1. Introduction
The EMUs’ electric drive system generally adopts AC drive mode, and the AC induction motors are used for electromechanical energy conversion. As the core energy conversion component, traction motors play a crucial role in the EMUs’ normal operation[
1]. Due to reliable operation and convenient maintenance, three-phase squirrel cage induction motors are still the main form of traction motors[
2]. The insulation system is the "heart" of the traction motor. The traction motor is powered by a traction converter, and the inverter generally uses SVPWM (space vector pulse width modulation) and square wave power supply to the traction motor for different control stages[
3,
4].The stator ITSC fault of the induction motor accounts for 37% in industry application, and it is more destructive than rotor bar breakage, air gap eccentricity, and bearing faults [
5,
6]. Due to the effect of the SVPWM voltage pulses supplied by the inverter, the traction motor bears greater voltage stress and is also affected by thermal stress and environmental factors, the ITSC fault is more prominent . If the ITSC fault can be accurately diagnosed during the incipient stage, it can be avoided to expand into ground short-circuit or phase-to-phase short-circuit faults while saving maintenance costs. The accurate ITSC fault diagnosis can provide a reference for the traction motor state-based repair. Current, diagnosis methods for stator ITSC faults in induction motors mainly include model based fault diagnosis, signal analysis based fault diagnosis, and artificial intelligence based fault diagnosis.
The model-based diagnosis for ITSC fault mainly includes two approaches: state variable observation and parameter estimation methods. A coordinate transformation theory was used to obtain a dynamic model of an induction motor with the ITSC fault and convert the model into a state equation form which is amenable to numerical simulation[
7]. The negative sequential current value of an induction motor was estimated from this model to determine the ITSC fault degree. A mathematical model of the induction motor with stator ITSC fault was established, and an adaptive observer was designed using this model[
8]. The observer can estimate the stator inter-turn insulation state under voltage imbalance and speed change conditions. This diagnosis method can be applied to the grid and converter supply conditions. A new stator ITSC fault detection method was proposed based on the model [
9]. The state observer was used to generate a specific residual vector. This approach allows rapid monitoring of ITSC faults at the initial stage. To compensate for the impact of non-equilibrium supply voltage and the existing asymmetry of the three-phase windings. A new stator ITSC fault model for the induction motor was proposed[
10]. This model can accurately determine the ITSC fault extent and location. The motor models were established with ITSC fault related parameters, and the motor faults can be diagnosed by identifying the fault parameters[
11,
12,
13]. The genetic algorithm was used to estimate the basic parameters of the motor, including the stator and rotor resistance, the self inductance and mutual inductance, and the number of turns in the short-circuit phase[
14]. These parameters are closely related to the stator ITSC fault.
Signal-based diagnostic methods for ITSC faults mainly use traditional FFT transform, power spectrum analysis, and modern time-frequency analysis to detect the ITSC faults. After the outage, the ITSC fault was diagnosed by detecting the third harmonic component value in the residual voltage. This method is not affected by motor parameters and power supply imbalance [
15]. The stator ITSC fault in a three-phase induction motors was diagnosed by analyzing the third harmonic component in the positive and negative sequence currents[
16]. A new method for parameter spectrum estimation was proposed, which can take the advantage of fault sensitive frequencies and obtain high-precision frequencies using the maximum likelihood estimation method[
17]. The lower sideband of the power supply frequencies were analyzed, and the Kalman Filter was used to estimate the harmonic amplitude[
18]. The total distortion of instantaneous harmonic current in each phase was used as the fault judgment criterion. If the amplitude at a certain phase exceeds a predetermined threshold, it is determined that the ITSC fault has occurred. Discrete wavelet or wavelet packet transform was used to analyze the current value, power spectral density, and other parameters[
19,
20,
21,
22,
23,
24]. Parameters such as the energy ratio of a particular frequency band were used for fault diagnosis in the induction motors. In addition to the wavelet method, time-frequency analysis methods such as EMD (empirical mode decomposition) can also be applied to diagnose stator ITSC faults in induction motors [
25]..
Artificial intelligence methods for ITSC fault diagnosis in induction motor stators mainly used intelligent pattern recognition methods such as neural networks to evaluate and locate the ITSC faults [
26,
27,
28]. The energy ratio of the three-phase current frequency bands calculated with the discrete wavelet transform was taken as the fault features. The Bayesian regularization Elman network is a fault diagnosis model, which can achieve high accuracy in ITSC fault detection and location at the ITSC incipient stage[
29]. A HCNN (hierarchical convolution neural network) with a two-layer hybrid structure and a SVM (support vector machine) algorithm was proposed to diagnose induction motor incipient ITSC faults. The HCNN network identified stator fault modes and extracted fault features, and the SVM evaluated the fault extent [
30]. The random forest and XGBoost were used to diagnose mixed faults. A two-phase current was filtered and used as the diagnostic signal. The wavelet packet decomposition was used to extract fault features, and finally, PCA (principal component analysis) was used to reduce the fault features dimensions. This method took a CRH2(china railway high-speed) traction motor as the diagnostic object and proved its effectiveness through a semi-physical simulation system[
31].
Although there are more and more research achievements in industrial induction motors for stator ITSC diagnosis, there are specific requirements for the EMU’s induction traction motors ITSC fault diagnosis. In the case of converter power supply, closed-loop control, and complex harmonics, the ITSC faults diagnosis for traction motors is still an open problem [
32]. Diagnostic methods for stator winding based on the fault signals such as negative sequence current components, zero sequence voltage, and high order current harmonics are essential to detect asymmetries in three-phase winding. This article proposed a method of controlling the traction inverter IGBTs to detect the asymmetry of the three-phase winding under the traction motor stationary state. The traction converter is used to output the SPWM excitation voltage. According to the different IGBTs control logic, three ITSC fault diagnostic conditions exist. The Goertzel algorithm is used to calculate the fundamental current amplitude difference Δ
i and phase angle difference Δ
θ of equivalent parallel windings under diagnostic conditions. The fundamental amplitude difference Δ
i and phase angle difference Δ
θ of equivalent parallel windings under three diagnostic conditions are used as fault features. The random forest is used to establish the traction motor ITSC fault diagnosis model. After training, the ITSC fault detection and location model based on the random forest can detect the traction motor ITSC fault and locate the ITSC fault (a, b, c phase windings). The extent of ITSC fault can also be evaluated according to the fault features. This method can be achieved by utilizing only the existing current sensors in the traction system, without additional sensors, and is a non-invasive fault diagnosis method. The ITSC faults are detected in the stationary state of the traction motor, and the diagnosis is not affected by other faults such as rotor bar breakage and air gap eccentricity. The ITSC fault diagnosis method proposed in this article for traction motors in a stationary state has a stable fault diagnosis environment. The diagnosis process is unaffected by load and speed, making the diagnosis more accurate and reliable.
The article consists of six sections. After the introduction of the current method used for ITSC fault diagnosis in industry, a brief introduction of the new diagnosis method for the EMUs’ traction motors was presented. The traction motor stator ITSC fault diagnostic condition control method was presented in
Section 2, the TCU controlled the traction inverter to work in three diagnostic conditions. The SPWM excitation voltage control and the Goertzel algorithm were presented in
Section 3, the frequency and modulation index of SPWM excitation voltage were set, and the Goertzel algorithm was used to compute the amplitude and phase angle of three-phase current fundamental component. The fault features extraction method and the random forest model were presented in
Section 4, the flowchart of the new method for ITSC fault diagnosis was also presented in this section. In
Section 5, the EMU traction motor ITSC simulation experimental platform and the signals measurement system were described, the voltage and current signal of the platform were also analyzed in this section. The experimental results of the stator ITSC fault method based on Goertzel algorithm and random forest were given, the comparisons with other machine leaning algorithm in accuracy were also presented in
Section 5. The paper is concluded with a short summary.
Author Contributions
Methodology, J.M., Y.L. ,J.F. and W.L. ; software, G.Z. and H.L.; validation, J.M.; formal analysis, J.M. and J.H.; investigation, G.Z.; resources, J.F.; data curation, J.M. and L.W. ; writing—original draft preparation, J.M, J.H. Y.L. and L.W.; writing—review and editing, J.F, H.L., L.L. and G.Z. ; visualization, L.L. and H.L. ; supervision, J.F and W.L . All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.