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22/05/2009
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In some sectors, wireless condition monitoring is the norm – and that's particularly the case with wind turbines, where bearings, gearboxes and mountings are generally monitored over the Internet.
 Bruel and Kjaer's Vibro Surveillance Centre has been remotely monitoring several hundred turbines in this way for four years. Several major plant failures have been avoided – for example, by detecting sidebands around first and second order gear frequencies, which turned out to be due to metal shavings in an oil filter associated with the gearbox second stage.
In that case, since it was caught early, the damaged gearbox required minimal repair.
On another occasion, the system detected RMS vibration magnitude exceeding the danger alarm limits; subsequent inspection revealed sheared coupling links.
And in a further incident, engineers were able to see a rapid and progressive rise in second stage gearbox vibration, in that case caused by a cracked rubber bushing on a support bracket.
All of these problems would have led to major failures, heavy costs and long periods without producing power, if they hadn't been caught early and addressed.
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Author
Tom Shelley
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