Broken Magnet Fault detection for a BLDC Motor Drive using Magnetic Flux Signatures adopting Hybrid/Co-Simulation-based Techniques

The proposed research investigates the broken Permanent Magnet (PM) fault detection in a Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) Motor drive. The modeling and analysis of the motor is accomplished using proposed techniques of hybrid Electrical Equivalent Circuit (EEC)-Numerical Method (NM) based approach and Finite Element (FE) based co-simulation methods. The BLDC motor drive is operated under healthy and broken PM fault conditions. The performance characteristics of the machine is recorded in terms of electromagnetic quantities like stator phase current (I
s
), motor back-EMF (E
B
), magnetic flux density (B
M
) and magnetic flux linkages (φ). The significant changes encountered in magnitude and shape of magnetic flux quantities and motor back-EMF, gives the detection and identification of broken magnet fault in BLDC motor drive. The experimental investigation further gives validation to the proposed modeling approaches.