Int. J. Industrial Electronics and Drives, Vol. 3, No. 4, 2017 199 Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Dynamic eccentricity fault diagnosis in induction motors using finite element method and experimental tests Ahcene Bouzida* Faculty of Engineering Sciences (FSI), University M’Hamed Bougara of Boumerdes (UMBB), 35000 Boumerdes, Algeria Email: bouzida.umbb@gmail.com Email: ah_bouzida@univ-boumerdes.dz *Corresponding author Radia Abdelli Faculty of Technologies, Abderrahmane Mira Université of Bejaia, 06000 Bejaia, Algeria Email: radia_abdelli@yahoo.fr Omar Touhami National Polytechnic School of Algiers, 16200 Algiers, Algérie Email: omar.touhami@enp.edu.dz Abderrazak Aibeche Applied Automation Laboratory (LAA), Department of Automation, Faculty of Hydrocarbons and Chemistry, University M’Hamed Bougara of Boumerdes (UMBB), 35000 Boumerdes, Algeria Email: aibeche_umbb@univ-boumerdes.dz Abstract: This paper presents the dynamic eccentricity (DE) in the squirrel cage induction machine obtained by the simulation using finite element method (FEM) and the experimental tests. Motor current signature analysis (MCSA) through the power spectral density (PSD) is used to monitor the low frequency components related to the rotor faults. In order to generalise the study, a comparison was performed between faulty machines and healthy, under different load conditions. The experimental tests show the encountered difficulties in the detection of the dynamic eccentricity under various load conditions because the spectral representation shows the existence of low frequency components for the healthy case, which are superimposed with the indicator components. These low frequency components offer an alternative way to the monitoring of eccentricity air-gap when the load is balanced. Keywords: finite element method; FEM; dynamic eccentricity; induction motor; diagnostic; motor current signature analysis; MCSA. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Bouzida, A., Abdelli, R., Touhami, O. and Aibeche, A. (2017) ‘Dynamic eccentricity fault diagnosis in induction motors using finite element method and experimental tests’, Int. J. Industrial Electronics and Drives, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp.199–209. Biographical notes: Ahcène Bouzida received his BS, MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Ecole Nationale Polytechnique d’Alger, Algeria in 2005, 2008 and 2015. His fields of interest include the diagnosis of electric machines, the simulation of ac machines, and variable-speed drives. Omar Touhami received his Engineering, MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Ecole Nationale Polytechnique d’Alger, Algiers, Algeria in 1981, 1986, and 1994, respectively. From 1989 to 1994, he was an Associate Researcher with the Research Center on Automatic of Nancy