Investigation of wireless sensor deployed on a rotating shaft and its potential for machinery condition monitoring

Rotating shafts are the most critical component of rotating machines such as motors, pumps, engines and turbines. Due to their heavy duties, defects are more like developed 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 signal 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 which can be mounted on the shaft. This can make the fault diagnosis of rotating shafts more effective because the sensor can be mounted on the shaft directly. This paper presented a novel integrated wireless accelerometer for rotational parameter measurement. Its performance is benchmarked with that from a shaft encoder. Experimental results show that the wireless acceleration signal has less noise and hence it is more possible for small fault detection.