Machinery Failure Analysis Handbook

Luiz Otvio Amaral Affonso

Houston, Texas

Machinery Failure Analysis Handbook Copyright 2006 by Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, Texas. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the prior written permission of the publisher. Gulf Publishing Company 2 Greenway Plaza, Suite 1020 Houston, TX 77046 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America. Printed on acid-free paper. Text design and composition by Ruth Maassen. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Affonso, Luiz Otvio Amaral. Machinery failure analysis handbook / Luiz Otvio Amaral Affonso. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-933762-08-X (alk. paper) 1. MachineryMaintenance and repairHandbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Plant maintenanceHandbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title. TS191.A34 2006 658.2'7dc22 2006027869

John Mitchell once dedicated a book to those professionals who, on a cold night, would pack their instruments and travel to a plant to decide if a hot piece of machinery would last until dawn. Modestly, I dedicate this one to the same professionals, but thinking that many times the machine did not survive the next day and the same person had to find out what went wrong, so that the mistake would not be made again.

Contents

Preface
PART I

xi

Introduction to Failure Analysis

Fundamental Causes of Failures Design Failures Material Selection Deficiencies Material Imperfections Manufacturing Defects Assembly and Installation Errors Maintenance and Operation Errors Conclusion Failure Analysis Practice Failure Analysis Objectives How Far Should We Go? Main Steps Reports and Databases Failure Prevention Efforts Types of Failures Prevention of Failures Machinery Monitoring and Anticipatory Action Operators Role in Machinery Reliability 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 13 13 14 17 22 25 26 27 28 28

1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6

2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 3 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4

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Contents

PART II

Failure Modes
Ductile and Brittle Fractures Ductile Fracture Morphology Ductile Fracture Mechanism Brittle Fracture Brittle Fracture Morphology Brittle Fracture Mechanism Fatigue Fractures Fatigue Fracture Mechanism Fatigue Fracture Surface Morphology Factors That Influence Fatigue Strength Wear Sliding Wear Hard Particle Wear Liquid Impingement Wear Cavitation Corrosion Electrochemical Corrosion Mechanism Uniform Corrosion Corrosion Fatigue Pitting Corrosion Galvanic Corrosion Corrosion Erosion Stress Corrosion Cracking Incrustation Coke Deposition Salt Deposition Biological Incrustation Electric Discharge Damage 33 34 36 37 38 39 43 44 47 50 55 55 71 78 80 83 84 86 89 91 92 94 95 101 102 105 107 109

4 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 5 5.1 5.2 5.3 6 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 7 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 8 8.1 8.2 8.3 9

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PART III

Machinery Component Failures

Shafts Stresses Acting on a Shaft Fatigue Failures Shaft Wear Shaft Distortion Hydrodynamic Bearings Operation of a Hydrodynamic Bearing Hydrodynamic Bearing Construction Hydrodynamic Bearing Failure Analysis Fatigue Failures Bearing Metal Wear Corrosion Effect of Hard Particles on Bearings Effect of Lubrication Effect of Temperature Effect of Overloads Assembly Deficiencies Electrical Discharge Damage Fabrication-related Failures Design-related Failures Antifriction Bearings Antifriction Bearing Lubrication Antifriction Bearing Design Life Contact Patterns on Bearing Races Antifriction Bearing Failure Analysis Types of Failure Mechanical Seals How a Mechanical Seal Works Seal Mechanical Design Seal Hydrodynamic Design PV 117 119 121 123 124 125 126 128 128 129 129 132 132 134 134 136 136 136 138 140 143 144 145 147 148 151 173 174 176 179 179

10 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 11 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 11.8 11.9 11.10 11.11 11.12 11.13 11.14 12 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 13 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4

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Contents

13.5 13.6 13.7 13.8 13.9 13.10 13.11 13.12 14 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 15 15.1 15.2 15.3 16 16.1 16.2 17 17.1 17.2 18 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 19 19.1 19.2

Sealing System Mechanical Seal Failure Analysis Face Contact Patterns Failure Mechanisms and Causes Corrosion of Seal Components Mechanical Damage Thermal Damage Design and Manufacturing Defects Bolts How a Bolt Works Application of the Preload Reusing Bolts Bolt Failure Gears Gear Tooth Contact and Lubrication Loads Acting on the Gear Teeth Gear Failure Reciprocating Compressor Valves How a Compressor Valve Works Valve Failure Belt Transmissions V Belts Synchronized Belts Couplings Disc Coupling Couplings Grid Couplings Gear Couplings Coupling Standardization Turbomachinery Blades How a Turbomachinery Blade Works Blade Failure Analysis

182 184 185 186 186 190 201 203 205 206 206 208 208 215 215 219 219 229 230 231 237 238 240 243 244 246 247 251 253 253 254

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PART IV

Case Studies
Failure Analysis Examples 271 A Pump Failure Caused by Turbine Driver Overspeed 271 Hydrogen Compressor Seal Failure 279 Vibration-induced Fatigue Failures of Identical Reciprocating Compressors 282 A Gearbox Failure from the Electrical Discharge Damage of a Bearing 288 Bibliography Index 293 295

20 20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4

Preface

Process industries are home to a huge number of machines, most of them critical to the industrys mission. Failures of these machines can result in consequences that range from the simple replacement of a cheap bearing to an accident that may cost millions in lost production or cause injuries or pollution. Competition forces corporations to try to keep pace in optimization. On the machinery side of the history, this means improving efficiency and reliability and reducing maintenance cost. Design and purchase specifications, shop testing, installation, maintenance, and operation all play a role in these efforts. The objective of this book is to help anyone involved with machinery reliability, be it in the design of new plants or the maintenance and operation of existing ones, to understand why the process machine fails, so some preventive measures can be taken to avoid another failure of the same kind. The book is divided in four parts: 1. An introduction that discusses the fundamental causes of failures, including some definitions and examples. Here, we examine the failure analysis procedure, including some approaches suitable for different types of problems. We also look at how plantwide failure prevention efforts should be conducted, including a discussion about the importance of the role of the plant operator in the reliability of the machinery.

xi

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Preface

2. A discussion of the failure mechanisms that affect process machinery most often, such as fractures and wear. 3. An examination of how the actual machine parts fail, with several examples of bearings, seals, and other components failures. 4. Examples of real machinery failures analyzed by the author. I offer no warranty regarding the applicability of the information contained in this book to any particular situation. This English edition has been based on the second Portuguese edition, published in Brazil in 2006.