of failures and possible errors in the design,
installation or operation of equipment.
The objective of this work is to develop an IoT
application for monitoring and storing the
temperature history of electric motors, using wireless
sensors connected to the internet and services
available in the cloud, in order to generate
information to support the management of the
maintenance of these assets. To carry out this
monitoring, a system with a microcontroller will be
used, which takes readings from PT100 sensors
installed in electric motors and sends these readings
to a database in the clouds. A WEB interface is used
for interaction with the user, allowing the user to
access this data, configure system parameters, receive
notifications and use the temperature history to
generate relevant information for maintenance
management.
2 OVERVIEW
2.1 Maintenance on Electric Motors
In short, maintenance actions can be divided into
three main types: corrective, preventive and
predictive. Corrective maintenance, the most costly
type, is carried out after a failure occurs, where the
equipment stops (NBR 5462, 1994). Preventive
maintenance is a type of time-based maintenance. It
must be carried out on predetermined dates, with the
aim of reducing the probability of failures
ALMEIDA, 2013). Despite having lower costs, it also
generates costs that could be avoided (MOBLEY,
2002, p.4).
Predictive maintenance seeks to obtain the actual
operating conditions of the machine. For this, it uses
specific equipment for monitoring phenomena such
as temperature, vibration, noise, etc. (ALMEIDA,
2013). The results of these inspections determine the
ideal time for intervention in the equipment. With the
evolution of embedded systems and industrial
networks, a new term appears in the area of
maintenance, detective maintenance. It differs from
predictive maintenance, by continuous monitoring
and the use of intelligent electronic devices
(PAULINO, 2014), with increased reliability
according to the level of the implemented system, in
addition to the possibility of storing the history of
equipment variables.
2.2 Effect of Temperature Rise on
Electric Motors
Copper losses are the major heat source of the
machine and are directly proportional to the load to
which the equipment is subjected. They occur due to
the joule effect on the resistive element of the
machine winding. Core losses or iron losses are due
to eddy currents and due to the hysteresis effect
(ALMEIDA, 2013). Harmonic currents and phase
voltage imbalances also cause temperature rise.
Delayed starts, due to loads with very high
resistant torque and successive starts also increase the
temperature of the equipment, as the starting current
reaches peaks of up to eight times the rated current.
In applications driven by frequency inverters, it
should be noted that when the motor speed is reduced,
the air flow produced by the fan coupled to the motor
shaft is reduced in the same proportion, which may
result in an increase in the temperature of the
equipment.
High temperature is the main villain of the
insulating material. The life of the insulation will be
reduced by half for each 10 °C increase in
temperature (GILL, 2009, p.9). In case of sudden
temperature rises in a short period of time, a failure
may occur due to material melting, causing an
immediate failure. On the other hand, temperatures
above the limit of the insulating class, but well below
the melting point, can for a long term cause internal
chemical effects, which make the material look more
dry, brittle, with micro-cracks, which causes
premature aging and degradation of insulation. With
the aging of the insulation, there are partial
discharges, which cause the progressive deterioration
of the insulating materials, leading to a total electrical
failure (TOLIYAT et al., 2013, p.11-12).
By monitoring and maintaining the temperature
history of the windings, it is possible to determine if
the winding is at risk of thermal deterioration and
degradation of the insulating material. In addition, the
finding of an increase in temperature under the same
operating conditions (load, ambient temperature and
voltage) may be indicative of failure or degradation
of the cooling and heat dissipation system
(TOLIYAT, et al. 2013, p.13) .
2.3 Wireless and IoT Sensor Network
Advances in technology, such as large-scale
integration, micro-electromechanical systems and
wireless communications, contribute to the feasibility
of implementing distributed sensor systems. When
many sensors cooperatively monitor large physical