Performance and Reliability Evaluation of Induction Machines: an Overview

This paper presents an overview on performance and reliability evaluation of induction machines. Induction Machine has been found to be very suitable for electrical to mechanical energy conversion vice versa. Induction machines have been subjected to increased demand for low cost and size, simple construction, absence of separate dc source for excitation, least maintenance, operational simplicity, brush less construction with cage rotor, easy parallel operation, no hunting, higher horsepower per frame size, higher operating temperatures, more demanding duty cycles, higher starting currents, frequent voltage transients, severe environmental exposure, long life and reliable performance. The fault modes of induction machine are very complex, so that many people are plagued to establish the fault evidences for reliability verification. The classification of the various faults of the induction machines have been discussed in this paper. The major failure modes of the machines are classified as class A, Class B and Class C modes. Reliability evaluation technique, Refusable Fault Rate (REFR), Acceptable Fault Rate (ACFR), and an overview on various types of reliability methods have been described considering various fault modes.