Vibration, Sound and Thermal Analysis as a Condition Monitoring Methods for Electric Motors

Abstract

This paper presents a comparison of different measurement techniques for condition monitoring of electric motors. Results are presented for vibration, acoustic and thermal analysis. Vibration signals were measured by piezoelectric accelerometers, acoustic by microphones and temperature data was collected by an infrared camera. Two induction motor cases were examined – healthy motor case and combination of static eccentricity with soft foot case. Vibration monitoring is a well known technique used in condition monitoring and in this work vibration measurements were used as a reference signal for assessment of the value of acoustic and thermal measurements. As presented in result section both acoustic analyses as well as thermal images appear as valuable techniques for condition monitoring of electric motors. All the measurements where conducted in an industrial environment.