A review of condition based

maintenance of rolling element

bearings using vibration analysis
A.K. Verma, A. Srividya, Sreejith B.
Interdisciplinary Programme in Reliability Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Powai, Mumbai – 400 076, India
Overview
Introduction
Data acquisition
Data processing
Feature extraction
Fault diagnosis
Fault prognosis
Conclusions
Maintenance Techniques
Breakdown
Preventive
Predictive
Reliability centered
Condition based
Diagnosis
Prognosis
Rolling element bearings
Critical component in rotating machinery
Factors effecting bearing fatigue life
Material properties,
lubricant properties,
Speed, load, size
and number of
rolling elements etc.
Rolling element bearings
Bearing defects
Distributed
Surface irregularities like roughness and waviness
misaligned races, off size rolling elements
Localized
Cracks, pits and spalls on rolling surface
Causes of bearing failure
Fatigue, wear, corrosion, improper mounting, entry of
foreign particles, inadequate or improper lubrication,
blockage, passage of electric current, excessive speed,
misalignment, vibration, ineffective seals, overloading
Previous reviews
Tandon, N. and Choudhury, A. “A review of
vibration and acoustic measurement methods for
the detection of defects in rolling element
bearings”, Tribology International, 32: pp. 469-
480, (1999).
Tandon, N. and Nakra, B. C. “Comparison of
vibration and acoustic measurement techniques
for the condition monitoring of defects in rolling
element bearings”, Tribology International, 25(3):
pp. 205-212, (1992).
Condition based maintenance (CBM)
Stages
Data acquisition
Data processing
Feature extraction
Fault diagnosis
Prognosis
Maintenance decision making
Data acquisition
Collecting and storing useful data
Event data
Condition monitoring techniques
Visual and tactical inspection
Performance monitoring
Thermal monitoring
Wear debris monitoring
Vibration monitoring
Data acquisition
Advantages of vibration monitoring
Capable of detecting, locating and distinguishing
faults
Non-destructive technique
Data can be acquired during normal machinery
operation
Vibration signature contains most information
Can be applied to inaccessible components
Can be used for online condition monitoring
Data processing
Data cleaning
Data analysis
Time-domain techniques
Frequency-domain techniques
Fast Fourier Transform to obtain frequency spectrum
Envelope detection
High Frequency Resonance Technique
Time-frequency analysis
Wavelet transform
Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) and Discrete Wavelet
Transform (DWT)
Variable resolution time-frequency distribution
Feature extraction
Identifying significant indicators from data
Feature qualities
Sensitive to machinery fault
Robust to noise
Feature extraction Techniques
Time domain
Frequency domain
Time - frequency
Feature extraction : Time domain techniques
Peak value, RMS value, Kurtosis value, crest
factor, clearance factor, impulse factor
Kurtosis
()()xxPxdx
Kurtosis, 424 

P(x) = pdf of instantaneous amplitude, x

Feature extraction : Time domain techniques
For the previous example,
Bearing condition Good Defective Outer race
RMS value 0.065 1.05
Crest factor 4 5
Kurtosis value 2.88 6.86

Limitations :
Incipient damage could not be detected in some cases
Damage could not be detected in early stages
Value of parameters reduce to normal levels when
fault develops.
Difficulty in the diagnosis of fault
Feature extraction: Frequency domain techniques
Component defect frequencies
Outer race - ODF, Inner race - IDF, Rolling element - RDF,
Cage - CDF
Feature extraction: Frequency domain techniques
Limitations of spectrum analysis
Side bands for inner race and rolling element defects
Can detect larger size defects only
Bearing vibration can be buried in noise or vibration from
other sources
Energy spread across a wide frequency band
Difficult to identify inner race and rolling element defects
from spectrum
Presence of additional transfer segments
Bearing characteristic frequencies affected by slipping
Prominent at high speeds and light loads.
Feature extraction: Frequency domain techniques
Other methods Time domain signal

Envelope analysis FFT

Frequency spectrum

High Frequency Band Pass Filtering

Envelope
Analysis

Resonance Technique Spectrum around resonance

frequency
IFFT
(HFRT) Modified time signal

Hilbert Transform
Rectified and smoothed signal

FFT
Envelope spectrum
HFRT
Low pass filtering
Time domain signal
Feature extraction: Frequency domain techniques

Envelope analysis
Feature extraction: Frequency domain
techniques
Limitations of envelope analysis and HFRT
Extra computations
Identification of structural resonance frequencies
Requirement of extra instruments like impact hammers or
vibration exciters
Rate of success of different techniques for bearing
localized defect detection [Liu et. al.], [Li et. al.]
Monitoring Technique Rate of Success (%)
Kurtosis 62
Variance 67
Crest factor 70
Peak to peak 70
HFRT 77
Pattern recognition >90
Feature extraction: Time–frequency analysis
Wavelet transforms
Weak signals can be extracted
Adaptive time-frequency resolution
High time resolution and low frequency
resolution at high frequencies
High frequency resolution and low time
resolution at low frequencies
Analysis of non-stationary vibration signal
Periodic structural ringing due to repetitive force
impulses generated upon the passing of each
rolling element over the defect are detected
Feature extraction: Time – frequency analysis
Wavelet Transform
(,),,(Wavelet, ()0Continuous Wavelet Transform, ()(),1,()();,;0Discr
Feature extraction: Time – frequency analysis
Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) Discrete Wavelet
Transform (DWT)
DWT
Wavelet used – Daudechies2 [Purushotham et al.],
Wavelet coefficients , Cmn
Threshold functions
A(Cmn) = Cmn, Cmn > _
= 0, Cmn < _
Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients [Nelwamondo et al.] [Purushotham et al.]
Take FFT of the signal
Change frequencies from Hz to Mel
Frequencies in linear scale for less than 1 kHz
Log scale for frequencies above 1 kHz
Convert logarithmic Mel spectrum back to time domain
Feature extraction: Time – frequency analysis
Decomposition of signal using DWT
S=Input signal, L=Low pass filter, H=High pass filter
A1=Approximate coefficients
D1=Detailed coefficients
 Feature extraction: Time – frequency analysis
Frequency bandwidth of wavelet decomposition
Example :
Fault diagnosis
Classification of the signals based on the
information and features extracted from signals
Artificial Intelligence approaches
Artificial Neural Networks (ANN)
Wavelet Neural Network (WNN)
Statistical approaches
Hidden Markov Models (HMM)
Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM)
Model based approaches
Eg. : Mathematical models
Fault diagnosis
ANN Weight
Neuron

Two layer ANN

Output layer

Hidden layer

Operation of Neuron Input layer

X1 Bias _1

W1

X2 W2 _ OUT

Wn
Xn Activation
function
Fault diagnosis
Supervised back-propagation neural networks
Set of inputs applied
Outputs compared with desired ones
Normalized mean square error is propagated
backwards
Adjust the value of weights
Can be used for diagnosis after training
Limitations
Difficulty in determining network structure and number
of nodes
Slow convergence of the training process
Fault diagnosis
Wavelet neural networks
Feed forward neural networks
Wavelet activation functions
Position and dilation of the wavelets are
optimized
Advantages
Rapid training
Accuracy
Fault diagnosis
Hidden Markov model
A hidden Markov model (HMM) is a statistical model
where the system being modeled is assumed to be a
Markov process with unknown parameters, and the
challenge is to determine the hidden parameters from the
observable parameters.
The extracted model parameters can then be used to
perform pattern recognition applications.
Machine faulty states and normal states as hidden states.
Hidden Markov model
Markov property
Conditional probability distribution of future states
of the process, given the present state and all
past states, depends only upon the current state
and not on any past states.
Markov process
Pprocess with the Markov property.
Prognosis
Two types
Remaining useful life
Probability of machine operation till next inspection
Fault propagation process
Forecasting models
Failure mechanism
Approaches
Statistical
Artificial intelligence
Model – based
Optimize maintenance policies
Risk, cost, availability, reliability etc.
Prognosis
Model based analysis
Physics-based models
Calculate damage to critical components as a
function of operating conditions
Assess the cumulative effects in terms of
component life usage.
Spall initiation model
Spall propagation models
Integrating sensor based approaches and
physical models
Automated bearing fault diagnosis
Data acquisition
Vibration
Data processing and feature extraction
Wavelet transform
Diagnosis
Neural networks, statistical methods
Prognosis
Neural networks, statistical methods, model-
based methods
Experiment
Bearings with seeded faults
Single and multiple defects
Data for training the classifier
Data for testing the classifier
Vibration measurements
Piezo-electric accelerometer
Data-acquisition
DAC, software
Experiment set-up

load
shaft accelerometer
coupling

Motor

Amplifier Computer
Data collector

Rolling element
bearing housings
Conclusions
Condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of rolling element
bearings are often cumbersome and labor intensive.
DWT provides a variable resolution time-frequency distribution
which helps to extract features efficiently and accurately from
bearing vibration data.
Statistical methods and neural networks can be used for fault
diagnosis and prognosis using features extracted.
Integrating above steps results in an automatic system for bearing
diagnosis and prognosis.
Very less work was reported in the area of prognosis
References
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and prognostics implementing condition based maintenance”,
Mechanical systems and signal processing, 20(2006) 1483-1510
V.Purushothaman, S. Narayanan, S.A.N. Prasad, “Multi-fault diagnosis
of rolling bearing elements using wavelet analysis and hidden Markov
model based fault detection”, NDT&E International, 38(2005) 654-664
Z.K. Peng, F.L. Chu, “Application of wavelet transforms in machine
condition monitoring and fault diagnosis”, Mechanical systems and signal
processing, 18(2004) 199-221
P. Wang, G. Vachtsevanos, “Fault prognosis using dynamic wavelet
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and manufacturing, 15(2001) 349-365
R.A. Collacott, “Mechanical fault diagnosis”, Chapman and Hall, 1977