The influence of the unbalanced magnetic pull on fault-induced rotor eccentricity in induction motors

When performing bearing fault measurements, the unbalanced magnetic pull’s (UMP) influence is inadvertently incorporated. The UMP’s influence distorts the measurements used for bearing fault size estimation, leading to inaccurate fault interpretations. In this paper, we combined a magnetic equivalent circuit motor model with a dynamic bearing model to isolate the UMP’s effect, which is unprecedented in the state of the art. The coupled model is used to analyse the dynamic interaction between a mechanical fault and the UMP without neglecting the influence of the rotor slot harmonics nor the magnetic potential losses in the stator and rotor. We compare simulations performed with the UMP and without the UMP in the presence of (i) an outer race bearing fault and (ii) an outer race bearing fault combined with an intrinsic rotor misalignment (IRM). The study finds that the UMP amplifies the rotor eccentricity by a non-negligible amount without accounting for an IRM. Moreover, with the inclusion of an IRM, the rotor vibrations are distorted to the point where bearing fault estimation algorithms could become inoperable. The presence of rotor slot harmonics in the UMP has been identified as a key contributor to the distortion. The findings presented in this article can be used to improve bearing fault size estimation algorithms by isolating the disturbances caused by the UMP.