Motor Current Signature Analysis and Fuzzy Logic Applied to the
Diagnosis of Short-Circuit Faults in Induction Motors
Lus Alberto Pereira, Daniel da Silva Gazzana, Lus F. A. Pereira
Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul
Avenida Ipiranga, 6681
90619-900 - Porto Alegre
BRAZIL
lpereira@pucrs.br, dgazzana@terra.com.br, pereira@pucrs.br
Abstract The paper presents the development and the practical
implementation of a system for detection and diagnosis of
interturn short-circuits in the stator windings of induction
motors. Motor Current Signature Analysis (MCSA) and Fuzzy
Logic techniques are utilized in order to achieve that. After a
brief description of the MCSA, the causes of short circuits are
discussed and characterized with frequency relationships and
frequency spectra. Subsequently, failure diagnosis techniques
based on Fuzzy Logic are presented. Afterwards, the results of
the practical implementation of fault detection and diagnosis
system are shown and commented. MATLAB 6.0 and built-in
toolboxes (DSP Blockset, Fuzzy Logic and Real-Time
Workshop) are used as a development tool. The implemented
and tested method showed efficiency as the practical results
corresponded to the predicted with the developed system. The
results obtained present a great degree of reliability, which
enables them to be used as a monitoring tool for similar motors.
I. INTRODUCTION
As new data processing techniques and new technologies
for electrical drives emerge, monitoring, fault detection and
diagnosis of electrical machines are becoming more and
more important issues in the field of electrical machines.
Induction machines can be found in almost all types of
applications, from small single phase machines for home
appliances up to large triphase motors for industrial plants.
Machine monitoring plays a crucial role in detecting
incipient faults and, in this way, preventing unscheduled
downtime and the associated outage costs of
electromechanical systems and components. In past decades
a number of different incipient fault detection methods and
schemes have been presented and tested [2][4][5][6][9]][10].
Special attention has been devoted to non-invasive methods,
which are capable to detect faults using measured data
without disassembling the machine or its structural parts. The
MCSA (Motor Current Signature Analysis) is considered the
most promising fault detection methods, as it permits to
detect several common machine faults. This method is based
on the spectral decomposition of the steady state stator
current which can be acquired with simple measurement
equipments and under normal operation of the machine. This
is an important advantage when compared to other invasive
methods. In general the use of invasive methods makes
necessary to install some kind of sensor in the machine, as
for the case of vibrations analysis or temperature analysis. In
this way, considering the advantages and reduced costs non-
invasive methods have been preferred for practical purposes.
In the last decade a great number of papers have also
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reported the successfully application of Artificial Intelligence
techniques (AI) for fault diagnosis. There are some
commercial diagnosis systems based on AI. In addition,
much published work has reported the advantages and results
obtained with the application of ANN (Artificial Neural
Network), Fuzzy Logic and Neuro-Fuzzy concepts to the
fault diagnosis of electrical machines [6][11]. Application of
AI to monitoring and fault detection of induction machine
can in fact make the fault detection less dependent on the
human experience, given that it permit to integrate the human
knowledge and experience into the diagnosis system.
II. FAULT DETECTION USING MCSA
The condition monitoring, fault diagnosis and detection of
electrical machines can be performed using simple voltage
and current sensors [7][12]. In the MCSA method the current
frequency spectrum is obtained and analyzed aiming to find
out specific frequency components which indicate an
incipient fault or a possible degradation in the machine
condition. As stated in several published papers, these
frequencies are related to well-known machine faults.
Therefore, after the stator current has been processed, it is
possible to infer about the machine condition. Yet another
important feature of this method is that the current can be
sampled while the machine is under operation. Therefore, the
fault detection and diagnosis can be made online without
disconnecting the machine from the mains.
III. LOW VOLTAGE STATOR WINDING FAULTS
The most common kind of faults related to stator winding
of induction motors are: phase-to-ground, phase-to-phase and
short-circuit of coils of the same or different phase. The last
kind of fault is also called turn to turn fault. All these faults
are classified as isolation faults and have several causes: hot
spots in the stator winding (or stator core) resulting in high
temperatures, loosening of structural parts, oil contamination,
moisture and dirt, electrical discharges (in case of high
voltage windings), slack core lamination, abnormal operation
of the cooling system.
Short-circuit related faults have specific components in the
stator current frequency spectrum. Incipient faults can be
detected sampling the stator current and analysing its
spectrum [8][9]. This procedure is on the base of MCSA
Method. The frequencies which appear in the spectrum
showing the presence of a short-circuit fault are given by the
following equation [9]:
n
f cc = f f k (1 s)
p (1)
p - pole pairs
s - rotor slip
ff - fundamental frequency(Hz)
fcc - short-circuit related frequency (Hz)
k=1,2,3... order of the frequency harmonic

The frequencies revealing the presence of short-circuit of

winding turns are in some cases very close to frequencies
related to other kinds of defect, as for example eccentricities.
For a correct diagnosis it is very important to be able to
distinguish one from the other.
Fig. 1 Motor Fault Detection and Diagnosis System

IV. ECCENTRICITY RELATED FREQUENCIES
As stated in [7] the frequency components related to the
eccentricity can be determined from the following equation:
f e = (f f k f r )
(2)
p - pole pairs
s - rotor slip
fe- eccentricity related frequency(Hz)
fr - rotor mechanical frequency (Hz)
k=1,2,3... order of the frequency harmonic
Comparing the frequency components given by (1) with
n=1,2,3 and k=1 with those given by (2) with k=1,2,3 it can
be seen that these components are the same for a given load
condition. Therefore, it is very difficult to distinguish a short-
circuit fault frequency component from the ones related to
eccentricity. The practical consequences of this fact will be
discussed in section VIII. A possible approach to solve this
problem would be the determination of short-circuit
frequencies for k>1 in equation (1) and in this way obtaining
a different spectrum for each fault condition. The problem
with this approach is the fact that the magnitude of the
frequency components for k>1 are very low, making their
detection difficult. This is so because the frequency for k>1
are in general very high and their magnitude decay with
increasing frequency. Besides, they can be confused with
frequencies related to other kind of faults at higher
frequencies.
V. FAULT DIAGNOSIS AND FUZZY LOGIC
Fuzzy logic can systematically translate linguistic concepts
to numbers and associate elements from a number set to
concepts [13]. This capability provides a simple method to
analyze and interpret the frequency spectrum obtained for the
stator current of induction machines. Fuzzy based algorithms
and Fuzzy logic are well adapted to situations where no clear
distinction between the concepts of true and false exists.
Fuzzy logic can handle situations where the answer lies
somewhere in-between. This is the typical case of machine
fault diagnosis [1][3][6]. In fact, in general it is a difficult
task to establish the actual condition of a machine in terms of
the existence or not of a defect. However, it makes more
sense to classify a fault in terms of its degree of severity.
Fuzzy logic permits to infer about the machine state and to
establish its condition in different degrees of faulty condition.
An important feature of Fuzzy based systems is that the
human knowledge and experience can be integrated into the
systems in a systematic way. This can be done when the
Fuzzy sets and Fuzzy rules are being defined. This feature is
even more important because the fault detection is in practice
based on the human knowledge and experience, at least up to
some degree.
VI. SYSTEM FOR FAULT DETECTION
Based on the MCSA a system for fault detection was
developed and implemented as shown in Fig. 1. The stator
current is first sampled in the time domain and in the
sequence the frequency spectrum is calculated and analyzed
aiming to detect specific frequency components related to
incipient faults. For each rotor faults there is an associated
frequency that can be identified in the spectrum, as given by
(1). Faults are detected comparing the harmonic amplitude of
specific frequencies with the harmonic amplitude of the same
machine considered as healthy. Based on the amplitude in dB
it is also possible to determine the degree of faulty condition.
In the described system current sensors connected to a data
acquisition board are used to acquire the current samples
from the motor under load. The current signals are then
transformed to the frequency domain using a Fast Fourier
Transform algorithm (FFT). The frequency spectrum are
transferred to a Fuzzy based system which then infer about
the actual condition of the machine.
Fig. 2 Blocks for the determination of the current spectrum

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 VII. DATA ACQUISITION AND PROTOTYPE

In order to test the system in practical cases a triphase

prototype machine of 1/3 HP, 8 poles, 60Hz was built. The
machine has 220 V rated voltage and has stator windings taps
so as to make possible to simulate short-circuit faults in two
of the three stator phases. Several measurements were made,
in which the stator current waveform was acquired for a
given number of short-circuited coils. Current measurements
were performed for a healthy stator winding and also for the
same machine with different number of shortened coils in the
same phase. The current was read using a hall-sensor with
maximal resolution of 100mV/A, being the data sent to a PC Fig. 5 - Frequency spectrum, healthy machine, load uncoupled
through an acquisition board from National Instruments
(Lab-PC-1200 AI). The sample frequency used for the
measurement is about 1 kHz. In this way frequencies up to
500 Hz can be included in the analysis. After the reading, the
current signal is decomposed by a FFT algorithm. All the
signal processing is performed using Matlab/Simulink and
the DSP BlockSet Toolbox to generate the frequency
spectrum. In Fig 2 is shown the Simulink blocks used to
obtain the current spectrum in the frequency domain.

VIII. PRACTICAL RESULTS

A. Frequency Spectrum
Fig. 6 - Frequency spectrum, 4% shortened, load uncoupled

Fig. 3. Frequency spectrum, healthy machine, load coupled to the shaft

Fig. 7 - Frequency spectrum, 16% shortened, load uncoupled

Fig. 4. Frequency spectrum, 32% of the stator winding shortened, load

coupled to the shaft Fig. 8 - Frequency spectrum, 32% shortened, load uncoupled

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 Using the system described in Fig. 2 the prototype three phases. The test results for one of the phases are
machine was tested for healthy working conditions and for presented in what follows. The results for the remaining
winding short-circuits of 2%, 4% and 32 % of two from the phase are very similar and for reasons of shortness they are
not presented here. During the test the motor was initially
Table I. : Magnitude of short-circuit related frequency components coupled to an electromagnetic brake.
MagR MagR MagN MagN
Figs. 3 and 4 shows the frequency spectrum for the healthy
healthy -0.801 -0.882 0.199 0.118
condition and for a short-circuit of 32% of the winding and
under no-load condition. Even for the healthy condition and
4% SC -0.721 -0.686 0.279 0.314
with no short-circuit in the stator winding these spectra show
16% SC -0.403 -0.425 0.597 0.575
some components that are in fact linked to eccentricity as
32% SC -0.139 -0.173 0.861 0.827
discussed in section IV (these components are named -F1, -
SC - short-circuit, MagR - absolute magnitude, MagN- normalized
magnitude
F2, -F3, +F1, +F2, +F3). The same components appear in the
presence of some kind of short-circuit in the winding, as in
Fig 4, given that both frequencies are the same, accordingly
to (2). The eccentricity components appearing in Figs. 3 and
4 come from the (small) misalignment between the machine
shaft and the electromagnetic brake shaft. Analysing only the
frequency spectra it is not possible to distinguish one defect
from the other. One alternative to circumvent the problem is
to take an initial measurement for the uncoupled motor
operating at no load. Unfortunately, this is not always
possible in most of the practical cases.
Figs. 5 to 8 show the test results obtained with no load
coupled to the shaft and for short-circuit in the phase winding
ranging form 4% to 32%. Comparing with the healthy
Fig.9.- - Membership Function for the inputs CC1e CC2 machine (Fig. 5) with the short-circuit cases (Fig. 6 to 8) it
can be seen that the magnitude of short-circuit related
Tabela II. Output Relationship between CC and winding condition
frequencies increases with the severity of the short-circuit.
Output Range Winding Condition Short Circuit (%) During this test eccentricity was not observed, given that the
machine had no load on the shaft.
0 CC 1 Healthy (HT) 0%
The magnitudes of the short-circuit frequencies are termed
1 < CC < 3 Incipient Defect (ID) 4% Fcc1 and +Fcc1 and will be used as input for the Fuzzy
based system described in the next subsection.
3 CC 6 Defect (DF) 16%

6 < CC 10 Severe Defect (SD) 32% B. Fault Diagnosis Using Fuzzy Logic

Table III Input and Output Variables for the Fuzzy Diagnosis System
The magnitude of the short-circuit frequencies Fcc1 e
for some values of the input obtained by measurements +Fcc1 (see Fig. 6 to 8) were defined as input variables in the
Fuzzy based diagnosis system. They were first of all
input output
"fuzzified" accordingly to Table I. In order to make them
condition CC1 CC2 CC condition easier to interpret, the current amplitude of the components
healthy 0.199 0.118 0.752 ND related to faults has been normalized using the magnitude of
4% CC 0.279 0.314 2.49 PD the fundamental frequency as the base value. Therefore, the
16% CC 0.597 0.575 5.5 D values of the input variables were translated in the interval
32% CC 0.861 0.827 8.06 SD [0,1], as shown in Table I. The input variables were assigned
the names CC1 (first short-circuit indicator) and CC2
(second short-circuit indicator). They correspond to the 4th
and 5th columns of Table I. Trapezoidal and triangular Fuzzy
membership functions have been defined to handle the input
variables as illustrated in Fig. 9 and 10. The limits of each
function have been adjusted based on the behavior of the
input variables CC1 and CC2 determined experimentally by
stator current harmonic measurements. The linguistic values
defined for the input set are defined as being: very low (VL),
low (LO), moderate (MO), high (HI).

Based on the measured data, a set of Fuzzy rules have been

defined. In terms of Fuzzy terminology the variables CC1
Fig.10. Output Membership Function for CC

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and CC2 are the antecedent and the phase winding state (CC)
is the consequent. The latter is associated to 4 membership
functions which map the output to the following Fuzzy set
(linguistic values): healthy (HT), incipient defect (ID), defect
(DF), severe defect (SD). The rules for the Fuzzy based
inference are described as follows:
Rule 1: if CC1 VL and CC2 VL then CC is HT
Rule 2: if CC1 LO and CC2 VL then CC is ID
Rule 3: if CC1 LO and CC2 LO then CC is ID
Rule 4: if CC1 MO and CC2 LO then CC is DF
Rule 5: if CC1 MO and CC2 HI then CC is DF
Rule 6: if CC1 HI and CC2 MO then CC is SD
Rule 7: if CC1 HI and CC2 HI then CC is SD
The implemented inference system is of Mamdani type
and the Centroid method has been used for the
defuzzification process. Although other methods of
deffuzification have been tried, the Centroid method was the
one that produced the best results. Trapezoidal and
triangular-shape membership functions were also defined for
the output variable CC, as can be seen in Fig. 10. The output
range for this variable is defined as being the interval [0-10]
divided into 4 sections as described in Table II.
In order to test the performance of the developed Fuzzy
system in particular cases, the same measured values were
fed to the input variables CC1 and CC2 and the results
compared with the corresponding obtained experimentally.
The results obtained with the Fuzzy systems can be seen in
the second and third column of Table III and corresponding
values for the output variable CC is shown in the fourth
column. The associated linguistic values are in the fifth
column of this Table. From these results it can be concluded
that the Fuzzy systems can reliable detect short-circuit in the
phase winding of the machine considered.
IX. CONCLUSION
The paper described a system for detection of short-circuit
condition in the phase winding of induction machines based
on the MCSA and Fuzzy Logic. The system was
implemented and tested using a prototype with special stator
winding taps allowing the simulation of several short-circuit
conditions in the phase windings. Based on the results
obtained with the systems it can be stated that the MCSA
method proven to be adequate for the cases and load
conditions considered, as the system was capable to correctly
detect short-circuits in the stator winding.
As to the frequency spectrum of stator current, it was
observed that when the machine is coupled to the load and in
presence of some kind of eccentricity difficulties arise in
detecting short-circuits in the stator winding. This comes
from the fact that the associated frequency is very close to
the frequencies associated with eccentricity. When using a
sample frequency of 1 kHz the FFT algorithm was not
accurate enough to permit a reliable conclusion about a
defect. In this case, reliable fault detection would be better
performed using a higher sample frequency or uncoupling
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the load from the machine, as performed in this paper.
However, this can not be undertaken in all practical cases.
The system presented was tested in a 1/3 HP machine, but
it could be extended to other types of machine, following the
methodology presented in this paper and fitting new values
for Fuzzy sets. Special care must be devoted to the sampling
rate of the measurements and to saturation effects in current
measurements instruments, besides the referred problem with
eccentricities.
The Fuzzy based system developed for short-circuit
detection was tested and adjusted based on a number
different measured data. The results obtained with this
system are in good agreement with the practice, as it is
capable to detect the correct winding condition under the
conditions described.
X. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to thank AES-SUL and EBERLE S. A.
for their financial support for the development of this work.
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