Single open-phase fault detection in permanent magnet synchronous machine through current prediction

This paper presents a detection method for single open-phase fault in three phase permanent magnet synchronous machine. The method is based on predictive stator current calculation. For each sampling interval the difference between actual stator current and its predicted value in previous sampling interval is calculated. The magnitude of the difference serves as a main diagnostic index for single open-phase fault detection. By analyzing the angle of stator current the fault location can be identified. After the fault is detected and identified, if possible, the operation with reduced number of phases is desirable. For this purpose, single open-phase fault identification and post-fault operation will be briefly discussed. Fault detection method has been simulated in MATLAB and tested on experimental setup with a real machine.