USING ODS VIBRATION TECHNIQUES TO SOLVE PROBLEMS IN

MOTOR BEARINGS TO MAXIMIZE COMPRESSOR SERVICE TIME

Vincius Sell Gonalves, Leandro Herzog, Suelen Cristina Da Silva Ribeiro
WEG Equipamentos Eltricos S/A Motores

Abstract
This paper presents a case study, in which motor bearing damage problems were solved with the aid
of ODS (Operating Deflection Shapes) vibration analysis technique. In the application in question, an
electric motor was directly coupled to an improved newly designed screw compressor. Operational
pre-tests were carried out in five different compressors prototypes and three of them presented
severe premature damages in the motor's rolling bearings. The first step towards the problem solution
was trying to identify the failure mode of the damaged bearings. A detailed visual inspection of the
bearings raceways led to the hypothesis of a critical misalignment between the motor and the screw
compressor. A new motor was then more carefully coupled to a compressor for tests. An ODS
analysis performed in this assembly confirmed the misalignment hypothesis. These results fostered
the manufacturing of a new coupling flange for the compressor aiming at a finer alignment between
motor and compressor. A new ODS measurement confirmed the success of the proposed solution,
once that considerably lower vibration levels were achieved with the new coupling flange, thereby
preventing the premature failure of the bearings and maximizing the compressor service time.

Introduction
As it is widely known, impact and vibration often accelerate the failure mechanisms of industrial
machinery and equipments [1]. It is therefore necessary to minimize or control these effects in order to
avoid premature failures. This statement can be verified in the industry through increasingly
demanding client specifications, which sometimes adopt severer vibration level criteria than those
predicted by international standards such as ISO 10816.
As stated in NEMA MG-1 part 7, for example, machines as installed (in situ) may exhibit higher
vibration levels than those specified for machines operating at no load and uncoupled. In the case of
motors, these higher vibration levels are generally caused by misalignments or the influence of the
driven equipment, including coupling, or, sometimes, by mechanical resonances within the whole
system and the resilience of the base on which it is mounted.
This paper is focused on a misalignment problem between an electric motor and a newly designed
screw compressor, which was causing severe premature damages in the motor bearings.
The problem
Five electric motors rated 200 hp, 2 poles, 60 Hz, each of them coupled to an improved newly
designed screw compressor (Figure 1), presented in 2008 severe bearing damages after only 3,5
months of operation (around 2560 service hours). In all the five motors the drive end rolling bearings
were the main parts that have actually failed. In consequence, three of these motors had both the
stator and the rotor severely damaged too, resulting in the total loss of these full motors (Figure 2).
The damaged motors were replaced and some investigations were done as listed below:
1. Preliminary vibration measurements.
2. Damaged rolling bearings visual inspections.
3. ODS measurements.

The study methodology followed towards the solution of this case and the results achieved are
presented in the next section.

Figure 1 Picture of the coupling of one of the studied machines.

a) Front bearing of a damaged machine.

b) Stator and rotor of a damaged machine.

Figure 2 Damages caused by the bearing failure.

Investigation Methodology and Results

Preliminary vibration measurements
Firstly the conventional vibration spectra were measured on both motor bearings (drive end and non
drive end) in the three cartesian directions, as per ISO 10816 Part 1 (Figure 3). When operating at full
2

load, the motor presented overall high axial vibration levels at the drive end side, as expected,
reaching up to 10 mm/s rms, with dominant peak frequency around 240 Hz (Figure 4). Since the
compressor has a four lobule male screw (Figure 5) directly coupled to the rotating motor at
approximated 3600 rpm (or 60 Hz), the fundamental screw frequency (or pulsation frequency) was
expected to be near 240 Hz, [4] and [5]. According to [4] a high axial vibration with multiples of this
pulsation component indicates a system with excessive load or overstressing assembled elements,
probably caused by a severe misalignment between the coupled components.

Figure 3 Vibration measurement points according to ISO 10816 part 1

mm/s rms

Motor 03 - Mancal_LA - Horizontal - Vel Freq 800 Hz

17/10/2008 15:33:45
Cursor A:
Cursor B:
Diff:

1
0.5

716 Hz
60 Hz
-656 Hz

1.25 mm/s
0.736 mm/s
-0.514 mm/s
O/All 2.229 mm/s rms

0
100

17/10/2008 15:33:45

200

300

O/All 2.229 mm/s rms

400
Hz

500

600

700

800

<set RPM>

Motor 03 - Mancal_LA - Vertical - Vel Freq 800 Hz

17/10/2008 15:34:08
3

Cursor A:

239 Hz

mm/s rms

2.5

2.973 mm/s
O/All 4.038 mm/s rms

2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0

100

17/10/2008 15:34:08

200

300

O/All 4.038 mm/s rms

400
Hz

500

600

700

800

<set RPM>

Motor 03 - Mancal_LA - Axial - Vel Freq 800 Hz

17/10/2008 15:35:51
Cursor A

mm/s rms

Cursor A:

239 Hz

5.756 mm/s
O/All 10.559 mm/s rms

4
2
0
0

100

17/10/2008 15:35:51

200

300

O/All 10.559 mm/s rms

400
Hz

500

600

700

800

<set RPM>

Figure 4 Front bearing vibration spectrum.

Female

Male

Figure 5 Screw compressor rotor design.

Damaged elements of the rolling bearings
The visual inspection of the damaged bearings (Figure 6) confirms that a severe misalignment
between motor and compressor generated an axial force component that caused the rolling bearing
rings to show mark patterns identical to those found in [6] (Figure 7).

Mark

a) Outer ring raceway.

b) Inner ring raceway.

Force

Mark

Figure 6 Motor drive end rolling bearing visual inspection.

Figure 7 Typical pattern of rolling bearing raceways subjected to high axial force.
4

ODS measurements
Measurements were made for an ODS analysis to provide more information about the operational
deformation of the compressor plus motor at 240 Hz. This information was important for the
compressors manufacturer engineers to understand the vibration behavior of the complete system,
thus allowing a design starting point to solve the problem.
For the vibration measurements a Bruel & Kjaer Pulse 3560C was used. This equipment includes four
channels plus two ENDVECO accelerometers 752A12 and works with an associated lap-top using the
MEscope ODS software. The ODS analysis consists of mapping the structures under consideration
by performing simultaneous measurements of vibration at two points, one of which is fixed. The
vibration measurement will report, at each frequency, the vibration magnitude at the considered point
and its relative phase difference to the reference point. By plotting all measured points of the spatial
geometry together, taking into account the magnitude and phase difference of each of them relative
to the reference point, the structure deformation shape when it vibrates at a specific frequency is
revealed. A harmonic animation of this shape allows a visualization of the dynamic behavior of this
vibration. Figure 8 presents the ODS project for the machine in question. The red vectors indicate the
direction and position of the accelerometers.

Figure 8 ODS project motor (left) and compressor (right).

Figure 9 shows three moments of the resulting vibration shape animation at 240 Hz, with the motor at
left and the compressor at right. One can notice that the motor and the compressor vibration
movements are 180 out of phase, what indicates tha t the machines are operating misaligned.

Figure 9 ODS result of the motor compressor assembly at 240 Hz.

Solution
As the coupling flanges of the compressor and the motor are the only means to guarantee the
alignment between both machines, these results led to the design and manufacturing of a new
coupling compressor flange aiming at an improved dynamic behavior and a finer alignment between
motor and compressor (Figure 10). A new ODS measurement performed with the new compressor
coupling flange confirmed the success of the proposed solution (Figure 11), once that considerable
lower vibration levels were thereby achieved. The maximum global vibration measured with the new
coupling flange design was around 2 mm/s rms at the same point and axial direction as before,
corresponding to a decrease close to 80% in the axial vibration.

a) Old coupling flange.

b) New coupling flange.

Figure 10 Pictures of the old and the new coupling flanges.

a) Before the new coupling flange.

b) After the new coupling flange.

Figure 11 ODS result at 240 Hz before and after the installation of the new coupling flange.
As expected from these results, similar problems have no longer been registered since the flange
design modification, and the compressor service lifetime increased considerably in the last four years.

Conclusion
With a substantial decrease in the axial vibration it was possible to considerably increase the service
lifetime of a screw compressor. This indicates the relevance of considering the vibration issue as an
important parameter of the machine design. Controlling and minimizing the vibration levels should
always be one of the main concerns of the machine designers.
The ODS vibration technique proved to be a powerful tool in helping understand and solve vibration
problems by providing the engineering team with important dynamic information on the application.

References
[1]

Tustin, W. Random Vibration & Shock Testing: Measurement, Analysis & Calibration ERI,
Santa Barbara, 2005.

[2]

National Electrical Manufacturers Association NEMA MG-1: Motors and Generators

Standard, Virginia, 2011.

[3]

International Organization for Standardization ISO 10816: Mechanical vibration -- Evaluation

of machine vibration by measurements on non-rotating parts -- Part 1: General guidelines
Standard, Geneva, Switzerland, 1995.

[4]

Almeida, M. T. and Almeida, F. R. Do V. Vibration Analysis of Screw Compressors (in

Portuguese: Anlise de Vibraes em Compressores de Parafusos) MTA Vibration Institute,
Brazil, 2003.

[5]

Fujiwara, A. and Sakurai, N. Experimental Analysis of Screw Compressor Noise and Vibration
International Compressor Engineering Conference, 1986, Paper 553.

[6]

SKF Product Information 401: Bearing failures and their causes Sweden, 1994.