Stator winding inter-turn insulation fault detection in induction motors by symmetrical components method

The theory of instantaneous symmetrical components is used for the detection of insulation faults in a three-phase induction motor. Based on the experimental data of motor intake currents and the system voltages, the loci of positive- and negative-sequence components of currents are plotted. These loci overlap with each other under healthy winding conditions as their major and minor axes coincides. When an inter-turn short circuit occurs, these axes do not coincide with each other and displacement angle ϕ appears between two major axes. Thereby, the non-overlapping area comes into existence. The proposed system considers the effects due to unbalance in voltages, asymmetry in stator winding design, and measurement errors. Experimental results are reported to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique at different load conditions.