Enhanced and fast detection of open circuit faults in inverters for electric drives

Open circuit faults in inverter driven electric drives have recently gained increasing attention in the scientific community. Since these faults may lead to undesired effects, their fast and unambiguous detection is desirable. This paper proposes a detection algorithm for open circuit faults which is based on the observation of the current control deviation and a subsequent test procedure. This algorithm detects the fault immediately after its occurrence within a few switching periods even during transient operation. The proposed method is tested via simulations and experiments at different operating points of a surface permanent magnet drive.