Reliability of Industrial Drive Systems: A Review on Inter-Turn Short-Circuit Detection in DTC Driven Motors

Fault diagnosis is essential for avoiding unscheduled interruptions and to ensure the availability and reliability of production processes. However, despite certain critical industrial applications employing closed-loop-driven induction motors, the diagnosis of initial faults originating in the machine insulation is more challenging than in motors supplied by the grid or even by inverters operating in open loop. In this context, this article explores, through a detailed and comprehensive review, all the mechanisms that influence the inter-turns short-circuit fault signatures that hinder its diagnosis and presents a critical analysis of the fault detection methods proposed so far. Therefore, this article brings contributions to the theme by providing an understanding of such phenomena and presenting a broad perspective on the current status of stator winding fault monitoring, while assisting future research in the field of online fault diagnostics, equipment condition monitoring, reliability and asset management.