High-Fidelity Co-Simulation Framework toward Digital Twin-Based Interturn Short-Circuit Fault Diagnosis in Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor

Monitoring the conditions of electric motors in industrial applications is an essential step for ensuring safety and reducing maintenance costs. This paper deals with one of the most frequent winding failures—the inter-turn short fault of an interior permanent magnet synchronous motor. A novel high-fidelity co-simulation framework toward a digital twin-based approach combining Maxwell simulation in finite element method (FEM) for the motor and control system in system software for the inverter is presented. An analysis of the motor based on a 2D FEM model is performed considering the motor topology and non-linear properties, and inductance and flux-linkage data of 3-phase and short circuit currents. A real-time simulation of the motor and inverter control algorithm is performed based on the calculated electromagnetic field data of the motor. The characteristics of short current and its fault diagnosis method under different operating conditions, according to short fault severity, load, and speed of motor, are investigated. We focused on phase current spectral analysis, particularly the 3rd harmonics of the phase current in the frequency domain. The proposed co-simulation approach enables a digital twin-based model to identify and pick up informative data for fault diagnosis. In addition, the simulation results and proposed method are verified using experimental data.