Pump Vibration Analysis For The Amateur

Abstract

Maintenance is the art of prolonging or restoring the useful operating condition of a piece of equipment. Many engineers consider maintenance to be based on industrial mythology or folklore and as a result engineering principles are not always applied to maintenance. Vibration monitoring coupled with sound engineering judgement could be one of the most valuable tools of maintenance but its value is somewhat restricted at present. There are frequently two groups of personnel involved with large machinery; those who understand the machinery and those who understand the monitoring equipment. Frequently, there are differences of opinion. Resolving these differences is hard to accomplish, because the text books available on the subject of pump vibration are out of date. More effort must be made to update the information available and to improve our abilities to cope with the problems faced in trying to achieve economical pumping equipment runs. The problem of how to develop an understanding of what vibration monitoring data from large single stage or multistage pumps should mean to the average engineer, operator or maintenance person will be addressed. In short, it is a first aid manual on what to do for the “patient”, the pump, until the doctor or vibration expert arrives.