The purpose of this work is to perform a multiobjective optimization in a 4:2 switched reluctance motor aiming both to maximize the mitigation of the torque ripple and to minimize the degradations of the starting and mean torques. To accomplish this task the Pareto Archived Evolution Strategy was implemented jointly with the Kriging Method, which acts as a surrogate function. The technique was applied on the optimization of some rotor geometrical parameters with the aid of finite element simulations to evaluate the approximation points for the Kriging model. The numerical results were compared to those from tests.

This paper presents the use of an invasive method specially applied for broken rotor bars diagnosis in large induction machines, considering the frequency domain analysis of the magnetic flux density variation in a low-cost Hall effect sensor. The proposed method is based on the Fast Fourier transform, or spectral analysis of the resultant magnetic flux density, to contribute to a crack and bar breaks diagnosis on large squirrel cage motors. More particularly, this paper considers the use of a method capable of overcoming some drawbacks from traditional diagnostic techniques, such as motor current signature analysis during operation at very low slip. The results from the computational simulation and some experimental tests are presented and could be considered for rotor failure diagnostics in induction motors.

The approach presented in this paper consists of an energy-based field-circuit coupling in combination with multiphysics simulation of the acoustic radiation of electrical machines. The proposed method is applied to a special switched reluctance motor with asymmetric pole geometry to improve the start-up torque. The pole shape has been optimized, subject to low torque ripple, in a previous study. The proposed approach here is used to analyze the impact of the optimization on the overall acoustic behavior. The field-circuit coupling is based on a temporary lumped-parameter model of the magnetic part incorporated into a circuit simulation based on the modified nodal analysis. The harmonic force excitation is calculated by means of stress tensor computation, and it is transformed to a mechanical mesh by mapping techniques. The structural dynamic problem is solved in the frequency domain using a finite-element modal analysis and superposition. The radiation characteristic is obtained from boundary element acoustic simulation. Simulation results of both rotor types are compared, and measurements of the drive are presented.

Transformers are one of the most important part in a power system and, especially in key-facilities, they should be closely and continuously monitored. In this context, methods based on the dissolved gas ratios allow to associate values of gas concentrations with the occurrence of some faults, such as partial discharges and thermal faults. So, an accurate prediction of oil-dissolved gas concentrations is a valuable tool to monitor the transformer condition and to develop a fault diagnosis system. This study proposes a nonlinear autoregressive neural network model coupled with the discrete wavelet transform for predicting transformer oil-dissolved gas concentrations. The data fitting and accurate prediction ability of the proposed model is evaluated in a real world example, showing better results in relation to current prediction models and common time series techniques.

This paper presents the use of a fuzzy-based statistical feature extraction from the air gap disturbances for diagnosing broken rotor bars in large induction motors fed by line or an inverter. The method is based on the analysis of the magnetic flux density variation in a Hall Effect Sensor, installed between two stator slots of the motor. The proposed method combines a fuzzy inference system and a support vector machine technique for time-domain assessment of the magnetic flux density, in order to detect a single fault or multiple broken bars in the rotor. In this approach, it is possible to detect not only the existence of failures, but also its severity. Moreover, it is not necessary to estimate the slip of the motor, usually required by other methods and the damaged rotor detection was also evaluated for oscillating load conditions. Thus, the present approach can overcome some drawbacks of the traditional MCSA method, particularly in operational cases where false positive and false negative indications are more frequently. The efficiency of this approach has been proven using some computational simulation results and experimental tests to detect fully broken rotor bars in a 7.5 kW squirrel cage induction machine fed by line and an inverter.

Dissolved gas analysis (DGA) is one of the most important methods to analyze fault in power transformers. In general, DGA is applied in monitoring systems based upon an autoregressive model; the current value of a time series is regressed on past values of the same series, as well as present and past values of some exogenous variables. The main difficulty is to decide the order of the autoregressive model; this means determining the number of past values to be used. This study proposes a wavelet-like transform to optimize the order of the variables in a nonlinear autoregressive neural network to predict the in oil dissolved gas concentration (DGC) from sensor data. Daubechies wavelets of different lengths are used to create representations with different time delays of ten DGC, which are then subjected to a procedure based on principal components analysis (PCA) and Pearson’s correlation to find out the order of an autoregressive model. The representations with optimal time delays for each DGC are applied as input in a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) network with backpropagation algorithm to predict the gas at the present and future times. This approach produces better results than choosing the same time delay for all inputs, as usual. The forecasts reached an average mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 5.763%, 1.525%, 1.831%, 2.869%, and 5.069% for C₂H₂, C₂H₆, C₂H₄, CH₄, and H₂, respectively.