet and static eccentricity faults exhibit very similar fault patterns in back-electromotive force (emf) and flux spectrums. Therefore, it is essential to separate these faults from each other for a true diagnosis. In this study, stator emf and phase current waveforms are analyzed in detail to identify the discerning components and characterize their dynamic behaviors. Two-dimensional time-stepping finite-element simulations and experimental results show that the fault classification process can be implemented by using fault-dependent in-phase current fault signatures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, magnet defect faults and their corresponding reflections on permanent-magnet (PM) motor stator variables are investigated. An analytical approach based on a partitioned magnetic equivalent circuit is developed to determine the influence of magnet defect faults on PM motor variables. Due to the flexibility of the proposed method, the effect of each rotor magnets on each stator coil can be calculated to obtain the induced back electromotove force under faulty cases and observe the fault-related signatures in the frequency spectrum. The proposed tool significantly reduces the computational burden and provides sufficient accuracy, which significantly eases to simulate several magnet fault scenarios and examine detailed topology dependence relations in shorter time. Different cases, including various numbers and locations of defected magnets, winding configurations, and crack direction effects, are studied to understand the magnet defect influences comprehensively. The experiments and simulations are carried out at different speeds and load conditions to fully characterize the fault signatures. Comparative 2-D finite-element simulations and experimental results justify the theoretical magnet defect fault analysis and show the efficacy of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multilevel converters have been well studied for high-voltage high-power renewable energy applications. Owing to the multibranch structure, these converters can be operated under fault conditions in case of a loss of a branch or voltage cell. In this regard, this paper proposes a new active fault-tolerant space vector pulsewidth modulation strategy for single-phase faults in three-phase multilevel converters. The proposed modulation strategy treats the multilevel converter as a two-level converter by introducing an offset vector. A generalized approach is proposed to search for the offset vector and to adjust the modulation of the converter online under different fault operation conditions. Several short- and open-circuit faults have been demonstrated on a seven-level hybrid input-switched converter to prove the effectiveness of the proposed fault-tolerant scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]