vibration monitoring – What Is Piping: All about Piping Engineering

Vibration monitoring can be defined as the monitoring of the rotary equipment (pumps, compressors, turbines, fans, etc.) using a set of tools to find out equipment health continuously or at a predetermined interval that can develop vibration (or equipment malfunction) in the system. These tools sense the vibration signals and convert them into some physical phenomena so that condition of the equipment health is determined. In this article, we will explore the vibration monitoring basics. Why is vibration monitoring important? Vibration with plant machinery is a serious problem with plant operations. Its severity sometimes leads to even plant shut down. So It must be monitored. Vibration monitoring systems help to detect equipment damage or malfunction in good time to prevent major consequences like equipment failure or plant downtime. Machineries in an operating plant require attention to perform at desired levels of performance-approach towards equipment. Various types of maintenance approaches are taken for rotary equipment as listed in Fig. 1: Fig. 1: Normal Approaches towards Equipment Condition Monitoring The main advantages of condition monitoring are: Extended asset lifeReduced maintenance costsCost savings on prematurely replaced resourcesReduced downtime Condition monitoring can be of two-types: A) VIBRATION MONITORING: Online vibration monitoring and Offline Vibration Monitoring.B) LUBRICATING OIL MONITORING: Oil properties analysis and wear Debris analysis. Online Monitoring In Online condition monitoring, the rotary equipment is continuously monitored. So, online monitoring is a non-interrupted permanent process that produces data continuously including the most critical moments. Fig. 2: Typical online monitoring system The major features of online vibration monitoring are: Permanently mounted probes.All rotary equipment above 500 KW. Bently Nevada make systemsShaft Vibration as well as Casing Vibration.provide real-time data for equipment health.sensors are wirelessly connected to a remote condition monitoring system. Online vibration monitoring is applied to: Monitor Highly Critical AssetsMonitor Troubled AssetsMonitor Hard-to-Reach Assets Offline Monitoring Offline vibration monitoring is employed for less critical equipment where a periodic check is sufficient. Manual or Semi-automated equipment are used for offline monitoring. The main features of offline condition monitoring are Periodic Data collectionPortable and Semi-Automatic Data Analyzers.All Rotary equipment above 22 KW up to 500 KW. CSI Make System Condition of Equipment Physical Condition: AppearanceColorTemperatureVibrationsSound or NoiseLooseness Internal Condition: Vibration SpectrumsFrequency AnalysisRotor PositionBearing Metal TemperatureOil Condition - Oil Degradation, Metals, Wear Particles in Oil. Three Stages in Vibration Monitoring What to measure from the machine? Identification of parameter and machineHow to measure? Instrumentation requirementWhen to measure? Frequency of CM Basics of Vibration What is Vibration (Fig. 3)? Vibration can be defined as the cyclic or oscillating motion of a component from its mean position. Fig. 3: Vibration of Simple Spring Mass System Units of Vibration Measurement Displacement : m, mm, microns. milsVelocity : m/sec, mm/sec , in/secAcceleration : m/sec2, g What causes Vibration? Various factors can cause vibration is a system like UnbalanceMisalignmentShaft and Bearing WearBent shaftMechanical LoosenessEccentricityResonanceAnti-friction bearingJournal bearingAerodynamics and hydraulic problemElectrical problemGear problemBelt-drives problemBearing Failure Units of Vibration: Amplitude: It is the magnitude of the vibration signal. How much is it vibrating? Size (severity) of the problem.Frequency: How many times oscillation is occurring for a given time period? What is vibrating? Source of the vibration.Phase Angle: The Phase Angle is the angle (in degrees) the shaft travels from the start of data collection to when the sensor experiences maximum positive force. How is it vibrating? Cause of the vibration. Units of Amplitude Displacement: The distance a structure moves or vibrates from its reference or rest position.Velocity: Rate of change of displacement. It is the measure of the speed at which the mass is vibrating during its oscillation.Acceleration: It is the rate of change of velocity. The greater the rate of change of velocity the greater the forces (F=ma) on the machines. When To Use Displacement / Velocity / Acceleration (Fig. 4)? Fig. 4: When to Use Displacement-Velocity-Acceleration Systems / Tools for Vibration Monitoring Transducers (Fig. 5): It is a basic device, which converts mechanical motion into an electrical signal which can be amplified, filtered, analyzed and displayed to indicate the vibrations and allow diagnosis of the overall machinery health. Fig. 5: Use of transducers for vibration monitoring Seismic Sensor - Works on piezo-electrical / moving coil principleIndirect measurement of shaft vibration.Directly mounted on machine casing / bearing house.Absolute vibration in terms of mm/sec or g The VELOCITY PICK-UP is a contact type transducer. Within the velocity pick-up, a spring-mass suspension system is used, which is designed to have a low frequency. It is a permanent magnet-mass suspended on a spring and surrounded by a coil attached to the protective housing. Damping fluid is used to damp the natural frequency Velocity pick-up is limited to low frequency (between 10 Hz and 1500 Hz) for practical purposes. Accelerometer (Fig. 6) The accelerometer consists of a stack of piezoelectric crystals (such as quartz) on which a mass is attached. When a piezoelectric crystal is stressed, it produces an electric voltage output that is proportional to the stress/force. When the accelerometer is attached to a vibration body, the crystal is stressed by the inertia of the mass caused due to the vibration. The electrical voltage output is proportional to the vibration acceleration. Fig. 6: Several types of transducers. Vibration Signals for Vibration Monitoring A frequency that is an integral multiple (´2, ´3, etc.) of a fundamental (´1) frequency.Sub-harmonic- A frequency that is an integral submultiple (´1/2, ´1/3, etc.) of a fundamental (´1) frequency.Vibration components (on rotating machinery) that are related to shaft speed.Sub-synchronous- Components of a vibration signal whose frequency is less than 1´ shaft speed. Fig. 7: Dominant frequency vs Nature of Fault Unidirectional vibrations. i.e. severity is more in radial directions as compared to axial.The phase difference is 90° in radial directions.Highly sensible w.r.t. machine rpm. It is directly proportional to machine speed. Frequency Spectrum(Fig. 8) for Vibration monitoring data Frequency Spectrum is a plot of frequency V/s amplitude. The frequency axis may be scaled indirect frequency units Hz or in order of shaft rotative speed ie. 1X, 2X, etc. depending on the requirement. Baseline data can also be superimposed on the existing data to view changes in rotor response from known conditions. Fig. 8: Sample frequency spectrum plot BODE PLOT (Fig. 9) for Vibration Monitoring Data Bode Plot is a transient data plot and the display is either 1X or 2X vibration amplitude and phase with respect to shaft rotative speed. This plot is only available as startup or shutdown data.This plot is useful in determining the slow roll speed range, balance resonant frequencies, synchronous amplification factor, heavy spot location, and rotor mode shape. Fig. 9: Sample Bode Plot Few more Useful Resources for you.Vibration RelatedPump RelatedPiping Design and Layout BasicsHeat Exchanger RelatedVessel RelatedFew Job Opportunities for you.