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Electrical Monitoring of Mechanical Looseness for Induction Motors with

Sleeve Bearings

Article  in  IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion · December 2016

DOI: 10.1109/TEC.2016.2583473

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 1

Electrical Monitoring of Mechanical Looseness for

Induction Motors with Sleeve Bearings
J. Jung, Student Member, IEEE, S. B. Lee, Senior Member, IEEE, C. Lim, C. Cho, K. Kim

 is no mechanical contact between the shaft and bearing, sleeve

Abstract—Mechanical looseness in induction motors is a bearings are known to be more reliable compared to rolling
common problem caused by loose bolts, structural damage, element bearings [2]-[4].
improper fit or increased clearance between components, and Although sleeve bearings are very reliable, a number of
results in increased vibration and wear. Detection of mechanical
degradation mechanisms leading to failure are reported in the
looseness in the sleeve bearing of industrial motors mainly relies
on vibration analysis. However, there are many motor literature [8]-[12]. Stable operation of sleeve bearings can be
applications in the field where vibration analysis cannot be disrupted due to any condition that results in deviation of the
applied due to cost, environmental, and/or sensitivity limitations. shaft from its stable operating condition. Mechanical
The feasibility of using existing voltage/current measurements instability due to looseness, unbalance, misalignment, or
available in the motor control center for remote, low cost excessive/cyclic loading can lead to increased vibration and
monitoring of mechanical looseness due to improper fit between
fatigue damage on the bearing babbitt surface. Irregular or
the bearing-housing and bearing-shaft, is evaluated in this paper.
It is shown through experimental testing on a custom built sleeve increased bearing clearance can also result from frequent
bearing test setup and on a 6.6 kV, 2250 hp motor that starts, contamination, oil starvation, pitting, or corrosion
monitoring of the 1/2 and 1/3 sub-synchronous components in the damage. An example of sleeve bearing babbitt and shaft
instantaneous power spectrum can serve as a reliable indicator of damage in a 6.6 kV, 3.4 MW motor is shown in Fig. 2.
mechanical looseness. Mechanical looseness in sleeve bearing motors is a
common problem that occurs due to loose bolts, structural
Index Terms—Bearings, Condition Monitoring, Fault
damage, improper fit or increased clearance between the
Diagnosis, Frequency Domain Analysis, Induction Motors,
Predictive Maintenance, Vibration Measurement. motor components [13]-[15]. Looseness results in increased
vibration, and causes wear and damage of the sleeve bearing
I. INTRODUCTION components. Vibration analysis based on proximity probe or
accelerometer measurements is the most common technology
S LEEVE bearings are oil-lubricated bearings where the
load of the shaft is supported by the pressure of the oil
lubrication to prevent contact between the shaft and bearing,
used in the field for detecting mechanical looseness problems
for preventing a potential forced outage [12]-[16]. Vibration
analysis has been applied in the field for a long period of time,
as shown in Fig. 1. The shaft forms a stable operating orbit
and monitoring of specific frequency components for
lifted from the bottom position by the oil pressure, where the
detecting mechanical looseness is well-defined and accepted.
shaft rotates with respect to its own center eccentric from the
However, installation of such mechanical sensors is costly and
bearing center [1]-[4]. Sleeve bearings are mainly used for
requires access to the motor. For the motors where proximity
motors rated above 500 kW where the shaft peripheral speed
probes are not installed at the manufacturing stage,
begins to exceed the design limits of rolling element bearings.
accelerometers are most commonly used for monitoring.
They are also used for special low voltage motor applications
Accelerometers are inherently not sensitive to low frequency
such as sealless canned pump motors and hermetic type sealed
vibrations, and could be insensitive for cases where there is
compressor motors, where the pumped fluid or refrigerant is
used as the lubrication [5]-[8]. The lubrication is continuously
supplied to minimize the friction between the bearing inner
surface (babbitt) and shaft, and to remove contaminants and
heat from the bearing. It also provides damping, which
increases the mechanical stability and reliability. Since there

This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program

through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (NRF-2013R1A1A2010370).
J. Jung, S. B. Lee, K. Kim are with Korea University, Seoul, 02841 Korea
(e-mail: junyeong.jung@eecs.korea.ac.kr, sangbinlee@korea.ac.kr, kwonh
kim@korea.ac.kr).
C. Lim is with SN Heavy Industry Company, Seosan, 31931 Korea (e-
mail: cwlim@snco.co.kr).
C. Cho is with Gyeonggi College of Science and Technology, Siheung,
15073 Korea (choch@gtec.ac.kr). Fig. 1. Structure of oil lubricated split sleeve bearing
 2

relative motion between the shaft and housing due to the low
rotor/stator weight ratio [4], [8], [12]-[13], [16]. Mechanical
looseness is also known to produce vibration that is highly
directional making the measurement dependent on the sensor
location and direction. Since portable accelerometer
measurements require physical access to the motor, they are
difficult to apply for cases where the motor is operating in a
hostile environment.
If mechanical looseness can be detected with electrical
monitoring, it can provide low cost, remote monitoring since
measurements can be obtained using existing sensors in the
motor control center. It is shown in [17]-[22] that single point
defects in rolling element bearings can be detected using (a)
electrical current measurements. In [23]-[25], electrical
monitoring of oil whirl and oil whip defects in sleeve bearings
is investigated. However, there is no prior attempt for
detecting mechanical looseness problems using electrical
measurements in the literature to the authors’ best knowledge.
In this paper, the feasibility of using electrical
measurements is investigated, for detection of mechanical
looseness in motors with sleeve bearings. Monitoring of the
1/2 and 1/3 sub-synchronous rotor speed components in the
power spectrum is proposed as a reliable indicator of
mechanical looseness caused by improper fit between the
bearing-housing and bearing-shaft. The proposed method is (b)
verified through experimental testing on a custom-built sleeve Fig. 2. Inspection of split sleeve bearing: shaft-bearing contact in 6.6 kV, 3.4
bearing test setup and on a 6.6 kV, 2250 hp motor. MW water pump induction motor; (a) bottom half of sleeve bearing and
shaft; (b) bearing babbitt (bottom half) surface damage

II. VIBRATION MONITORING OF MECHANICAL LOOSENESS
A. Mechanical Looseness in Sleeve Bearings
There are a number of root causes of mechanical looseness
in a rotating machine that can cause increased vibration.
According to [13], structural looseness/weakness (in the
machine feet, baseplate, or foundation), loose bolts, cracks in
the frame, or improper fit between component parts can cause
vibration and wear, which accelerates the degradation of
system performance and reliability. The work in this paper
focuses on the detection of looseness between the sleeve
bearings components. The most common causes of sleeve
bearing looseness are excessive clearance between the 1)
bearing inner surface and shaft, and 2) sleeve bearing outer
surface and bearing housing inner surface, shown in Fig. 1.
Increase in the bearing-shaft clearance can be caused by a
combination of mechanical, electrical, or chemical wear
mechanisms, or poor design/manufacturing [1], [3], [8]-[11],
[23]. The sleeve bearing babbitt material is made of soft tin or
lead alloy based material to absorb the contaminants for
protection of the higher cost shaft, and therefore, is vulnerable
to mechanical wear. Scoring due to contamination in the
lubrication, inadequate lubrication, corrosion, electrical pitting,
cavitation, etc can accelerate babbitt surface wear that can
increase the bearing-shaft clearance. In addition, wiping of
the bearing surface can be caused by mechanical instabilities
produced by misalignment, unbalanced/excessive loading, and
frequent starts/stops, and results in increase in the clearance.
The clearance between the bearing and housing is typically
maintained between 20 to 50 m for providing a margin for
the thermal expansion of the bearing, and for alignment of the
spherical bearing (Fig 1) [8],[12]. The sleeve bearing expands
outwards at increased temperature; however, would expand
inwards if the bearing-housing clearance is too small. This
reduces the bearing-shaft clearance, and leads to bearing-shaft
rub, which results in excessive heating and bearing failure.
The bearing-housing clearance also allows adjustment of the
self-aligning spherical sleeve bearings when they are aligned
and clamped into place during assembly. If the bearing-
housing clearance is excessive, high vibration levels can
accelerate mechanical wear. Therefore, the bearing-shaft and
bearing-housing clearances are measured whenever the motor
is disassembled to prevent damage due to under- or over-
clearance. The clearances are measured by placing calibrated
plastic or lead wires between the two components, and
measuring the crushed thickness with a micrometer [8], [12].
B. Vibration Analysis of Mechanical Looseness
If the fit is loose between the sleeve bearing components
due to large clearance, an excessive unbalance force is
produced by the machine rotating forces. The excessive
unbalance force may lift the shaft periodically, when it
exceeds other forces applied to the shaft such as load or
gravity. The periodical lifting causes the radial stiffness of the
bearing to become non-uniform over the journal orbit making
it non-symmetric [26]-[27]. This can cause intermittent

contact between the bearing sub-components resulting in
increased vibration at specific frequencies. The frequency
components in the vibration spectrum produced by mechanical
looseness or rub are well-defined in the vibration tables
published in the literature [13]-[15]. They are accepted in the
field with experience accumulated over a long period of time.
The rotor rotational speed frequency, fr, component in the
vibration spectrum is given by
f r  (1  s ) f s / p
for induction motors, where, fs, p, and s represent the source
frequency, number of pole pairs, and rotor slip, respectively.
Mechanical looseness or rub are known to produce integer
fraction sub-synchronous (1/2, 1/3, …) and integer multiples
of fr in the vibration spectrum given by
f ml  k f r / n, k f r (k  1,2,3..., n  2, 3, ...) .
The integer fraction, n, in (2) is determined by the
relationship between the rotor rotating speed and the natural
frequency of the system. According to the model presented in
[26], integer fraction subharmonic vibration is produced if the
rotor rotating speed is higher than twice the rotor damped
natural frequency. The value of n increases with the ratio
between the rotor speed and damped natural frequency.
Therefore, it is difficult to know which subharmonic will
appear with mechanical looseness. However, one can look for
the fr/2 or fr/3 component, since they are most commonly
observed amongst the integer fraction subsynchronous
vibration components. The vibration due to mechanical
looseness can be in the axial and/or radial direction depending
on what is causing the looseness, and the measurements
depend heavily on the location and direction of the sensors
[13]. There are a number mechanical faults that produce
integer multiples of fr in the vibration spectrum, such as
unbalance, misalignment, eccentricity, gear, or belt problems.
Therefore, the sub-harmonic components fr/2, fr/3, … can be
used to detect and classify mechanical looseness, since it is the
only known electrical or mechanical problem that produces
the integer fraction subharmonics other than rotor rub [13]-
[14].
III. POWER SPECTRUM-BASED DETECTION OF MECHANICAL
LOOSENESS
It can be seen in II that the integer fraction subharmonic
components in the vibration spectrum that provide an
indication of mechanical looseness are in the low frequency
range of the spectrum below fr. Accelerometer measurements
are known to be inherently insensitive to low frequency
components and also vary depending on the direction and
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ia  I1 cos ( s t - )  I ml ,l cos[ s -  ml t -  ]  I ml ,u cos[ s   ml t -  ]
ib  I1 cos ( s t - 2 / 3 - )  I ml ,l cos[ s   ml t - 2 / 3 -  ]  I ml ,u cos[ s   ml t - 2 / 3 -  ]
ic  I1 cos ( s t  2 / 3 - )  I ml ,l cos[ s   ml t  2 / 3 -  ]  I ml ,u cos[ s   ml t  2 / 3 -  ]

p  va ia  vb ib  vc ic  (3 / 2) V1 I1 cos   (V1 I ml , l cos   V1 I ml , u cos  ) cos ml t  (V1 I ml , u sin   V1 I ml , l sin  ) sin ml t (10)
3
location of the sensor. The environmental, cost, and
sensitivity limitations of vibration analysis have triggered
active research in electrical monitoring of motor faults based
on voltage and current measurements. It is shown in [17]-[25],
[32]-[37] that stator current or instantaneous power spectrum
analysis can provide safe, low cost, and remote monitoring of
induction motor bearing and rotor faults. Motor current
signature analysis (MCSA) has been applied successfully in
(1) the field for rotor fault detection, and instantaneous power
spectrum analysis has recently been studied due to its potential
sensitivity and reliability benefits over MCSA [32]-[37]. In
this section, detection of mechanical looseness in sleeve
bearings based on spectrum analysis of the instantaneous
power is investigated.
To derive the fault frequency components in the power
(2) spectrum induced by mechanical looseness, it was assumed
that the three phase voltage source is symmetric and only
includes the fundamental components as
va  V1 cos s t  , (3)
vb  V1 cos( s t - 2 / 3) , (4)
vc  V1 cos( s t  2 / 3) , (5)
where V1 is the peak of the fundamental phase voltage. It is
shown in [18]-[20] that the radial vibration produced by motor
mechanical problems results in periodic oscillations in the
induced torque that modulate the stator current at the fault
frequencies given by (2). The influence of mechanical
looseness produces frequency components in the stator current
observable with MCSA given by
f ml ,MCSA  f s  k f r / n  f s  f ml (n  2, 3, ...) . (6)
It was assumed that the three phase currents are symmetric
and include the mechanical looseness components, fml,MCSA, as
shown in (7)-(9), where I1 represents the peak of the fs
component, subscripts l and u represent the lower and upper
sidebands of the fml,MCSA components, and θ, α, and β represent
the phase angles.
An expression for the instantaneous input power, p, can be
derived from (3)-(5) and (7)-(9) by adding the input power of
each phase. It can be shown that a simplified expression for p
can be derived as shown in (10). The first term of p,
(3/2)V1I1cosθ, is a dc component that represents the average
real power, and the second and third terms are the fml
components induced by mechanical looseness. If mechanical
looseness is not present in the motor, these terms are equal to
zero since Iml,l and Iml,u are equal to zero. It can be seen in (2)
and (10) that the components that appear in the frequency
spectra of vibration and power induced by mechanical
(7)
(8)
(9)

 4

looseness are identical to that of fml. This is expected since injection were used to supply the oil lubricant to the bearing-
vibration at fml produces torque oscillations at the same shaft clearance through gravity feed, as shown in Fig. 5.
frequency, and power is directly proportional to torque under It is critical to supply the appropriate amount of oil evenly
steady state operation. throughout the sleeve bearing for stable operation within its
The potential advantages of applying the proposed power thermal limits. To adjust the flow of the oil lubrication, a
spectrum based detection over accelerometer based vibration valve was installed at the oil/grease inlet to control the amount
monitoring can be summarized as, of ISO viscosity grade 68 oil, as shown in Fig. 5. An adapter
 Remote and low cost monitoring: measurement using was designed, machined, and installed at the end shield within
existing voltage and current sensors from motor control the bearing housing, as shown in Fig. 3, to guide the oil to the
center can help reduce safety risks and save sensor/ axial center of the sleeve bearing. Axial and vertical holes
equipment and labor related expenses were machined on the sleeve bearings to direct the incoming
 Consistent and reliable monitoring: voltage and current
measurements are not subject to sensitivity degradation
at low frequency, and is independent of sensor direction
and location, and rotor/stator weight ratio
For motors where mechanical sensors are not embedded, the
proposed method can provide a low cost solution for
monitoring of sleeve bearing mechanical looseness. For low
voltage motors with sleeve bearings such as sealless canned
pump motors and hermetic type sealed compressor motors, the
proposed method can be used for detecting mechanical
looseness at low added cost, since it is not cost-effective to
install mechanical sensors in these motors. For cases where
permanently installed proximity probes or accelerometers are
available, the proposed method can provide a redundant
assessment of mechanical looseness to further improve the
reliability of fault detection.
Fig. 3. End shield structure of open type, regreasable rolling element
bearing motor: sleeve bearing and oil lubricant supply system shown
IV. EXPERIMENTAL STUDY: BEARING-SHAFT LOOSENESS for reconfigured motor (motor A)

A. Experimental Setup: Custom-Built Sleeve Bearing Motor

Testing of sleeve bearing faults in high output, medium-
high voltage industrial motors under controlled fault
conditions is challenging due to the difficulty in handling the
high voltage and output power. The cost involved with
producing the fault conditions and testing the motors is high,
considering that the motors are large in size and are used in
critical applications. Therefore, a 380 V, 5.5 kW motor with
Fig. 4. Precision-machined DE/NDE sleeve bearings for motor A (6 sets of
custom designed and built sleeve bearings was used for testing with 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 105 m bearing-shaft radial clearance
the detectability of mechanical looseness between the bearing machined, samples A1-A6)
and shaft under varying fault severity conditions [7].
To design and build a small scale test motor with sleeve
bearings, the structure of a commercial 380 V, 5.5 kW, 2 pole
induction motor with open-type, regreasable rolling element
bearings was modified. For motors with open type bearings, a
channel (or path) for injection of grease is available in the end
shield, and the internal bearing cap prevents leakage of grease
into the motor, as shown in Fig. 3. Six sets of drive end (DE)
and non-drive end (NDE) steel sleeve bearings with bearing-
shaft radial clearance of 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, and 105 m
(samples A1-A6) were precision machined, as shown in Fig. 4,
for testing under controlled fault conditions. The original
rolling element bearings in the end shield were replaced with
the sleeve bearings. The inlet, outlet, and channel for grease
Fig. 5. Custom designed and built sleeve bearing test setup for 380 V, 5.5
kW, 2 pole induction motor (motor A)

oil from the adapter to the center of the bearing axial length,
as shown in Fig. 4, to ensure supply of oil to the bearing-shaft
contact. The oil flow through the valve, oil inlet, channel,
adapter, sleeve bearing, shaft, and oil outlet was confirmed
before testing to prevent sleeve bearings or shaft damage.
The motor was operated from the sinusoidal 60 Hz, 3 phase,
380 V supply, and also from a commercial 380V, 5.5 kW
variable frequency drive (VFD) at 60 Hz to show the
effectiveness of the proposed method when the motor is VFD
driven.
B. Experimental Results
Measurements from commercial voltage and current
sensors were used for power calculation, and a 500 mV/g
accelerometer was installed on the both ends of motor B for
vibration analysis, as shown in Fig. 5. All measurements were
simultaneously obtained at 6.4 kHz under no load condition,
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Fig. 6 Vibration spectrum of motor A (samples A3-A6) for sleeve
bearing-shaft clearances of (a) 60; (b) 75; (c) 90; (d) 105 m
5
where the rotor speed was 3596.4 rpm and fr 59.94 Hz.
The results of vibration spectrum analysis performed on the
NDE of motor samples A3-A6 with bearing clearances of 60,
75, 90, and 105 m, respectively, are shown in Fig. 6. The
amplitude of the fr components in the spectra for samples A1-
A6 were similar and between 0.30 and 0.38 m/s2 with no
correlation to the degree of bearing-shaft looseness. It can be
seen in Fig. 6 that noticeable fr/2 (29.97 Hz) components in
the vibration spectrum can be observed when the clearance
between the shaft and bearing is large at 90 and 105 m
(samples A5-A6). The amplitude of the fr/2 components are
0.077 and 0.088 m/s2, respectively (Figs. 6(c)-(d)). The fr/2
components of the DE side 0.027 and 0.033 m/s2. The fr/2
component indicates that mechanical looseness is present in
the motor due to large clearance between the bearing and shaft.
The mechanical looseness components at fr/2 could not be
observed for samples A3-A4 with clearance of 60 and 75 m,
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Fig. 7 Power spectrum of motor A (samples A3-A6) for sleeve bearing-
shaft clearances of (a) 60; (b) 75; (c) 90; (d) 105 m

as shown in Figs. 6(a)-(b). The spectra for samples A1-A2
with small clearance of 30 and 45 m are not shown since
they are similar to that of Figs. 6(a)-(b).
The power spectrum calculated for samples A3-A6 with
bearing clearances of 60, 75, 90, and 105 m, respectively, are
shown in Fig. 7. The fr/2 components in the power spectrum
were observable for samples A5 and A6 with large clearance
of 90, and 105 m for which the fr/2 vibration components
were present, as expected. The DC components for samples
A1-A6 were approximately 400 W and fr/2 component at
29.97 Hz was 7.0 and 7.2 W for samples A5 and A6,
respectively. The fr/2 component could not be observed in the
power spectra of A3-A4, as shown in Figs. 7(a)-(b), and for
samples A1-A2. The results of the power spectrum analysis
are consistent with that of vibration analysis in that the
samples with large bearing-shaft clearances produce the fr/2
components. It should be noted that the cases of 30, 45, 60,
and 75 m clearances (samples A1-A4) are not considered
faulty conditions since they do not produce vibration.
The vibration and power spectra obtained from samples
A4-A5 under 60 Hz VFD excitation are shown in Figs. 8-9 to
observe if the fault can be detected for inverter fed machines.
For 60 Hz excitation, the fr/2 components observed at 30 Hz
in the vibration and power spectra were 0.106 m/s2 and 3.1 W,
respectively. An increase in the main frequency 60 Hz
component, and decrease in the fr/2 component in the power
spectrum could be observed when compared to the mains fed
case. However, it can be seen that a noticeable increase in the
fr/2 component can be observed in the 90 m case in the
vibration and power spectrum under 60 Hz VFD excitation.
This is consistent to the mains-fed case, and indicates that
mechanical looseness in sleeve bearings can be detected for
VFD motors.
The integer subharmonic components fr/2, fr/3, … should
be absent in the vibration or power spectrum if mechanical
(a)
(b)
Fig. 8 Vibration spectrum of motor A (samples A4-A5) under 60 Hz,
VFD excitation for sleeve bearing-shaft clearances of (a) 75; (b)
90 m
6
looseness is not present, as can be seen in Figs. 6-7. The test
results show that the presence of a fr/2 or fr/3 component
indicates existence of mechanical looseness in the sleeve
bearing. Therefore, the fault threshold for producing a fault
alarm can be set based on the noise level between 0 and fs/p,
for automating fault detection. The results indicate that
electrical monitoring method based on power spectrum
analysis is as effective as vibration analysis for detecting
mechanical looseness between the bearing and shaft. The
results show that the proposed method can serve as a low cost
alternative for providing remote monitoring for reliable
detection of bearing-shaft looseness, as predicted in III.
V. EXPERIMENTAL STUDY: BEARING-HOUSING LOOSENESS
A. Test Results: Vibration, Current, and Power Spectra
To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method on
actual medium-high voltage induction motors with sleeve
bearings, testing was performed at a motor repair facility.
When motors are inspected or repaired at a motor shop,
testing is performed on all incoming motors before and after
inspection/repair to keep a record to ensure that motor damage
or performance degradation did not occur during maintenance.
The results of vibration analysis on a 6.6 kV, 2250 hp, 2 pole
turbo air compressor motor, shown in Fig. 10, indicated that
the overall vibration level was high. This motor did not have
proximity probes installed, and the rms values of the overall
velocity level up to 1 kHz on the DE and NDE sides were
recorded using velocity transducer based equipment at this
repair shop. The vertical, horizontal, and axial velocity
transducer measurements were 1.5, 1.4, and 1.0 mm/s at the
DE and 1.4, 3.1, and 1.2 mm/s at the NDE. Considering that
the unfiltered housing vibration limits are between 2.0 and
3.25 mm/s according to the API 541, IEC 60034-14, IEEE
841, and NEMA MG1 standards, the vertical velocity level on
(a)
(b)
Fig. 9 Power spectrum of motor A (samples A4-A5) under 60 Hz VFD
excitation for sleeve bearing-shaft clearances of (a) 75; (b) 90
m
 7

the NDE is high [28]-[31]. alternative to the conventional mechanical monitoring. The
The vibration, voltage, and current measurements were results presented in IV and V are meaningful since they show
obtained using the equipment described in IV to observe the that electrical monitoring can provide remote, low cost
vibration, current, and power spectra before inspection and detection of mechanical looseness with fault detection
repair. It can be observed in the acceleration spectrum shown sensitivity equal to that of vibration. The proposed method is
in Fig. 10 that the fr/3 and 2fr/3 components (20 and 40 Hz)
with amplitudes of 0.13 and 0.041 m/s2, respectively, are
present. Mechanical looseness was strongly suspected since
the integer fraction subharmonics of fr are typically produced
by looseness problems, as described in II. The fr/3 sidebands
of fs (40 and 80 Hz) can be observed in the current spectrum
and the fr/3 component (20 Hz) can be observed in the power
spectrum (amplitude of 282 W), which is consistent with the
predictions of the analysis presented in II-III.
B. Bearing Inspection
Off-line disassembled inspection was performed on motor
B, and bearing-housing and bearing-shaft diametric clearances
were measured to determine the cause of the high vibration Fig. 9 6.6 kV, 2250 hp, 2 pole turbo air compressor induction motor
with bearing-housing looseness (motor B)
level and fr/3 components. The bearing-housing clearance
was measured by placing 0.2 mm temporary shims between
the top and bottom housings, and measuring the crushed
thickness of a 0.4 mm lead wire placed between the top halves
of the bearing and housing. The bearing-housing clearance
was 0.15-0.16 mm on the DE, and 0.170-0.175 mm on the
NDE, as shown in Table I. The clearance between the bearing
and housing was uniform over the bearing and housing
contact surface, but too large considering that the bearing
manufacturer recommended clearance is 0.02 mm. The (a)
diametric clearance between the bearing and shaft was
measured in a similar way with a 0.4 mm lead wire as 0.070-
0.155 mm in the DE and 0.135-0.150 mm in the NDE, as
shown in Table I. The measurements show that the bearing-
shaft clearance is non-uniform at the DE, where the clearance
of the outside of the DE bearing is smaller. The clearance
between the bearing and shaft (0.135-0.155 mm) at other
locations is considered to be within acceptable limits for
operation, considering the manufacturer recommended value (b)
of 0.152-0.209 mm.
The DE and NDE upper bearing housings, and upper and
lower DE side of the spherical bearings of motor B are shown
in Figs. 11(a)-(b), respectively. The non-uniform contact
pattern on the outside of the lower half of the bearing was
noticeable during visual inspection, as shown in Fig. 11(b).
This indicates that misalignment between the shaft and
bearing was present. It is uncertain whether the misalignment
occurred during assembly of the spherical self-aligning (c)
bearings or was caused by looseness between the bearing and Fig. 10 Test results on 6.6 kV, 2250 hp induction motor with bearing-
housing, but it is suspected that it contributed to the high housing looseness (motor B); (a) vibration spectrum (DE); (b)
overall vibration level. stator current spectrum; (c) power spectrum

The clearance measurements clearly indicate that Table I Bearing-housing, bearing-shaft clearance measurements
mechanical looseness between the bearing and housing was (diametric) on the axially inside and outside of the DE and NDE
bearings, and manufacturer recommended clearance values
present. The acceleration spectrum shown in Fig. 9(a) showed
that mechanical looseness can be observed with vibration
analysis, and the results of current and power spectrum
analysis showed that electrical monitoring can be used as an

also convenient since the fault frequency is identical to that of
vibration, and the results are independent of sensor location.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the feasibility of applying instantaneous
power spectrum analysis for on-line monitoring of mechanical
looseness in sleeve bearing systems produced by increased
clearances in the bearing sub-components, was investigated.
It was shown that the integer fraction sub-synchronous
components of the rotor speed frequency in the power
spectrum can provide reliable detection of mechanical
looseness. The validity of the proposed method was verified
experimentally on a small scale sleeve bearing motor with
adjustable bearing-shaft looseness, and on a 6.6 kV, 2250 hp
induction motor with excessive bearing-housing clearance.
The test results showed that mechanical looseness, which can
only be detected with vibration analysis in the field, can also
be detected with the proposed power spectrum analysis.
The proposed method has a number of advantages over
conventional vibration analysis, which currently is the only
means of monitoring mechanical looseness. Electrical
monitoring is capable of providing safe, remote, and low cost
monitoring, and the sensitivity or reliability is not influenced
by sensor direction/location, or the stator/rotor weight ratio.
The proposed method is suitable for detection of mechanical
looseness since it produces low frequency vibration to which
accelerometer based detection is insensitive. The findings of
(a)
(b)
Fig. 11 Disassembled visual inspection of 6.6 kV, 2250 hp, 2 pole motor
(motor B) sleeve bearing and housing; (a) DE and NDE upper
bearing housing; (b) upper and lower DE sleeve bearing showing
non-uniform contact with shaft
8
this work are expected to help provide a low cost solution for
remote monitoring of sleeve bearing problems in the field for
large motors without mechanical sensors, and also for low
voltage motors that employ sleeve bearings. The results of
this work are also expected to spawn follow-up research on
electrical monitoring of mechanical looseness problems,
which is common in the field.
VII. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of
Hansung Heavy Industries for sharing their experience with
detection and repair of mechanical looseness problems in
medium voltage motors with sleeve bearings, and for their
support on the testing of the 6.6 kV, 2250 hp motor.
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Electric Machines Committee of the IEEE IAS, Pulp and Paper Industry
Committee of IEEE IAS, and Technical Committee on Diagnostics of the
IEEE Power Electronics Society. He serves as a 2014-2015 Distinguished
Lecturer for IEEE IAS, and an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on
Industry Applications for the IEEE IAS Electric Machines Committee.
Chaewoong Lim received the B.S degree in Mechatronics Engineering from
Korea Polytechnic University, Siheung, Korea, in 2008. He was in the motor
repair industry for the last 20+ years, and has many years of experience in
design and fabrication of custom built ac and dc motors. From 1993 to 2007,
he was with the Korean Heavy Electric Co., Siheung, Korea, where he worked
on repair, inspection, and testing of electric machines. From 2008 to 2015, he
was the sales manager for Hansung Electric Industrial Co, Dangjin, Korea.
Since 2015, he is the CEO of SN Heavy Industry Company located in Seosan,
Korea.
Chang-Hee Cho received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical
Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Korea in 2001, 2003 and 2012,
respectively. From 2012 to 2014, he was a research professor at the
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University. Since 2015, he
was with the Department of Precision Mechanical Engineering at Gyeonggi
College of Science and Technology, Siheung, Korea, as a professor. His
current research interests are machine design and deburring for intersecting
holes.
Kwonhee Kim received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering
from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, in 1979 and 1981, respectively,
and the Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, in 1987.
From 1987 to 1991, he was with the Korea Institute of Machinery and
Materials, Daejeon, Korea, and from 1992 to 1995, he was with the Korea
Automotive Technology Institute, Cheonan, Korea. Since 1995, he has been a
Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University,
Seoul, Korea. His research interests include machine design, design
innovation, product development, and plasticity.

IX. BIOGRAPHIES
Junyeong Jung (S’14) received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering
from Korea University, Seoul, Korea, in 2013. He is currently pursuing his
M.S. degree in electrical engineering at Korea University, Seoul, Korea. His
research interest is in condition monitoring of electric machinery.
Sang Bin Lee (S'95-M'01-SM'07) received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from
Korea University, Seoul, Korea in 1995 and 1997, respectively, and his Ph.D.
degree from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA in 2001, all in
Electrical Engineering. From 2001 to 2004, he was with General Electric
Global Research Center (GRC), Schenectady, NY, where he developed an
inter-laminar core fault detector for generator stator cores, and worked on
insulation quality assessment for electric machines. From 2010 to 2011, he
was with the Austrian Institute of Technology, Vienna, Austria, where he
worked on condition monitoring of PM synchronous machines. Since 2004,
he has been a professor of Electrical Engineering at Korea University, Seoul,
Korea. His current research interests are in protection, monitoring and
diagnostics, and analysis of electric machines and drives.
Dr. Lee was the recipient of twelve Prize Paper Awards from the IEEE
Industry Applications Society (IAS), IEEE Power Engineering Society,

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