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14.1 COMMON GENERAL FAILURE MODES Many of the common causes of failure in machinery components can be identied by understanding their relationship to the true running speed of the shaft within the machine-train. Table 141 is a vibration troubleshooting chart that identies some of the common failure modes. This table provides general guidelines for interpreting the most common abnormal vibration proles. These guidelines, however, do not provide positive verication or identication of machine-train problems. Verication requires an understanding of the failure mode and how it appears in the vibration signature. The sections to follow describe the most common machine-train failure modes: critical speeds, imbalance, mechanical looseness, misalignment, modulations, process instability, and resonance.

14.1.1 Critical Speeds

All machine-trains have one or more critical speeds that can cause severe vibration and damage to the machine. Critical speeds result from the phenomenon known as dynamic resonance. Critical speed is a function of the natural frequency of dynamic components such as a rotor assembly, bearings, and so on. All dynamic components have one or more natural frequencies that can be excited by an energy source that coincides with, or is in proximity to, that frequency. For example, a rotor assembly with a natural frequency of 1,800 rotations per minute (rpm) cannot be rotated at speeds between 1,782 and 1,818 rpm without exciting the rotors natural frequency. Critical speed should not be confused with the mode shape of a rotating shaft. Deection of the shaft from its true centerline (i.e., mode shape) elevates the vibration amplitude and generates dominant vibration frequencies at the rotors fundamental and harmonics of the running speed; however, the amplitude of these frequency components tends to be much lower than those caused by operating at a critical speed of the rotor assembly. Also, the excessive vibration amplitude generated by operating at a critical speed disappears when the speed is changed. Vibrations caused by mode shape tend to remain through a much wider speed range or may even be independent of speed. The unique natural frequencies of dynamic machine components are determined by the mass, freedom of movement, support stiffness, and other factors. These factors dene the response characteristics of the rotor assembly (i.e., rotor dynamics) at various operating conditions. Each critical speed has a well-dened vibration pattern. The rst critical excites the fundamental (1) frequency component; the second critical excites the secondary (2) component; and the third critical excites the third (3) frequency component.

Failure-Mode Analysis Table 141 Vibration Troubleshooting Chart

Frequency of Dominant Vibration (Hz = rpm. 60) 1 rpm Usually 1 rpm Often 2 rpm Sometimes 3 & 4 rpm Impact rates for the individual bearing components Also vibrations at very high frequencies (20 to 60 kHz)

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Nature of Fault Rotating Members Out of Balance Misalignment & Bent Shaft Damaged Rolling Element Bearings (Ball, Roller, etc.)

Direction Radial Radial & Axial Radial & Axial

Remarks A common cause of excess vibration in machinery A common fault

Uneven vibration levels, often with shocks. Impact-Rates:

Concoct Angle Impact Rates 1 (Hz) Ball Die For Outer Race Detect 1(Hz) = n1 11 DD Con l1 2 PD (BD)
n1 DD Pitch For Inner Race Detect 1(Hz) = 2 11 PD Con l1 Die 2 n1 (1 DD )2 For Ball Detect 1(Hz) = Con l (PD) 2 PD

n = number of balls or rollors ln = rotating rpm./s between inner & outer races

repsor

Journal Bearings Loose in Housings Oil Film Whirl or Whip in Journal Bearings Hysteresis Whirl

Sub-harmonics of shaft rpm, exactly 1/2 or 1/3 rpm Slightly less than half shaft speed (42% to 48%) Shaft critical speed

Primarily Radial Primarily Radial Primarily Radial

Looseness may only develop at operating speed and temperature (e.g., turbomachines) Applicable to high-speed (e.g., turbo) machines Vibrations excited when passing through critical shaft speed are maintained at higher shaft speeds. Can sometimes be cured by checking tightness of rotor components Sidebands around tooth meshing frequencies indicate modulation (e.g., eccentricity) at frequency corresponding to sideband spacings. Normally only detectable with very narrow-band analysis

Damaged or Worn Gears

Tooth meshing frequencies (shaft rpm number of teeth) and harmonics 2 rpm 1, 2, 3 & 4 rpm of belt 1 rpm and/or multiples for higher order unbalance Blade & Vane passing frequencies and harmonics 1 rpm or 1 or 2 times sychronous frequency

Radial & Axial

Mechanical Looseness Faulty Belt Drive Unbalanced Reciprocating Forces and Couples Increased Turbulence Electrically Induced Vibrations

Radial Primarily Radial

Radial & Axial Radial & Axial

Increasing levels indicate increasing turbulence Should disappear when turning off the power

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The best way to conrm a critical-speed problem is to change the operating speed of the machine-train. If the machine is operating at a critical speed, the amplitude of the vibration components (1, 2, or 3) will immediately drop when the speed is changed. If the amplitude remains relatively constant when the speed is changed, the problem is not critical speed.
14.1.2 Imbalance

The term balance means that all forces generated by, or acting on, the rotating element of a machine-train are in a state of equilibrium. Any change in this state of equilibrium creates an imbalance. In the global sense, imbalance is one of the most common abnormal vibration proles exhibited by all process machinery. Theoretically, a perfectly balanced machine that has no friction in the bearings would experience no vibration and would have a perfect vibration prolea perfectly at, horizontal linehowever, no perfectly balanced machines exist. All machine-trains exhibit some level of imbalance, which has a dominant frequency component at the fundamental running speed (1) of each shaft. An imbalance prole can be excited as a result of the combined factors of mechanical imbalance, lift/gravity differential effects, aerodynamic and hydraulic instabilities, process loading, and, in fact, all failure modes. Mechanical It is incorrect to assume that mechanical imbalance must exist to create an imbalance condition within the machine. Mechanical imbalance, however, is the only form of imbalance that is corrected by balancing the rotating element. When all failures are considered, the number of machine problems that are the result of actual mechanical rotor imbalance is relatively small. Single-Plane. Single-plane mechanical imbalance excites the fundamental (1) frequency component, which is typically the dominant amplitude in a signature. Because there is only one point of imbalance, only one high spot occurs as the rotor completes each revolution. The vibration signature may also contain lower-level frequencies reecting bearing defects and passing frequencies. Figure 141 illustrates single-plane imbalance. Because mechanical imbalance is multidirectional, it appears in both the vertical and horizontal directions at the machines bearing pedestals. The actual amplitude of the 1 component generally is not identical in the vertical and horizontal directions and both generally contain elevated vibration levels at 1. The difference between the vertical and horizontal values is a function of the bearingpedestal stiffness. In most cases, the horizontal plane has a greater freedom of movement and, therefore, contains higher amplitudes at 1 than the vertical plane.