Developments in both airborne and ground
Articles
Engine vibration
analysis
Terry Ford
The author
Terry Ford is an aerospace writer who has had many years
of experience in the aerospace industry, latterly with
British Aerospace, Weybridge, UK.
Abstract
Describes the piezoelectric accelerometer used for vibra-
tion monitoring and analysis and discusses its use. Reports
on an advanced technique developed by Rolls-Royce for
application in a test cell – the scanning laser Doppler
vibrometer.
Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology
Volume 69 · Number 2 · 1997 · pp. 126–128
© MCB University Press · ISSN 0002-2667
126
monitoring and analysis of aircraft gas turbine
engines have been far reaching. At first, air-
borne vibration monitoring did not fulfil the
requirements of such a system because of
unreliability and other problems. Introduc-
tion of the now widely used piezoelectric
accelerometer and the subsequent enhanced
electronic processing techniques has resulted
in universal employment of a well-proven
system.
The piezoelectric accelerometer is a vibra-
tion transducer in which the piezoelectric
effect comes from an electric field generated
when crystals are subjected to mechanical
pressure. Its operating mode is similar to a
variable capacitor, in that its capacitance
varies with the acceleration, which is felt by a
mass that generates a force on the piezoelec-
tric crystal. This acceleration is modulated by
the vibration at that engine location. As indi-
cated, present vibration analysis benefits from
the microprocessor which enables the system
to perform advanced signal processing and
filter out unwanted information.
System details
The amplitude of vibration of a rotating part
is a direct indication of the balance of the part,
and hence the wear and, of course, the life of
the part. It is considered that the information
available from within a vibration spectrum
may easily exceed that of other parameters
(with the exception of debris monitoring).
A vibration signature contains a great deal of
information and is very noisy. Through signal
conditioning, the desired signals are filtered
out and reduced to a comprehensible form
that enables specific information to be
obtained about the state of the various ele-
ments of the gas turbine. This is a task not
simply of correlating a specific frequency to a
particular rotating or vibrating part, but also
of interpreting the time-related changes in
vibration amplitude and frequency.
Location of the accelerometer on a particu-
lar part will yield specific information. For
example, to look solely at the imbalance of the
main rotating assemblies, an accelerometer
mounted on the bearing housing will present
a frequency spectrum closely related to the
shaft vibration. As an example, if it is mount-
ed on the No. 1 bearing housing of a gas
turbine, then it will be sensitive to fan imbal-
ance and relatively insensitive to low pressure
 Engine vibration analysis
Terry Ford
turbine (LPT) imbalance. The phase of the
imbalance can be clearly determined and is
less susceptible to varying mechanical phase
lags than it would be if it were mounted on the
engine carcass. High MTBF figures are
obtained from fan bearing accelerometers,
so the fan bearing mounting position has
become standardized on some engines.
In addition, the sound economic sense of
running an engine with the fan in a good state
of equilibrium is clear and this has enabled
the on-board vibration monitoring system to
gather fan trim balance data during revenue
flights, which eliminates the need for ground
runs. It has been shown in service that
accelerometer reliability is very high in vibra-
tion monitoring systems, although, to
improve the total reliability of the system even
further, dual accelerometers are sometimes
employed. In this arrangement, two piezo-
electric sensing elements are incorporated
within one housing, each with its own connec-
tor. Each sensing element is connected sepa-
rately to the electronic processing unit, which
continuously compares the input signal from
one measuring source with that of the other
and if the output should differ by more than a
pre-determined amount, the system is
declared inoperative.
It will be evident that the value of the data
derived from an airborne vibration monitor-
ing system concerning the state of an engine
will vary according to the technology
employed in the filtering. For instance, a
broad band filter covering the speed range of
the engine shafts is not much use, since an
exceedance may be related to various compo-
nents or causes. Use of a tracking filter, how-
ever, in which a narrow band filter is locked
on to the rotor speed using the engine
tachometer signal, will provide a system
which monitors rotor imbalance. In this way,
the amplitude of the vibration signal due to
the imbalance of the rotor is accurately deter-
mined and if a phase reference signal is incor-
porated in the tachometer output, then the
phase of the imbalance with respect to a
known reference can be determined. Storage
of vibration amplitude and phase data at a
variety of in-flight engine conditions will later
enable ground crew to undertake a trim to
balance the fan without a ground engine run.
Tracking filter systems are designed specifi-
cally to exclude vibration signals from all
other sources. A combination of a tracking
filter with a broad band filter is often felt to be
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Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology
Volume 69 · Number 2 · 1997 · 126–128
the best for in-flight engine monitoring so that
fixed and variable vibrations are monitored.
Higher frequency analysis of the vibration
signal is rarely undertaken on board, but
recording of a very broad band signal will
enable frequency analysis to be performed
subsequently, in order to identify specific
problems. Some microprocessor systems are
capable of performing such analyses on
board, and may either store the the results for
ground evaluation or give real-time indica-
tions of vibration exceedance to the flight
crew.
In the test cell
An advanced technique has been developed
by Rolls-Royce for vibration measurement in
applications such as in a test cell. In the design
and development stages of aircraft gas tur-
bines, experimental verification of the vibra-
tion modes predicted is essential. Conven-
tional tests with accelerometers may not be
ideal in certain applications such as small
blades and vanes and the use of techniques
such as an optical vibration transducer based
on the laser Doppler vibrometer have become
widespread.
The laser Doppler vibrometer is a single-
point velocity transducer and it is integrated
with scanning mirrors to produce the scan-
ning laser Doppler vibrometer (SLDV). The
output from the vibrometer is an analogue
signal proportional to velocity which is fed
into an rms measuring voltmeter. The system
is controlled by a microcomputer which
performs both control and data acquisition.
The mirror system consists of two orthogonal
galvanometer-driven mirrors which enable
the measurement beam from the vibrometer
to be positioned in any XY co-ordinate within
the angular field of the mirrors. The SLDV is
operated via an applications program running
on the microcomputer, which controls the
scanning mirrors and handles the acquisition
and display of data.
The system has two modes of use, full-field
and single point. In the former, the measure-
ment point is scanned continuously through a
large array of closely spaced points and the
rms vibrational velocity at each point is
recorded. These data can be used to generate
an image of the corresponding vibration
pattern, being displayed as a coloured map
overlying a video image of the test piece.
Typical scan times are about two or three
 Engine vibration analysis
Terry Ford
minutes. The video facility is a medium for
data display; it also aids the delineation of a
scan area on the test piece and is essential for
remote operation such as in a test cell.
In the single-point mode, the SLDV is
operated as a remotely steerable transducer.
The output from the laser vibrometer is con-
nected to a Fourier transform sight analyser for
frequency domain analysis. The desired set of
measurement stations (fewer and more widely
spaced than in the full-field mode) is entered
into the computer. The measurement beam of
the vibrometer is directed to each of these
points in turn and a measurement is made.
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Volume 69 · Number 2 · 1997 · 126–128
Applications of the SLDV system include
mode shape imaging of a single component
which uses the full-field capability of the
instrument, in which the component or
assembly under test is excited at the resonant
frequency of the desired mode. Computer
automated modal testing and mode shape
imaging of a rotating component can also be
employed. Also, as engine control systems
and components, engine driven pumps,
generators and their associated pipework are
mounted externally on the engine casing, the
vibrational environment of this equipment
can be measured by the scanning vibrometer.