A Hierarchical FFT–ANFIS Algorithm for Detection, Localization, and Severity Assessment of Inter-Turn Short-Circuit Faults in Doubly Fed Induction Generators

Early and reliable diagnosis of inter-turn short-circuit (ITSC) faults is critical to maintaining the reliability, availability, and safe operation of doubly fed induction generators (DFIGs) used in wind energy conversion systems (WECSs). Incipient winding faults are particularly challenging to identify because their electrical signatures can be masked by the inherent spectral complexity of DFIG operation and variations in wind and operating conditions. This study proposes a hybrid Fast Fourier Transform-Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (FFT–ANFIS) diagnostic framework for the detection, localization, and severity assessment of ITSC faults in both stator and rotor windings. The proposed approach employs the FFT method to extract fault-sensitive harmonic components from stator-current signals, which are subsequently used as diagnostic features by an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). By integrating spectral feature extraction with nonlinear neuro-fuzzy classification, the proposed framework provides an efficient and interpretable mechanism for distinguishing healthy and faulty operating conditions and assessing fault severity. The methodology is evaluated using MATLAB/Simulink simulations under healthy and multiple ITSC fault conditions with different fault locations and severity levels. The results demonstrate 100% classification accuracy for stator faults, rotor faults, and multiple short-circuit (MSC) fault conditions, together with near-zero prediction error in fault-severity estimation. These results confirm the high discriminative capability of the selected FFT-based spectral features and the effectiveness of ANFIS in establishing the nonlinear relationship between fault signatures and fault conditions. In addition, the proposed framework maintains low computational complexity and is therefore suitable for real-time condition-monitoring applications. Compared with existing diagnostic approaches, the proposed method provides a unified framework for multi-fault diagnosis while combining high diagnostic accuracy, computational efficiency, and interpretable decision-making. The proposed FFT–ANFIS framework consequently offers a practical approach for early fault detection and condition-based maintenance of DFIG-based wind turbines, with the potential to reduce unplanned downtime, maintenance requirements, and energy-production losses.