Papers and Case Studies

High Channel Count Factory Acceptance Testing Solution for Pumps in Nuclear Service

Critical rotating equipment that will be placed into service in the nuclear power industry requires rigorous factory acceptance testing (FAT) to ensure it meets performance and mechanical integrity criteria. This includes one-off testing and long duration tests to validate the rotating equipment meets the design requirements. Red Wolf Reliability and Alta Solutions have teamed up to provide a solution to a complex FAT requiring many simultaneous channels and multiple data types that most acquisition systems simply cannot accomplish with one robust minimal cost system.

Here is an overview of the significant data acquisition requirements that made this FAT project a challenge.

• Simultaneous collection of 48 channels of static and dynamic data
• Transient data collection during speed changes recording static and dynamic data for all channels at intervals down to 50 milliseconds
• Multiple data types including
  • Case mounted IEPE accelerometers with the ability to simultaneously recorder time waveforms in native units of acceleration and time waveforms in units of velocity using only one sensor
  • Contact ultrasound for stress wave measurements
  • Shaft displacement using proximity probes
  • Shaft speed reference signal for speed indication and synchronous collection
  • Sound pressure readings from free field microphones
  • Temperature

The Alta Solutions AS-7000 Machinery Protection system was chosen as the hardware solution capable of meeting the significant demands for this project. While there are multiple platforms that can meet the demand as a machinery continuous protection system or a real-time analysis system, the AS-7000 platform connected to the Machinery Analyzer software allows Red Wolf Reliability analysts to do both with one platform. Red Wolf can perform real-time analysis during critical short term acceptance testing events such as startup, shutdown, and other unique operational test procedures. The exact same system is then left in place to continuously monitor all channels simultaneously for long term testing.

Figure 1: AS-7000 Machinery Protection and Real-Time Analysis hardware for 48 channels used in a factory acceptance test of a multi-stage pump.

Historically, Red Wolf Reliability would combine multiple platforms to meet these requirements. A permanently installed rack protection system would be used for capturing long term data and an additional multi-channel analyzer would then be used in addition to the rack to collect high-density data for real-time analysis. This results in data on two different platforms which limits the ability for direct data comparisons and increases analysis time. Additionally, the multi-platform solution significantly increases the overall monitoring cost.

The Alta Solutions Machinery Analyzer software has the post processing capabilities that allow Red Wolf Reliability certified analysts to perform the most advanced analysis possible. The ability to very easily customize all different types of plots in one platform makes the software stand out among other platforms. The Alta platform combined with Red Wolf Reliability analysts give us the flexibility for customizing the data collection and analysis for a broad range of challenging applications like this FAT project all while keeping the price of the monitoring at a fraction of the cost of any other permanent systems.

Figure 2: The AS-410 Machinery Analyzer software being used to monitor 48 channels of data and provide a wide array of rich data for analysis.

Do you have a complex acceptance test you need support on or are you still using multiple platforms to complete one job? Reach out to Red Wolf Reliability today and let us help you on your next vibration monitoring project.