Detection of Inter-turn Short Circuit Faults in Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors with Multistrands Windings

In Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSMs) with multistrands windings, inter-turn short circuit (ITSC) faults occur in two types. One is that the ITSC fault occurs between two spots of a single strand and the other is that the ITSC fault occurs between two different strands. We proposed a fault indicator to detect two types of inter-turn short circuit faults in PMSMs that have multistrands windings. The fault indicator is calculated from stationary dq currents and their Hilbert transforms. The fault indicator converges to zero in healthy state but increases proportionally to the severity of the fault in faulty state. We validated the fault indicator with finite element method (FEM) simulation data. The proposed fault indicator only uses current data, so the indicator is simple and efficient tool to detect ITSC faults in PMSMs with multistrands windings.