Effect of Inter-Turn Short Circuit Faults on Axial Flux Synchronous Reluctance Motor Performance

In this study, the effects of stator winding inter-turn short-circuit faults occurring in an Axial Flux Synchronous Reluctance Motor (AF-SynRM) on motor performance were experimentally investigated. Within the scope of the study, a total of 12 different fault scenarios were created using different fault ratios and fault resistances, and the experiments were carried out under 4 different speed conditions and 5 different load conditions. In the analyses, phase current, fault current, power factor, and MTPA angle behaviors were evaluated. The obtained results demonstrated that significant increases in motor currents occurred particularly under low fault resistance and high load conditions. In addition, it was determined that the faults caused variations in power factor characteristic, while the MTPA angle, which represents the optimum operating point of the motor, shifted depending on the fault severity. Overall, the results revealed that stator winding inter-turn short-circuit faults (SITF) affect not only current levels but also energy conversion performance and control characteristics of the motor. As the first study in the literature to experimentally investigate the effects of SITF in an AF-SynRM structure within this scope, it is considered that the findings obtained will provide significant contributions to fault analysis and fault-tolerant drive systems.