Vibration monitoring of a large rotor utilizing internet of things based on-shaft MEMS accelerometer with inverse encoder

Typically, accelerometer-based vibration measurements of rotating machinery are conducted with sensors mounted to a static part of the machine. Now, with increasing accuracy of compact and low powered microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometers, on-shaft vibration measurements have become an interesting research topic. MEMS sensors are optimal for internet of things (IoT) applications and wireless measurements, which makes on-shaft measurements more convenient. However, typically in wireless applications, the sample clock is time-based, and thus the data is not bound to the phase of the rotating rotor. In this research, a novel wireless sensor unit with an inverse encoder is mounted to the end of a large rotor to investigate the dynamic behavior of the rotor. In addition, a method to separate the vertical and horizontal vibration from the sensor data is studied.