Advanced Prognostic Condition Monitoring System for Rotating Machinery using Contactless Sensors Integrated with Operational Modal Analysis

Engelsk: The “Torsion” project aims to simplify the monitoring of rotating machinery in marine environments by using advanced, contactless sensors. By analyzing the data, we can detect changes in the system to diagnose and predict faults. Previous tests have shown that measuring torque and angular velocity is effective for early fault detection. The system can easily connect to existing platforms like SCADA and captures faults that traditional systems miss. With contactless sensors from Kongsberg Maritime, the system becomes even more reliable and durable in harsh offshore conditions. Two PhD students from NTNU’s Department of Marine Technology are participating in this project.

The Torsion project aims to develop advanced methods for condition monitoring of critical components i.e. electro-mechanical rotating machinery in marine and maritime applications using high-resolution, high-accuracy torsional measurements via contactless sensors. The modal analysis will then be employed to post process the data extracting the system properties changes trend for diagnosis and prognosis. Earlier works through extensive simulations have shown that the torque estimation and angular velocity measurements can be a reliable, yet cost-effect approach for early fault detection of electro-mechanical systems. The main advantage of such system compared with traditional vibration measurement is that the system can easily be integrated with existing data acquisition platform, for example Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system which is commonly installed for operational monitoring. In addition, the torsional measurement can capture the failures in torsional direction particularly due load variations which are not possible by the traditional system. The novelty of adding contactless angular velocity sensor, a technology offered by Kongsberg Maritime, will even further improve the condition monitoring system life and reliability in harsh offshore conditions enabling to implement other advanced methods for system identifications.