RESOLUTION of HIGH VIBRATION on a GENERATOR

BORHANE OUERTANI
SANKER GANESH

48 th Turbomachinery & 35 th Pump Symposia |

 PRESENTER / AUTHOR BIOS
Borhane Ouertani—Lead On Site Sankar Ganesh — Technical Leader
Services Specialist MENAT & Africa
Borhane joined BHGE in 2016 in the Machinery Sankar is the MDS technical leader for BHGE Bently
Diagnostic services (MDS) group. Previously he Nevada Machinery Diagnostics in the MENAT & SSA
worked for two different company (Diagnostique region.
surveillance & instrumentation and SMT Food
industry) where he was a Responsible for He Received a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering
Condition Monitoring of process plant machinery, from Bharathidasan University, India, in 1993
providing technical solutions for machinery Over 20 years experience in vibration field and 12
problem and develop preventive maintenance years with GE Bently Nevada, including rotating
strategy. equipment balancing, vibration diagnostic and root
Over 14 Years experience in Vibration analysis, cause analysis. Published case studies in METS and
infrared thermography, Laser alignment including Turbomachinery symposium.
rotating equipment balancing. He has a Diploma
of Electromechanical Engineer from ESPRIT
University, TUNISA.

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 ABSTRACT
The machine train consists of a HP/LP Steam turbine driving a Generator of 118 MW.
The Generator shaft and casing vibration were extremely high above the alarm set points.
One of the observation was that the generator NDE casing was operating close to the second critical
speed. Added a mass of around 800 Kg (2 blocks of 400 Kg each) on top of the Generator NDE bearing
housing to shift the natural frequency. This exercise did not yield any positive response.
During the soft foot check of anchor bolts, an interesting phenomenon of gradual reduction of
generator casing & shaft vibration to well below acceptable levels occurred over few hours upon
opening of anchor bolt trap doors through which hot air was getting released.
The inspection revealed no looseness, but excessive gaps ranging from 0.1 to 0.61mm were found at
four locations below the Generator NDE bearing pedestal.
Correction was completed by jacking up the generator frame up off of the baseplate. Shims at the
interface point were removed and the interface points on the baseplate and pedestal were cleaned
and new shims were then installed.
Upon restart the vibration levels were well below acceptable levels.

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 MACHINE DETAILS

HP Steam Turbine LP Steam Turbine Generator

Machine Train consists of a HP/LP Steam turbine driving a Generator of 118 MW, Equipped with online
protection system.
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 PROBLEM STATEMENT
• The Generator shaft and casing vibration were above the alarms.
• The vibration was high on both the bearings of the Generator.
• Generator vibration in the axial direction exceeded ISO standard limits
(28 mm/s rms or 1.1 in/s rms).
• The issue persisted for almost two years without the root cause being
resolved.
• On site balancing by End user was not successful.
• Investigation by OEM - Generator bearing casing natural frequency
close to the running speed.

TURBOMACHINERY & PUMP SYMPOSIA

 Action by OEM
Vibration absorber blocks installed by OEM on top of the bearing housing did not show
any improvement in the Generator vibration level. (2 Blocks of 400 Kg each)

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 OBSERVATIONS & ANALYSIS
Bode Plots- Startup- Shaft Vibration- Generator In-board & out-board bearing
In-board
Bearing

1X Phase

Amplitudes

Out-board
Bearing

1X Phase

Amplitudes

• The shaft vibration on Generator IB & OB bearings were high, close to 155 µm pk-pk (6.1 mils PP).
• Bode plot of Gen IB & OB shows machine running close to second critical.
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 OBSERVATIONS & ANALYSIS
Bode Plots- Startup- Casing Vibration- Generator In-board & out-board bearing

Online transducer Generator Online transducer Generator

In-board bearing in vertical direction Out-board bearing in vertical direction

Temporary transducer Generator In-board bearing in axial direction

• Vibration readings on the IB and OB generator bearings were close to 29 mm/sec or 1.1 in/s (RMS).
High vibration when the unit close to running speed.
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 ACTION TAKEN # 1 & Results
SINGLE & TWO PLANE BALANCING EXERCISE
DE

• A single plane balancing lowered Generator outboard

bearing shaft vibration.
• No reduction in casing vibration.
• A two plane balancing lowered shaft vibration on both the
bearings of generator
• High casing vibration was still observed at both bearings. NDE

• In-situ balancing didn’t resolve the high vibration on the

casing.

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 ACTION TAKEN # 1
SINGLE & TWO PLANE BALANCING EXERCISE
Polar Plots- Startup- Shaft Vibration- Generator In-board bearing

Generator In-board bearing

57 umpp 141 umpp
before balancing exercice
2.2 mils PP 5.5 mils PP

Generator In-board bearing

after balancing exercice 23 umpp 23 umpp

0.9 mils pp 0.9 mils pp

• Significant improvement noticed at Generator In-board bearing after balancing

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 ACTION TAKEN # 1
SINGLE & TWO PLANE BALANCING EXERCISE
Polar Plots- Startup- Casing Vibration- Generator In-board & Out-board bearing

Generator In-board bearing Generator Out-board bearing

before balancing exercice 22 mm/s rms 27 mm/s rms before balancing exercice
0.86 in/s rms 1.06 in/s rms

Generator In-board bearing

after balancing exercice Generator Out-board bearing
20 mm/s rms 29 mm/s rms
after balancing exercice
0.78 in/s rms 1.14 in/s rms

• Not much changes noticed on the casing vibration even after balancing
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 ACTION TAKEN #2 & Results
IMPACT TEST (THREE DIRECTIONS)
Test result: The impact test showed that the natural frequency of the outboard bearing
aligns with the running speed.

Generator Out-board Generator Out-board

bearing Horizontal direction bearing vertical direction

Generator Out-board
bearing axial direction 12

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 ACTION TAKEN #3 & Results
PEDESTAL INTERFERANCES ASSEMBLY MEASUREMENT lOCATIONS
• Significant relative movement at interface foundation on outboard bearing (location 8) was
located

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 ACTION TAKEN #4 & Results
• An interesting event occurred during the soft foot check: The vibration readings started
to decrease gradually on both Generator bearings and stabilized at low levels after
opening the anchor bolts trapdoors.
• The above test was repeated with closing/opening of the anchor bolts trapdoors and
the test confirmed that the trapdoors of anchor bolts location of base frame/foundation
affected both shaft and casing vibration of generator.

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 CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS FROM ACTION # 4
• The phenomenon of vibration reduction during opening of anchor bolt trap doors is
suspected to be a resemblance of thermal transient where generator bearing
housing and frame trying to attain thermal equilibrium whereas it is causing high
vibration due to frame distortion when trap doors are closed.
• The above behavior suggested an issue on anchor bolts tightness or soft foot issue.

• Following was recommended:

✓ Check tightness at the 4 foundation anchors below the outboard bearing
pedestal (area S and S1, area R and R1) and ensure proper tightness of shims.

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 CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS FROM ACTION # 4

Area R & R1 Area S & S1

Generator Inboard Bearing Generator Outboard Bearing

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 MACHINE INSPECTION FINDINGS
• No loose shimming found at the 4
foundation anchors below the generator
0.6 0.1
bearing pedestals. mm mm

• Anchor bolts were already properly

tightened with a torque of 800 N.m but 0.6 0.3
there was an abnormal gap of 0.1 mm mm mm
and 0.61 mm were measured on the
Generator NDE bearing pedestal.

• The above observation concluded that

this is the root cause of high vibration on
the Generator bearing casing.
• Encircled are the locations of NDE pedestal area where gaps found.

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 MACHINE INSPECTION FINDINGS

• Gaps were measured below Generator NDE pedestal

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 CORRECTIVE ACTIONS
• Shimming was added below the 4 foundation anchors of the generator outboard
bearing pedestal.
• Correction was completed by jacking the generator frame up off of the baseplate.
Shims at the interface point were removed and the interface points on the baseplate
and pedestal were cleaned and new shims were then installed. The generator frame
was then lowered and proper level and contact was confirmed.

RESULTS
• Upon restart of the unit, vibration amplitude was found to be significantly reduced at
acceptable levels, we observed that the high vibration has been resolved on both
generator bearings vertical & axial direction.

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 RESULTS
Generator Bearings after balancing exercise & shimming correction

28 umpp 85 umpp

1.1 mils pp 3.34 mils pp

35 umpp 30 umpp

1.37 mils pp 1.18 mils pp

• Shaft Vibration / 1X polar plot after actions indicate acceptable vibration level
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 RESULTS
Generator Bearings after balancing exercise & shimming correction

4.2 mm/s rms 4.7 mm/s rms

0.15 in/s rms 0.15 in/s rms

• Permanently seismic probe on Generator • Temporary seismic probe on Generator

OUTB bearing INB bearing (axial direction)
• Casing Vibration / 1X polar plot after actions indicate acceptable vibration level
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