Effects of eccentricities on shaft signals studied through windingless rotors

Shaft signals of electric rotating machines offer potentials for defect detection. The signals are affected by many factors. This study specifically focuses on how eccentricities affect shaft signals through theoretical predictions and tests conducted on windingless rotors. Windingless rotors imply currentless rotors. For symmetrical synchronous machines running at steady synchronous speeds, the induced rotor currents are zero, while harmonics are neglected. One advantage in experiments for this study is that air gaps can be shimmed accurately at standstill without end brackets; certain tests can be conducted at standstill without facing unmanageable locked-rotor currents for the test machines. Shaft signals decrease when the rotor of a machine closely situates at the center of stator bore. Shaft signals increase under greater eccentricities when stator and rotor axes are parallel. Tilted rotors reduce shaft signals. Even when there are no rotor windings, inherent positional characteristics exists. This characteristic produces cyclic shaft-signal components that are related to rotor revolutions.>