Using a neural/fuzzy system to extract heuristic knowledge of incipient faults in induction motors: Part II-Application

The use of electric motors in industry is extensive. These motors are exposed to a wide variety of environments and conditions which age the motor and make it subject to incipient faults. These incipient faults, if left undetected, contribute to the degradation and eventual failure of the motors. This paper uses a hybrid neural/fuzzy fault detector to solve the motor fault detection problem. As an illustration, the neural/fuzzy fault detector is used to monitor the condition of a motor bearing and stator winding insulation. The initialization and training of this fault detector is in accordance with the procedures outlined in Part I of this paper. Once the neural/fuzzy fault detector is trained, the detector not only can provide accurate fault detector performance, but can also provide the heuristic reasoning behind the fault detection process and the actual motor fault conditions. With better understanding of the heuristics through the use of fuzzy rules and fuzzy membership functions, a better understanding of the fault detection process of the system is available, thus better motor protection systems can be designed.>