TECHNIQUES & APPLICATIONS
The concept of Condition Monitoring is to enable condition-based maintenance to be carried out, i.e. the continuous or periodic measurement and interpretation of collected data to indicate the condition of an item and to determine the need for maintenance. Condition monitoring is normally carried out on-line with the item in operation and not subject to any shut-down.
The availability of sophisticated Instruments to record performance information of equipment on-line have allowed measurements to be made for analysis and comparison, thus detailed fault diagnosis is easily achieved and action taken before equipment failure without unplanned shutdown.
Some of the major techniques and applications currently available are reviewed as follows:
| TECHNIQUE | APPLICATION |
|---|---|
| Infrared Thermography | A non-contact measurement of temperature anomalies on Electrical and Mechanical equipment, thereby enabling detection of possible faults. Not only Electrical installations, but important areas like Furnaces, Reactors, Cryogenic equipment, pipeline insulation, chimney Stacks, bearings, steamlines,etc can be inspected. |
| Partial Discharge for Rotating Drives & Switchgears |
Enables detection of potential insulation failure in HV Cable connections, switchgear, transformers and motors/generators, caused by ionisation of the air resulting in arcing, tracking & corona, and air voids within solid insulation. |
| Cable Partial Discharge Testing (Online & Offline) |
Enables detection of potential insulation failure in HV Cables with no interruption in the system using the Online Test. Upon detection of possible faults, to reconfirm using the offline methods using Tan Delta and PD. |
| Corona Inspection | Detects Corona and Arcing of Overhead HV insulators to detect faults and degradation not detectable by visual inspection |
| LIRA CABLE CONDITION ASSESSMENT | Enables detection of the condition of Underground, Subsea and ELV cables up to 100's of km long. |
| On-line Motor Signature | Monitors condition of motor to detect winding problems, high resistance joints, stator faults, rotor bar defects & air-gap eccentricity |
| Power Quality Monitoring | Monitors presence of power surge, sag, transient and harmonics in power supply systems. |
| Electromagnetic Interference | Measure & monitor presence of undesirable low frequency high Magnetic Field in environment and its effect on equipment and workers’ health. |
| Vibration Analysis | Allows early detection of faulty bearings, unbalance and misalignment problems. |
| Transformer Oil Analysis (Dissolved Gas Analysis) and Metals In oil Test |
9 gases dissolved in the oil are analysed to determine the type of possible faults e.g. insulation breakdown, internal arcing, etc. Metals analysis of transformer oil complements dissolved gas analysis and enables the type of possible fault to be determined. |
