Energy losses caused by misalignment in rotating machinery: A theoretical, experimental and industrial approach

This paper deals with one of the most common malfunctions in rotative machines: misalignment. Several studies have shown that misalignment produces at least 30% of the faults caused by vibration. In this work, an analysis of energetic losses generated by misalignment in rotative machines has been carried out, with the main objective of finding a correlation between vibration levels, energy consumptions and different degrees of misalignment. A laboratory test rig has been implemented to carry out experimental tests under different degrees of misalignment. Two industrial cases, one from a mining company and another from a thermoelectric company have been included in this study and two different methodologies were used to analyse the results. A statistical model based in the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used for the data analysis of one of the industrial cases. A simplified economical study illustrates the advantages for a company, when a preventive and predictive methodology is implemented, with the objective of reducing the energy consumption and keeping low levels of vibration by means of alignment.