Locating Sources of Vibration with Harmonics and Pulse Signals in Industrial Machines

This paper is devoted to a new approach to condition monitoring. The main feature is an application of strain gauge analysis for geometrical locating of vibrating defects. Information about the exact geometrical location of a defect, intensity of excitation and its frequency provides accurate diagnostics. The research contains theoretical and experimental parts. Three types of defects are analyzed: defects with harmonic parameters, defects with non-harmonic periodical parameters (pulse periodic signal) and defects with non-periodical parameters (pulse non-periodical signal). For the first type, analysis of micro movements in the equipment is used. The others use triangulation; for detecting time lag of signal approaching in each sensor, an analysis of phase spectrum is used. This method can find sources of vibration/defects with pulse-like signals. An electronic board and computer program for implementation of the proposed method are developed. The electronics measure strain gauge data in real time and transmit it to a computer program. Such an approach gives new information for diagnostics and provides new opportunities for effective defect detection and condition monitoring of various machines and equipment.