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Plant using Vibration Analysis

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 3rd International Congress on Advances in Mechanical Sciences IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 998 (2020) 012007 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/998/1/012007

Condition Monitoring of Induced Draft Fan in a Super Thermal Power

Plant using Vibration Analysis

D Panda1, J K Mohanty1, S S Das1, Anupam Mishra2, P K Pradhan1*

1Mechanical Engineering Department,VSSUT, Burla, Odisha, India.
2Vedanta Limited, Jharsuguda, Odisha, India.
*Corresponding Author:prasant2001uce@gmail.com

Abstract. Timely detection of fault and taking corrective measures reduces the downtime of any industry.
It also increases the reliability and efficiency of the system. Nowadays, many industries have
implemented condition monitoring (or condition based maintenance) techniques as a part of maintenance
strategies. Condition based maintenance monitors the health condition of machine and diagnose the
defect if any. Though there are various condition monitoring techniques, vibration analysis is one of the
strongest and widely used technique for fault identification. It is used to diagnose the fault of rotating
machine element. In a big power plant, condition monitoring techniques play an important role to reduce
the downtime of primary system and its auxiliaries, which in turn leads to reduction in productivity loss.
Therefore, it is desirable to ensure system availability.

Keywords: Super thermal power plant, condition monitoring, vibration analysis, induced draft fan.

1. Introduction
Availability of electrical power round the clock and throughout the year is most essential for
industrial and economic growth of any country. In the present era of fierce competition and financial
constraints, the reliability and availability of operating power plants, are becoming a challenging issue.
The thermal power plants produce larger part (i.e. almost 70%) of the electricity of world’s requirement
compare to other power plant. India is one of the largest producers of electricity in world and majority of
the plants are coal based [1].
Rankine cycle is the basic principle of the thermal power plant [2]. In a power plant, the combustion
of fuel is used to get steam from water. The generator (coupled with turbine) produces the electricity.
Continuous electricity generation from a power plant depends on the availability of its components. To
enhance the availability, various maintenance culture and strategies are adopted [3, 4 & 5]. These are;
x Breakdown Maintenance
x Routine Maintenance
x Precautionary Maintenance
x Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) or Condition Monitoring
In spite of high initial cost, the CBM is implemented to reduce the downtime and raise the reliability
and safety of the plant. CBM watches and monitors the performance parameters of the equipment very
regularly which enable to know whether any problems exists or likely to appear. There are different
condition monitoring techniques, such as: Vibration Analysis [6], Noise Analysis [7], Temperature
Monitoring [8], Motor Current Signature Analysis (MCSA) [9] and Wear Debris Analysis [10].

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 3rd International Congress on Advances in Mechanical Sciences IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 998 (2020) 012007 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/998/1/012007

2. Methodology and Experimentation

The present work is based on a super thermal power station of Vedanta Limited, Jharsuguda, India.
It has nine units and total power of 1215 MW. The plant has adopted the world class technology.
The basic components of power plant (i.e. boiler, generator and turbine) are singular and auxiliary
devices like ID fans (Induced draft fans), FD fans (Forced draft fans), coal mills, Boiler feed pumps,
condensate extraction pumps, cooling water pumps, ash handling units, coal handling plants etc. have
inbuilt standbys. The maintenance practice at CPP of Vedanta Limited, Jharsuguda, shows that the
failure rate of power components (Turbine, Induced Draft fan, Forced Draft fan etc.) is many times
higher than other. In this paper, the condition monitoring of an Induced Draft fan (ID fan) by vibration
analysis has been described.
3. Condition Monitoring of Induced Draft Fan (ID Fan)
An ID fan is in between dust collector and chimney. It takes the hot flue gases from furnace via a dust
collector (dust separation system, Electrostatic Precipitator i.e ESP or fume extraction system) and will
deliver to chimney. It produces the negative pressure in the furnace to remove the flue gases from
furnace via electrostatic precipitators and to push the flue gases to chimney. The figure of ID fan is in
Figure 1.
3.1 Detail Specification
Power: 1700KW, Speed: 991 RPM, Motor’s NDE (Non-Drive End)/Outboard Bearing: NU240
ECM, Motor’s DE (Drive End)/Inboard Bearing: 23044 CC/C3W33. Fan DE & NDE (Both Inboard &
Outboard) Bearings: 22232EASMC3, Vibration velocity (RMS) limit (as per OEM); Normal: below 1.5
mm/s, Little abnormal: 1.5-4.0 mm/s, Sub critical: 4.0-6.5 mm/s, Critical: above 6.5 mm/s. Peakvue
limit; Normal: less than 1.

Figure 1: Schematic Diagram of a typical ID Fan

3.2 Diagnostic Symptoms:

The ID Fan is monitored through the vibration analysis. The information are recorded and analysed
by using accelerometer and AMS Suite Software. A case study was observed during July 2019 – August
2019 and has been considered here. Usually, vibration readings are taken weekly. If there is some
abnormality observed, then the frequency of measurement is increased. During taking readings,
accelerometer is mounted on both the inboard and outboard bearings of the motor and fan. Because of
unusual sound was observed on 5th August, the analysis was started to diagnose the defect. Vibration
amplitude (at all bearing) in different directions; horizontal (H), vertical (V) and axial (A) were measured
and analysed. The RMS values and peakvue values are presented in Table 1 and Table 2 respectively.
Similarly, the vibration spectra are presented in Figure2 to Figure4.

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3rd International Congress on Advances in Mechanical Sciences IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 998 (2020) 012007 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/998/1/012007

Table 1: RMS value of vibration (in mm/s) in various days

1st 5th 06th
Location Direction 25th July 11th Aug 12th Aug 14th Aug
Aug Aug Aug
H 1.318 1.519 0.194 0.424 0.684 0.949
Motor Outboard V 0.580 0.470 0.741 0.846 0.362 0.316
A 0.522 0.396 1.167 0.953 0.350 0.350
H 1.055 1.228 1.064 1.284 0.587 0.953
Motor Inboard V 0.322 0.482 0.859 1.216 0.387 0.347
A 0.798 0.443 1.314 1.214 Bearing 0.332 0.411
H 1.269 1.283 2.577 2.804 Replaced 0.643 1.054
Fan Inboard V 0.476 0.311 1.627 1.656 0.331 0.310
A 0.602 0.630 1.725 2.726 0.392 0.469
H 1.439 1.168 1.087 1.173 0.625 0.839
Fan Outboard V 0.387 0.242 0.545 0.605 0.265 0.372
A 0.611 0.324 0.636 0.885 0.493 0.443

Figure 2: Vibration spectrum of ID Fan-Inboard (Horizontal).

Figure 3: Vibration spectrum of ID Fan-Inboard (Vertical)

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 3rd International Congress on Advances in Mechanical Sciences IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 998 (2020) 012007 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/998/1/012007

Figure 4: Vibration spectrum of ID Fan-Inboard (Axial).

Table 2: Peakvue value at Fan Inboard bearing in various days

1st 5th 06th
Position Direction 25th July 11th Aug 12th Aug 14th Aug
Aug Aug Aug
H 0.297 0.398 1.264 1.14 0.295 0.291
Bearing
Fan Inboard V 0.476 0.311 1.727 1.541 0.331 0.317
Replaced
A 0.602 0.630 1.825 2.594 0.392 0.384

3.3 Observations and Analysis

• The Table-1 shows that there is sudden increase of vibration amplitude (on 5 th August) on the Fan
DE bearing, which indicates that there is some problem in rotating element of ID fan.
• Also, the increase in Peakvue values (in table 2) signify the same thing.
• From the vibration spectrum (Fig. 2), the peak at 8623.9 cycles per minute (cpm) (which is a non-
synchronous frequency) with its’ harmonics indicate the abnormalities in the Fan DE bearing.
• The same frequency match with the Ball pass frequency outer race (BPFO). So it indicates that
there is problem in outer race of the bearing.
• The peak at 34486 cpm and its sidebands (i. e. 4BPFO±1xRPM) indicates/ensures the outer race
problem in the bearing.
As per the recommendation, the Fan-Inboard bearing was opened and it was found that there was
erosion in outer race of the bearing. That is shown in Figure5 to Figure7. After replacing the bearing (on
12th August), the Fan was put back to operation. After that, vibration spectra (are shown in Figure 8 to
Figure 10) shows that there is no significant peak at non synchronous frequency (i.e. at 8623.9 cpm) and
the vibration amplitude (rms) is very normal.

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 3rd International Congress on Advances in Mechanical Sciences IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 998 (2020) 012007 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/998/1/012007

Figure 5: Bearing housing Figure 6: Bearing inner race Figure 7: Eroded outer race
10004582 -F 1H F an In b o ard Ho rizo n tal
0.5
Ro u te Sp ectru m
12-Au g -19 13:40:26

O VERAL L = .6427 V-D

997.67

RMS = .6318
0.4 L O AD = 100.0
RPM = 998. (16.63 H
RMS Velocity in mm/Sec

0.3
2992.7
1995.5

0.2
818.34
119.23
1152.9

10634.1
8630.9

0.1
934.04
1269.1
257.95
1511.4

0
0 20000 40000 60000 80000
F req u en cy i n CPM

Figure 8: Vibration spectrum of ID Fan-Inboard (Horizontal) (after bearing replacement)

0.30
Ro u te Sp ectru m
12-Au g -19 13:36:42

O VERAL L = .3307 V-DG

0.25 RMS = .4124
L O AD = 100.0
RPM = 998. (16.64 Hz)
RMS Velocity in mm/Sec

0.20
96.82

0.15
159.86
1996.3

0.10
999.05

10313.9

69153.6
318.01

8644.0

20282.7
3991.8
476.03
518.50

0.05

0
0 20000 40000 60000 80000
F req u en cy i n CPM

Figure 9: Vibration spectrum of ID Fan-Inboard (Vertical) (after bearing replacement)

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 3rd International Congress on Advances in Mechanical Sciences IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 998 (2020) 012007 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/998/1/012007

10004582 F 1A F an In b o ard Axial

0.24
Ro u te Sp ectru m
12-Au g -19 13:36:52

O VERAL L = .3923 V-DG

998.72

0.20 RMS = .4146

L O AD = 100.0
RPM = 999. (16.64 Hz
1996.5
RMS Velocity in mm/Sec

0.16
8645.7

0.12
78.11

2993.9

0.08
207.43
249.70

14136.2

17291.9
10315.0
894.31

4990.5

0.04

0
0 20000 40000 60000 80000
F req u en cy i n CPM

Figure 10: Vibration spectrum of ID Fan-Inboard (Axial) (after bearing replacement)

4. Summary
Vibration analysis is a very strong and sensitive technique for condition monitoring of plant
machineries. It can detect the defect or any irregularity in the rotating element of the machine like; ID fan
in power plant etc. Also, it can detect the defects when the machine is under operation and no need to
stop it for inspection. Condition monitoring decreases the down time and improves the reliability of the
plant. Also, it eliminates the sudden breakdown of the system. Equipped with proper condition
monitoring technique and strategy, a power plant ensures the safe and reliable operations.

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