A reconfigurable motor for experimental emulation of stator winding inter-turn and broken bar faults in polyphase induction machines

The advantages and demerits of a 5-hp reconfigurable induction motor, which was designed for experimental emulation of stator winding inter-turn and broken rotor bar faults, are presented in this paper. It was perceived that this motor has the potential of quick and easy reconfiguration to produce the desired stator and rotor faults in a variety of different fault combinations. Accordingly, this would eliminate the need to permanently destroy machine components such as stator windings or rotor bars when acquiring data from a faulty machine for fault diagnostic purposes. Experimental results under healthy and various faulty conditions will be presented in this paper, including issues associated with rotor bar-end ring contact resistances, to demonstrate the benefits and drawbacks of this motor for acquiring large amounts of fault signature data.