Rotating machinery predictive maintenance through expert system

Abstract

Modern rotating machines such as turbomachines, either produce or absorb huge amount of power. Some of the common applications are: steam turbine-generator and gas turbine-compressor-generator trains produce power and machines, such as pumps, centrifugal compressors, motors, generators, machine tool spindles, etc., are being used in industrial applications. Condition-based maintenance of rotating machinery is a common practice where the machine's condition is monitored constantly, so that timely maintenance can be done. Since modern machines are complex and the amount of data to be interpreted is huge, we need precise and fast methods in order to arrive at the best recommendations to prevent catastrophic failure and to prolong the life of the equipment. In the present work using vibration characteristics of a rotor-bearing system, the condition of a rotating machinery (electrical rotor) is predicted using an off-line expert system. The analysis of the problem is carried out in an Object Oriented Programming (OOP) framework using the finite element method. The expert system which is also developed in an OOP paradigm gives the type of the malfunctions, suggestions and recommendations. The system is implemented in C++. © 2000 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V. Published by license under the Gordon and Breach Science Publishers imprint.