Diagnosis of three-phase induction motor and the impact on the kinematic chain using non-destructive technique of infrared thermography

The diagnostics failures of monitoring the condition of rotation machinery in the industry are considered very significant to ensure the efficiency and safety of production. However, many serious malfunctioning to the machine could easily occur because of these failures, thus, a huge shortage in production. In this domain, In fact, the most important installation faults lead to an increase of temperature in specific areas. In this paper, we describe an experimental device based on an infrared thermography technic, which allows observing thermal phenomena. The three-phase induction motor, used in this work, is mounted on a base plate with an alignment device. During the start-up transients, from standstill to steady state, thermal images of the motor trunk are captured every second by an infrared camera connected to a computer equipped with analysis software. These images are used first of all to build the thermal model other induction motor. Then, the results obtained by the building model are compared with those obtained by the faulty machines, in order to study the applicability of thermographic data for diagnostic purposes. Results show that this method represents a powerful diagnostic tool, which can be used to complete the information provided by techniques based on other quantities, in cases where they are inconclusive.