How often should Vibrational Analysis be done?

Table of Content

• What is Vibration?
• What is Vibration Analysis?
• What is the use of Vibration Analysis?
• How often should Vibration Analysis be done?
• Benefits of Vibration Analysis
• Conclusion

What is a vibration?

Before entering into the topic of Vibrational Analysis, we must know the actual meaning of Vibrations. Vibration is a periodic movement or, say, back and forth movement of the particles present in the body, which has the feature of elasticity. Because rigidity does not allow to move, this movement of particles in an elastic body happens when any physical system is displaced from its equilibrium condition and allowed to respond to the forces that are responsible for restoring or maintaining equilibrium. Vibrations can be explained as both in intensity by amplitude and in periodicity by frequency.

What is Vibration Analysis?

Vibrational Analysis means analyzing or noticing the vibrations in particular machinery. Vibrational Analysis is a process for monitoring the levels and pattern of vibration signals within a component, machinery, or structure; Vibrational Analysis is used to detect abnormal vibration events and know the test object's overall condition. It is a very critical process because it has to investigate the very pattern of the vibration signal. Vibrational Analysis is basically a process in which we measure the movement of a point on a machine. It transforms the mechanical motion into an electrical voltage. An electrical voltage is generated by the compression of a piezoelectric crystal inside the machine's sensor or structure or component. After that, the electrical signal from the element is sent to the vibration analyzer, which is connected to it. Vibrational Analysis works on both time waveforms as well as a frequency spectrum.

What is the use of Vibration Analysis?

Vibrational Analysis records the vibration waveforms and checks the time and reason for the occurrence of abnormal vibrations. It is done by studying various parameters like RMS, Standard Deviation, Peak Amplitude, Kurtosis, crest factor, skewness, and many others. It is monitoring the event when the flow is harmful and can harm the system. In rotating machinery, it is highly desirable to include the frequency spectrum along with the time-domain analysis. In a complex structure or machinery, there are different types of vibrations involved. Therefore, it is better to apply both (time frame and frequency spectrum)analysis to reach the optimum results. We not only have to find out the vibration presence but also have to describe its repetitiveness. Monitoring the vibrations has its standards and limits; once the analysis is out of the limit, this shows that the machinery's overall condition is deteriorating and defects have been developed. Vibrational Analysis detects the abnormal vibrating patterns.

How often should Vibration Analysis be done?

As we all know, the fourteen principles of management have given the management department the critical responsibility to be perfect in all organizational structure parameters. Management has to manage the technical issues and where they come in their sphere or not; for the same reason, management may ask the data of vibrations at any time to measure various outcomes of the structure. To fulfill the data, vibration analysis should be done every month, or it may be done more frequently if the machine fails. Management allows the data collection frequencies based upon the importance, resources available at the moment, and the criticality of the issue generated. Different companies and different managers have their own strategies and perception to collect data. To avoid failures, we suggest shortening the period of doing Vibrational Analysis. Vibrational Analysis must be done from time to time, as bearing may develop a failure on day one but run for the next sixty days before it causes the machine to fail or great harm to the structure. If the device is monitored through Vibrational Analysis every month or quarter, the chances of machine failure will be reduced.

Benefits of Vibration Analysis

1. It gives the updated information and real-time reaction to the changes in the heath of machinery or structure as a whole.
2. It also supports remote condition monitoring.
3. Vibrational Analysis has well-established processing and signals analysis methods for predictive maintenance.
4. It has various supported sensors for different operational conditions.
5. Vibration analysis is done in the process of piping, train doors, rotating wind turbines, bridge components, turbine blades, bearings, gear, shafts, etc.

Conclusion

After analyzing the various factors, we can sum up that Vibrational Analysis must be done at short intervals to avoid significant failures and losses. Companies and senior management should build a program to fix up the strategy to practice Vibrational Analysis in the premises. They can visualize the error in advance and find the solution by doing appropriate repairs within the scheduled budget and time. The primary purpose should not be lost: to monitor the vibration signal's level s and patterns to detect abnormal vibration events. Just like for saving the life of a human being, we do routine checkups of our body organs and parts in the same manner life of the machinery needs Vibrational Analysis to detect the system's faults.