rkshop an Management and Maintenance of Vibration in Hydroturbine Plants and Compressors = = ekecs te Mechanical Vibration Basics and Shaft Vibration A. S. ADEKUNLE AND A. G. F. ALABI Mechanical Engineering Department, University of llorin, llorin, Nigeria 1. INTRODUCTION a. _Basicconcept of Vibration Mechanical vibration is a form of motion oscillation is basically a to-and-fro motion. It consists of rapidly fluctuating motions in which there is no “net” movement. When an object vibrates, any point on the object is displaced from its initial “static” position equally in both directions so that the average of ail its motion is zero. Any object can vibrate differently in three mutually independent directions: vertical, horizontal and lateral. It is common to describe vibration levels in terms of velocity, which represents the instantaneous speed at a point on the object that is displaced. In a sense, the human body respond to average vibration amplitude, which is usually expressed in terms of the root mean square (rms) amplitude. Vibration occurs in all forms of machinery and equipment e.g. turbines, compressors, vehicles, structures, buildings and dynamic systems. It is what you fee! when you put your hand on the hood of a car, the engines of which is running, or on the base of an electric motor when the motor is running. After all, our heart heat, our lungs oscillate, we shiver when we are cold, we sometimes snore, and we can hear and speak because our eardrums and our larynges vibrate. The light waves which permit us to see entail vibration. We move by oscillating our legs. We cannot say ‘Vibration’ properly without the tip of the tongue oscillating. Even the atoms of which we are constituted vibrate. There have been very many cases of systems failing or not meeting performance targets because of resonance, fatigue, excessive vibration of one component or another or high noise levels. Because of the very serious effects which unwanted vibrations can have on dynamic systems, it is essential that vibration analysis be carried out as inherent part of their design, when necessary modifications can most easily be made to eliminate vibration or at least to reduce it as much as possible. Howevet, engineers must recognize that it may sometimes be necessary to reduce the vibration of an exstng ‘machine, either because of inadequate initial design, or by a change in function of the machine, orbya change in environmental conditions or performance requirements, or bya revision of acceptable noise levels. b. Causes of vibration Unbalance force, or system of forces acting on or through an elastic or resilient material (as shownin figure 1). The unbalanced force may be due to mass unbalance, such as in an eccentrically mounted rotor, or it may be due to the variable inertia forces in machinery, which does not move uniformly.e6 crank-and-connecting-rod motion, linkages, cam-follower systems (1). In the latter, the speeds and directions of motion of machine parts are continuously changing, e.g. the needle motion ina household sewing machine, bucket motions in earth-moving machinery, etc. Force unbalance cal arise also from electric, hydraulic and acoustic sources, e.g. transformer hum, water hammey a loudspeaker, etc. In addition, Small errors in the geometry of parts-and gear wheels may cause vibration. Fluctuating stresses during a sufficiently violet motion may become large enough for breakage to occur as was the case with the Tacoma Bridge in Washington State (2)Workshop on Management and Maintenance of Vibration in Hydroturbine'Plants and Compressor ae kee Position of weight (x «a, ~{ MI} ex {} \ ! atin 2g | \ somgaestt SG ome + postion sping ex Fig. 1 Figure 1: Vibration in a Spring as a Result of Unbalanced Force (2) & Adverse Effects of Uncontrolled Vibrations. ‘The objectionable results of machine vibrations, ifleft uncontrolled, can be several High stresses and force levels may be set up as a result of vibrations and in extreme cases may lead topart failure. Such failure can be sudden or gradual, asin fatigue. Increased wear of parts and unsatisfactory equipment performance. This requires increased maintenance and may also involve downtime of equipment. In amachine tool with excessive vibrations, parts may be inaccurately machined and subsequently rejected + Italso cause an inadequately cushioned machine to walk away onits foundation. Noise may become excessive and thus working conditions may become unacceptable. ‘There are two reasons why it is desirable to study vibration analysis and the dynamics of control iE systems together as dynamic analysis. (i) Control systems can be considered in relation to mechanical engineering using mechanical analogies, rather than asa specialized and isolated aspect of electrical engineering. (ij The basic equations governing the behaviour of vibration and control systems are the same. 2. DEFINITIONS OF TERMS IN VIBRATION ANALYSIS Components in a vibrating system have three properties of interest. They are: mass (weight}, elasticity (springiness) and damping (dissipation). Most physical objects have all three properties, but in many e «cases one or two of those properties are relatively insignificant and can be ignored (e.g, the damping of e ablockof steel, orin some cases, the mass of a spring) e a, Mass: The property of mass (weight) causes an object to resist acceleration. It also Fg enables an object to store energy, in the form of velocity (kinetic) or height (potential) b. Elasticity: The property of elasticity enables an object to store energy in the form of deflection. A common example is a spring, but any piece of metal has the property of Is elasticity. © Damping: The property of damping enables an object to dissipate energy, usually by le conversion of kinetic (motion) energy into heat energy. Damping has no effect on the system resonant frequency. 1, Resonant frequency: The resonant frequency of an object (or system) is the frequency at which the system will vibrate if itis excited by a single pulse. The resonant frequency of a system is determined by both the mass properties and the elasticity properties of the system. sani] IJorkshop on Management and Maintenance of Vi pen a Ke Itisgivenas @,=\K/m where, “k" isthe appropriate elasticity (spring rate) and“m” is. the appropriate mass (3). e. Frequency: The number of cycles executed in a unit time or rate at which motion repeats itself per unit time is known as the ‘frequency’. If the motion repeats itself every T seconds, the frequency f= + => cycles per second (HZ). Ina high-speed oscillation the frequency is high and conversely. When, as in fig 1, the spring weight system is not driven by an outside source, the vibration is a free vibration and the frequency is called the natural frequency of the system. The most significant characteristics of vibration is its frequency. f Center of gravity: - Point of support at which a body would be in balance. g Moment of inertia: - The moment of inertia of rigid body about a given axis in the body is the sum of the product of mass of each volume element and the square of its distance from the axis Units are in-1b-sec’ or Nms’, Amplitude of the vibration: - The maximum displacement from rest or mean position is called the amplitude of the vibrations. Cycle or period: - The vibratory motion repeats itself at regular intervals. The Interval of time within which the motion sequence repeats itselfis called a cycle or period In general, vibratory motion may or may not be repetitive and its shape as a function of time may be simple or complex. Typical vibrations, which are repetitive and continuous, are those of the base or housing of an electric motor, household fans, vacuum cleaners, sewing machines, turbines, and compressor. Vibrations of short duration and variable intensity are frequency initiated by a sudden impact or shock load; for example, rocket equipment upon take off, equipment subject to impact and drop tests, a package falling from a height, or aladingina freight car. in many machines, vibration is not part of its regular or intended operation and function, but rather it cannot be avoided. The task of vibration isolation is to control this unwanted vibration so that its adverse effects are kept within acceptable limits 3. KINEMATICS CHARACTERISTICS a. Coordinate:- A quantity, such as a length or an angle, which helps define the position of a moving part in figure 1, xis a coordinate, which defines the position of the weight, W. Displacement:-A change in position. It is a vector measured relative to a specific position, or frame of reference. The change in x (figure 1) measured upwards, say, from the bottom position, is a displacement. A displacement can be positive or negative, translational or rotational. For example, an upward displacement may be positive; and a downward displacement negative. Similarly, a clockwise rotation may be positive and a counter clockwise rotation negative and given in units of inches, feet, meter, or in the case of rotations degrees, radians, etc Velocity: The rate of change of displacement measured in_ in/sec, m/s, etc. Velocity has a direction and this is a vector quantity. Its magnitude is the speed. Angular velocity can be measured in radians/sec, clockwise or counter clockwise. Acceleration: - The rate of change of velocity in units of in/sec’, m/sec’ etc, Itis also a vector quantity with magnitude and direction. Angular acceleration can be measured in radians/sec’ or deg/se’, clockwise or counterwise. Vibratory motion: - An oscillating motion; for example that of the weight W, shown in figure 1 Simple harmonic motion: - Is a form of vibratory motion i.e the motion as a function a. of time is of the form x =aSin © t, where a, c are constants. The maximum displacement, a, from the mean position (x = 0) is the amplitude. The motion is also called harmonic or sinusoidal motion. Periodic and non-periodic motions: - A motion, which repeats itself is periodic, a motion, which does not repeats itself, is non periodic. Steady-state motion: - A periodic motion of a mechanical system e.g. a continuously vibrating pendulum of constant amplitude. As shown in Fig. 2Carr eee Plants and Compressors a kee Figure 2: Steady State Vibration (1) i. Transient motion: - A motion which changes with time in a non-periodic manner; often the motion declines (attenuates) to a negligible value after a finite period of time (e.g. impact effects which decay with time, etc) j. Shock motion: - A motion in which there is sharp, nearly sudden change in velocity, e.g. @ hammer blow on a nail, 2 package falling to the ground from a height, etc. Its mathematical idealization is that of a motion in which the velocity changes suddenly. The mathematical idealization of a sudden velocity change often represents a close approximation to the real dynamic behaviour of the system. k. Pulse: - Usually a displacement-time or force-time function describing an input into a dynamical system, | Pulse shape: - The shape of the time-displacement or force-displacement curve of a pulse. Typically, this might be a square wave, a rectangular pulse, or a half sine-wave pulse. In general, however, the shape can be an arbitrary function of the time. m. Harmonics: - Any motion can be considered as made up of a series of simple harmonic motions of different frequencies and amplitudes. The lowest-frequency components usually called the fundamental frequency; higher frequency components are called harmonics or super- harmonics. Their frequencies are exact multiples of the fundamental frequency. 4, THE ENGINEER'S ATTITUDE TO VIBRATION. large sums of money are spent nowadays on the study of various forms of vibration. Sometimes the object is to control it as being something that is fundamentally desirable. More often, the object is to find the reason why oscillation is set up and if possible to stop it. Mechanical agitation is not always just a troublesome by-product of engineering practice. On the contrary, it is often useful and may be essential. Occasionally, for example, an engineer finds it necessary to draw the cork from a bottle; ifit is tight, he will reduce the friction force opposing withdrawal by twisting the cork back and forth. He employs an undeniably useful oscillation. There are washing machines in the market that rely upon agitation for their functioning, and there are many other examples of mechanical shakers for mixing things up; a dentist, for instance, may use a special mechanical shaker for mixing amalgam. Alternatively, vibration can be used to unmixed things, asin sieves and other sorting devices. Concrete will flow far more readily into the furthermost recesses when it is poured into shuttering if it is suitably vibrated with a probe; this is standard practice in structural engineering. Many useful vibrations are not associated with ‘agitation’ at all, as in clocks, watches and metronomes. Again, one way of conveying grain from one place to another is to make it jump there along vibrating conveyor.Workshop on Management and Maintenance of Vibrdfign in Hydroturbine Plants and Compressors Se a Sometimes vibration is employed in medical practice. Machines are made, for instance, whose purpose is to massage away patients unwanted bulges. Again, vibration of very high frequency has been found to have many uses-some of them rather surprising. Thus a dentist, who really wanted to, could drill a square or a triangular hole in a tooth by means of vibration. When we turn to the objectionable features of vibration, we find that, the human body presents a number of problems. Engineers go to considerable lengths in trying to keep the human body in its normal state. In terms of vibration, this form of endeavour ranges all the way from the manufacture of valves for the heart to the prevention of rolling in ships at sea. If a nut is tightened on bolt, which withstands a fluctuating load, it may work loose by a judicious vibration-often in matter of a few seconds. For this reason slotted and castellated nuts Fig.3 (a) and (b) are used in engines for such vital purpose as holding down bearing caps, split pins being inserted to lock them. Figure 3: Slotted and Castellated nuts (4) Undoubtedly the worst feature of vibration is that it can cause fatigue of metals, reinforced plastics or other structural material. This type of failure is usually as drastic as it is unexpected and it often amounts to treachery in one of its purest forms, since there is usually no warning: some component which has been vibrating over an extended period of time suddenly snaps. 5. FREE VIBRATION a. _Natureoffree vibration Every object possesses the ability to vibrate freely on its own after it has been disturbed. Although this free vibration as such is not often of much interest in engineering, it is essential to have some understanding oft since, indirectly, itis vitally important. The point is that the behaviour displayed bya system in free vibration defines, in a very real sense, a sort of ‘personality’, and the dynamical personality of a system is what determines its behaviour under all sorts of conditions. For example after a piano has been struck by one of the hammers, the string of the pianos left vibrating on its own. Itperformsa'free vibration’, and it can do this because it has two properties. The firstis that it has mass andis therefore capable of possessing kinetic energy by virtue of its motion, The second properlyisalso a very common one; it has the ability to store energy by virtue of its distortion from its position of rest. In the same way a simple pendulum can oscillate because (a) the bob is massive, and (b) its stores potential energy when the bob rises above its lowest position. Thus, free vibration is the periodic motion observed as the system is displaced from its static equilibrium position. The force acting are the spring force, the friction force, and the weight of the mass. Due to the presence of friction, the vibration will diminish with time as shown in Figure 4. Thisis free vibration or sometimes called transient. =asz (103,HEE caer ree) OK St The amplitude of free vibration is given by (5): (A cosa, t+ B sino ,t) mplitude of free vibration lamping factor "= natural circular frequency ©, =natural damped circular frequency A, B=arbitrary constant ERX Fig.4 Free Vibration ure 4: A typical Free Vibrat is worthwhile to note that natural frequency is the frequency of the system having free vibration ithout friction, while dammed natural frequency is the frequency of the system having free vibration id with friction. Fundamental frequency is the lowest frequency at which a dynamical system rates. . The decay of free vibration re other feature of free vibration is the fact that it dies away. The effect is known as damping and itis used by friction. A bell goes on ringing for a long time after it has been struck because there are no ‘ge frictional forces within its material to dissipate energy in the form of heat and because energy is, diated quite slowly in the form of sound waves. On the other hand if a car is bounced up and downon springs and is then allowed to oscillate on its own, the movement dies away quickly; the shock ssorbers are fitted to ensure that this is so. In actuality, most engineering systems during their xratory motion encounter friction or resistance in the form of damping. Damping, in its various forms chas ir damping, fluid friction, coulomb dry friction, magnetic damping, internal damping, etc, will ‘ays slow down the motion, and cause the eventual dying out of the oscillation. If the damping is. avy, oscillation motion will not occur, the system is said to be over-damped (5 >1). If the damping is ht, oscillation is possible; the system is said to be under-damped (¢ <1). Acritically-damped system is ein which the amount of damping is such that motion is on the borderline between the two cases t mentioned (¢ =1). The mass upon being released will simply return to its static equil sition, For undamped vibration (¢ =0).. ren damping is particularly desirable, it may be introduced artificially, as with the vibration dampers the car. A meter would be little more than a nuisance if its needle swung interminably about the ‘ding that it is supposed to give before settling down to permit the scale to be without a long delay Ure 5, curve(b). Too much damping would be as bad as not enough, since the needle would then ‘ep towardsits dreading very slowly as Figure 5 curve (c) i =e)Workshop on Management and Maintenance'of Vibration in Hydraturtine Plants ond Compressors $= kee efiecbon True reading Fig.5 Figure 5: Effect of damping on a meter reading (6) Many methods have been used for introducing artificial damping into a system. It may be done electrically or mechanically. A few of the mechanical devices available are: i, Viscous friction ina fluid:-A simple example is provided by a dashpot, in which a piston movesin cylinder and the friction comes from the rush of fluid (often air) through the cylinder wall. In some other arrangements, paddles move in oil or silicone fluid. ii. High damping materials:- when a bell made of a certain manganese- copper alloy is struck, it emits a thud rather than a note. Rubber is something used in supports partly for its damping properties. Again fibre blades have been used in gas-turbine compressor on account of their high internal damping, Coating on panels: preparation are available which may be applied to the surface of a metal panel so that it no longer emits a metallic noise if struck, but onlya thud. iv. Dry friction, in which surfaces are made to rub together during vibration: this is used, for instance, in some gas turbine compressors in which the blades are hinged to the rotor carrying them. Again, wads of knitted metal wire are placed in some springs to augment the friction. v. Sandwich construction: panels made of thin metal sheets separated by a thin layer of viscoelastic material are good sound insulators. vi. Packing with foam plastic and rubber: An egg or and electric light bulb can be dropped froma great height onto a hard floor without sustaining damage, if itis carefully supported in a suitable packing material. We may therefore recognise two types of damping those applied deliberately and that which just happens. While it is sometimes possible to make sensible calculation of the damping that is inserted purposely, the damping that occurs otherwise almost invariably defies calculation and needs to be measured. 6. IMPOSED VIBRATION Itis now possible to distinguish between various types of vibration. One of itis called forced vibration and itis set up in a vibration system by applying to it a pulsating disturbance of some sort. The essential feature of this excitation is that it remains present and unaltered whether the system to which it is applied vibrates or not. When external force, usually as F(t) = F, sinwt or F, coswt, are acting on the system Fig. 6 during its vibratory motion, it is termed forced vibration. in forced vibration, the system will tend to vibrate at its own natural frequency of the excitation force. In the presence of friction, that portion of motion not sustained by the sinusoidal excitation force will gradually die out. As a result, the system will vibrate at the frequency of the excitation force regardless of the initial conditions or the natural frequency of the system. That part of sustained vibration is called steady state vibration or response of the system. Very often, the steady state response is required in vibration analysis because ofits continuous effects.! Workshop on Management and Maintenans of Vibration in Hydroturbine Plants ahd Compressors | at kee YY Figure 6: Forced Vibration The amplitude of steady state vibration is given by (1) E, x = sinlor-4) V&-mo} +o F X, = amplitude of steady state vibration F, = magnitude of the excitation force k= spring constant m= mass of the system damping coefficient © = frequency of the excitation force = phase angle force vibration can be set up in a very large number of ways. For instance the shaking near the stern ofa ship is caused by hydrodynamic forces which are generated as the propeller blades pass through the ron-uniform flow caused by the presence of the hull. a. Resonance Resonance occurs when the frequency of the excitation is equal to the natural frequency of the system. When this happens, the amplitude of vibration will increase without bound and is governed only by the amount of damping present in the system. Therefore, in order to avoid disastrous effects resulting from very large amplitude of vibration at resonance, the natural frequency of a system must be known and properly taken care of. Resonance vibration is one of the causes of blades failure in turbo-machinery, as, in steady motion, any given blades pass any given point at accurately fixed intervals. f, for instance, a water turbine blade receives a splash, then it will do so at regular intervals and may break as a consequence of resonance. A force vibration usually becomes significant only if resonance occurs, and this may be very useful. To shake a sieve mechanically, for instance it is natural to mount it on springs and to obtain the assistance of a resonant condition. To sum up then-a fluctuating force will give rise to a vibration which has the same frequency as itself. If that frequency happens to coincide with a natural frequency then resonance will occur and the vibration will be violet. b. The suppression of forced vibration Two distinct methods have been suggested for diminishing unwanted resonant vibration. The first isto 'detune' the system so that the natural frequencies are shifted away from the exciting frequencies or, as with the soldiers on the bridge, vice versa. The second Is to increase the damping artificially, as might perhaps be expected, the heavier the damping in a structure, theWorkshog’oiiManagement and Maintenance of Vibratioh in Hydroturbineplants'and Compressors kee less violent will a resonant vibration be fora given excitation. 7. CONCLUDING REMARKS This paper identifies the relevance of vibration in Engineering and also provides an insight into vibration generally. To an engineer a vibration problem is something that usually demands serious study, and often he can disregard it only at his or someone else's peril. While an engineer may ‘experience extreme difficulty in contending with man-made structures and machines, he has only to. think about some of nature's oscillations to realize how wonderful and complicated oscillatory system can be. No engineer ever managed to design anything so marvellous. For instance, that remarkable vibrating machine, the heart. There is no rotating machinery in the human body so that any device, which is to serve as a pump, has to be a reciprocating one. The heart operates for a lifetime and the ‘maintenance that it demands is supplied (at least in part) by the results of its own action. Strictly speaking, it is not the same heart that goes on functioning year in year out, for the process of maintenance, involves gradual modification of the oscillating device itself. It is perfectly obvious of course, that the harder one looks at any physical process, the more complex it appears. The art of an engineer lies (at least, partly) in knowing when to stop peering at things and to start ‘getting on witht. REFERENCES Beards, C.F; (1998), “Engineering Vibration Analysis with Application to control Systems”, Edward Arnold, London Collin, G; (1998), “Generic Vibration Criteria for vibration Sensitive Equipment”, Collin Gordon and Associates, San Mateo USA. EPI inc, “Vibration Basics” www.epi-eng.com/mechanical_engineering_basics/vibration_intr Melles, G; “Fundamentals of Vibration Isolation”, www.mellesgriot.com/pdf visited 5/10/2009 Pichard, S. P and Reynolds, P; (2003), “Evaluation of Mathematical Models for Predicting Walking Induced Vibration of High Frequency Floors”, Buro Happold Consulting Engineers, Vol. 3 (No. 1) Visited 5721/2009 William, WS; (2000), “Theory and Problems of Mechanical Vibrations’, Schaum's outline series, McGraw Hill, New York.