Study of Vibration Transmissibility of Operational Industrial Machines

Industrial machines during their operation generate vibration due to dynamic forces acting on the machines. This vibration may create noise, abrasion in the machine parts, mechanical fatigue, degrade performance, transfer to other machines via floor or walls and may cause complete shutdown of the machine. To limit the vibration pre-installation, vibration isolation measures are usually employed in workshops and industrial units. However, such vibration isolation may not be sufficient due to varying operating and physical conditions, such as machine ageing, structural changes and new installations etc. Therefore, it is important to assess the quantity of vibration generated and transmitted during true operating conditions. The thesis work is aimed at the estimation of vibrational transmissibility or transfer from industrial machines to floor and to other adjacent installed machines. This study of transmissibility is based on the measurement and analysis of various spectral estimation tools such as Power Spectral Density (PSD), Frequency Response Function (FRF) and Coherence Function. The overall study is divided into three major steps. Firstly, the initial measurements are carried in BTH on simple Single Degree of Freedom (SDOF) systems to gain confidence in measurement and analysis. Then the measurements are performed on a Lathe machine “Quick Turn Nexus 300-II” in a laboratory at BTH. Finally, the measurements are taken on the machines of an Industrial workshop (KOSAB). The analysis results revealed that vibration measurements in industry are challenging and not easy as measurement in labs. Measurements are contaminated by noise from other machines, which degrade the coherence function. However, vibration transferred from one machine to the floor or other machines may be studied using FRF and PSD. Appropriate further isolations may be employed based on the spectral analysis.