Emerson Process Management - CSI

DoctorKnow Application Paper

Title: Internal Combustion Engine Vibration Monitoring Source/ Ed Flanagan Author: Product: General Technology: Vibration Classification: Windrock Incorporated Technical Application Note INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE VIBRATION MONITORING by Ed Flanagan Vibration analysis on internal combustion engines poses unique challenges not ordinarily encountered on rotating machinery. The internal combustion engine has many forcing function sources-bearing configurations, shafts rotating at different speeds in four cycle engines, crankshaft lobes being acted upon by pistons, pistons moving translationally, cams activating valve mechanisms, and the combustion of a volatile gas mixture. All of these forcing functions acting simultaneously produce a very complex frequency signature of the process. As a result, few (if any) of the harmonic relationships relied so heavily upon in rotating equipment analysis are present in the internal combustion engine. For 10w frequency phenomena, (3-10Hz) normal FFT analysis provides a good technique for detecting bearing wear and balance problems. Many failure modes of internal combustion engines may be detected using standard FFT techniques- main bearing wear, connecting rod bearing wear, cam bearing, crank balance, and shaft misalignment of connected equipment. Other common failure modes in the IC engine are not so easily detected by the FFT technique. These problems center on valve train problems-valve overlash, bent push rods, worn cams, weak Valve springs, worn valve guides, loose rocker arms, etc. Also, combustion problems may be difficult to interpret, such as knock caused by improper spark or injector timing and poor fuel. The valve process may be described as collisions of metallic objects of fixed mass. The combustion event produces pressure waves of varying frequency and intensity. Both of these processes produce frequency spectra of fairly high magnitude, typically between 2 kHz and 10 kHz. he problem comes in the fact that two complete engine rotations* are required for all valves to activate and all cylinders to undergo combustion. The amount of time required for this cycle can be considerable. For a fast stationary engine running at 1800 RPM, a minimum of 66 ms of data would be required to produce an FFT describing all collision events (more is actually required due to the windowing requirements of FFT). However it is very common for stationary engines to operate in the 300 RPM range. In such a case 400 ms of data would be needed. *(Note that the above rationale assumes a four cycle IC engine. In a two cycle, all valves operate in one crank rotation.)
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Emerson Process Management - CSI

Another problem arises in the fact that valve train and combustion problems often do not occur in every cycle. For example, combustion knock can be a semi-random event that occurs at a statistically predictable rate. For this. reason, an accurate representation of the vibration signature of head and combustion events must be composited from a statistical combination of several complete engine cycles. With an FFT analyzer, there is a practical limit to the number of conversions of the input' signal that can be made. On a typical portable FFT analyzer/ data collector, 1024 points are used for routine FFT calculation. With the upper frequency setting at 10 kHz, data must be taken at 40 S between samples. This results in a window of 41 ms that is used in the FFT calculation. In the 1800 RPM engine, example above, over 1/3 of the valve and combustion events would be lost. This limitation may possibly be overcome by averaging repetitive samples. Experimentation suggests that from 50 to 200 FFT spectra would need to be averaged to obtain a representative signature of engine behavior for reciprocating engines. If the number of data collection points are limited to the number of parallel channels on the FFT analyzer, this may be a viable form of measurement (using the pre-described acquisition scheme). Another possible option are Continuous on-line vibration monitoring systems. However these are typically multiplexed. In this case the acquisition time required for 50 to 200 FFT averages would be unacceptable because many vibration problems with reciprocating engines are random and would be missed while the system scanned. A multiplexed system for recip. engines must be able to scan at 2 sec or less per sensor to be assured of quality data. Also care must be taken to ensurethat the windows are randomly triggered to avoid the problem of overlooking the same portion of the engine cycle on each run. This is accomplished by setting the trigger level to zero. (The EngineView Monitoring systems, developed by Windrock, were specifically designed for recip. engines and utilize a very high scan rate). In recent years highly accurate, repeatable, low noise, and low cost switched capacitor filter building blocks have become available. The EngineView monitoring system uses such filters to create an 8th order bandpass filter with a bandwidth of 3% of the center frequency (even sharper filters are easily obtainable). The center frequency of the filter is adjustable from 1 Hz to 50 kHz. The filter output is amplified and converted to RMS and peak DC values for presentation to the system data acquisition system. Using this methodology, the system is able to analyze any portion of signal from several accelerometer inputs in order to provide predictive and diagnostic information to the user. This is accomplished at a very low cost, at a very low overhead of CPU processing power, and a high degree of accuracy and repeatability. The. technique offers solutions to the problems of FFT analysis by allowing the RMS and peak sub-systems to "settle in" for a programmable length of time at each frequency setting (150 ms for our application). The CPU can accomplish the spectral scan at the same time other engine information is being acquired, processed, and displayed. The EngineView system also uses switched-cap low pass and high pass filters so that overall vibration measurements may be made on any portion of the frequency spectra. These are very useful for quick checks of events in a particular range of frequencies. In addition, EngineView has the capability of 50 kHz 12-bit conversion and storage into a 4096 byte FIFO buffer so that FFT
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Emerson Process Management - CSI

may be accomplished on any of the 32 input channels if so desired. In conclusion, for detection of semi-random impact events typical of IC engine behavior, "old" analog spectral analysis techniques modified with the latest offerings in switched capacitor programmable filters and precision RMS/DC converters may offer an attractive and low cost alternative for imbedded and stand-alone PDM systems. About the Author Edward B. Flanagan, P. E. has served as a project engineer for Martin Marietta Energy Systems (Operator of Oak Ridge National Lab). Ed's background is in the area of analog electronics with emphasis on system design and sensor technology. He also has extensive design experience with on-line chemical analysis systems. Ed recently completed the design and development of a microprocessor- based control and diagnostic system for DOD diesel generator sets. The sophisticated system, which is functional on two classes of the US Army's diesel generator sets, replaces current electro-mechanical gen set instruments and controls. During that project, Ed directed the testing and development of diagnostic algorithms for diesel engines. Significant time was spent learning the characteristic symptoms of over 30 common diesel engine faults. The system also provides automatic control over the engine and generator operation. EDUCATION: BSEE, Tennessee Tech University MSEE, University of Tennessee All contents copyright 1998 - 2006, Computational Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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