ENG432 Dynamics of Engineering Systems

P3: Machine condition monitoring

1. Overview

The CDU bearing test rigs has bearings with induced faults. In this practical assignment you have to
obtain bearing data, accelerometer data and information on the shaft speed. After that your task is to
determine what the faults are for each bearing.

2. Procedure
 Site visit to CDU facilities;
 Obtain data from the experiment (group work): shaft speed, bearing acceleration, bearing
data, accelerometer data;
 Load the experimental data in to MATLAB;
 Using MATLAB plot the accelerometer data for two bearings in the time domain;
 Using MATLAB, conduct an order analysis on the accelerometer data for bearing # 1;
 For bearing # 1, plot the magnitude of the order analysis on the same figure as a series of
crosses (“x” / “+”) corresponding to the BPFI and BPFO harmonics*;
 Repeat steps 3 and 4 for bearing # 2;
 Determine which fault each bearing has.

3. Reporting
1. Submit your MATALB file (don’t forget data file!) with explanations to the report.
2. Instead of full report, for this practical, provide short answers for following questions (Submit
to Learnline in .pdf format with MATLAB and data file and put references where appropriate):
 Describe the testing facility you visited. Describe one method of monitoring (principle,
sensor, application) that is used there?
 Did you notice any vibration isolators in the facility? What about springs? Suspension
systems?
 What methods can be used for vehicle suspension testing (this is something for students
to find from literature after the visit)?
 Explain how every element of the data acquisition system works.
 When is it valid to have NFFT (Transform length) > number of samples?
 What does a higher value of NFFT do?
 What would taking more samples do?
 Why would you want a shorter sample time?
 Suggest reasons why an inner race fault may be harder to detect than an outer race
fault.

* read about bearing tones at: http://www.dliengineering.com/vibman/gloss_bearingtones1.htm

bearing frequencies: http://www.ntnamericas.com/en/brochures-and-literature/tech-sheets-and-supplements

ENG432 – P3 – 2019