MEE 5206
VIBRATION
PROJECT
OIL WHIRL MONITORING
BY
NG ZHI SIANG (I12002035)
PHAN CIN REN (I11009253)
SEAN MICHAEL (I10007252)
Lecturer : Dr.Abdul Wehab
(11th November, 2014)
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Contents
List of Tables..................................................................................................................4
1.0 Introduction..............................................................................................................5
1.1 Background of the project....................................................................................5
1.2 Problem Statement...............................................................................................7
1.3.
1.4.
1.5.
Report Organization......................................................................................10
3.3.
Experiment Procedure...................................................................................22
Conclusions...................................................................................................27
6.2.
Recommendations.........................................................................................28
References....................................................................................................................29
List of Figures
Figure 1.1 : Shaft off-center in Journal Bearing
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List of Tables
Table 4.1 Obtained result from online simulator
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1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background of the project
Oil-whirl instability in rotor bearings was discovered by General Electric engineer
Burt Newkirk in the 1920s. Since then, much has been written about design methods
to reduce its harmful effects. Yet it still remains troublesome and of great concern,
particularly in lightly loaded journal bearings in turbines, compressors, and pumps; in
large vertical motors and generators; and in many similar machines (M. M. Khonsari,
2013).
Oil whirl is a condition peculiar with journal bearings used on machines equipped
with pressure lubrication systems operating at relatively high speeds. It manifests
itself as a vibration of less than less than 50% of shaft speed (James E. Berry,2014) It
is caused by a lightly loaded bearing riding up on its high-pressure wedge and going
up over the top and around. If the rotating shaft is moved off the center due to load,
eccentricity, or imbalance, the gap/clearance on one side of the bearing will be greater
than that on the other side, as shown in Figure 1. The average speed of the lubricant
increases inside the gap and slows down when it leaves the gap. The speeding up and
slowing down causes turbulence in the fluid known as oil whirl (Journal Bearings:
Oil Whirl and Oil Whip. 2014)
The cure is to increase the load on the bearing. This usually requires a redesign of the
bearing and is best handled by the bearing or machine supplier. Some redesigns are
narrower bearings, axial grooves, pressure dams, lobed journals, or tilting pad
bearing. The narrower bearing increases the load on the journal. The other redesigns
break up the symmetrical oil flow pattern (Naikan,2014).
There are some temporary measures that can be taken to alleviate oil whirl. The
temporary measures are to change the oil viscosity, by adjusting the oil temperature or
a different oil. Another temporary measure is to run the machine in a more loaded
condition (Naikan,2014).
Oil whirl is aggravated by excessive bearing clearance. When oil whirl becomes
severe, there is a potential for the shaft to rub the inside of the journal. This causes
friction and subsequent localized heating. Oil whirl produce wave of turbulence and
induces a sub-synchronous vibration which is approximately 40-50% of the running
speed (Naikan,2014).
This experiment helps understand the effect of oil whirl on machinery vibration. The
equipment at different shaft speeds can be conducted for studying the effect of speed
on the vibration level in oil whirl.
1.3.
The aim of this report is study the oil whirl phenomenon and investigate the effects of
different operating parameters on the oil whirl phenomenon through virtual lab
simulator. This report will insight the background, methodology, finding and
recommendation from other journals or articles returned and then investigate every
relevant parameter. The overall objectives of the research are pointed out as follows:
The effect of rotational RPM of the shaft on the vibration level and the
vibration frequency
1.4.
The main idea of this project is to discuss the details on how the oil whirl
phenomenon happened. There are a lot of possibilities and reason may cause the oil
whirl phenomenon. The boundary focus of this research paper is more specifically on
parameter of rotational speed which study with respect on objective function on oil
whirl. A theoretical background on the given phenomenon including its cause and
effect will be presented in this paper. An experiment system will be introduce to study
the phenomenon of oil whirl and identify the behavior of oil whirl in journal bearings
and the experiment will be run by using Dr V. N. A. Naikan online virtual lab
simulator. The experiment result from online similar will be further evaluate by
calculation in order to prove the theory. An International case study are also included
in this paper to relate the theory to a real life example, investigate the problems from
real life problem and provide solution for the real life problem.
1.4.1 FLOW CHART OF THE PROJECT
The flow chart below shows the progress or steps of the whole progress to construct
this paper.
FLOW CHART OF THE PROJECT
Researching and Analyze the Project Title
1.5.
Report Organization
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From Figure 2.1 above, it shows how a simple hydrodynamic bearing normally
functions. The yellow outer areas is the bearing oil while the inner white area is the
shaft. Also stated is how the oil speed if normally half that of the shaft surface speed
when oil whirl occurs. Randall (2010) explains the shaft movement as, surfing on a
wave running around in the bearing clearance. Because the oil adjacent to the shaft
travels at shaft speed and that the bearing surface has zero velocity, the mean velocity
of the lubricant is approximately half the shaft speed, but slightly less in the critical
pressure zone (supporting the bearing load) because the pressure gradient causes a
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backward flow. Instability can occur when the system is able to extract more energy
from the rotation than is dissipated by damping mechanisms.
When a disturbing force take place on the shaft like an external shock or an
unexpected surge, it can increase the eccentricity of the shaft from its equilibrium
situation momentarily. When this happens, additional oil is immediately pumped into
the space vacated by the shaft. This results in an increased pressure of the loadcarrying film, which creates additional force between the film and shaft, as
mentioned by (Courtney & Todd, 2009). When this happens, it is possible for the
shaft to be driven in front of the oil film in a forward circular motion. This might lead
it into a whirling path around the bearing within the bearing clearance. With sufficient
damping within the system, it will simply return the shaft to its normal stability and
position. However if sufficient damping is not available, the whirling motion of the
shaft will continue and cause the amplitude of movement to progress to a point where
the bearing clearances are exceeded (Courtney & Todd, 2009).
disastrous damage to the bearing. Mobius Institute (2010) has provided a very
educational video titled Vibration analysis orbits orbit plots journal bearing
vibration.mp4 which shows what happens when the shaft is knocked out of its
equilibrium position and how it moves eccentrically around the bearing.
Courtney & Todd (2009) further provide list of conditions which can cause oil whirl
in journal bearings. These conditions are listed below;
1. Light dynamic preload forces
2. Change in oil pressure
3. Excessive bearing wear or clearance
4. Improper bearing design (e.g. use of theoretical shaft loading instead of actual
shaft loading)
5. Changes in oil properties (e.g. such as temperature and viscosity)
Oil whirl can be identified rather straightforwardly by recognizing strange vibration
frequencies which is normally 0.4 to 0.48 times the shaft RPM. When the vibration
amplitude reaches 50% of the average bearing clearance, it can be disastrous and
corrective action must be taken (Berry, 2005).
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More permanent solutions however require changes to the machines bearing and can
take a lot of time and cost to implement, which is why it is important to take
advantage of the temporary solutions first if needed. Courtney & Todd (2009) have
also stated three permanent solutions to oil whirl which are;
1. By installing a new bearing shell with the appropriate clearances.
2. Having a preload on the bearing with an internal oil pressure dam and in
drastic situations,
3. Entirely altering the bearing type to oil film bearings which are less liable to
oil whirl (e.g. lemon bearings which have joint faces that are machined off so
that they have a vertical diameter much smaller than the horizontal).
Courtney & Todd (2009) mention that it is usually recognized that the best technique
of determining vibration in typical journal bearings is by using displacement probe.
Displacement probes monitor shaft vibration and shaft position by using orbital plots.
This method plots the location of the running shaft and its rotation on a graph and can
show its shape of vibration with time. Figure 1.2 below illustrates this process;
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Figure 1.2 above shows the orbital plots inside the journal bearing. The outer circle
can be taken as the inner wall of the bearing and the + symbol as the location of its
centre. The smaller ellipse inside the circle shows the shaft rotation movement around
the journal at a given time. The dot and arrows present on the ellipse serve as to
represent a point on the outer edge (also known as surface mark) of the shaft and the
direction of rotation of the shaft respectively. The journal clearances are obviously
exaggerated in this figure as it serves a purpose to help people see more clearly the
normal (or abnormal) movement of the shaft within the bearing.
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Chapter 3: Methodology
3.1 Reason behind the Oil whirl phenomenon
Oil whirl is a phenomena where an unstable free vibration and fluid-film
bearing has insufficient amount of load. Under this condition, the centreline of the
shaft usually moves circular to the direction of rotation (DiracDelta,n.d.). This
condition can occur because of:
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High amplitude
(Berry, 2005)
From all possible cause that might occur, bearing failure or high vibration is
the most possible to happen. Most of the large industry using a large induction motor
and drives high speed compressor or any other rotating equipment run on the sleeve
bearing. Bearings can be either ring lubricated or force lubricated. High speed rotor
can lead to lateral vibration. High lateral vibration is caused by rotor unbalance. This
kind of vibration does not effect on the bearing and can be fixed by balancing the
rotor. In some condition, induction motor sleeve bearing are susceptible to large
amplitude lateral vibration as this also one of characteristics in oil whirl. During oil
whirl, the rotor orbits in its bearing clearance at a frequency less than half the rotor
angular speed. This condition can lead to many disasters such as bearing failure, and
other equipment damage. In this condition, the behaviour of rotor is fluctuating. Since
the amplitude going up the rotor speed will reach its maximum point and decreases
once it has reach the maximum point. (Singhal,S, 2009)
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When this condition occurs, excessive amount of oil is pumped to the shaft in result
pressure and temperature in load-carrying film increases, thus creating more force
between the oil film and shaft. The figure below is a journal bearing.
rotors natural frequency. This might be thought of as a stabilized version of halffrequency whirl. Its constant frequency is half the first natural frequency of the shaft
for speeds ranging up to about three times the natural rotor frequency.
(Khonsari,2013)
3.1.1 Method to overcome oil whirl phenomenon
Oil whirl can cause many severe issues including the breakdown in the whole
induction motor. There are several that should do to avoid this phenomenon:
1) Changing the design parameter in bearing
There are several parameters that control the bearing design. The operating
parameter is the most crucial parameter, because it consists of bearing load
and speed. As what mention before, the light bearing load is one of the reason
to trigger oil whirl, so, the way to solve this is to increase the bearing load ,
beside that speed must also be controlled, excessive speed can build up the
amplitude and in result to high vibration which can cause catastrophic. Beside
that, the design of the bearing clearance in bearing must also be minimized.
(Singhal,S, 2009)
2) Rotor balancing
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3.2.
Experimental Set Up
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3.3.
Experiment Procedure
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
10000
Critical Frequency
Frequency
of the Lubricant , f
of Shaft, f
(Hz)
(Hz)
Oil Whirl
f of lubricant
f of shaft
x 100%
(%)
7.5
16.67
45%
15
33.33
45%
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50
46%
30
66.67
45%
37
83.33
44%
44
100
44%
53
116.67
45%
53
120
44%
67
150
45%
75
166.67
45%
Table 4.1 Obtained result from online simulator
The shaft speed is the operating parameter of the simulator varying from 1000 rpm to
10000rpm. The critical frequency results is obtain from the simulation graph. While
for the frequency of shaft and the oil whirl is calculated by following formula:
Frequency of Shaft, f (Hz) =
Shaft Speed
60
(4.1)
Oil Whirl =
f of lubricant
f of shaft
x 100%
(4.2)
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4.2 Discussion
One of the objective of this project is investigate the effect of different parameters on
the fault phenomenon through virtual lab simulator. In this paper, the operating
parameters been varying is the speed of the shaft which varying from 1000rpm to
10000 rpm as shown in Table 4.1.
From the result, the relation between the shaft speed and critical frequency can be
observe easily from Figure 4.1.The higher the shaft speed, the higher critical
frequency.
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When a machine experiences an oil whirl condition, it should not be run unless
absolutely necessary, as it is a serious condition. The recommended repair and
maintenance action is to inspect the turbine journal bearings thoroughly. This means
that the proper bearing lubrication, bearing temperature, oil pressure, mechanical
bearing fit and clearances (tolerances) should be verified properly according to the
bearing manufacturers specifications.
In this case however, unfortunately due to the ships operating requirements, the unit
could not be taken offline to perform bearing inspection. This resulted in the No. 1
SSTG unit failing three months later and resulted in the turbine bearings needing to be
wiped, extensive repair work, repair costs and ship down time in the repair yard. This
shows how extensive the damage due to oil whirl condition can be on a machine.
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Conclusions
From the results and discussion, it can be concluded that oil whirl is a vibration
phenomenon that could potentially cause severe damage to machinery if not removed
in a timely manner. This is due to oil whirl being able to cause the rotating shaft to
come into metal-to-metal contact with the inner wall of the journal bearing that would
eventually cause physical damage to the system. These damages could be severe and
require a lot of repair and replacements that cost money.
Oil whirl is also a condition that is relatively hard to identify at a glance. While
abnormal vibrations in a particular machine can usually be easily identified by skilled
and experienced maintenance crew, identifying the cause as oil whirl is another
matter. With sufficient knowledge and analyzing of vibration patterns on a machine
could reveal if the problem is due to vibration, this might not be done in time if the
machine has a long up time with no breaks to perform tests.
If oil whirl is detected, the machine must be powered down immediately in order to
apply countermeasures to prevent oil whirl from occurring. While there are temporary
solutions that would allow the machine to safely resume operation with oil whirl
minimized, after extended periods the symptoms will tend to come back due to the
initial flaws in the bearing. Temporary solutions should only be applied if it is
absolutely critical for the machine to continue being used at normal conditions.
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6.2.
Recommendations
In order to prevent oil whirl from occurring or reoccurring, special journal bearings
known as lemon bearings can be used since they have joint faces that are machined
off so that they have a vertical diameter much smaller than the horizontal. These
characteristics can effectively eliminate oil whirl in the system.
Another method is to have condition monitoring tools installed which can determine
the position and rotation of the shaft within the journal bearing using displacement
probes. These probes are effective at determining oil whirl and a multitude of other
journal bearing conditions as they effectively monitor the location and rotation of the
shaft within the bearing at all times. Using orbital plots, these probes are able to
provide a visual representation of the orbit and spin of the shaft in the form of a
graph (like an oscilloscope). These monitoring devices, while expensive can help
detect and prevent many vibration related phenomena within journal bearings.
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References
M. M. Khonsari (2013) Preventing oil whirl for better bearing operation,Louisiana
State University, Baton Rouge [ONLINE]
Available at:http://machinedesign.com/bearings/preventing-oil-whirl-better-bearing
operation [Accessed on 25 October 2014]
James E. Berry (2014) Oil Whirl and Whip Instabilities - Within Journal Bearings .
[ONLINE] Available at:http://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/754/oil-whirlwhip.
Richard Thomas (2014) Back to Basics: Fluid Induced Instability i.e. Oil Whirl/Oil
Whip | Turbomachinery Blog. 2014.
[ONLINE] Available at:http://www.turbomachinerymag.com/blog/content/backbasics-fluid-induced-instability-ie-oil-whirloil-whip.
Berry, J., 2005. Factor that can trigger oil whirl. [Online] Available at :
http://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/754/oil-whirl-whip [Accessed on 22
October 2014]
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Berry, J. E. (2005) Oil Whirl and Whip Instabilities - Within Journal Bearings
[Online]. Available from: < http://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/754/oilwhirl-whip > (Accessed 10 October 2014)
Mobius Institute (2010, May, 23) Vibration analysis orbits orbit plots journal bearing
vibration.mp4 [Video File]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfN4kMsa9U (Accessed 10 October 2014)
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Fan, C. C. & Syu, J. W. & Pan, M. C. & Tsao, W. C. (2011) Study of startup vibration
response for oil whirl, oil whip and dry whip. Taiwan: National Central University.
Jordan, M. A. (1993) What are Orbit Plots, anyway? United States of America: Bently
Nevada Corporation.
Laurent LaPorte, P.E. (2009) Oil Whirl in a Ships Service Turbo Generator. United
Stated of America: Azima DLI.
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