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CS6 Cooling Tower Fan Balance Correction

Overall vibration data collected from the fan motors of a 4 cell cooling tower had, for some time, exhibited erratic levels particularly in the axial direction, (up to 7 mm/s rms at the fan rotational frequency). It was also noticed that the cooling tower itself was swaying in a east/west direction. Vibration data collected from the fan stack also indicated the fan rotational component to be dominant. The vibration increased or decreased depending which fans were in service at any one time. Because the four fans are of the same design and speed, then vibration generated from one machine could be transferred to one or all the others to some degree, the amount of transferred vibration would depend on several factors, for example each units structural stiffness, transmissibility, distance between units.

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