Simple detection of broken rotor bars using field-oriented control

In this paper, a method for simple detection of broken rotor bars in a speed-controlled induction motor, is presented. It is based on detecting the oscillations in a magnetizing component of stator current, through a modified control loop. The method is simple and requires no additional hardware, thus it can run in parallel with field-oriented control, which is not affected by the procedure. Experimental results obtained from gradually damaged rotor shows high level of fault detection even with low number of broken bars.