3.

5 Shaft Failure

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 Shaft Failure
 Shafts are cylindrical or rod-like mechanical components
that serve as vital connectors, transmitting rotational
motion and power within machines and systems.
 They are fundamental components in engines, motors,
pumps, conveyors, and countless other mechanical
applications.
 shafts facilitate the connection and rotation of other
components, such as gears, pulleys, or couplings.
 To minimize friction and ensure smooth rotation, shafts are
often supported by bearings, bushings, or other types of
mechanical supports.
➢ This helps to reduce wear and tear, maintain stability,
and facilitate efficient power transmission within the
system
❖Shafts function in a wide ranging operation conditions like
- corrosive environments,
- high and low temperatures, and
- abrasive environments.
❖ Shafts are subjected to various types of loading conditions and
experience
- tension,
- compression,
- bending,
- torsion, or
- any combination of these
loading conditions.
➢ These loads can be

- stationary (static), or
- may vary with time (dynamic) introducing
fluctuation.
➢ In addition, shafts are subjected to vibratory stress
conditions.
➢ In addition to the service conditions, these load conditions
are sources of shaft failures.
➢ The basic causes of shaft failures are

wear, fatigue and misalignment.

 a. Shaft failures due to wear
Wear is a common cause of shaft failures.

➢ The wear process takes place by abrasive wear mechanism which

is followed by removal of material from the surface of the shaft.

➢ Abrasive wear normally occurs due to hard particles of sliding

along the surface.

➢ Presence of foreign particles such as sand, dirt, metallic

particles, wear debris in lubricant also results in abrasive wear.

➢ Abrasive wear reduces shaft size and destroys shape of the

shaft and causes shaft failure.

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 b. Fatigue failure
- One of the more common causes of shaft failure is
fatigue.
- Fatigue failures commonly initiate at stress raisers.
- The mechanism of fatigue requires the simultaneous
presence of three things:
- there must be cyclic stresses on the shaft;
- these stresses must be tensile in nature; and
- there must be plastic strain.
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Cont.….
o The process of fatigue is considered to consist of three
stages:
✓ initial fatigue damage involving plastic strains leading to
crack initiation;
✓ crack propagation that continues to grow across the part
until the remaining cross section of shaft becomes too
weak to carry the imposed loads; and
✓ final and sudden fracture of the remaining cross section ,
due to overload.
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- Fatigue failure is an insidious because the stresses at

which crack initiates and propagation take place are much

lower than the nominal yield strength of the shaft
material.

- These stresses occur at stress raisers where the crack

initiates.

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cont.…
▪ Some typical shaft features that act as stress raisers are:

- corners, fillets, notches, etc.,

- key-ways, grooves, splines, etc.,

- press- or shrink-fits,

- welding defects,

- metallurgical defects introduced by metal working

such as forging, machining, heat treatment, etc.

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- Other service-related factors that are very important factors in

fatigue initiation are damages caused by corrosion and wear.

These problems cause reduction in the cross section

and/or change of shape and local areas may be created which
act as stress raisers.

- Another service-related problem that results in fatigue

crack is fretting where contact occurs between journal and
bearing.

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 cont.….

➢ Fretting is a minute oscillatory tangential relative motion

commonly known as slip.

➢ Fretted surfaces show shallow pits filled with debris.

➢ Escape of debris eventually results in loss of fit which

aggravates the fretting process.

➢ debris trapped may cause seizure of motion.

➢ Fretting initiates fatigue cracks over the fretted area and

reduces fatigue strength appreciably.

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 c. Shaft failures due to Misalignment.
- Misalignment can be introduced due to the following
problems:
- mismatching of mating parts,
- original assembly error of equipment,
- maintenance- induced alignment problems,
- deflection or deformation of supporting components,
- deflection or deformation of the shaft itself.

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Cont.…

- Misalignment imposes unexpected bending moments on

journals which are responsible for increasing cyclic stresses
necessary for fatigue crack initiation.

- Misalignment also induces vibratory motion which is a

typical cause for development of cyclic stresses.

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 d. Other shaft failures
➢ Other shaft failures which need attention from assembly,
operation and/or maintenance points of view are the
following.
- Accidental overload
- Corrosion due to working environment
- Creep stress rapture
- Brittle fracture
- Bearing failures
- Metallurgical and manufacturing defects
- Fits and tolerances between shaft and hub
- Hydrogen embrittlement
- Excessive belt tension, overload.

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 Remedies of shaft failures
- Basic shaft failures can be prevented by identifying the

cause that are responsible for the failure and eliminating

the conditions that create these causes.

- Some of the remedies for preventing shaft failures are the

following.
➢ Wear of shafts can be reduced/prevented by using proper lubrication

in which the lubricant acts as a wear deterrent and also as a cleaning

agent.

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Cont.…
 Misalignment can be eliminated by proper assembly
procedures.
 Fatigue can be reduced by proper design of local areas

known as stress raisers; i.e

o by streamlining the part at the change of cross
section.
o Avoiding sharp surfaces during machining as much
as possible eliminates the formation of stress raisers.
o Use of proper fits and tolerances reduces fretting
16 problems and misalignment, (wear and fatigue).
 Importance of Shaft Alignment
a. What exactly is shaft alignment?
- In very broad terms, shaft misalignment occurs when the center-
lines of rotation of two (or more) machinery shafts are not in line
with each other.

- Shaft misalignment is the deviation of relative shaft position

from a collinear axis of rotation measured at the points of
power transmission when equipment is running at normal
operating conditions.

- The deviation of relative shaft position accounts for the

measured difference between the actual centerline of
rotation of one shaft and the projected centerline of
rotation of the other shaft.
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Since misalignment is measured in two different planes
(vertical and horizontal) there will be four deviations that
occur at each coupling:

- horizontal and vertical deviation at the point of power

transmission on the motor shaft
- a horizontal and a vertical deviation at the point of power
transmission of the driven shaft.

The goal of the person doing the alignment is to position the

machinery casings such that all of these deviations are
below certain tolerance values.

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 b. What is the objective of accurate alignment?
➢ the objective of shaft alignment is to increase the
operating lifespan of rotating machinery.
➢ To achieve this goal, machinery components that are most likely to

fail must operate within their design limits.

➢ Since the components that are most likely to fail are bearings, seals,

coupling, and shafts, accurately aligned machinery will achieve the

following results
✓ Reduce excessive axial and radial forces on the bearings to insure longer
bearing life and rotor stability under dynamic operating conditions.

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cont….
✓ Minimize the amount of shaft bending from the point of power

transmission in the coupling to the coupling end bearing.

✓ Minimize the amount of wear in the coupling components.

✓ Reduce mechanical seal failure.

✓ Maintain proper internal rotor clearances.

✓ Eliminate the possibility of shaft failure from cyclic fatigue.

✓ Lower vibration levels in machine casings, bearing housings,

and rotors

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 c. What are the symptoms of misalignment?

➢ Misalignment is not easy to detect on machinery that is

running.

➢ The radial forces transmitted from shaft to shaft are

typically static forces (i.e. unidirectional) and are difficult

to measure externally.

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 Cont…
➢ the secondary effects of these forces will exhibit many of the
following symptoms...
✓ Premature bearing, seal, shaft, or coupling failures.

✓ Excessive radial and axial vibration.

✓ It appears that the vibration is caused by the mechanical action

that occurs in the coupling as it rotates.
✓ High casing temperatures at or near the bearings or high
discharge oil temperatures.
✓ Excessive amount of oil leakage at the bearing seals.
✓ Loose foundation bolts.
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✓ Loose or broken coupling bolts.
 d. How often should alignment be checked?

✓ Rotating machinery can move around immediately after it

has been started.

✓ This is fairly rapid movement and the shafts eventually

take a somewhat permanent position after the thermal

and process conditions have stabilized

However there are slower, more subtle changes that occur

over longer periods of time.

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 Cont.….
✓ It is recommended that newly installed equipment be

checked for any alignment changes anywhere from 3

to 6 months after operation has begun.

✓ Based on what you find during the first or second

alignment 'checkup', tailor your alignment surveys to

best suit the individual drive trains.

✓ On the average, shaft alignment on all equipment

should be checked on an annual basis.

3.6 Seal Damage
Mechanical seals :- are leakage control devices, which are
found on rotating and stationary equipment such as
pumps, mixers, compressor and others to prevent the
leakage of liquids and gases from escaping.

 Centrifugal pump
 Basic seal types and their characteristics
 i) Dynamic seals
Sealing takes place
between surfaces
in sliding contact or
narrowly separated
surfaces.
 ii) Static seals
Sealing takes place
between surfaces
which do not move
relative to each other.
iii) Pseudo-static seals
➢ Limited relative motion
is possible at the sealing
surfaces, or the seal
itself allows limited
motion; e.g. swivel
couplings for pipes,
flexible diaphragm.
iv) Exclusion seals
➢ Devices to restrict
access of dirt, etc., to a
system, often used in
conjunction with
dynamic seals.
 The common types of damages of mechanical seals are

wear, through erosion and cavitation,

 It is important to regularly inspect and maintain mechanical

seals to minimize the risk of damage.

 Proper installation, monitoring operating conditions, and

following recommended maintenance practices can help

extend the lifespan and performance of mechanical seals.
 Characteristics of dynamic seals

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Types of seals
a. Clearance seals

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 b. Contact seals

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 Seal damages

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 Damages of O-rings, rectangular rings, U-rings

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 Lip seal damages

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Thank you!
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