Cooling Fan Fault Diagnostics Using Vibrational and Acoustical Analyses

Abstract

Machine condition monitoring and fault diagnosis are strategies commonly employed by processing and manufacturing facilities to monitor the reliability, availability, and performance of machines. This set of standards is used in an effort to detect any faults before they cause serious problems or lead to a machine failure. Most industrial machines comprise rotors, disks, blades, fines, or other similar components that are subject to machine vibration, an operation condition parameter that is monitored and analyzed during machine condition monitoring and fault diagnosis. Cooling fans, which are particularly vulnerable to machine vibration, are widely used by processing and manufacturing facilities for cooling electronic systems and to generate renewable energy. The effective monitoring of these fans to predict, prevent, and address faults is paramount to the successful operation of industries that use these instruments. This study aims to identify the typical faults in a cooling fan by measuring the vibration and noise produced by the fan. I used a simple cooling fan with different types of faults to measure the vibrational and acoustical system response associated with different types of system faults.