Investigation of a Rotating Shaft with a Novel Integrated Wireless Accelerometer

Rotating shafts are the most critical components of rotating machines such as motors, pumps, engines and turbines. Due to their heavy workloads, defects are more likely to develop during operation. There are many techniques used to monitor shaft defects by analysing the vibration of the shaft as well as the instantaneous angular speed (IAS) of the shaft. The signals are measured either using non-contact techniques such as laser-based measurement or indirect measurement such as the vibration on bearing housings. The advancement in low cost and low power Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) make it possible to develop an integrated wireless sensor mounted on rotating shafts directly. This can make the fault diagnosis of rotating shafts more effective as it is likely to capture more details of shaft dynamics. This paper presents a novel integrated wireless accelerometer mounted directly on a rotating shaft and demonstrates that it can effectively monitor different degree of misalignments occurring commonly in a shaft system.