Contemporary Approaches to the Vibration Diagnostics of Rotating Shafts

Abstract

Rotating shafts are the most vulnerable part of steam turbines. They are subjected to a wide range of static and dynamic loading combined with high temperature. Different types of damage of rotating shafts in most cases are the result of this long-term combined loading. To avoid catastrophic failure of structural elements during operation of turbines, it is urgent to use reliable damage detection methods. A lot of investigations demonstrated that most appropriate as applied to the turbine shafts in operation are the vibration-based methods, in particular, the change of natural frequencies, the appearance of non-linear resonances, the change of vibrational spectrum and others. The paper contains the comparative analysis of most effective approaches to the vibration diagnostics of damage in rotating shafts of steam turbines.