Statistical analysis of vibration signals for cavitation detection ISIEA 2009

Cavitation in a centrifugal pump causes deterioration of the hydraulic performance, damage to the pump components, high vibration and noise. To prevent cavitation and maintain pump performance, it is necessary to detect and diagnose the cavitation as early and accurately as possible. This paper presents non-destructive method to detect and diagnose cavitation in centrifugal pumps using statistical analysis of vibration signals. The vibration data was measured close to the discharge port and analysed in the time domain. It has been found that the probability density function (PDF) , Root mean square (RMS) and standard deviation (SD) values of structure vibration can be used successfully for detecting cavitation in centrifugal pump.