Pump vibration, rotor balance and effect on

bearing life
Información de publicación: Hydrocarbon Processing ; Houston (Aug 2007): 45-49.

Enlace de documentos de ProQuest

RESUMEN
 
Process pump user-operators often seek a method, or tool, for optimally scheduling pump overhauls. Many base
their decision on projected energy savings or other considerations. Once developed, such a tool can be widely used
by maintenance engineers and managers wishing to optimize production. Other worthy aims may even include
minimizing greenhouse gas impact.

TEXTO COMPLETO
 
Rules-of-thumb and experience for optimally scheduling pump overhauls
H. P. Bloch, HP Staff
Comments? Write:
editorial@HydrocarbonProcessing.com
Process pump user-operators often seek a method, or tool, for optimally scheduling pump overhauls. Many base
their decision on projected energy savings or other considerations. Once developed, such a tool can be widely used
by maintenance engineers and managers wishing to optimize production. Other worthy aims may even include
minimizing greenhouse gas impact. In addition to being applied to pumps, a good optimization approach often fits
other plant assets where deterioration would result in efficiency loss, and where energy consumption can be
measured or estimated. 1
However, some pump users prefer more simple rules-of-thumb and recent articles in widely read trade publications
have underscored this fact. Of course, rules-of-thumb should not be confused with statistical proof. Essentially,
this article weighs in with a few experience-based observations on the issue. 2
Interesting vibration issues. All rotating machines, including pumps, vibrate to some extent due to response from
excitation forces, such as residual rotor unbalance, turbulent liquid flow, pressure pulsations, cavitation and/or
pump wear. Further, the vibration magnitude will be amplified as the vibration frequency approaches the resonant
frequency of a major pump, foundation and/or piping component. The issues of interest are not whether or not the
pump vibrates, but if the: Vibration amplitude and/or frequency are sufficient to cause actual or perceived damage
to any pump components Vibration is a symptom of some other damaging phenomenon happening within the
pump Relationship between vibration severity and bearing life can be quantified with a reasonable degree of
accuracy.
Various industry organizations, such as the Hydraulic Institute 3 and the American Petroleum Institute (in its
Standard API-610) have set vibration limits to help guide users to avoid excessive vibration levels in pumps. But
long before industry standards were developed, individual reliability professionals and multinational pump user
companies implemented daily machinery condition logs that guided operating personnel by listing acceptable,
reportable and mandatory vibration shut-down levels. These experience-based values relied on the bearing life vs.
vibration approximations for general-purpose machinery and have been widely published since the late 1940s as
allowable vibration velocities. Traditionally, 0.35 ips (~9 mm/s) was given as a maximum allowable vibration
velocity for "total all-pass" (overall) readings taken on an equipment bearing cap or housing.

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Fig. 1
Shock pulse data collection on a process pump (source: SPM Instruments, Marlborough, Connecticut).
Fig. 2
Shock pulse monitoring and severity trend plots (source: SPM Instruments, Marlborough, Connecticut).
However, machinery vibration and its measurement are complex and may require some clarification. Typical
considerations might include: Should vibration be measured and/or analyzed by using displacement magnitude,
velocity or acceleration severity to evaluate equipment health? As stated earlier, the primary vibration measure
used in industry today is velocity. Should the total all-pass or the "filtered" frequency be used? Most industry
specifications and standards use total all-pass vibration values to identify problem pumps, with filtered values
reserved for determining where the vibration originates. This latter determination is generally called "vibration
analysis." Should root-mean-square (RMS) or peak-to-peak values be measured or specified? The Hydraulic
Institute has chosen RMS acceptance limit values, since most vibration instruments actually measure vibration in
RMS terms and then calculate peak-to-peak values if required. API, on the other hand, uses peak-to-peak. RMS
values are roughly 0.7 multiplied by peak-to-peak.
However, this relationship applies only for vibration consisting of a single sinusoidal waveform. For more complex
waveforms, this conversion does not yield correct results. What is the acceptable vibration amplitude (as new vs.
post-repair levels) for a particular application? Should acceptance limits change along with overall pump power
and flowrate regions? The Hydraulic Institute bases acceptable vibration limits on pump type and power level,
while API gives different limits for the "preferred" and "allowable" operating regions (see vibration acceptance
limits below for "as-new" acceptance values). How do factory test stand vibration measurements compare with
field (at-site) values? What is the effect of foundation stiffness/grouting? Generally, field pump foundation
stiffness is much higher than that on a factory test stand, especially if the pump baseplate is grouted. That is why
the Hydraulic Institute vibration standard allows higher test stand values (up to twice field values). For vertical
turbine pump installations, it is especially important to know the actual foundation stiffness to avoid high vibration
from operation at a structural resonant frequency. How much has the vibration amplitude and/or frequency
changed over the life of the machine? It is helpful to have an as-new vibration signature taken and kept on file for
future use. Location of vibration measurements: Horizontal and vertical dry pit pump vibration measurements are
normally taken on or near the outer, or uppermost, bearings in the horizontal, vertical and axial planes, with the
maximum value used for acceptance. Vertical turbine pump vibration measurements are taken at the top or
bottom of the motor. Probes should not be located on flexible panels, walls or motor end covers.
Not to be overlooked are special vibration monitoring approaches that are particularly well-suited for process
pumps. One such approach involves the enveloping process. 4 Many relevant hand-held data collection and
analysis devices are shown on various Websites. Data collectors are viable tools to monitor pump and bearing
distress.
Monitoring methods differ. Some data gathering methods employ shock-pulse monitoring (SPM) and, like all of the
other methods, may or may not forward the results by wireless means. In simple terms, the SPM method detects
development of a mechanical shock wave caused by the impact of two masses. At the exact instant of impact,
molecular contact occurs and a compression (shock) wave develops in each mass. The SPM method (Figs. 1 and
2) is based on the events occurring in the mass during the extremely short time period after the first particles of
the colliding bodies come in contact. This time period is so short that no detectable material deformation has yet
occurred. The molecular contact produces vastly increased particle acceleration at the impact point. Severity of
these impacts can be plotted, trended and displayed.
Combination data collectors and analyzers (Fig. 3) come with built-in software packages that start with vibration
and temperature monitoring, but also incorporate speed measuring and field balancing capabilities that are of
great value in any conscientiously applied pump life extension program.
Fig. 3
Combination data collectors and analyzers come with built-in software packages that monitor and analyze several

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parameters (source: Ludeca, Miami, Florida).
Variable-frequency drives with associated pump condition monitoring are relatively recent concepts and several
pump manufacturers are now marketing such packages. 5 One system is capable of adjusting pump speed to
react to fault occurrences such as a closed suction valve, cavitation and pump wear.
Rotor balancing. All impellers, irrespective of their operational speed, should be dynamically ("spin") single- or two-
plane balanced before installation. Two-plane balancing is required for a wide impeller, typically when the impeller
width is greater than one-sixth of the impeller diameter. ISO balance criteria are usually invoked. Fig. 4 is a reduced
size replica that shows the trend lines illustrated in ISO Standards.
Fig. 4
Impeller dynamic balance criteria (ISO Balance Standard 1940).
Dynamic balancing of the three major rotating pump components--shaft, impeller and coupling--will increase
mechanical seal and bearing lives. All couplings in the weight or size ranges found in a modern refinery should be
balanced if they are part of a conscientious and reliability-focused pump failure reduction program.
Of course, if a facility is pleased to remain repair-focused, it can continue to just plod along with "business as
usual." Reliability-focused plants agree: large couplings that cannot be balanced have no place in most of their
industrial process pumps.
The preferred procedure for rotating units in reliability-focused installations is to balance them independently, and
to then balance the impeller and coupling on the shaft as a single unit. Another method is to balance the entire
pump rotor as an assembled unit and to do so one time only. That might be a bit problematic at locations that will
subsequently go through repair cycles while trying to omit full rotor balance. Often, more problems are caused in
successively disassembling and reassembling than would be caused by diligently balancing each individual
component. For multistage pump rotors (both horizontal and vertical), individual component balance is generally
preferred.
The static (single-plane) force in the balance is always the more important of the two forces: static and dynamic
("couple force"). If balancing of individual rotor components is chosen, it is best to use a tighter tolerance for the
static (single-plane) force. In theory, if all the static force is removed from each part, there should be very little
dynamic (couple) force remaining in the rotor itself.
For impellers operating at 1,800 rpm or less, the ISO 1940 G6.3 tolerance is acceptable. For 3,600 rpm to 1,800
rpm, the ISO G2.5 is a better tolerance. Both are displayed on the balance tolerance nomogram for small (Fig. 4)
and--on a similar nomogram--large machinery rotors. Generally, tighter balance tolerances (G1.0) are not warranted
unless the balancing facility has modern, automated balancing equipment that will achieve these results without
adding much time and effort. Using older balancing equipment may make it difficult and unnecessarily costly to
obtain and duplicate the G1.0 quality. Also, factory vibration tests have, at best, shown insignificant reductions in
pump vibration with this tighter balance grade.
That, however, is not the point. Instead, let's realize that relatively tight balance tolerances or good grades of
balance are obtained on automated balancing machines just as quickly as would more liberal, less precise,
balance specifications. Using an analogy, why allow bottles of medicine to contain between 99 and 101 tablets
when modern filling machinery can virtually guarantee to deliver precisely 100 tablets per bottle? Surely, a serious
and reliability-focused user-consumer will insist on products with consistently high quality.
Balancing machine sensitivity must be adequate for the part to be balanced. This means that the machine should
be capable of measuring unbalance levels to one-tenth of the maximum residual unbalance allowed by the balance
quality grade selected for the component being balanced.
Fig. 5
Empirical data for bearing life reduction due to vibration. 2
Fig. 6
Bearing life reduction related to percentage vibration increase. 6
Rotating assembly balance is recommended when practical and if the tighter quality grades, G2.5 or G1.0, are

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desired. Special care must be taken to ensure that keys and keyways in balancing arbors are dimensionally
identical to those in the assembled rotor. Impellers must have an interference fit with the shaft, when G1.0 balance
is desired. Although looseness between impeller hub and shaft (or balance machine arbor) is allowed for the lesser
balance grades, it should not exceed the values given in Table 1 for grades G2.5 or G6.3.
Vibration acceptance limits. Hydraulic Institute Standard ANSI/HI 9.6.4 presents the generally accepted allowable
pump "field" vibration values for various pump types (Table 2). The standard is based on RMS total, or all-pass
vibration values. 6 The standard states that factory or laboratory values can be as much as twice these field limits,
depending on the rigidity of the test stand. The ANSI/ASME B73 standard accepts two times the HI 9.6.4 values for
factory tests performed on chemical end-suction pumps. HI also includes the API-610 values for end-suction
refinery pumps (in RMS terms), although the API document requires that these acceptance values be
demonstrated on the factory test stand.
The HI standard also states that these values only apply to pumps operating under good field conditions, which
are defined as: Adequate NPSH margin Operation within the pump's preferred operating region--typically 70% and
120% of BEP (Table 2 only lists the constant values required for low and high pump power ratings; the acceptable
vibration, between the low and high power values, varies linearly with power on a semi-log graph) Proper
pump/driver shaft (coupling) alignment Pump intake must conform to ANSI/HI 9.8 ( Pump Intake Design ).
It should also be noted that the acceptable vibration values for slurry and vertical turbine pumps are about double
the values given for horizontal clean-liquid pumps.
Once a pump is accepted and commissioned, somewhat higher total (all-pass) vibration values are usually
accepted before further follow-up and analysis are deemed appropriate. As a general rule, follow-up is
recommended if vibration levels increase to twice the "field" acceptance limits (or initial actual readings).
Causes of excessive vibration. Once a pump has been determined to have a high "total or all-pass" vibration level,
the next step is to identify the cause. Now is the time to obtain a filtered vibration analysis, looking for
predominance of one of many frequencies in the spectrum. Table 3 illustrates several predominant frequencies,
although it provides a narrow overview at best.
Along those lines, the first step in the analysis should be to capture, and then evaluate, the multiples of pump
running speed. This is called a "filtered" velocity plot, or frequency spectrum. Actual analysis can point to several
possible causes, among them: Rotor unbalance (new residual impeller/rotor unbalance or unbalance caused by
impeller metal removal-wear) Shaft (coupling) misalignment Liquid turbulence due to operation too far away from
the pump best efficiency flowrate Cavitation due to insufficient NPSH margin Pressure pulsations from impeller
vane-casing tongue (cutwater) interaction in high-discharge-energy pumps.
Other possible causes of vibration may be more complex to analyze. Among these are: Operating speed close to
the mechanical or hydraulic resonant frequency of a major pump, foundation or pipe component. This is of major
importance with large multistage horizontal and long vertical pumps. A safety margin should be provided between
rotor or structural natural frequencies and operating speed. Typical margins are 15-25%. Vibration amplification
will generally be greater than 2.5 times at a resonant frequency. Vibration/resonance events to be evaluated
include: rotor lateral vibration, torsional vibration (commonly occurring on reciprocating engine drives) and
structural lateral vibration (common with long-shafted vertical pumps). Poor pump suction or discharge piping can
also cause increased vibration, normally by either increased cavitation or turbulence in the pump, or pump
operating speed or vane-pass frequencies could excite a piping structural or hydraulic resonance. Bearing wear.
Rolling-element bearings have distinct vibration signatures based on the number of bearing balls or rollers.
Opening up of impeller wearing ring clearances, which can reduce the NPSH margin and shift the pump operating
flow point. Broken rotor bars on electric motors will generate specific frequencies.
Review Initial guidance on allowable pump vibration is clearly available from the hundreds of articles and dozens
of books that have been published over the past five or six decades. Up-to-date summaries are contained in
reference 2 and other modern texts. Since elevated vibration readings cause increased force action on bearings,
and since bearing life is related to bearing load, higher vibration will reduce bearing life. The rules-of-thumb and

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empirical relationships of Figs. 5 and 6 express these guidelines with sufficient accuracy for general-purpose
equipment. Modern data collectors and condition analyzers are available from a number of competent vendor-
manufacturers. Also, many models operate with wireless connections, while others are hand-held or hard-wired.
Each have their advantages and these must be weighed on a case-by-case basis. Because rotor unbalance will
lead to increased vibration, good rotor balance is essential. The issue of balance grade is moot in the very many
instances where modern, often fully automated balancing machines are readily available. These balancing
machines will achieve excellent equipment rotor balance as quickly and effectively as not-so-excellent balance.
Bearing life is related to shaft misalignment and force transmission across couplings. These affect vibration
severity. While rules-of-thumb are not absolutes, their judicious application makes far more sense than rather
simplistic requests to "prove it to me." The issue is about risk and its mitigation. A fitting analogy deals with
automobiles, where reasonable people know that driving on worn tires will put the passengers at greater risk than
driving on new tires. Likewise, the issues of vibration and shaft misalignment are intuitively evident to most of us.
We should be quite satisfied with rules-of-thumb and empirical data where they appeal to common sense. They
certainly do in this instance. HP
LITERATURE CITED
1 Beebe, R. S., "Machine Condition Monitoring," Engineering Handbook, 2001 Edition, MCM Consultants, Monash
University, Gippsland, Australia.
2 Bloch, H. P. and A. Budris, Pump User's Handbook, 2nd Edition, Fairmont Press, Lilburn, Georgia 30047 (ISBN 0-
88173-517-5), 2006.
3 ANSI/HI Standard 9.6.4 (2001) Hydraulic Institute, Parsippany, New Jersey.
4 SKF Enveloping Process, Marketing Website, SKF Condition Monitoring Products, San Diego, California.
5 Bloch, H. P., P. Lahr and D. Hyatt, "Development of an Advanced Electronically Optimized Variable High-Speed
Centrifugal Pump," Proceedings of Pump Congress, Karlsruhe, Germany, October 4-6, 1988.
6 Berry, D. L., "Vibration vs. Bearing Life Increase," Reliability, December 1995.
The author
Heinz P. Bloch is HP's Reliability/Equipment Editor and a consulting engineer residing in West Des Moines, Iowa.
He advises process and power plants worldwide on reliability improvement and maintenance cost reduction
opportunities. Mr. Bloch's 17 books on reliability and failure analysis have been used in the hydrocarbon
processing industry since 1980.

DETALLES

Materia: Petroleum industry; Process engineering; Maintenance management; Optimization

Título: Pump vibration, rotor balance and effect on bearing life

Título de publicación: Hydrocarbon Processing; Houston

Páginas: 45-49

Número de páginas: 0

Año de publicación: 2007

Fecha de publicación: Aug 2007

Sección: Fluid Flow And Rotating Equipment

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 Editorial: Gulf Publishing Co.

Lugar de publicación: Houston

País de publicación: United States, Houston

Materia de publicación: Chemistry, Engineering, Technology: Comprehensive Works, Petroleum And Gas

ISSN: 00188190

Tipo de fuente: Trade Journals

Idioma de la publicación: English

Tipo de documento: Feature

Características del Photographs Graphs Illustrations Tables References

documento:

ID del documento de 225206362

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URL del documento: http://0-

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Copyright: Copyright Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC Aug 2007

Última actualización: 2017-01-14

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