Induction machines are the most widely used type of electrical machines because of their robustness, simplicity, and relatively low cost. However, the small airgap in the induction machine makes them more susceptible to Unbalanced Magnetic Pull (UMP). This is because the magnitude of the UMP is a function of the degree of eccentricity, which is the ratio between the length of misalignment and the mean airgap length. The bearing-related failure accounts for approximately 41% of the total failures of induction machines; the percentages of bearing-related failure would be higher for applications in a harsher environment. In this thesis, the UMP caused by rotor eccentricity is investigated, because a small degree of rotor eccentricity is unavoidable due to the manufacturing tolerance and 80% of the mechanical faults could cause rotor eccentricity in electrical machines. When the rotor is not at the centre of the stator, the eccentric rotor causes an uneven airgap around the rotor, in which the magnetic permeance with the higher harmonics content will be created. The magnetomotive force (MMF) produces additional pole-pair ±1 magnetic flux around the airgap. The interaction between each magnetic flux with its pole pair ±1 magnetic flux produces UMP. As only the magnetic flux that crosses the airgap causes UMP, the magnetic flux is categorised into magnetising flux and airgap leakage flux, because both types of flux possess different characteristics at a different rotor slip. As the airgap leakage flux is difficult to calculate analytically, an empirical method is proposed to estimate the UMP caused by the airgap leakage flux. Then, the UMP caused by the magnetising flux can also be estimated by using the empirical method. The parameters for the empirical method can be found by using either the FEA or the experimental results. The damping effect of the magnetising flux in a parallel connected rotor bar is discussed and a damping coefficient is introduced to explain this scenario. The damping coefficient can also be used to calculate the UMP in a steady state analysis. UMP comparisons between the cage rotor and wound rotor induction machines are made. The wound rotor has a much higher UMP because the pole-specific wound rotor could not damp the additional pole pair ±1 magnetic flux. Therefore, a damper winding at the stator slot is also proposed in order to damp the UMP by producing a counteracting flux. In addition, analytical equations have also been derived for different scenarios, such as static eccentricity, dynamic eccentricity, axial-varying eccentricity, and skew rotor bars. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and experimental work are used to demonstrate the derived analytical equation. Furthermore, the power losses caused by the rotor eccentricity are investigated. Iron losses, copper losses, and frictional loss are discussed and compared with both the analytical equation and the FEA results. In order to reduce the UMP in the induction machines, the two proposed methods are the slip control method and damper windings topology. The slip control method utilises the non-linearity characteristic of the UMP at different rotor slip. To find the optimum operating slip with the lowest UMP, the UMP/Torque ratio is introduced. The characteristics of the UMP/Torque ratio varies with the type and design of the induction machines. However, this method is only applicable when the machine is lightly loaded, because the magnetising flux is limited by the capped terminal voltage and the core saturation of the machine. For the damper winding topology, a circulating current flowing in the damper winding could produce a counteracting flux to damp the UMP. The proposed damper windings configuration is only suitable for the induction machine with an even pole pair number. Finally, comparisons between both UMP reduction methods are made.

Hydropower research is often perceived to be an old and exhausted field of study but with ageing equipment and the need for more intermittent operation caused by an increased share of other renewable energy sources new challenges lie ahead. The main focus of this dissertation are the electromagnetic forces resulting from nonuniform air gap flux, whether it be caused by rotor eccentricity or a faulty field winding. Results are predominantly obtained from measurements on an experimental generator and numerical simulations. With the computational capacity available today it is possible to numerically analyse physical phenomena that previously could only be studied with analytical tools. Numerical models can also be expanded to encompass more than one aspect of generator operation in coupled field-circuit models without model complexity surpassing computer capability. Three studies of unbalanced magnetic pull, UMP, in synchronous salient pole generators constitute the main part of this thesis. The first is a study of how parallel stator circuits affect the unbalanced magnetic pull caused by rotor eccentricity. Depending on the relationship between the geometry of the separate circuits and the direction of the eccentricity it was found that parallel circuits could reduce the UMP substantially. Secondly, an investigation of the effect of damper winding configuration on UMP was performed. The results showed that damper winding resistivity and the distance between the damper bars in a pole determine the effectiveness of the damper winding in reducing the UMP. Simulations of a production machine indicate that the reduction can be substantial from damper windings with low resistivity. The third study analyses the consequences of field winding interturn short circuits. Apart from a resulting rotating unbalanced magnetic pull it is found that the unaffected poles with the same polarity as the affected pole experience an increase in flux density. In a fourth article a new stand still frequency response, SSFR, test method including measurements of damper winding voltage and current is presented. It is found that the identified models are capable of predicting the stator to damper transfer function both with and without the damper winding measurements included.

Stator current spectral analysis techniques are usually used to detect rotor faults in induction machines. Magnetic field anomalies in the airgap due to the rotor faults result in characteristic side-band harmonic components in the stator current spectrum, which can be measured as rotor fault signatures. A position-varying load torque oscillation at multiples of the rotational speed, however, has exactly the same effect. Stator current harmonics due to a load torque oscillation often obscure and even overwhelm rotor eccentricity fault detection since the magnitude of load oscillation induced harmonics is usually much larger. Although previous research has suggested some methods to differentiate between these two effects, most of them rely heavily on the accurate estimation of motor parameters. The objective of this research is to develop a far more practical and computationally efficient method to detect rotor faults effectively in the presence of a load torque oscillation. A significant advantage of the proposed scheme is that it does not need any knowledge of motor parameters. The normalized negative sequence information induced by a mixed rotor eccentricity in the stator current or terminal voltage space vector spectra, serves as a reliable rotor fault indicator to eliminate load oscillation effects. Detailed airgap magnetic field analysis for an eccentric motor is performed and all machine inductance matrices as well as their derivatives are reformulated accordingly. Careful observation of these inductance matrices provides a fundamental understanding of motor operation characteristics under a fault condition. Simulation results based on both induction motor dynamic model and Maxwell 2D Finite Element Model demonstrate clearly the existence of the predicted rotor fault indicator. Extensive experimental results also validate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed detection scheme.

The organic materials used for stator winding insulation are subject to deterioration from thermal, electrical, and mechanical stresses. Stator winding insulation breakdown due to excessive thermal stress is one of the major causes of electric machine failures; therefore, prevention of such a failure is crucial for increasing machine reliability and minimizing financial loss due to motor failure. This work focuses on the development of an efficient and reliable stator winding temperature estimation scheme for small to medium size mains-fed induction machines. The motivation for the stator winding temperature estimation is to develop a sensorless temperature monitoring scheme and provide an accurate temperature estimate that is capable of responding to the changes in the motors cooling capability. A discussion on the two major types of temperature estimation techniques, thermal model-based and parameter-based temperature techniques, reveals that neither method can protect motors without sacrificing the estimation accuracy or motor performance. Based on the evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of these two types of temperature estimation techniques, a new online stator winding temperature estimation scheme for small to medium size mains-fed induction machines is proposed in this work. The new stator winding temperature estimation scheme is based on a hybrid thermal model. By correlating the rotor temperature with the stator temperature, the hybrid thermal model unifies the thermal model-based and the parameter-based temperature estimation techniques. Experimental results validate the proposed scheme for stator winding temperature monitoring. The entire algorithm is fast, efficient and reliable, making it suitable for implementation in real time stator winding temperature monitoring.