TECHNICAL
BASIS & BACKGROUND
Electrical
signature analysis (ESA), a versatile and powerful, yet truly non-intrusive,
technology pioneered at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) can
be readily integrated into most electro-mechanical equipment to
greatly enhance condition diagnostics and prognostics capabilities.
ESA provides diagnostic and prognostic information comparable to
conventional vibration analysis but requires only access to electrical
lines carrying input or output power rather than to the equipment
itself. Thus, either onboard or remote analysis is possible—even
continuous monitoring if desired. ESA has already been tested on
and successfully applied to a wide variety of systems, including
military, industrial, and consumer equipment.
Load
and speed variations in electro-mechanical systems generally produce
correlated variations in current and voltage. ESA analyzes these
small perturbations and matches them to their source. The resulting
time and frequency signatures reflect loads, stresses, and wear
throughout the system and allow an extensive range of mechanical
diagnostic information to be obtained from a single sensor attached
to an electrical line.
Few
available technologies can be so seamlessly integrated into existing
maintenance programs. With the addition of a few sensors, ESA diagnostics
can pinpoint electrical and mechanical problems and target maintenance
on an as-needed basis, thereby increasing equipment reliability
and maintenance efficiency and minimizing unexpected downtime. |
