Development of on-line vibration condition monitoring system of hydro generators

Mechanical vibration information is critical to diagnosing the health of a generator. Existing vibration monitoring systems have poor resistibility against the strong electromagnetic interference in field and difficult to extend. In order to solve these problems, an on-line monitoring system based on LonWorks control network has been developed. In this paper, the structure of hardware and software, the functions and characteristics of system have been described in detail. The analysis result of a vibration signal has proved that this monitoring system can detect fault of generators efficiently. The system has been employed to monitor the vibration of hydro generators operation in a water power plant in Hubei province, China.