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This paper presents an innovative concept for the online application of Frequency Response Analysis (FRA). FRA is a well known technique that is applied to detect damage in electric machinery. As an offline technique, the machine under testing has to be removed from service—which may cause loss of production. Experimental adaptations of FRA to online operation are usually based on the use of passive high pass coupling—which, ideally, should provide attenuation to the grid voltage, and at the same time, allow the high frequency FRA signals to be injected at the machine. In practice, however, the passive coupling results in a trade-off between the required attenuation and the useful area obtained at the FRA spectra. This paper proposes the use of an active coupling system, based on power electronics, in order to cancel the grid voltage at the terminals of FRA equipment and allow its safe connection to an energized machine. The paper presents the basic concepts of FRA and the issue of online measurements. It also presents basic concepts about power electronics converters and the operating principles of the Modular Multilevel Converter, which enables the generation of an output voltage with low THD, which is important for tracking the grid voltage with minimum error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work proposes a new statistical index, based on hypothesis tests, to be used on frequency response analysis (FRA) of electric machines. This index is, particularly, interesting on the detection of early failures (which appear as small deviations from the baseline spectrum), even when the measurements have high variability (such as the case of online measurements in rotating machines). The majority of the indexes proposed so far in the FRA literature only compares two spectra at a time and mix data from the measurements at different frequencies. The index proposed in this paper calculates one hypothesis test for each frequency (in order to assure randomness, independence and normality) in the spectra of several measurements (in order to take into account the variability on the measurements) and performs the normalized sum of the individual tests. Experimental results are presented on a synchronous generator (both offline and online) to validate the proposed index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents an application of Frequency Response Analysis (FRA) on the detection of insulation failures on electric generators. An equipment for FRA of electric machines has been developed and its online connection to an induction generator through a C–L–C T-type coupling is presented. It is shown that the coupling circuit implies in a design trade-off between the attenuation of the power signal at fundamental frequency (which may damage the electronics of the analyzer) and the useful area obtained in the FRA spectra. It is shown that a C–L–C coupling greatly improves the performance of a regular capacitive coupling, improving its attenuation at fundamental frequency while maintaining similar frequency response at high frequencies. Experimental results are presented to validate the proposed equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents some guidelines in order to achieve a more reliable diagnosis using the frequency response analysis (FRA) technique. Conventionally, this technique relies on comparisons between spectra obtained at different stages of the machine lifespan. A difference between the spectra may indicate the onset of a failure. However, these comparisons are very subjective to the experience of the analyst. To achieve a more objective diagnosis, statistical indexes have been introduced in the literature of FRA. This work presents a survey on these indexes and also compares them using experimental data. Another contribution of this work is the proposition of a trend based diagnostics. Thus, even if the FRA measurements are obtained at different temperatures/humidity or other external factors, the trend curve of the indexes is able to provide a more reliable diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents an investigation on the influence of rotor position on the Frequency Response Analysis (FRA) of electric machines. Different types of machines have been analyzed. Contrary to common belief, not only the salient-pole machine suffered from rotor position influence on the FRA. This can have severe impact on the repeatability of the tests and, consequently, their ability to identify early damage in the insulation system of the machine. This paper is intended to warn practitioners of FRA that care should be taken while analyzing the results, in order to avoid false positives in their measurements. Recommendations are made aiming to avoid the influence of rotor position on the results. Also, the use of statistical techniques is proposed, in order to improve the diagnosis, even when there is some lack of repeatability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]