Vibration Signature Analysis of IC Engine

Abstract

Vibration is an effective tool in detecting and diagnosing some of the incipient failures of machine and equipment. Vibration signature measured on the external surface of the machine or a structure contains a good amount of information, which if properly interpreted, can reveal the running condition of the machine. It may be regarded as the one of the languages through which the machine tells its ailments. Each unit of mechanical equipment has a different signature in the frequency spectrum. The vibration spectrum shows the areas of stress and undue energy. Vibration measurements trend changes at different locations along the units to predict problems. Vibration analysis can determine misalignment, unbalance, mechanical looseness, eccentric shafts, gear wear, broken teeth, bearing wear etc. Using appropriate accelerometer it is possible to get the data which is processed using different methods like FFT, spectrogram, cestrum, and wavelet transform and cyclostationary analysis. In this work, an attempt has been madeto analyze the vibration signals of the IC engine to detect the existence of any fault utilizing Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), This method depends on the variations in frequency to distinguish different operating conditions of an IC engine and to provide remedies to alleviate the engine from excess of vibrations which also improves the performance of the engine.