Vibration Monitoring 95

joined through a mechanical coupling. However, due to uneven foundation

level, the shafts are not concentric and they are offset either by the same
lateral amount or by an angle. This condition leads to the misalignment of
the shaft, which can be parallel and angular as shown in Figure 7.2. Due to
this condition of the shafts, there is an axial push and pull on the shafts and
a strong axial vibration is recorded. However, during machine installation,
necessary shaft alignments are done by introducing metal shims or adjust-
ing jack bolts at the machine foundation to minimize shaft misalignments.
The procedure for alignment of shafts is given in Appendix A4. Many
times, flexible couplings are used to accommodate small misalignments.
However, with time, the misalignment may increase because of corrosion of
the shims, uneven thermal expansion between the driven and driving ends,
and so on. This misalignment leads to an increase in the frictional forces
within the flexural elements of the coupling, which also leads to an increase
in the temperature of the couplings.
However, through vibration monitoring, the misalignments in shafts can be
detected relatively easily because of the increase in the axial v
­ ibration levels at
a frequency twice the rotating speeds of the shaft. This is because an increase
in the misalignment can cause the torque on the shaft to increase at twice
the rotational speed. During misalignment, the phase difference at bearings
across the coupling are 180°. Misalignment usually provides an elliptical orbit
due to a strong force in one direction, as shown in Figure 7.3. In the orbit plot
shown in Figure 7.3, the shaft was supported on two rolling-element bearings.
Two accelerometers were mounted on the drive-end (DE) bearing ­housing in
mutually perpendicular directions to measure the radial v ­ ibrations, as shown
in Figure 7.4, which were used to obtain the orbit plot shown in Figure 7.3.
Proximity-type eddy current probes are often used to measure the displace-
ments of the shaft ends at a bearing location. The advantage of such probes is
that they are noncontacting in nature, and the dynamics of the bearing hous-
ing do not influence the measured displacement values.

(a)

(b)

FIGURE 7.2
Shaft misalignment: (a) parallel, (b) angular.