Rod Drop

Rod Drop

Reciprocating
Compressors
Condition Monitoring & Diagnostics

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

Rod Drop monitors are used to detect excessive wear of the pistons consumable rider
bands (also known as wear bands). With this information, we can plan to shut down
the machine for a relatively inexpensive routine rider band replacement job avoiding
the expensive repairs that would be required if metal-to-metal contact were allowed to
occur between the piston and the cylinder liner.

Traditional rod drop monitors simply triggered an alarm when the vertical position of
the piston rod exceeded a setpoint corresponding to significant rider band wear.
Newer methods, such as Rod Position monitoring, measure the dynamic position of the
rod throughout its entire stroke. Typically, these methods use an orthogonal
(perpendicular) pair of eddy current proximity probes as well as high speed data
acquisition and processing (up to 720 samples per crankshaft revolution).

Some other variations on the Rod Position measurement are known as Rod Deflection,
Rod Motion, and Rod Runout. Rod Position monitoring will be introduced in the module
that follows this one.

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 Rod Drop

Presentation Contents

Fundamentals
Instrument Settings
Determining Trigger Angle
Probe Calibration

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

Fundamentals Effective monitoring of rider band wear can allow us to proactively

that appropriate maintenance actions in a timely manner.

Monitor Settings Rod drop monitoring can only be effective when instrumentation
settings are appropriate.

Determining Trigger Angle It is important to establish an appropriate crank angle

value for collection of instantaneous rod position measurements, if this type of signal
processing will be used.

Probe Calibration For accurate measurements of piston rod displacement, it is

important to calibrate the proximity transducer for the actual conditions under which
it will be applied.

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 Rod Drop

Fundamentals

Over time, soft rider bands wear

away especially in non-lubricated
cylinders.

If the excessive wear is not

detected early enough, the piston
can contact the cylinder liner,
causing expensive damage. Piston

Ring
Rider Band

Cylinder Liner

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

Both the rider bands and the piston rings contact the cylinder liner. However, the rider
bands are designed to carry the full weight of the piston while the piston rings are
designed only to provide sealing between the piston and bore. The piston rings and
their mounting grooves are purposely designed with clearance to allow the rings to
float, without carrying any of the vertical load of the pistons weight. The rider bands
are intentionally designed to seat fully within their mounting grooves, so that they can
support the pistons weight.

Historically, rider bands were made from soft metals such as babbitt. In modern
designs, most rider bands are fabricated from plastics or composite materials
especially for non-lubricated cylinder designs. Rider bands can be one-piece design
(required by API-618) which are installed while segmented pistons are disassembled
or split design with step-cut or butt-cut ends.

Rider bands are designed to slowly wear away over time. In good operating conditions,
the rate of wear can be very low especially in lubricated-cylinder applications.
However, adverse conditions such as improper cylinder lubrication, component
misalignment, or excessive particulates or moisture in the process gas can increase the
wear rate.

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 Rod Drop

Piston Damage
Fundamentals

Scuffing
Scuffing Wear
Wear

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

This photo shows what can happen to a piston when excessive rider band wear is not
detected in time. The scuff marks on the piston often correspond to matching gouges
in the cylinder liner. Due to material differences between the piston and the cylinder
liner (example: aluminum piston and steel liner) it is quite likely that the cylinder will not
be damaged as extensively as the piston.

Note: Some compressor designs incorporate replaceable cylinder liners, while others
use special treatments, such as nitriding to create cylinder surfaces that are
extremely resistant to erosion wear.

For visual reference this piston has been removed from its cylinder, rotated so that it
is upside-down and placed on a soft mat on the deck grating. The rigging chainfall
and hook that were used for lifting the piston and rod assembly are still visible in the
photo. The piston rings have been removed, but the one-piece rider bands are still in
place, awaiting disassembly of the segmented piston. Observe that the rider bands
appear to have been burnished down to the point where they are completely flush with
the outer surface of the piston.

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 Rod Drop

Contact Sensors (Historic)

Fundamentals

Contact sensors are installed as close

to the piston as possible (typically on
the pressure packing gland). They are
mounted below the piston rod and
are activated ONLY when the rod
Fuse Metal Plug Roller Switch
contacts them with adequate force.
(pressurized chamber) (electrical contact)

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

Historical methods used physical contact between the piston rod and a sensor placed
beneath it to indicate that the rod had dropped to the operational limits of the rider
bands. These sensors include roller-equipped limit switches and pressurized chambers
sealed with fuse metal plugs that melt due to frictional contact, causing a measurable
pressure drop in the detector. Contact sensors are simple and inexpensive, but they
only provide a one-shot signal with no warning. They do not allow for any trending to
be done over time.

A more effective monitoring method uses a non-contacting eddy current proximity

detector to take continuous measurements. This allows us to watch the rod drop
values closely as the rider bands wear, and to better anticipate and plan for
maintenance outages to replace the bands before metal-to-metal contact occurs. (see
next page)

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 Rod Drop

Eddy Current Sensors (Modern)

Fundamentals

(above or below rod)

Eddy current sensors are also installed

as close to the piston as possible
Bently Nevada, LLC (typically on the pressure packing
gland). They can be mounted either
above or below the piston rod, and can
take measurements at ANY time.
Eddy Current
Proximity Probe

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

Since eddy current displacement probes do not contact the surface being measured,
they may be installed either above or below the piston rod, as appropriate for the
specific compressor design and component layout.

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 Rod Drop

Rod Drop Trend Example

Fundamentals

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

This plot shows an actual rod drop trend that was collected for a hydrogen compressor
in refinery service. The monitor in this example was programmed to collect
instantaneous values at an appropriate value of crank angle (known as trigger angle)
that was determined for this specific installation.

Trending a measured parameter in this way enables long-term outage planning for a
proactive maintenance program. In this cylinder, the rider bands eroded at a steady
rate, losing approximately 50 mil (1270 microns) of material over a seven month period.

Note: Trigger angle is discussed further in subsequent pages of this module.

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 Rod Drop

Measurement Geometry
Fundamentals

PROBE POSITION PISTON

MIDPOINT
Per the similar triangles
relationship,
L1 (L1 + L 2)
=
B1 B2
PROBE
VIEW
CL
PLANE
We know L1 & L2, so B2
can be calculated from L1 L2 NEW
measured value of B1: B1 ACTUAL RIDER
B2

B2 =
(L1 + L2) B1 BAND WEAR

WORN
L1 PISTON ROD LENGTH

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

Due to the cramped conditions inside the cylinder, it is difficult to install a sensor to
measure the piston-to-bore clearance directly. For this reason, we normally measure
vertical rod position at the face of the pressure packing case, and indirectly infer the
piston position. Simple geometry is used to calculate the base (B2) of the large right
triangle with known dimensions L1 and L2, assuming that it is similar to the smaller
right triangle with known dimensions, B1 and L1.

The L1 and L2 dimensions need to be measured accurately, and entered into the
monitoring system. The monitor will use these values along with the measured value of
B1 to calculate B2 for each stroke of the piston. This example shows the probe located
above the piston rod looking downwards, although depending on the specific
installation, it may be more convenient to mount it below the rod looking upwards.
Either location may be used.

There are several factors that can add error to our rod drop monitoring. We depend on
four basic assumptions (listed on the following slide) to perform rod drop measurement.

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 Rod Drop

Assumptions
Fundamentals

1. The distance measurement made at the pressure packing

case changes in direct proportion to the change in rider band
wear (assumes the similar triangles relationship is valid).

2. Gravity is the predominant vertical force acting on the piston

and rod assembly.

3. Rod flex is negligible compared to the amount of rider band

wear being measured.

4. Operating temperature of the piston is relatively constant.

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

1. Other factors besides rider band wear can cause the piston rod to drop. For
instance, wear of the crosshead shoes or pin bushing can introduce additional
clearance at the crosshead end of our assumed similar triangles.

2. The piston may not stay on the bottom of the cylinder during the entire stroke. This
situation is more likely with relatively small diameter, pistons used in high-pressure
cylinders that have many stages of pressure packing.

3. Rod flex may be significant, and it may occur in the horizontal direction as well as in
the vertical direction.

4. The piston may expand and contract as operating temperature varies due to startup,
load changes, or other factors such as unexpected transients occurring to the
cylinder cooling system, upstream gas process, or interstage coolers.

Note: Rod Position monitoring is less susceptible to these errors than Rod Drop
monitoring. It is introduced in the module that follows this one.

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 Rod Drop

Ideal Piston Rod Behavior

Fundamentals

This animation illustrates an

idealized rod drop monitoring
situation.

The rod drop measurement varies

as a gentle sine wave shape over
an entire revolution of the
crankshaft.

Rod-Drop-Ideal.gif

10

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

This animation shows the simulated displacement signal from a proximity probe that is
mounted vertically beneath the piston rod on a perfect machine. Depending on the
specific compressor, it is just as valid (and sometimes preferable) to install the probe
above the rod, looking vertically downward.

Trigger angle is a simply a specified single value of crank angle at which the rod drop
monitor can be programmed to collect an instantaneous measurement of rod
displacement. This animation displays the crank angle numerically as it changes from
0 to 360 degrees through each stroke of the piston.

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 Rod Drop

Actual Piston Rod Behavior

Fundamentals

The animation shows rod position

test data collected from a highly-
instrumented compressor.

Probe pair at piston rod packing gland

3 probe pairs installed for testing

(animation)

11

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

The linked animation shows the motion of an actual piston rod by displaying data that
was collected from a real machine as part of a research project. Proximity probe pairs
were installed at the scraper packing case, the intermediate wiper packing case, and
the pressure packing case, so that the lateral rod displacement could be measured in
two dimensions at three different locations. Note: This much instrumentation is not
typical!

The scale on the left side of the animated displacement plot has a scale of 2 mils of
displacement per division. The top pane of the animation is the view looking down on
the compressor, and shows that there is significant side-to-side motion of the piston
rod. The bottom pane is the view looking at the side of the machine, and shows the
vertical movement of the rod. The animation shows significant side-to-side movement
as well as vertical movement. Maximum displacement is roughly 80 mils peak to peak
(40 divisions on the scale).

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 Rod Drop

Instrument Settings

Installation dimensions (L1 & L2)

Once-per turn reference signal PROBE POSITION PISTON
MIDPOINT

Trigger angle (if collecting one

instantaneous sample per
crankshaft rotation)
PROBE

Transducer scale factor VIEW

PLANE
CL

L1 L2 NEW

B1 ACTUAL RIDER
B2
BAND WEAR

WORN
PISTON ROD LENGTH

Compressor Monitoring
Instruments
12

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

(1) The monitor needs accurate values for L1 and L2 to calculate B2 from measured
values of B1.

(2) The monitor also needs to know when each cycle of crankshaft rotation occurs, so
that it can properly synchronize its data collection. This requires the use of a once-
per-turn reference signal (shown on following slide).

(3) For each stroke of the piston, the Rod Drop monitor can be programmed to provide
either a calculated Average value, or an instantaneous value that is collected at a
specified trigger angle. If an appropriate trigger angle can be determined, the
instantaneous values often provide more useful trending data than the average
values (described in subsequent slides).

(4) Finally, it is important that the proximity probe is calibrated for the actual piston rod
that it will be measuring. Standard scale factor is 200 mv/mil, but several factors
may cause the as-installed scale factor to be different. Factors include composition
of the piston rod alloy, surface treatments, coatings, or contamination, and the
roundness of the cylindrical rod itself (described in subsequent slides).

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 Rod Drop

Required Measurements
Instrument Settings

13

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

This slide shows the values that the monitor needs to have to calculate accurate Rod
Drop data. These values include the physical dimensions of connecting rod length,
piston rod length, stroke length, and probe position. The monitor will also need to be
programmed with the piston angle for this throw.

Recall from the Crank Angle module that Piston Angle is simply the number of degrees
of crankshaft rotation from the time the once-per-turn event is triggered to the time
that the throw of interest reaches TDC. In the example shown here, the piston angle is
approximately 40 degrees.

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 Rod Drop

Signal Processing
Instrument Settings

Average Value Instantaneous Value

Monitor processes the proximity Monitor collects a single sample at

transducer signal to create a single
average value over a complete
stroke (one full crankshaft rotation).
Does not require crank angle
reference signal.
May be adequate for general
trending of rod drop values.
a specified value of crank angle
(trigger angle) for each stroke.
Requires once per turn crank angle
reference signal.
May provide more accurate
trending for a compressor with
changing load conditions.

14

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

Average Value This measurement has existed since the early days of analog eddy
current monitoring instruments. It requires only very simple processing to filter the
voltage signal from the proximity transducer to produce an average value. One small
advantage of this method is that it does not require a once per turn reference signal.
However, as we have seen in the Cylinder Pressure and Cylinder Performance modules,
it is vital to have an accurate crank angle measurement to evaluate the dynamic
pressure signal with respect to displaced volume. The average rod drop value may be
adequate for general trending, but significant errors can sometimes be introduced
when a compressor operates at a variety of different loading conditions.

Instantaneous Value This measurement is collected only once during each stroke
at a specified value of crank angle, known as the trigger angle. It is not averaged or
filtered. If the trigger angle is selected carefully, this measurement may provide more
accurate trending for a compressor with changing operating conditions. The next four
pages describe some of the details that should be considered when selecting an
appropriate trigger angle.

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 Rod Drop

Determining Trigger Angle

Selection Guidelines
Select a value of crank angle where the piston rod is in tension.
Select a value of crank angle where the piston rod
displacement is consistent at different compressor loads.

Note: The default monitor setting for Trigger Angle

may not be appropriate for your application.

15

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

Selecting a trigger angle that occurs while the piston rod is under tension may reduce
errors introduced by flexing of the rod. However, this might not always be true (Recall
the research data that was shown with the animation on Page 11 Actual Piston Rod
Behavior).

Selecting a trigger angle that corresponds to a relatively constant value of rod drop
over a variety of load conditions will usually reduce the errors that may be introduced
by changing compressor capacity.

Rod drop monitoring instruments may include default trigger angle settings. For
example, Bently Nevada rod drop monitors have traditionally used 240 degrees as a
default setting, based on research performed by a North American compressor
manufacturer. These default values provide a starting point for trigger angle selection,
but they should not be accepted as-is without validation.

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 Rod Drop

Rod Load vs. Crank Angle

Determining Trigger Angle

40 120 240 40 120 240

tension
tension

compression
compression

Full Load Conditions Part Load Conditions

The piston rod is under compression at the default trigger angle setting (240).
However, it is under tension for both full & part loads between 40 and 120.
16

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

For the compressor in this example, pressure monitoring instrumentation and

diagnostic software was already in place. This allows us to determine values of crank
angle where the combined load is positive (tension) on the piston rod. For this
particular machine, the default trigger angle setting is not the best place to start, as the
piston rod is under compression at 240 degrees at both full load and part load
conditions. For Full Load conditions, the piston rod is under tension between
approximately 40 degrees and 196 degrees of crank angle. For Part Load conditions,
the rod is under tension from 0 to about 120 degrees, and again from roughly 296 to
360 degrees. There is an overlapping crank angle range, between about 40 and 120
degrees, where the piston rod is in tension for both Full Load and Part Load conditions.
This is a good place to start looking at actual rod displacement to select a trigger angle
that will work satisfactorily at all compressor loads.

Note: If the compressor being evaluated does not already have permanent pressure
monitoring installed, it may be possible to install temporary sensors to perform a rod
load evaluation. Otherwise, it may be necessary to use calculated data from the
manufacturer, or operating experience from similar machines to select a crank angle
range where the piston is most likely under tension.

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 Rod Drop

Rod Displacement vs. Crank Angle

Determining Trigger Angle

40 120 40 120
60 60

tension
tension tension
tension

Full Load Conditions Part Load Conditions

Piston rod displacement is ~46 mil for both Full & Part loads at 60 crank angle.

17

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

On the previous slide, we observed that the piston rod is under tension at both Full Load
and Part Load conditions between a crank angle of roughly 40 to 120 degrees. Within
this range, our goal is to find a crank angle value where the piston rod displacement is
fairly consistent no matter what load the compressor is experiencing. This will allow us
to establish setpoints for alarms that are not activated spuriously every time the
compressor is running at part load conditions.

For this particular machine, the piston rod displacement is about 46 mils at 60 degrees
crank angle for both Full Load and Part Load conditions. So 60 degrees would probably
be a more effective Trigger Angle than the default value.

Note: In real-life it may be more typical that we would be using portable test
instruments to perform such an evaluation as part of an initial installation. The
following slide includes an example of the type of information that might be available in
such a situation.

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 Rod Drop

Rod Displacement (Oscilloscope)

Determining Trigger Angle

360 360 360 360

Full Load Conditions Part Load Conditions

18

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

The purpose of this page is simply to emphasize that, although the concepts involved in
selecting a good trigger angle are simple, the process itself is often not as
straightforward. Portable test instruments, such as this digital oscilloscope, are VERY
flexible, and their settings must be understood very clearly in order to make meaningful
comparisons between rod position waveforms collected at different times and
operating conditions.

These two oscilloscope traces each show piston rod displacement values, as read in
voltage levels, from eddy current proximity transducers. In the timebase display mode
that was selected, each trace shows data for just over two and a half complete
revolutions of the crankshaft. Observe that the waveform pattern repeats fairly
consistently at each of the blue vertical lines.

When evaluating rod displacement values at different load conditions, it is especially

important to ensure that the oscilloscope is selected to the DC-coupled mode, so that
the voltage (and therefore displacement) readings can be evaluated on a consistent
scale.

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 Rod Drop

Probe Calibration

Verify probe calibration to the actual piston rod surface to

reduce errors caused by the following factors:

Specific composition of the piston rod alloy

Surface treatments, coatings, or contamination
Roundness of the cylindrical piston rod surface

19

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

If the piston rod material is different from the material that was used for the factory
calibration of the proximity transducer, the scale factor will be incorrect. This will result
in inaccurate distance measurements. Even very thin wear-resistant plating and
surface treatments can change the electrical properties of the piston rod enough to
affect the scale factor of the displacement transducer.

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 Rod Drop

Piston Rod Material Effects

Probe Calibration

24

22

Transducer Output Signal (VDC)

20

18

16

14

12

10

8
4140 Steel
6 Tungsten
4 Aluminum
Copper
2

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140

Actual Probe Gap (mils)

20

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

This example shows how a probe calibration curve can be affected by different
material properties of the target surface that is being viewed by a proximity
transducer. The slope of this curve is called the Scale Factor. In this example, the Scale
Factor for 4140 steel is approximately 200 mV per mil of displacement:

Scale Factor = (output voltage range) / (displacement range)

= 20 V / 100 mil = 0.200 V / mil, or 200 mV per mil.

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 Rod Drop

Micrometer Kit
Probe Calibration

Micrometer kit accommodates

creating a probe calibration
curve for the actual piston rod.

Bently Nevada, LLC

21

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

The shaft micrometer kit has a V-shaped saddle machined into its base, so that it will
remain secure while it is temporarily strapped to any cylindrical shaft. The micrometer
moves the probe closer or farther away from the shaft surface, in a very precise
manner.

Plotting the voltage of the transducer output signal vs. the physical distance of the
probe tip from the surface results in a probe curve, with Scale Factor indicated by the
slope of the curve (as shown on the previous page). This scale factor value must be
programmed into the Rod Drop monitor so that it can accurately convert the proximity
transducer signal into a distance measurement.

Note: The need for accurate probe calibration also holds true for the Rod Position
monitor, as we will see in the module that follows this one.

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 Rod Drop

Practice Exercises
Rod Drop

Fundamentals
Instrument Settings
Determining Trigger Angle
Probe Calibration

22

2007 General Electric Company. All rights reserved.

Practice exercises for each module may be used for self-study or for instructor-led
group review sessions.

For Further Reading: General Electric public reference document, GER-4274, Is Rod
Drop the Right Measurement for My Reciprocating Compressor?

Rev 0. November, 2007 22