Lecture Note

Prepared by
Essam AbdelHalim Mostafa
Eng.
Managing Director
Integrated Engineering Services Co.
E-mail: essamd.mostafa@iesco-eg.com
Mobile: 01099921895-01001565141

Abstract
This lecture introduces the predictive maintenance concept of condition
monitoring for industrial rotating machines.
This makes it easier to understand how important the need for condition
monitoring is.

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Condition monitoring (CM), by definition, is simply a technique for routinely
evaluating the condition of equipment. This simple definition, however, has
tremendous applications in improving the life of many industries and even
our day-to-day existence. It is instrumental in increasing industrial
production and profitability, improving product quality, reducing
environmental pollution, improving safety, and reducing the waste of our
limited natural resources. Spectacular gains can be made in all of these
areas, if CM is properly employed. If not, it could equally generate losses.

CM can be done on almost any kind of device from micro-sized circuit

boards to huge 1000 MW hydroelectric turbines. Nearly every imaginable
industry can use or is using some form of CM.

This lecture will touch on several important topics which concern CM, but
the focus will be on industrial applications using rotating machinery.

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Which is historically the first maintenance strategy employed. A machine
is repaired only after a failure has occurred. This is a very expensive
maintenance management scheme, since it requires: high spare parts
inventory, high machine downtime, high overtime labor costs, and low
production availability.

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Where important machines are not fully duplicated or where unscheduled
production stops can result in large losses, maintenance operations are often
performed at fixed time-intervals. The advantage of this maintenance
strategy is that it is planned strategy and is based on previous experience
and the mean-time-between-failure (MTBF) statistic for the machine. The
disadvantage of this maintenance scheme is that it is not based on the
condition of the machine, but rather on the time elapsed since the previous
maintenance occurred.
Thus a failure may occur before a maintenance is performed, as in Run-To-
Breakdown maintenance, or a perfectly operating machine may be
maintained with a consequent waste in labor and material .
This system is therefore called Time-based Predictive Maintenance.

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In which maintenance is performed on the basis of the machine
condition. This is done by monitoring the machine condition. Any change
in condition is detected, and the time to Failure is estimated . This is
also accompanied by diagnosing the cause of the fault to actually pin
point the defective components.

With this method each machine is considered individually by making

fixed-interval condition measurements to obtain a quantitative value of
the “Health” of the machine.
In this way maintenance is only allowed when measurements show it to
be necessary.

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Why Vibration ?
Vibration is used as the fault detection parameter simply because it can
give an early warnings of fault development for a wider variety of typical
rotating machinery faults.
Other detection techniques, if used in isolation, limit the variety of faults,
and so unexpected breakdown by a fault type not included, is a real
possibility.

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What is Vibration?
Vibration is mechanical oscillation about a reference position. Vibration is
an everyday phenomenon, we meet it in our homes, during transport and
at work. Vibration is often a destructive and annoying side effect of a
useful process, but is sometimes generated intentionally to perform a
task.

Vibration of machines
Vibration is a result of dynamic forces in machines which have moving
parts and in structures which are connected to the machine. Different
parts of the machine will vibrate with various frequencies and amplitudes.
Vibration causes wear and fatigue. It is often responsible for the ultimate
breakdown of the machine.

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Signal Level Descriptors
The level of vibration signal can be described in different ways. Peak and
peak-to-peak values are often used to describe the level of a vibration signal
since they indicate the maximum excursion from equilibrium position. The
RMS (Root Mean Square) level is a very good descriptor, since it is a
measure of the energy content of the vibration signal.

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Time Signal Descriptors
These descriptors are not only used in conjunction with a single sinusoidal
signal but also with normal machine vibration signals which are composed of
many sinusoidal vibration components.

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We can use the Fourier transform to perform a frequency analysis. The
time signal is multiplied by some complex number and then integrated
over all time. This complex number is actually a frequency shift from any
frequency of interest down to DC. Then the average value of this DC is
extracted.
One problem is already seen — we have to know the signal from minus
to plus infinity.

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Mass and Spring
Once a (theoretical) system of a mass and a spring is set in motion it will
continue this motion with constant frequency and amplitude. The system
is said to oscillate with a sinusoidal waveform.

The Sine Curve

The sine curve which emerges when a mass and a spring oscillate can be
described by its amplitude (D) and period (T). Frequency is defined as the
number of cycles per second and is equal to the reciprocal of the period.
By multiplying the frequency by 2  the angular frequency is obtained,
which is again proportional to the square root of spring constant k divided
by mass m. The frequency of oscillation is called the natural frequency fn.
The whole sine wave can be described by the formula d = Dsin wnt,
where d = instantaneous displacement and D = peak displacement.

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We see that the longer the period of the sine wave, the lower the
frequency.
The magnitude of the peak in the spectrum corresponds to the energy
content of the sine wave (RMS).

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Vibration as the sum of sine waves
The time record is a broad band recording of machine vibration. A Fast Fourier
Transfer (FFT) is a mathematical operation that separates the signal into pure sine
waves.

By marking the amplitudes (here the velocity in mm/s RMS) of the obtained sine
waves on a 1/second scale (scale marked in Hz = Hertz), we obtain the vibration
spectrum.

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Mechanical Parameters
Before going into a discussion about vibration measurement and analysis,
we will examine the basic mechanical parameters and components and
how they interact.
All mechanical systems contain the three basic components: spring,
damper, and mass. When each of these in turn is exposed to a constant
force they react with a constant displacement, a constant velocity and a
constant acceleration respectively.

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 Vibration may be measured in acceleration, velocity or displacement.
For higher frequencies the velocity is higher than the displacement, and acceleration is higher than velocity.
Note that the peaks in the three spectra from a real machine are situated at the same frequencies.
For very high frequencies, the peaks may not be seen in the displacement spectra due to noise.
Which Parameter to Choose?
If the type of measurement being carried out does not call for a particular parameter to be measured e.g. due to
some standard, the general rule is that the parameter giving the flattest response over the frequency range of
interest should be chosen. This will give the biggest dynamic range of the whole measurement set up. If the
frequency response is not known start by choosing velocity.
An advantage of the accelerometer is that its electrical output can be integrated to give velocity and
displacement signals.
This is important since it is best to perform the analysis on the signal which has the flattest spectrum.
If a spectrum is not reasonably flat, the contribution of components lying well below the mean level,
will be less noticeable. In the case of overall measurements, smaller components might pass
completely undetected.
Use the Flattest Spectrum
In most cases this will mean that velocity is used as the detection parameter on machine
measurements. On some occasions acceleration may also be suitable, although most machines will
exhibit large vibration accelerations only at high frequencies. It is rare to find displacement spectra
which are flat over a wide frequency range, since most machines will only exhibit large vibration
displacements at low frequencies.
In the absence of frequency analysis instrumentation to initially check the spectra, it is safest to make
velocity measurements (but still using the accelerometer, of course, since even the integrated
accelerometer signal gives a better dynamic and frequency range than the velocity transducer signal).

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Motor Running Speed Freq. : 600 r.p.m (10 Hz)
First Coupling defect Frequency : 600 r.p.m x 4 bolt = 2400 r.p.m(40 Hz)
Gear Meshing Frequency : 600 r.p.m x 50 teeth=30,000 r.p.m(500Hz)
: or 1500 r.p.m x 20 teeth=30,000 r.p.m (500 Hz)
Second shaft speed : 600x50/20 =1500 r.p.m
Second Coupling defect Frequency :1500 r.p.m x 6 bolt = 9000 r.p.m(150 Hz)
Blade Passing Frequency : 1500 r.p.m x 5 Blade=7500 r.p.m (125Hz)

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 Frequency Spectrum or Overall Level
To decide whether monitoring or testing of the overall level is sufficient or
a complete frequency spectrum is required, the engineer must know his
machine and something about the most likely faults to occur or which part
of the object is of interest.
The illustration shows two different situations in monitoring, but it might
as well be testing:
Monitoring of a fan: The most likely fault to occur is unbalance, which will
give an increase in the vibration level at the speed of rotation. This will
normally also be the highest level in the spectrum. To see if unbalance is
developing, it is therefore sufficient to measure the overall level at regular
intervals. The overall level will reflect the increase just as well as the
spectrum.
Monitoring of a gearbox: Damaged or worn gears will show up as an
increase in the vibration level at the tooth meshing frequencies (shaft
RPM number of teeth) and their harmonics. The levels at these
frequencies are normally much lower than the highest level in the
frequency spectrum, so it is necessary to use a full spectrum comparison
to reveal a developing fault.
A general rule is overall measurements are permissible for simple, non
critical machines, while more complex, more critical machinery requires
spectral analysis.

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