Problem:  Industrial anti-pollution fans that work in high-stress environments like power plants pose special problems when their performance degrades or components fail, because downtime is extremely expensive and the scale of the necessary corrections can be very large. SixD engineers have used several approaches to diagnosing the causes of excessive vibration or blade cracking in numerous 5,000-10,000 HP industrial fans.

Solution:  For this fan, SixD engineers instrumented and conducted a performance test on a fan-motor unit to measure strains and stresses developing in the rotor. The hub and several locations on the fronts and backs of two blades were fitted with strain gages and a data acquisition system capable of withstanding the high gs was attached directly to the hub. A blade impact test was also performed to document the unit’s natural frequency.

Benefit:  Data from the test guided design modifications to prevent costly future downtime.

• Services:
  Vibration troubleshooting
  Data acquisition