Vibration measurement is complex because of its many components: displacement, velocity, acceleration, and frequencies. Vibration measurement is an effective, non-intrusive method to monitor machine condition during start-ups, shutdowns and normal operation. Regular vibration monitoring can detect in a power plant shaft lines, deteriorations and defects of a number of various structural mechanical conditions, for example cracks, bearing faults, coupling damage, imbalance as well as interruptions in the electric grid.

Belt conveyors are an integrated transmission and carrying mechanism with length sometimes extending several thousand meters. In traditional design and analysis of belt conveyors, vibration and impact are usually ignored and only static design is considered. However, to ensure the safety of conveyor operation for this restricted analysis, designers must increase the safety factor, which increases production costs. Many research groups have conducted dynamic analysis of large belt conveyors to reduce production cost and optimize conveyor performance. The conveyor belt was first modeled as an elastic body and then a viscoelastic body to incorporate viscoelastic characteristics of belt cover layer.