Vol.

2, 2006

Condition Monitoring, F ault Diagnosis and Fault Predictive Maintenance of Mechanical Systems
B.C. Nakra
Professor, Mechanical and Automobile Engg. Deptt.

Condition monitoring of plants and machines has acquired considerable importance, as a useful tool for predictive or condition based maintenance. T echniques like vibration monitoring, acoustic emission monitoring, temperature monitoring, wear debris, corrosion and performance monitoring, are briefly discussed. Current work on development of expert systems and artificial neutral networks for diagnosis about the condition or health of a machine is also covered. Keywords: Condition monitoring, fault diagnosis, condition based maintenance, expert systems, artificial neural networks.

Maintenance Engineering and R elated Concepts Related

Maintenance is the management, control, execution and quality of those activities which will ensure that optimum levels of availability and overall performance of plant are achieved, in order to meet business objectives. Maintenance strategies may be classified as 1. Corrective or breakdown type 2. Preventive or time based type Maintenance costs being a major part of total operating costs of all manufacturing and production plants (between 5-40 % of costs of goods produced, depending on type of industry), considerable savings can result if proper attention is paid to maintenance procedures. Result surveys in USA [1] indicate that one third of all maintenance costs is wasted as a result of unnecessary or improperly carried out maintenance. In fact, the survey concluded that 60 billion dollars may be saved annually if the maintenance management is scientifically carried out. In U.K., a study [2] sponsored by their dept. of Trade & Industry, pointed out that the adoption of better maintenance practices, may result in an annual saving of 1.3 billion. In India, during the past five decades, with the emergence of power plants, steel plants, oil refineries and large factories often with foreign collaboration, experience has shown

an under-utilization of capacity due to inadequate infrastructure particularly maintenance. There appears to be considerable scope, to modernize our maintenance procedures and keep pace with the awareness and development taking place elsewhere. Many new concepts have emerged, related with maintenance engineering. These include RAM TPM RCM CBM MMDP COMADEM and others RAM implies Reliability, Availability and Maintainability of a system, often obtained from a detailed study of its sub-systems and their interrelation. TPM implies Total Productive Maintenance, as developed in Japan, which essentially is a combined approach of bridging the production and maintenance gap. In this, maintenance has to be the key ingredient of everybodys drive to eliminate all potential production losses, through analysis and planning including use of latest technology. As in Fig. (1) the manufacturing strategy is related with both production planning and maintenance polices.

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monitoring techniques. These techniques include use of parameters like vibrations and noise, temperature, lubricant condition, wear debris analysis, corrosion, pressure flow and other performance parameters. The advantages of such a maintenance strategy are: Safety from damage increased availability and output The techniques, however, involve use of instruments, sometimes highly sophisticated and benefits have to be justified by economic factors. Also, proper training in interpretation of measured signatures or signals, is important. It is interesting to examine a maintenance strategy in relation to the failure rate curve. Fig. 2 shows a typical bath-tub curve for a machine. Running-in failures are due to teething troubles at initial stages and may be eliminated by improved design. In the normal operation range, failure rate is constant and time schedule for maintenance can be followed, though for applications like space, nuclear, offshore etc. CBM is useful as it is not possible to use any probability theory for failure prediction and it may be possible to have sufficient lead time between the failure and its detection.

Fig. 1: Maintenance - Manufacturing Policy Inter-Relationship [2]

RCM or Reliability Centered Maintenance is a related aspect, involving a structured evaluation of failure consequences which integrates decisions regarding safety, operating economics and maintenance costs. CBM or Condition Based Maintenance or predictive maintenance implies carrying out maintenance according to need as predicted by condition monitoring of the machine or the plant by suitably installed monitoring instruments or equipment. MMDP or Manufacturing, Monitoring, Diagnostic or Prognostics involves use of sensors, not only for indicating maintenance needs but also for control of manufacturing operations and prediction of residual life of components being monitored. COMADEM (Condition Monitoring & Diagnostic Engineering Management) is the science, art and technology of detecting, measuring, monitoring, diagnosis, prognosis, controlling and managing any change in a part of the machine or plant systems, swiftly, systematically, effectively, reliably, accurately, safely & economically. It may be seen that all the above concepts are related and imply use of condition monitoring or proper measurement and analysis of the health of a machine. In predictive or condition based maintenance or CBM, maintenance is only carried out when there is need, as indicated by periodic /continuous measurement and analysis, using some of the several available condition

Fig. 2: A T ypical Failure Curve For a Machine

Condition Monitoring T echniques Techniques

Vibration Monitoring and Analysis Vibration levels on machine frames and bearing housings and relative movements between shaft journals and bearings, provide a useful guide to such

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faults as unbalance, misalignment, etc. In recent years, continuous vibration monitoring of process plants has become an accepted practice often by permanent electronic installations, coupled to alarm systems but also by periodic checks with hand held vibration monitoring devices. It is known that vibrations would be having special features under normal or abnormal conditions. It is not only the vibration amplitude which should be known but also the frequencies of vibrations which are important (Fig. 3).

A number of instruments are available for measuring and analysing vibration signals from machinery. The intrepretation of the recorded signals requires a specialised knowledge of the dynamic characteristics of the machine [3].

Fig. 5: T ypical Fault Detection System

Fig. 5 shows a typical fault detection system using digital computer. Table 1 shows a chart for fault diagnosis using vibration signatures.

Fig. 3: Vibration monitoring for diagnosis.

As an example, unbalance results in vibrations which have frequency equal to that of running speed while misalignment or looseness results in frequencies which are multiples of running speed. For frequency analysis, it is necessary to analyse the vibration signal by filters and spectrum analyser. A more sophisticated analyser is the Real Time Analyser or a Fast Fourier Transform Analyser (FFT) which gives an instantaneous picture of amplitude vs frequency. Fig. 4 shows how the vibration levels of a ball bearing increase due to a defect.
Fig. 6: Spectrum of Vibratin and Sounde used for Monitoring and Diagnostics

Fig. 6 shows the frequency ranges of vibration and other high frequency signals as related with defects. The audible range for sound signals is till 20 KHz. Acoustic emission signals are till 1 MHz.

Fig. 4: Vibration Due to Defective Ball in Bearing

Acoustic Emission A relatively new technique for detecting the initiation of cracks in machine structures, is acoustic emission. As crack is initiated or propagated through a material, a stress pulse is generated and transmitted through the material as a stress wave. A transducer mounted on the surface, will detect the disturbance and produce an electrical output as shown in Fig. 7. The source of the wave or location of the crack can be found by using three or more transducers.
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Thermography is used to locate the increased surface temperature associated with corrosion damage in furnaces and stacks [6].

Fig. 7: Stress Wave Propagation in a Structure

Wear Debris Analysis Wear debris is generated by wear processes at relatively moving surfaces of load carrying components like bearings, gears, pistons, seals, cams and tappets. Study of the wear particles viz. shape, size and quality of the particles, can give indication about the health of the machine. Fig. (9) shows how the size and quantity of the wear debris, varies as the failure progresses. The techniques used and the ranges of particle sizes, which can be detected, are also shown. These include MCD (Magnetic chip detectors), Ferrographic analysis and SOAP (Spectroscopic Oil Analysis Program).

Fig. 8: Acoustic Emission Signal

Frequencies of 200 kHz or more are encounterered as seen from Fig. 6. A threshold limit is set as shown in Fig. 8 so that a counter will register a count each time the signal level exceeds the threshold value. Several other parameters like rise time, event duration etc. are also used for analysis. Acoustic emission has been sucessfully used in a number of applications- testing of pressure vessels, detection of leaks, cavitation detection, corrosion fatigue crack detection, seal failure detection, detection of damage in rolling

Fig. 9: Variation of Particle Size & Amount with Failure Progression

Temperature Monitoring Thermocouples and resistance thermometers are used for measuring bearing temperatures. Useful warning of failure may be obtained by monitoring maximum bearing surface temperature. Excessive bearing temperature is followed by failure, within hours.
Infrared thermography techniques are used to monitor both the temperatures and temperature pattern of equipment in operation. This information along with data on physical construction of the component and thermodynamic state of equipment, is used to evaluate the degree of deterioration of an item of process plant.

Table 2 gives the source of contaminants which result from theoperation of a typical reciprocating engine [7, 8].

Corrosion Monitoring Systematic assessment of corrosion is useful for the efficient operation of a plant or equipment. The parameters to be monitored are: corrosion rate, depth of corrosion, amount of metal remaining etc. Methods like visual inspection, radiography, ultrasonic and electrical resistance method, may be used for monitoring corrosion. These are applied in petroleum, chemical, power generation industry, heat exchangers, pressure vessels etc. for plant monitoring and control [9].

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Performance Monitoring Most of the present day techniques involve use of computer for storage of periodic or continuous data about the performance of a system being monitored. The data for an engine would be: cylinder pressures, piston, ring clearance, cylinder surface temperature, fuel injection pressure and a large number of functional parameters like power and fuel consumption rate.

diagnosis and condition based maintenance. For rotating machines, vibration monitoring is common and for machines with complex dynamic response like reciprocating engines, wear debris analysis of lubricants is widely accepted.

Diagnostic T echniques Techniques

The analysis of various signatures as monitored periodically or continuously, can diagnose an impending fault in a machine or plant through trend monitoring. If a number of types of signatures like vibration, performance etc. are monitored, the reasoning has to be systematic based on experience and theoretical knowledge of the system. [7, 8, 12]. With the use of computers, the analysis has been considerably facilitated. In case of abnormal signatures, alarm / shut downs is possible automatically in order to avoid serious operational problems and failure, ensuring safety as wel. Sytems where a number of sensors are embedded in the machine and signature analysis is carried out as above, the machine is called a Smart Machine. The advances in some of the intelligent techniques like expert systems and artificial neural networks (A.N.N.) are taking place with success and a number of software have been developed based on the above techniques [10-12]. Fig. 12 shows the main elements of an expert system in which a computer program is able to make decisions based on signature analysis, like an expert would. There are three main components: Knowledge base consisting a set of rules of the IF. Then types. Inference engine, giving reasoning. Data base involving acquisition of data from sensors. The inference engine uses the knowledge base to process the information in the data base. The management software interfaces with the operator, interrogating the real time operators e.g.

Fig. 10: Gas Turbine Condition Monitoring

Fig. (10) shows a gas turbine driving a propane gas compressor in a plant. The diagnosis of faults is possible by monitoring and analyzing data about bearing vibrations and process parameters like temperature, pressure and flow rate at various locations as shown. Fig. (11) shows a large electric motor whose parameters like stator voltage, current, winding temperature, coolant temperature etc. are monitored, in addition to measuring bearing vibrations and temperature. It is possible to diagnose faults in compressor, combustor and turbine and whether any maintenance is required.

Fig. 11: Monitoring Equipment for a Large Motor

In general, vibration and oil debris analysis are powerful condition monitoring techniques for fault Department of Mechanical & Automobile Engineering

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IF: frequency is 1 X, (i.e. same as the running speed) and sensor is in radial direction, the fault is: unbalance. IF: frequency is 2 X, and sensor is in axial direction, the fault is : misalignment. The Artificial Neural Networks (A.N.Ns) are meant to recognize patterns in incomplete data. These are based on human nervous systems, with several neurons or nodes or more hidden layers between input and output neurons, which are connected as in Fig. (13).

The input-output relation for each node is determined by a set of connection weights Wi, a threshold parameter W0 and a node activation functions, 'A' which introduces a non-linear transformation between input and output and at each neuron, is suitably chosen.

;
Y is the output and Xi are the inputs. The network is trained with available data and tested to verify the fault or damage in the system. Results of vibration signatures due to faults like unbalance, misalignment etc. are used for training a network and then tested with vibration data to quantify the faults. Usually, a feed-forward multi-layer network with back propagation type algorithm is used [13-15]. It involves learning taking place with known outputs and inputs and the output error is fed back through the network, adjusting the weights so as to minimize the output error. It has been applied to rotating machines for various faults with training data obtained experimentally. The values of vibration signals were obtained for quantified faults in the frequency domain, considering the first four harmonics of vibrations as in Table 3. The vibrations were measured in horizontal, vertical and axial directions. Matlab toolbox of MATLAB was used with 3 layer network The network used 12 input neurons, 5 output neurons and 7 neurons in the hidden layer. The trainind data was taken for 5 values of parallel misalignment and after training the test data was fed to the ANN. It was seen that the ANN gave 0.431 mm as parallel misalignment for the test data while the actual experimental value was 0.45 mm. In [16, 17], the work has been carried out using ANN method with vibration signatures in time domain, for classification of faults. In order to reduce the number of inputs, the statistical moments of vibration signals are acquired in time domain for fault classification, which was reasonably predicted.

Fig. 13: A T ypical Artificial Neural Network

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Concluding R emarks Remarks

Condition monitoring based maintenance may be a component of a total maintenance system, involving use of other maintenance strategies as well. It is also to be a part of manufacturing system for machine and production control. The above strategy would lead to economical benefits and avoidance of unscheduled breakdowns and safety especially for large capacity high speed machines. The emerging area of intelligent diagnostics like expert systems and ANN are seen to be reasonably successful.

11. K. Piety & J.E. Gorley, Development of an expert system to diagnose machinery vibration problems, ibid., 1989. 12. B.C. Nakra & K.K. Chaudhry, Instrumentation, Measurement & Analysis, Instrumentation, Measurement & Analysis, Tata McGraw Hill, II Ed. 2005. 13. Neural Networks in thefield of condition monitoring, http://members.tripod.com/~malek/ index.html. 14. K.S. Srinivasan, Fault diagnosis of rotating machines using vibration monitoring, Ph. D. Thesis, IIT, Delhi, 2002. 15. M.T. Hagan & M.B. Menhaj, Training feedforward network with the Marquardt algorithm, Trans. IEEE on Neural Networks, Vol.5, p989, 1994. 16. A.C. McCormik & A.K. Nandi, Classification of rotating machine condition using artificial neural networks, Proc. I. Mech. E. Vol.211, p439, 1997. 17. N.S. Vyas, & D. Satish Kumar, Artificial neural network design, for fault identification in rotor bearing system, Mechanism and Machine Theory, Vol.36, p157, 2001.

References
1. R.K. Mobley, An introduction to predictive maintenance, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1990. P. Willmott, Maintenance and Profitability, Maintenance Management, June 1990. B.C. Nakra, G.S. Yadava & L. Thuestad, Vibration, Measurement & Analysis, N.P .C., New Delhi Publ., 1989. P . Bor, Detect incipient failure by monitoring acoustic emission, Power, p69, Dec. 1982. C. Thaulow & Bergi, Acoustic emission monitoring of corrosion fatigue crack growth in offshore steel, NDT Intl. Vol.17, p147, 1984. B.M. Smith, Condition monitoring by thermography, NDT Intl. Vol.11, 1978. R.A. Collacott, Mechanical fault diagnosis, Chapman & Hall, London, 1973. M.J. Neale et. al., A guide to the condition monitoring of machinery, HMSO Publ., London. G.P . Rothwell, Corrosion monitoring, NDT Intl. Vol.11, p108, 1978.

2. 3.

4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9.

10. R. Araya & R. Gormaz, An expert system generator with hypertext, CAD & forms management, Proc. I Int. Machinery Monitoring & Diagnostics Conf., Las Vegas, Nevada, 1989.

Table 1: Vibration Chart

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T able 2

Table 3: Frequency Components for RMS Vibration Velocities for Various Values of Parallel Misalignments

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