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VIBRATION DIAGNOSIS OF COMPRESSOR BEARING & SEAL RUB: A CASE

STUDY

Conference Paper · September 2015

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 VIBRATION DIAGNOSIS OF COMPRESSOR BEARING & SEAL RUB: A CASE STUDY

Asfak Ali Mollah, Manish Agrawal, RVS Krishna Dutt

BHEL Corp. R&D, Hyderabad; asfak@bhelrnd.co.in

1. ABSTRACT leading to local heating. Friction causes surface

wear, resulting in increased clearances thus
Rub is one of the serious malfunctions in
changing the system stiffness. In case of seal rub,
rotating machinery which can lead to
the increased clearances cause extra fluid leakage
catastrophic failures. The physical contact
changing the system dynamics. Rub is a
between stator and rotor involves several
secondary phenomenon and the primary causes
phenomena like impact, friction, surface wear,
may be excessive rotor vibrations or insufficient
thermal effects, change in system stiffness,
clearances. Excessive rotor vibrations may
etc., thus making the understanding very
originate from unbalance, coupling misalignment,
complex. Vibration response from the rotor
defective bearings or fluid related forces. The rub
during rubbing is not steady and varies with
can be classified as partial or full annular rub.
time. However, field vibration engineers have
When rub occurs only over a fraction of revolution,
developed some diagnosis techniques for
it is termed as partial rub, whereas if it occurs over
accurate identification of rotor rubbing against
the entire revolution maintaining continuous
the stationary components. A case study has
contact, it is called as full annular rub. The former
been discussed here, where accurate
rub type involves intermittent contact and the later
identification of rub using vibration analysis
type involves continuous contact between rotor
plots like frequency spectrum, bode, waveform,
and stator. Identifying vibration signatures caused
orbit has helped the machinery to be restored
by rub and its proper diagnosis is critical in
to smoother operation.
preventing rub related machinery failures [3].The
2. INTRODUCTION present case study discusses detection of
intermittent rub occurring between the shaft and
Rub in rotating machines is unwanted contact
the bearings and impeller rub with seal, in case of
between rotating and stationary components. Rub
a compressor.
is one of the most common malfunctions occurring
in rotating machinery and may result in severe 3. PROBLEM STATEMENT
damage. The physical contact between rotor and A residue gas compressor in a polymer process
stationary components occurs when the shaft industry was experiencing high vibration during its
centerline radial displacement exceeds the commissioning stage. Operating speed of the
available clearances. The contact involves friction, compressor was 11500 rpm and it was driven by a
motor operating at 1490 rpm through gearbox. dominant 1x along with presence of other
Schematic of the compressor rotor train is shown components like 2x, 3x, 4x (Fig.2).
in Fig.1.
1x, 2x, 3x, 4x......

DE

Fig.1 Schematic of Motor-GB-Compressor train 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x......

NDE
The compressor design team confirmed that rotor
dynamic analysis was re-viewed and it was
meeting stability criteria as per API standards.
Moreover, prior to dispatch of the compressor from
shop floor, mechanical run test was conducted and Fig.2 Shaft Spectrum plots: Compressor DE&NDE

the vibrations were well within the acceptable Presence of dominant 1x component in vibration
limits. However, during its commissioning at plant, spectrum could have been due to mass unbalance
vibration levels of 107µm were observed. Table1 in the rotor. However, the compressor was
shows the shaft vibrations, measured at DE (Drive balanced at shop as per practicing standard before
End) & NDE (Non Drive End) bearings of the its dispatch; hence probability of residual
compressor. Due to the high vibration levels, the unbalance was ruled out. Compressor NDE Shaft
entire commissioning schedule for the process bode plot showed 171µm vibrations at the critical
plant faced a risk of delay as the compressor speed (Fig.3), whereas maximum allowable
operation was needed to feed residue gas to the bearing clearance was 140µm, indicating higher
process. bearing clearances. Higher bearing clearances
Table1: Shaft Vibration Levels typically result in lowering the oil film stiffness.
Sl. Location OA(µm) 1X, Ø (µm, Angle)
1 Compressor-DE-X 107 91, 210
2 Compressor-DE-Y 55 46, 348
3 Compressor-NDE-X 96 79, 15 Overall (171 µm)
4 Compressor-NDE-Y 50 43, 124 1x (170 µm)
Note: Refer Fig.11 for X&Y probe orientation

4. VIBRATION DIAGNOSIS

Vibration data was acquired from the compressor

train in site. Shaft vibration spectrums showed Fig.3 Shaft Bode Plot: Compressor NDE
Observation of higher
igher bearing clearance at
compressor NDE was further supported by the
shaft centerline plot. The shaft centerline plot
(Fig.4) shows about 140µm upward movement of
the rotor inside bearing, at Compressor NDE
bearing location, which is higher than the design Operating Speed

clearances. Fig.7 1X Filtered orbit plot: Compressor NDE at

operating speed

Fig. 8 to 10 for Orbit plots of the Compressor DE

bearings.. These plots show severe preload on the
Steady
State at shaft which means that the orbiting motion of the
During operating
Run Up speed shaft is restricted in one direction. Precession
P of
Fig.4 Shaft centerline plot at Compressor NDE the rotor was reversed,
reversed making the orbit plot similar
to shape “8” [1] as shown in Fig.9,
Fig.9 which is a
Orbit plots for the Compressor NDE
DE bearings (Fig.
typical symptom of rub.
rub Truncated wave form plots
5, 6 & 7) show preload on shaft, restricting the
and highly elliptical 1x orbit plots
plot as shown in Fig.8
orbiting motion of the shaft. Due to this rub,
and Fig.10 respectively
respectively, further support the
precession of the rotor was reversed multiple times
inference that rotor might be experiencing rub.
making the orbit shape similar to Fig.5 [1].

Fig.5 Unfiltered orbit plot compressor NDE at 84

8420 Fig.8 Unfiltered orbit plot Compressor DE at 5860
RPM RPM

Operating Speed Operating speed

Fig.6 Unfiltered orbit plot: Compressor NDE at Fig.9 Unfiltered orbit plot: Compressor NDE at
operating speed operating speed

Operating speed
Fig.10 1X orbit plot: Compressor NDE at operating
speed
The shaft vibration proximity probes were installed
on the bearing at 45˚ angle on both sides of the
vertical axis. To obtain the vibration values in X
and Y direction, the vibration data acquired from X
and Y probes was rotated by 45˚ (Fig.11). The
vibration data after rotation is shown in Table 2.
The phase difference between horizontal and
vertical probes indicates preload on the shaft. The
phase difference between vertical & horizontal
probes at compressor DE was about 43˚ and at
NDE it was about 55˚ (Table 2), whereas the
physical separation between the probes was 90˚.
X-Probe Y-Probe Vertical Probe
Actual Transformed
Fig.11 Probe Rotation
Table2: Shaft Vibration Levels after rotation
Sl. Location 1x, Ø
1 Compressor DE-Horizontal 91, 196
2 Compressor DE-Vertical 45, 239
3 Compressor NDE-Horizontal 72, 351
4 Compressor NDE-Vertical 54, 46
From the vibration diagnosis discussed above, it
could be stated that high shaft
dominated by 1x component coupled with preload
indicated possibility of rub in bearings and/or seal
locations. Hence, it was recommended to open up
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the compressor, for physical inspection of internal
components like impeller, seals and bearings.
5. CORRECTIVE ACTION AND FEEDBACK
The compressor was opened up and rubs on
impeller, seal and bearing pads were observed.
Accordingly, bearings were replaced, oil
clearances, alignment conditions were rectified and
machine was re-assembled. After implementation
of the corrective actions, the compressor was
restored to continuous operation. The maximum
vibration levels at compressor bearing locations
reduced to 20µm from 107µm.
6. CONCLUSIONS
• Presence of multiple harmonics coupled with
preload on the shaft has indicated rotor rub with
seal and bearing pads.
• Physical inspection of the compressor internals
has confirmed the rub phenomenon. Internals
have been attended and the compressor has
been put back in the continuous operation. Post
corrective action, vibration levels have reduced
to 20µm, thus proving the diagnosis of the site
Horizontal Probe
problem.
• Multiple vibration data formats like spectrum,
orbit, bode and waveform plots have helped in
successful diagnosis of the malfunction.
Ø difference
43 7. REFERENCES
1. Basics on Orbit plots, Mark A Jordan, Orbit,
55 Dec 1993, Bently Nevada Corp.
2. Effect of partial rotor to stator rubs on shaft
vibration, MA Abuzaid et.al. Journal on
vibrations Mechanical Science & Technology, Volume 23
(2009), Page170~182.
3. Vibrational Diagnostics of Rotating Machinery
Malfunctions, International Journal of Rotating
Machinery, 1995, Vol. 1, No. 3-4, pp. 237-266.