Experimental investigation on broken rotor bar faults in three phase induction motors using MVSA-FFT method

Abstract

This paper investigates the fault detection of broken rotor bars (BRBs) in squirrel cage induction motors (SCIMs), using vibration signature analysis method. The main objective of this study is to exploiting the vibratory image of the induction motor (IM) which is called: motor vibration signature analysis (MVSA). MVSA is now widely used in the industry because of its ease and efficiency. It is based on a fast Fourier transform (FFT) which is interested in the spectral content of the vibratory signal. Recently, researchers are trying to investigate the MVSA by another signal processing methods in order to exploit it. On the other hand, researchers have different opinions on the most appropriate method and the research in this subject accelerates quickly. Our study has the goal to make an acquisition of experimental data of signal vibration. The vibration image analysis by fast Fourier transform (FFT) allows us to understand the best signatures or indicators about the existence of the broken rotor bar faults. Experimental results show the degree of validity of the proposed methods which may leads us to a final decision about the state of the induction motors.