Fibre Bragg Grating Sensor Based Winding Strain Monitoring and Insulation Lifetime Prediction

Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors have attracted interest for electric machine condition monitoring due to their small size, EMI immunity, multiplexing of individual gratings and robustness in harsh environments. FBG sensors can be placed at key locations within the machine windings which are close to the temperature and stress hot spots. This paper investigates the feasibility of using FBG sensors to monitor the strain of the winding insulation material. The possibility of predicting winding insulation fatigue by generated S-N curve with FBG sensor measured winding strain is explored.