Introduction: Vibration Condition Monitoring in Hydro Power Plant Using Wireless Vibration Sensor
Vibration condition monitoring enhances the performance of Hydro Generating Equipments like water turbines, pumps etc. by minimizing the damage and break down chances so that equipment stay available for a longer time.
Wireless Sensor Networks has been installed in many industrial applications like structural monitoring of civil infrastructure , vibration analysis of wind turbines etc. and has done remarkably well in irradicating many of the industrial complications. Measuring the vibrations of hydro generating equipment and continuously monitoring the equipment using Wireless vibration sensors can help in finding and irradicating the possible causes of the vibrations on rotating and non-rotating equipment of Hydro generating equipment.
In this Instructable we will be going through Wireless Vibration and Temperature Sensors and it's advantages in vibration condition monitoring of hydro equipment. So here we will be demonstrating the following-
- Wireless Vibration and Temperature Sensors.
- Structural monitoring using these Sensors.
- Gathering and analysing the data using Wireless gateway device.
- Publishing and Subscribing to Sensor data using Ubidots
Step 1: Hardware and Software Specifications
Software Specification
Hardware Specification
Step 2: Wireless Vibration and Temperature Sensors
This is a Long Range Industrial IoT wireless vibration and temperature sensor, boasting up to a 2 Mile range using a wireless mesh networking architecture. Incorporating a 16-bit Vibration and Temperature sensor, this sensor transmits highly accurate vibration data at user-defined intervals. It has the following features :
- Industrial Grade 3-axis Vibration Sensor with ±32g Range
- Calculates RMS, MAX, and MIN g Vibration
- Noise Removal using Low-pass Filter
- Frequency Range (Bandwidth) up to 12,800 Hz
- Sample Rate up to 25,600Hz
- Encrypted Communication with 2 Mile Wireless Range
- Operating Temperature Range -40 to +85 °C
- Wall-Mounted or Magnet Mounted IP65 Rated EnclosureExample Software for Visual Studio and LabVIEW
- Vibration Sensor with External Probe OptionUp to 500,000 Transmissions from 4 AA Batteries
- Many Gateway and Modem Options Available
Step 3: General Vibration Guidelines
Here are some recommended Vibration standards, you can compare these readings with our Long Range IoT Wireless Vibration Temperature Sensor to determine if your device is operating properly or if it may require service (note that actual equipment and application may vary):
- 0.01g or Less — Excellent condition, No action required
- 0.35g or less — Good Condition, No action required unless the machine is noisy or running at an abnormal temperature
- 0.5g or less — Fair Condition, No action required unless the machine is noisy or running at an abnormal temperature
- 0.75g or More— Rough Condition, possible action required if the machine is noisy and also check the bearing temperature
- 1g or More — Very Rough Conditions, further analysis and see if it's doing this continuously. Also, check for noise and temperature
- 1.5g or More — Danger Level, there is definitely a problem in the machine or installation. Also, check the temperature Log
- 2.5g or More — Shut-down the Machine immediately and look for possible causes. Call a technician for immediate repair For Heavy Machinery these readings could be 1.5 times to 2 times more than listed above.
Step 4: Getting the Vibration Sensor Values
The vibration values, that we are getting from the sensors are in millis. These consists of the following values
- rms vibration along the x-axis.
- rms vibration along the y-axis.
- rms vibration along the z-axis.
- minimum vibration along the x-axis.
- minimum vibration along the y-axis.
- minimum vibration along the z-axis.
- maximum vibration along the x-axis.
- maximum vibration along the y-axis.
- maximum vibration along the z-axis.
Step 5: Publishing the Values to Ubidots.
Now to visualize the published data in Ubidots dashboard . we need to add the variables and the widgets to it
- Click '+' sign on the top right corner
- Select the Widget
- Add the variable
Step 6: Visualize the Data
Step 7: Email Notification Using Ubidots
Ubidots gives us another tool to send an email notification to the user. We have created an event of temperature alert that is whenever the temperature goes beyond 30 degrees an automated mail will be sent to the user. When it comes back to the normal state another automated mail is sent to the user to notify him/her.
Step 8: Overall Code
The firmware of this setup can be found in this GitHub repository