Vibration Analysis of Rotating Plant Machinery

Health monitoring and management of critical machinery is becoming state-of-the-art for military aircraft. Application of advanced health monitoring technology to ground-based plant equipment is an obvious, needed extension. Advanced signal processing algorithms that can analyze vibration signals to identify fault source and severity and track trends of data features is key to efficient maintenance practices for rotating plant machinery. This is the basis of Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM), in which maintenance is performed based on the measured condition of the mechanical components. Maintenance is performed only after fault detection but before failure. Condition-based maintenance minimizes downtime, eliminates unnecessary maintenance, and prevents secondary damage from in-service failures. Rudimentary technologies to monitor rotating plant machinery systems exist, taking the form of stand-alone monitoring devices or manual machine monitoring. Application of advanced diagnostic and prognostic algorithms recently developed for aerospace applications will allow the development of intelligent health monitoring system that maximizes diagnostic coverage while minimizing the number of sensors added. Sentient will develop a low-cost, robust health monitoring system applicable to a wide range of commercial rotating machinery. Phase I will demonstrate the underlying sensing and diagnostic algorithms. Phase II will develop and demonstrate a complete prototype installed on operating plant machinery.