Improved condition monitoring of the faulty blower wheel driven by brushless DC motor in air handler unit (AHU)

Chen Jiang, Thomas G. Habetler, Wen-ping Cao

Research output: Chapter in Book/Published conference outputConference publication

Abstract

The AHU (air handler unit) is one of the main research objects in HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) system containing coils, blower wheel, heater, etc. Most of the high efficiency blower wheels are driven by BLDC (brushless DC) motor. This paper mainly focuses on two severe problems in blower wheel, namely airflow blockage and unbalanced load of fan motor. Early diagnosis of these problems decreases energy consumption in HVAC system significantly. Condition monitoring method applied to both the stator current and stray flux is utilized in unbalanced load condition in a BLDC motor. The fundamental frequency and second harmonics of stray flux are analyzed as indicators under unbalance load condition. The discrimination between airflow blockage and unbalanced load based on stator spectrum analysis is also discussed in this paper. Some experiment results are given to prove that this method provides more efficacy and stability to diagnose the faults in blower wheel.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationECCE 2016 - IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, proceedings
PublisherIEEE
Number of pages5
ISBN (Electronic)978-1-5090-0737-0
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Feb 2017
Event2016 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, ECCE 2016 - Milwaukee, United States
Duration: 18 Sept 201622 Sept 2016

Conference

Conference2016 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, ECCE 2016
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityMilwaukee
Period18/09/1622/09/16

Bibliographical note

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Keywords

  • air handler unit
  • BLDC motor
  • condition monitoring
  • HVAC system
  • spectrum analysis
  • stray flux
  • unbalanced load

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