Failures of Electrical Machines - Review

In general, there are many types of electrical rotating machines and transformers within various classes of power range and duty cycles. These machines are operated under either industrial or civil conditions. It is a matter of fact that every machine can eventually fail and both damage and losses can occur. Therefore it is necessary to evaluate failure rates and their distribution over certain types of electrical machines and their subsystems. This paper presents an analysis based on the publicly available data, summarizes and compares results obtained from the studies which have been carried out in the past years. In this paper, important machines' subsystems in terms of failure rate are identified. The failure rate is presented in examples. The cause and location of the faults are discussed. Furthermore, this paper suggests general possible procedures for failure elimination or mitigation of the risks. Outcomes of this paper may be important in the field of maintenance, diagnostics and testing, project management and asset management.