How to measure Bearing Current
Background:
A three phase electrical supply to an Induction Motor is made up of three individual sinewaves of Voltage and Current.

The Current is always determined by the load and in an Inductive load lags the Voltage.
This drawn of current is determined by the Self Inductance of the winding, some Resistance of the Copper loss and a fraction of the Capacitance between the Winding and the Motor Frame.
The Self Impedance is normally balanced across each winding and therefore when added together sum to Zero Current in the ideal situation.
A motor with Impedance imbalance will show a sine wave pattern around Line frequency.

The Rotor creates back EMF induced from the rotating magnetic flux and this distorts the sum to zero. This creates a repeating pattern in the common mode current slightly before or after the sine wave peak.
Therefore inflections in the sinewave (Impedance imbalance) are classical rotor defects.
Superimposed onto the Common Mode Current will be rapidly rising and falling spikes that peak when the cable characteristics hit resonance with the switching of the Inverter.
Single large peaks are associated with reflective Voltages which often mean cable shields are grounded properly.
Many spikes occurring at similar amplitudes occur when a drive has little or no filtering.
Method
A Rogowski coil with a bandwidth of 10 Mhz is needed to measure this common mode current as resonant harmonics tend to form around 3 to 6 MHz.
A scope with a sample rate of 1 Ga/s is needed to capture these spikes and a bandwidth of 250Mhz.
Note: Only one input to the scope is made at a time as the sample rate is shared between ports.
The Rogowski coil is wrapped around the three phase conductors, or if multiple conductors each cable bundle of three phases measured. A total must be then summed for the total Common Mode Current.

Note: If EMF Cores have been fitted, ensure a separation of at least 30mm is made between the EMF Core and the Rogowski coil as induced flux will skew the measurement.
The Scope input is measuring Voltage in mV and the Rogowski Coil Integrator will have a scale, eg 3V/100Amps. When measuring the Vpp on the scope a multiplication is needed to convert the Common Mode current to Amps.
eg Vpp of 560mV will be multiplied by 33 to give 18.48 Amps.
Displaying Vpp Vrms and Frequency on the Scope display makes it easier to record the results.
This is done through the scopes measurement menu, selecting Vpp, Vrms, and Frequency.
The correct source is required which defaults to CH1 channel one.
Results
The Peak Common Mode Current being the spikes that ride on the Periodic component are what does the damage to Motor Insulation and Bearings.
IEEE1415 states that any break in magnetic symmetry creates shaft current, and common mode current is the amount of the Magnetic symmetry break.
The Amps RMS is typically dominated by the periodic component of the common mode current having the greatest amount of energy. This component creates shaft current which circulates between the Motor bearings and sometimes the driven asset.
The mitigation strategy is therefore to break the circuit with Insulated Bearing or End Shield.
This circulatory current having the highest Irms is the most destructive.
The Spikes that ride ontop of the periodic component create a further problem, the fast rise times creates High Frequency Current component which passes through Capacitance.
That capacitance is insulation and this is why Insulated Bearings fail with this type of current.
When this happens the circulatory current re emerges and the bearing flute very quickly.
The high frequency current is better mitigated by draining the current to earth on its way back to the MEN point and the Inverter completing the circuit.
EMF Cores work extremely efficiently in these circumstances attenuating the current as heat.
Note: Brushes on shafts if grounded properly don’t attenuate the Common mode and it circulates back to the drive. They also are prone to failure from contamination and poor grounding.
EMF Cores attenuate the Common Mode Spikes before they enter the Motor protecting the first turn of the Motor winding. This is an area of failure with this type of Bearing current.


When to Act
Research from the Damstrat technical college found that Bearing fluting initiates at o.5 Amps per mm^2 of Bearing contact area.
Many variables exist that affect this limit, but a rule of thumb is 12 Amps PP at the inverter output places the Motor at risk.
Strategy
A well grounded Motor frame will allow Common Mode spikes to flow to Earth path, and the EMF Cores attenuate that current.
The combination of both grounding and EMF Cores effectively reduce the High Frequency current.
The use of an Earth Resistance Clamp is very useful in determining whether the earth is adequate.
Circulatory current within the Motor is problematic and is best eliminated by Acceptance testing motors for low Impedance imbalance.
Motors will always have some impedance imbalance but data shows that problems arise when this level exceeds 8%. It is important to use Motor Circuit Analysis to make this measurement.
Highly recommend reading this https://www.3phi-reliability.com/blog/motor-test-data-analysis-report
Motor Current Signature Analysis using EmPower quantifies the relative harm of these spikes of current. The instrument measures the first 3 to 4 harmonics of switching speed relative to the fundamental line current.
The Earth terminal in the Motor must be measured to the motor frame, resistances above 4mOhm correlate to increasing bearing current problems.
Support
3Phi Reliability offer support to assess Common mode measurement analysis.
Contact: [email protected]
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