Health monitoring system having a power converter controller for an electric machine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018275698-A1
Application number	US-201715470791-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 27, 2017
Priority date	Mar 27, 2017
Publication date	Sep 27, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

Provided is a health monitoring system for an electric machine that includes a power converter which receives power from an electric power supply, supplies power to the electric machine, and receives operational data from the electric machine. At least one computing unit is disposed within the power converter and includes one or more software modules for performing control for the power converter and diagnostics of the electric machine.

First claim

1 . A health monitoring system for an electric machine, the health monitoring system comprising:
a power converter configured to receive power from an electric power supply, to supply electric power to the electric machine, and to receive operational data from the electric machine; at least one power converter computing unit disposed within the power converter which executes one or more software modules for performing control for the power converter and diagnostics of the electric machine.

2 . The health monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein the power converter comprises an AC/AC, DC/DC, AC/DC or DC/AC power converter.

3 . The health monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one power converter computing unit contains at least one processor wherein each processor may include one or more processing devices or cores for performing the control of the power converter and the software module for performing the diagnostics of the electric machine, using the operational data received from a plurality of sensors.

4 . The health monitoring system of claim 3 , wherein a plurality of power converter computing units are networked and which execute both the power converter control algorithms and the electric machine monitoring and diagnostics algorithms.

5 . The health monitoring system of claim 3 , wherein the sensors comprise at least one sensor for sensing temperature, insulation system information, vibration information, wherein the operational data comprises temperature, insulation system information, vibration information and current and voltage measurements of the electric machine.

6 . A power converter for an electric machine, the power converter comprising:
at least power converter computing unit executing one or more software modules; wherein the power converter is configured to (i) receive power from an electric power supply, supply power to the electric machine, and (ii) receive operational data from the electric machine via sensors in communication with the electric machine, and (iii) perform control of the power converter and diagnostics of the electric machine using the one or more software modules.

7 . The power converter of claim 6 , comprising an AC/AC, DC/AC, DC/DC or AC/DC power converter.

8 . The power converter of claim 6 , wherein the at least one power converter computing unit contains at least one processor wherein each processor may include one or more processing devices or cores for performing the control of the power converter and the software module for performing the diagnostics of the electric machine, using the operational data received.

9 . The power converter of claim 6 , wherein a plurality of power converter computing units are networked and which execute both the power converter control algorithms and the electric machine monitoring and diagnostics algorithms.

10 . The power converter of claim 6 , wherein the sensors comprise at least one sensor for sensing temperature, insulation system information, vibration information, wherein the operational data comprises temperature, insulation system information, vibration information and current and voltage measurements of the electric machine.

11 . A method for performing diagnostics of an electric machine via a health monitoring system, the method comprising:
supplying electric power to the power converter from an electric supply, supplying electric power to the electric machine from the power converter, and receiving operational data from the electric machine via sensors in communication with the electric machine; transmitting the operational data to a data acquisition unit locally within the power converter; controlling the power converter using control algorithms within one or more software modules executed by at least one computing unit of the power converter; and performing diagnostics of the electric machine using one or more software modules having diagnostics algorithms to be executed by the at least one computing unit.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
performing, by the at least one power converter computing unit including at least one processor wherein each processor may include one or more processing devices or cores, control of the power converter and the software module; and performing the diagnostics of the electric machine, using the operational data received.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein
networking a plurality of power converter computing units; simultaneously executing power converter control algorithms and electric machine monitoring and diagnostics algorithms.

14 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
sensing temperature, insulation system information, vibration information, wherein the operational data comprises temperature, insulation system information, vibration information and current and voltage measurements of the electric machine.

Assignees

• Ge Energy Power Conversion Technology Ltd

Inventors

• Solomon Luke
• Dominguez Sergio
• Doucette Michael Richard
• Sieman Alexander

Classifications

• H02M2001/0025

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H02M3/1584

  with a plurality of power processing stages connected in parallel · CPC title

• G01R19/003

  Measuring mean values of current or voltage during a given time interval · CPC title

• G01R19/25

  using digital measurement techniques · CPC title

• G01R19/17

  giving an indication of the number of times this occurs {, i.e. multi-channel analysers} · CPC title