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ABSTRACT
Condition monitoring of components and plants are of great importance for safe
and reliable operation and for increasing productivity of plants. The challenges towards
the condition monitoring can be successfully met by employing non-destructive
evaluation (NDE) techniques. Vibration monitoring techniques are applied for periodic /
continuous assessment of machinery parts and plants. Acoustic emission technique is
used for leak detection and for structural integrity monitoring applications. Infrared
thermographs are employed for condition monitoring applications in steel, electrical and
petrochemical industries. Lubricant analysis by ferrography, and filed signature
mapping are also used for condition monitoring applications. Here, applications of these
NDE techniques could help to properly diagnose faults in plants components, enables
taking timely decision about repair / replacement of components / plants, thus ensuring
increased safety, reliability and productivity.
INTRODUCTION
1. SIGNATURE ANALYSIS
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Apart from condition monitoring of plants during their operations, the task of
conditions based maintenance is also important for increasing plant economy. The
different methods of maintenance being practices in various industries are break down
maintenance, regular preventive maintenance and condition based maintenance or
NDE techniques, such as, vibration analysis, acoustic emission, and infra red
thermography, which have capabilities for online monitoring applications, can be used
for the conditioning assessment applications. When a large number of machines are
involved, the one characteristic that is common to practically all machines is vibration.
When ever, machinery vibration increases beyond safe limits, the common reason is
some mechanical trouble-unbalance, misalignment, worn out gears or gearings, loose
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Following figure shows a measuring and analysis system that may be used for
monitoring the vibration signals from machines.
Following table gives general guide lines for identifying the causes of vibrations.
The relation between the fault and frequency, amplitude and direction of vibration, are
given. This is a useful guide for pin-pointing the cause in case vibration levels at certain
frequency are seen to increase.
Sl. DIRECTION OF
FAULT FREQUENCY
No VIBRATION
1. ROTATING UNBALANCE SAME AS RUNNING SPEED RADIAL
MISALIGNMENT OF
2. 2*SPEED RADIAL AND AXIAL
BEARINGS
AT BALL OR ROLLER SPEEED
3. ROLLER BEARING DEFECT ULTRA SONIC FREQUENCIES (20- RADIAL AND AXIAL
60KHZ)
OIL FILM WHIRL IN HIGHSPEED
4. 0.5*SPEED RADIAL
TURBO MACHINES
5. DAMAGED OR WORN GEARS NO: OF TEETH* RPM RADIAL
other components. One of the reasons why machinery problems are caused by failure of
rolling bearings is that the number of rolling bearings assembled into machinery is a few
orders of magnitude larger than any other machine elements. Among various NDE
techniques, vibration technique is the most commonly used method for the detection of
failure of rolling bearings as shown in figure 1.2 (a)
valve
6%
sliding bearing
others
6% seal
24% valve
7%
sliding bearing
gear seal
7%
gear
oil pump
8% oil pump
slide way
rolling bearing slide way rolling bearing
29% 13%
others
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120
e break
n downsprevented
100
hi savings
c 80 insitu balancing
a
60
m trend line
f
40
o
:
20
o
N
0
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The wave thus picked up is converted into electrical signal which on suitable
processing and analysis can reveal valuable information about the source causing the
energy release. In metals the different sources are generation and-propagation of cracks,
movement of dislocations, formation and growth of twins, decohesion and fracture of
brittle inclusions, phase transformations etc. In composites, the sources of AE are
matrix cracking, debonding and fracture of fibers.
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3. INFRARED THERMOGRAPHY
This image depicts the setup for infrared testing of lap joints. The images below
are of a such a lap joint with a three poor spot welds in the middle.
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Here is the same data after removing the noise and vertical gradient.
Here is the same data processed for the local gradient in surface temperature.
The above series of images from thermographic data show that sophisticated
post processing of the raw data offers advantages in identifying good spot welds from
poor ones. Processing the matrix data with FFT algorithms and numerical
differentiation brings out important details that are hidden in the raw infrared data. The
strong change in the surface temperature gradients at the two spot welds on the outside
corresponded to high strength welds. The location of the three spot welds in the middle
can be determined and the weak temperature gradients correspond to low strength
welds.
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4. FERROGRAPHY
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means of knowing the actual wear mechanism based on which, suitable corrective
measures can be taken well in advance.
SILVER SOLDERS.
TIN PISTONS.
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microscopy.
After the laboratory receives the sample, a series of tests are performed. The
table below is a listing of each test, and the conditions detected by the test. All tests are
not necessarily performed as each laboratory has an established series of tests.
In the spectrometer, oil is electrically excited to the point where light is emitted.
Each element present in the burning oil emits a light of its own particular color and
frequency. The spectrometer translates the intensity of this rainbow of colors into a
computerized readout. A typical report from this test would list major wear metals for
industrial gear oil and hydraulic oil. The computer compares the amount of wear metals
present with a fresh oil sample, and also records of samples from similar equipment.
Also, the computer compares the output from previous samples taken from the same
piece of equipment to establish wear trends.
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(FSM) or field signature method has been developed for condition monitoring of the
localized corrosion erosion or abrasion and cracking in steel and metal structures,
pipelines, pipe bends and vessels. FSM is based on feeding an electric direct current
through the selected regions of the structures to be monitored, and sensing the pattern of
the electrical field by measuring small potential differences generated on the surface of
the monitored structure. The potential difference generated on the surface of the
structure is monitored periodically / continuously. Selected area is fitted with a number
of sensing electrodes or pins distributed in a matrix with variable spacing. Typical
distance between electrodes is 2-3 times wall thickness. By proper interpretation of the
changes in the potential differences, information pertaining to wall thinning of the
structure or component under investigation can be obtained reliably. In the case of
installed components, the measured potentials are compared with those initially
measured. These values represent the initial geometry of the component, i.e., it
fingerprint, as implied by the name of the method. It has been established that
sensitivity for detection of internal corrosion by this method is an order of magnitude
higher than that by ultrasonic
Fig. 5. 1(a). A typical refinery monitors high temperature areas such as heater bends in
the distillation unit
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The field proven FSM technique detects metal loss due to corrosion by detecting
small changes in the way an induced current flows through a metallic structure. The
system presents graphical plots indicating the severity and location of corrosion, and
calculates actual corrosion and metal loss. Both sensitivity and accuracy are typically
better than 0.5% of remaining wall thickness, but may vary with the application.
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6. CONCLUSION
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ACOUSTIC NOT
VOLUMETRIC POSSIBLE POSSIBLE
EMISSION POSSIBLE
SURFACE ,
I R THERMO-
NEAR POSSIBLE POSSIBLE POSSIBLE
GRAPHY
SURFACE
SURFACE,
FSM NEAR POSSIBLE POSSIBLE POSSIBLE
SURFACE
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7. REFERENCES
4. Dr. Baldev Raj, NDT for realising better Quality of Life in Emerging Economies
like India, www.ndt.net/article/wcndt00.
5. http://www.engr.du.edu/profile/Marvin.htm
6. http://www.applied-infrared.com.au/thermography
7. http://lubricants.s5.com/index.htm\
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