Using Cell Phone Videos to Diagnose Machinery Faults

Nearly everyone carries a cell phone in their pocket, including field technicians, engineers, and plant managers. Extracting vibration signals from a cell phone or tablet video offers a low-cost alternative to traditional methods for monitoring the health of plant operating equipment. In this chapter, two case studies are presented where vibration signals are extracted from cell phone videos and used to diagnose machinery faults. It is shown how time-based or frequency-based operating deflection shapes (ODSs) of a machine or structure can be used to visualize and analyze machine faults. In each case study, diagnosis of a real-world machine fault is presented. In the second case study, the video results are compared with accelerometer results to confirm the validity of this new non-contacting measurement method.