I am a plant mechanical engineer working in condition monitoring. I want to pursue my Master of science and can anybody suggest me broad area of research for my thesis.

Well, bearing condition is always a subject, maybe you can test and compare those mostly used in a unbiased way? I don´t know if that is done somewhere and it may not be easy to figure out a method to do that and it may be discussed.... Just the first idea that passed. Olov

Answer the question once and for all, "is there lower energy consumption with lower vibration?" and if so "how much?"

I like Steve's suggestion. It could provide some very important results for the manufacturing world.

You can probably find some good sources here.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Schultheis:
Answer the question once and for all, "is there lower energy consumption with lower vibration?" and if so "how much?"

Or the correlation between alignment condition and vibration amplitude?

Thanks for all the inputs

bearing condition is always a subject

Fully agreed .I can do a experimental study of variuos detecion techniques ( Bearing enveloping, FFT,SPM, Temperature,Broadband values, Crest factor )by creating bearing failures and assigning points to all detection techniques based on the success of the detection. Finaly i will be evolving the results and create a new equation to arrive the logical conclusion.

is there lower energy consumption with lower vibration?" and if so "how much?"

Definitely new idea. I can do a experimental study and get the results. Regarding theory work , a lot if information is needed to correlate. For example, always an unbalance will consume more power because more bearing load than a gear tooth failure. I will try to find more information on this topic also.

Any further information will be always welcome. If anything wrong, correct me please.

with regards,
Gevenag

If you write about bearing condition, you might want to read the articles at:

http://vibrotek.com/articles_bearings.php

Also:

http://vibrotek.com/article.php?article=articles/intelect-eng/index.htm

Gevenag, good luck on your thesis. I am sure it will be excellent. I would love to see it.

I plan to view all the links that were recommended for you in this forum. But first, let me tell my opinion of vibration affecting energy consumption (from my very limited experience).

Our Induced Draft Fan motor would last about three months between catrostaphic failures. You could feel the concrete shaking from ten feet away. After replacing the bowed fan shaft and balancing, the amperage draw decreased significantly, and the motor never has failed again because of mechanical problems.
I have seen it argued on this forum that vibration does not always greatly affect energy consumption, because the structure acts as a spring, and very little energy is required to keep a spring vibrating. But what happens if the structure is not a perfect spring, if portions of it will not vibrate well at the frequencies (such as a steel and concrete structure)? I suspect it all hinges on springiness and resonance.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wpugh,

Steve,
The study similar to one you are asking for was done. I saw some papers on this subject. One of these papers is attached.
Alex

Allman_MisalignmentHeat.pdf (515 Kb, 41 downloads)

I’m not sure if it is not too late but I thought I'll give my 2C.

1. Make sure the subject and scope are clear to you and YOUR ADVISOR
2. Select something interesting but doable
3. Good survey of hot/recent research is very important since this will pave the road for you later in your own research- specially if you'll have a theoretical part of the thesis.
4. Some colleges necessitate you produce a paper on a recognized journal. Review these journals in your survey.
5. Graduate studies are somehow abstract- this vary from place to place. My advise to make it realistic as much as you can, specialty you are a plant engineer.
6. Multi-major research is usually fruitful and more meaningful. I mean if you can mix two sciences to reach to conclusions like structural design and structural vibration, inelegance control and vibration protection or remote control and online vibration correction.
7. Lots of studied were done on bearings, rotor dynamics, instabilities, signal processing. They involve lots of math, if you are interested in math and equations.

Good luck!