Detection of Corrosion in Ball Bearings in Synchronous Reluctance Motors through the Computation of Statistical Indicators of Current Signals

Bearing faults are the among the most common faults in electric motors. Their detection is usually carried out through the analysis of vibration data. However, there are some cases in which this technique cannot be applied. One of the alternatives is the analysis of current signals to diagnose the bearing condition. On the other hand, there is a growing interest in synchronous reluctance motors (SynRM) due to their low cost and higher reliability. Nevertheless, there is little literature on bearing faults in synchronous reluctance motors. This work proposes the computation of statistical indicators obtained from the time-frequency maps of the current signal envelope to detect the presence of corrosion in bearings of SynRM. It is proven that these indicators not only detect the presence of the fault but are promising tools to determine its severity.