Applications of Artificial Neural Networks ( ANNs ) to Rotating Equipment

Rotating equipment is the beating heart of nearly all industrial plants and specifically plays a vital role in oil and power industries. In spite of all research which has been carried out so far to discover accurate dynamics of this kind of equipment, there are still many unknown and unexpected problems on operational sites which need to be solved in order to approach to the optimal operational point of rotary machines. Fortunately, Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) can provide appropriate solutions to many of these problems. In this paper, a general overview of different applications of ANNs to Industrial rotating equipment is presented. These applications cover a variety of areas including condition monitoring, sensor validation, fault diagnosis, system identification and control. The advantages of using ANNs for each application are discussed briefly by providing practical examples.