Baw Back-to-Basics What are Orbit plots, anyway? by Mark A. Jordan MDS Vibration Spectatist. ‘Bently Nevada Corporation rne question often asked by plant personne! is.. “Just what are Orbit plots, anyway, and how can they help me solve machinery problems?” There are many ways to observe sig- nals generated by noncontacting prox imity probes, including Bode and Polar plot formats, These plots establish a rotor’ frequency filtered amplitude and phase components, through transient and steady state operations. However, ‘an understanding of Orbit and Average Shafi Centerline Position plots helps you indicate how the dynamics of machinery malfunctions takes place, and how they can be more accurately ‘denttied before failure. Thersore, monitoring Orbit and aver age shaft comterlin postion within a bear ing provides important and relovant Information on rapidly changin machin ery conditions. Many vibration transducers an able in today’s marketplace, Chosing the correet transducer for & specitic application is not only erueal for acc rate machinery vibration monitoring but also for diagnostic capabilities. Bearing eap vibration information ‘cannot truly indicate the dynamic response of the shaft in a state of mal: function. Casing measurements acquired by seismie transducers (either velocity or accelerometer) can be srossly inaccurate, Therefor using a case-monnued trans. ducer stem by itself can only be vigwed as fan indirect method of queniifying a ‘machine’ malfunction. B omit Conversely, proximity probes ean ‘measure the diet relative response of the rotor to the stationary bearing hous ing, And for those machines that pose ses high bearing cap activity, both a proximity probe and a casing transducer eam be used, resulting in what is known, as shaft absolute motion. The term “absolute motion” has historically been used because antique shaft riers orig nally yielded this reading. Untor= tunately, shaft riders are unreliable and ‘eat show slow roll data. This severely Timits their use in machinery diagnos- ties and even mote so in balancing, ‘When noncontacting eddy current probes and Proximitors are used to ‘monitor lateral shaft motion, the prox: imity probe provides the following sig- nal components + A de signal proportional to the fverage shaft position relative 40 ‘the probe mounting, + An AC signal (in this ease, nega tively fluctuating) corresponding 0 shaft dynamic motion relative to the probe mounting. In typical plant applications, rans: ‘ducer signals are usually processed and displayed by a radial vibration monitor Proximity probes are primarily used on machines with fluid film-lubricated bearings, such as turbines, pumps and ‘compresors For minimum machinery monitoring. two orthogonally-mounted proximity probes should be mounted at each hear: ing. This provides the required AC and de signals for on-line monitoring and diagnostics. When used in conjunction with 2 onee-per-turn reference probe Piguet Shows the Shaft Average Centeline Postion within the bearing clearance using to ‘orthogonally-mounted displacement probes. For dockwise rotation, this response Is con- sidered acceprabe. December 1993(Keyphasor, the diagnostic capability tific angular location on the rotor which is even more pronounced. These trans- AC component - Orbits relates the amount of shaft lateral ducers provide most of the machinery The ACeomponent ofthe transducer movin in that plane. When two probes data needed for proper rotating signal produces @ periodic waveform, ye mounted orthogonally (XY conte achinery monitoring, such us Orbit ne from each of the two orthogonal ration, 0° apart), the wo individual and Average Shaft Position. However, probes. A typical output waveform is Signals (waveforms) ate representative ‘mode identification probes, installed at shown in Figure 2 of shaft peak-to-peak displacement ceach end of a machine or at exch radial ‘beating should be considered for more complete information and problem diagnosis. More information on mode identification probes is available in Bently Nevada Applications Note ANO4O or in the Following ises of the ‘Orbis “Shatt observing mode idemtfien- tion probes for improved machinery Protection.” Sept. 1990, p. 10. and “Mode idemtitication probes” Feb. 1991, pl thi exes mgr planes in ae waveform ite ston; the letters, Plotted as amplitude, oF displacement, form, filtered to running speed (1X), Yeu time. (Figures 2and 3) shows a smooth sine wave, while the Am Orbit is generated by pulsing right represents unfiltered overall vibra- together the two XY waveforms so the tion. nestblshing how Orbits are fore ‘ime element is removed, lewing the X med, you must frst know that the amplitude component vers ¥ ampli travcform produced ty each wansducer Wade component, plotted in what is Js an individually-processed vibration commonly known as the Cartesian signal This signal is generated a aspe- Coordinate (or polar coordinate) sy-™ Note that in Figure 2, two separate ‘de component - Average Shaft Position ‘Average Shaft Postion isthe average position of the shaft relative to the st tionary component on the machine where the probe is mounted. Voltage Fluctuations are generated by the prox: imity probe relative to the distanee change eaused ty dynamic rotor motion under operating conditions. To obtain accurate shaft centerline data you mast reference voltage changes to a zero { Flgwe2 ‘The left waveform represents the rotors synchronous (tered to 1X) tral vbraton see eee omeTme® (08 Te? reponse ile theta sa representation of evr vibration present inthe stem For horizontal machines, this reference Heawense# in the overall mene are rom de (O12) to 1 Ke nce is generally obtained with the rotor at sever, rman rine wer ner restoron turning sea ‘meine Si seu a a Inthiscondition.the rotorisassumed | tobe at rest inthe boom of wes “7 ings theroore, all ssequent gap volt age changes are referenced (0 this Starting position, 'AS machine speed increases during =f Fw wt startup, changing gap voltages from wo ‘orthoponaly:mounted probes indicate the amount of average shaft travel Within that bearing clearance. At eune ning speed, the rotors average positon within the bearing is easily identified When the relereneed 2020 speed gap values ate wed. By analyzing Average ; ne ne me Shaft Position within the known iametral bearing clearane, valuable Figue3 information regarding alignment, over- ‘The graphical result of plotng Equations 1 and2 fom ie Tt time T2. To the ight of ail bearing condition, oi fim thickness, the waveforms. the ansocoled shalt ob pled as piu verse amptase Numer Shaft radial loading, ete, becomes calpainta (12.3. ete along the Tease weveorms conespendtoapecticpatson the inailable, ‘eit precession, The same np are used for Figure December 1993 bittem, To ilustrate this point, take a pair ‘of XY Timehase waveforms, which are separated by a phase difference of 90° and whose wavetorm amplitudes are {.00 mil (from the vertical probe) and 10.50 mil (from the horizontal probe). ‘These two signals are described by the following equations: (0) somal an (Equation I) YC) serio (Equation 3} Where 0=at (= rotational rotor frequenes, (= time) represents one shaft revoltion (T1to-T2) in radians 0.30 Cox (8) 1.00 Sin (0) and the numerical values (1.00 mil & 1.500 mil) are the amplitudes of lateral shaft vibration, In Figure 3, Equations | and 2 are plotted in the amplitude versus time {domain (waveform). Similar results are achieved using a machine's 1X filtered XY waveform pair or unfiltered ave form pair for each bearing, which yields 4 1X filtered Orbit or an overall vibra- tion Orbit, respective ‘Waveforms and orbital presentations canbe easily displayed 2 two channel ‘oscilloscope. Ili important to note that the eseilloscope should have a third channel, "2." channe! for a Keyphasor ‘Two individual timebase signals input into an oscilloscope along wth a Keyphasor" sional, sllow angular phase information to be represented es an Orbi. The Orbitamplitude spans 2 ‘nil peak-to-peak vertically drection) and 1 ‘il horizontally (X cretion) withthe XY ‘channel amplitude scales Set 2.5 mill per division. Figure Shows one revolution of the rotor with the Timebase waveforms to the right and the associated Ort tothe let 10 orbit __ 5 signal input (Figure 4). When two vibra- tion signals are inpat to dual channel ‘oscilloscope and observed on its display, the amount of vibration can be dis. played in timebase (sinusoid waveform) rin orbital form (Figure 4). In its Orbit mode, the oscilloscope places the vertical (¥) and horizontal (X)signals along their respective axis to create a display of amplitude versus ‘amplitude. The form in which this takes place is governed by the following equations: XU) (Equation 3) YOM (Equation 4) Where @=ut (w frequency. 1=time) represents one shaft revolution (in radians). and denotes lateral shalt amplitude ‘An Orbit pattern, as seen on an ‘oscilloscope, is simply a light beam dot moving very rapidly s0 it looks like a ‘continuous Hine on the sereen. This rap- idly moving dot represents the cen= terlinemotion of the shaft as seen by the proximity probes. The Orbit is the path fof the rotor centerline at the lateral position of the probes. ‘The Keyphasor" pulse, when fed 10 Cos(@) scope, intensifies the dot atthe instant tine when the keyway (onee-per-tucn event is passing under the Keyphasor probe. Therefore, the Keyphasor® dot fn the Orbit (or waveform) represents the centerline location of the shaft i its path of travel (or high spot) at the instant thatthe keyway iin front ofthe Keyphasor® probe. This technique identifies a fixed physical reference to the shall. This Arrangement produces not only peak> to-peak amplitude, but important phase information that is commonly used in machinery diggnostis. Figure 5 shows actual machinery field data processed by 2 vibration diagnostics software package, The Average Shaft Position Within the bearing clearance and the Orbit’ eliptical shape indicate rotor loading andior differenees in dynamic slifness ata beating location Notice the Orhit plot in Figure 5 is slightly elliptical. This data suggests the December 1993