Patent ID: 9109517
Filing Date: 2015-08-18
Classification: B60W,F01D,F02D,G01M,G05B,H02P

Abstract:
1. A method of monitoring health of a mechanical drive train, the method comprising: obtaining voltage and current signals from at least one phase of an electrical machine coupled with the mechanical drive train, wherein the electrical machine has a non-sinusoidal distribution of flux in the electrical machine; determining a first torque profile or spectrum of the mechanical drive train from the voltage and current signals that are obtained, the first torque profile or spectrum formed from a combination of plural harmonic order sinusoidal distributions of flux in plural virtual electric machines and representative of torques generated by the mechanical drive train, the plural harmonic order sinusoidal distributions of flux in the virtual electric machines and the non-sinusoidal distribution of flux in the electrical machine determined from the voltage and current signals that are obtained; and detecting presence of an anomaly in the mechanical drive train based on the first torque profile or spectrum, responsive to detecting the presence of the anomaly advancing a shutdown process or maintenance of the electrical machine, wherein the harmonic order sinusoidal distributions of flux represent distributions of flux in the virtual electric machines that are connected to a common shaft, wherein each of the virtual electric machines has a different respective number of poles, each of the virtual electric machines has a rotor rotating at a common speed as rotors of the other virtual electric machines, and wherein the virtual electric machines produce flux linkage vectors having different respective electrical angular speeds.