Detection of Broken Rotor Bar Faults and Effects of Loading in Induction Motors during Rundown

The detection of broken rotor bar faults based on the common steady-state Fourier transform technique is known to be dependent on the loading condition and the quality of the supply. This paper attempts to minimise these issues by utilising the induced voltage in the stator windings after supply disconnection. When the supply is disconnected, the stator current rapidly drops to zero and the only source of the stator induced voltage an instant after the supply disconnection is due to currents in the rotor. The rotor currents are sensitive to broken rotor bar faults and directly affect the rundown induced voltage in the stator windings. The performance of two different broken rotor bar detection techniques, based on the Fourier transform and the wavelet transform, are investigated over a wide range of loading conditions.