A new Online Hall Effect Sensor Fault Detection and Location in Brushless DC Motor Based on Normalized Phases Currents Analysis

In this paper, a new online technique for Hall Effect sensor fault diagnosis in brushless DC (BLDC) motor is proposed. The proposed technique is based on phase current waveform analysis and does not need any Hall sensor information. The normalized phases current values are analyzed per and post-sensor fault in every cycle. Using a definition of suitable conditions and threshold values for normalized currents values, all sensor fault types (i.e. set to 0 and 1) could be detected and located online effectively. The main contribution of this paper is introducing an online BLDC sensor fault detection and location technique under low-speed operation and transient conditions. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed technique in all of the sensor faults types diagnosis without any sensor output value information. Two different types of BLDC motors are considered for fault diagnosis using the proposed technique. Simulation results during starting and low-speed operations of BLDC motor are well confirmed by the experimental results.