Australian Journal of Mechanical Engineering

ISSN: 1448-4846 (Print) 2204-2253 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tmec20

Condition monitoring of low-speed bearings — a

review

Y H Kim, A C C Tan & V Kosse

To cite this article: Y H Kim, A C C Tan & V Kosse (2008) Condition monitoring of low-speed
bearings — a review, Australian Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 6:1, 61-68

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14484846.2008.11464558

Published online: 22 Sep 2015.

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 61

Condition monitoring of low-speed bearings – a review *

ACC Tan †, Y-H Kim and V Kosse

School of Engineering Systems, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane

SUMMARY: Machines with operating speeds less than 600 rpm are classified as low-speed
machinery. These machines are usually the most critical items in the production line, generally
large and have high rotating inertias. Until recently, there has not been much interest in condition
monitoring of these machines as they do not fail easily. However, if an expected failure does occur, the
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downtime and replacement costs can be enormous, which can lead to massive production loss. Unlike
those medium- to high-speed machines, condition monitoring of low-speed machinery presents a
challenge as traditional velocity and acceleration sensors are only sensitive to responses with high
impact rates. The moving components of these machines that require condition monitoring are
mainly bearings and gears. Due to the lack of interest until recently, there is limited literature on
condition monitoring of low-speed machinery. In this review, the authors have attempted to gather
together the innovative and advanced approaches on condition monitoring of low-speed machinery,
with the main focus on rolling element bearing condition monitoring.

1 INTRODUCTION failure occurs very rapidly due to large static and

To date there is no universally accepted speed
limit to classify low-speed machines. In general,
machines with rotating speeds up to 600 rpm are
classified as low-speed machines. This limit can be
reasonably justified with reference to ISO 2372, the
classifications of vibration velocity severity covers
machines with rotational speeds ranging from 600
to 1200 rpm. Low-speed rotating machines are
generally the most critical items in the production
line and can lead to massive downtime costs should
an unpredicted failure occur. These machines are
usually large and have high rotating inertias. In
most rotating machines, the bearing is the most
critical component. It provides not only the rotating
motion, but has to carry a great deal of dynamics
load. At low speed, the impact between the rotating
elements and the defect is generally low unless the
damage size has accelerated above the background
noise level. The likelihood of a spall on the bearing
generating enough energy to cause a significant level
of vibration at low speed is remote (Robertson et al,
1996). As the defect starts to deteriorate, the rate of
* Reviewed and revised version of paper originally
presented at the International Tribology Conference,
AUSTRIB 06, 3-6 December 2006, Brisbane,
Queensland.
† Corresponding author Prof Andy Tan can be
contacted at a.tan@qut.edu.au.
dynamics loads.
In spite of the limitations in vibration measurements
for condition monitoring of low-speed bearings, the
reliability and success of vibration measurements have
seen several researchers using them in laboratory and
industrial applications. The application of vibration
measurements to detect a seeded defect in bearing is
presented in Jacobs et al (n. d.) and the presence of
contaminated lubricant using high frequency stress
waves is shown in Jamuludin et al (2002). In Jacobs
et al. (n. d.), classification of stress wave signatures
showed that autoregressive coefficients associated
with each stress wave provided an efficient and
effective parameter for bearing diagnosis. Other
techniques used in conjunction with vibration
measurements can be seen in section 2.
Diagnosis of low-speed bearings is made difficult due
to the low impact energy of the rolling elements of
the bearings against a damaged spall, which is small
and results in a high ratio of noise to an abnormal
bearing signal, or low s/n ratio. Recent development
of advanced piezoceramic (PZT) materials and digital
signal processing hardware and software have
led to widespread use of Acoustic Emission (AE)
technology in bearing condition monitoring. Besides
being used in bearing condition monitoring, the AE
method has found application in the monitoring
of bolt structure mechanical integrity operating at
low speeds (Jamuludin & Mba, 2002) and gear fault
diagnosis (Mba, 2002). Monitoring of low-speed

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 62 “Condition monitoring of low-speed bearings – a review” – Tan, Kim & Kosse
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Figure 1: Relationship between displacement, velocity and acceleration at constant velocity

(Jacobs et al, n. d.).

rotating machines can be very time consuming and Very little vibration acceleration (0.01 g) is produced
can end up with sampling a large amount of data for speeds below 600 rpm.
for a complete rotation. To overcome this problem,
However, as the speed decreases, displacement
parametric models to generate frequency spectra for
measurement is preferred. For low-acceleration
rolling element bearing fault detection is proposed in
measurements, high sensitive sensors with low
Ber & Karin (2000). In Mechefsky & Mathew (1992),
electronics noise are required. In spite of this set
a portable device, MK-550, for low-speed bearing
back, vibration measurements have been used by a
diagnostics utilised the cubic treatment of vibration
number of researchers. In Berry (1992), low-frequency
signals. In Jones (n. d.), the SKF Microlog CMVA60
monitoring was carried on industrial machinery,
ULS was used to monitor the condition of slow-
but required specialised sensors, instrumentation
speed bearings. It used the enveloped acceleration
and measurement techniques. Accelerometers with
processing to detect initial damage in rolling element
sensitivities of 100 and 500 mV/g were used in the
bearings with incipient failure. The user had to set up
experimental tests. From the results, it was concluded
a specific frequency range to examine the captured
that increasing voltage sensitivities will reduce the
energy, which was then demodulated and presented
contribution of instrumentation noise. The gain or
to the user in the selected frequency range. The
amplification of the amplifier will result in increase in
selected filter frequency range (from 30k to 600k
low-frequency acceleration noise, which is inversely
cpm, 300k to 2400k cpm, etc.) has no connection to
proportional to the charge sensitivities of the sensing
the display frequency range (normally 30k cpm).
element (Barrett, 1993; Schloss, 1993). In table 1,
Enveloped detection method has been successfully
it can be seen that the measurement sensitivity is
applied in bearing diagnostics, but the success is
proportional to the accelerometer sensitivity, and
dependent on the choice of filter frequency band.
shows the sensitivity is increased by fivefold from
An industrial accelerometer may have problem
100 and 500 mV/g accelerometers for all rotating
in capturing high-frequency signals beyond 30
speeds. The sensitivity of the 500 mV/g is well above
kHz. Detailed references on research involving
the background noise level of about 20 μV at low
ultrasound and AE are described in sections 3 and
operating speeds.
4, respectively.
The analysis of low-speed vibration normally involves
time domain signals. According to Mechefsky &
2 VIBRATION MEASUREMENTS Mathew (1992), in addition to the analysis of the
time domain signal, it is an absolute requirement
Traditional vibration measurement techniques may to have FFT spectral analysis of the data to obtain
fail to detect an incipient failure at low rotational more accurate results. Using envelope detection,
speeds due to the low impact energy. The relationship in conjunction with resonant frequency amplitude
between displacement, velocity and acceleration demodulation, has also been used to analyse low-
shows that as the rotational speed increases, the speed vibration. However, a major problem with
acceleration measurement produces relatively large this technique is that it relies on the magnitude of
amplitudes (Jacobs et al, n. d.), as shown in figure 1. the fault having an effect on the carrier frequency

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 “Condition monitoring of low-speed bearings – a review” – Tan, Kim & Kosse 63

Table 1: Sensor output levels and sensitivities against rotating speeds (Robertson et al, 1992).

1.5 Hz 10 Hz 100 Hz 10 MHz

(90 cpm) (600 cpm) (6000 cpm) (60,000 cpm)
Displacement (mils) 32 5 0.5 0.05
Velocity (ips) 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3
Acceleration (g) 0.007 0.05 0.5 5
100 mV/g accelerometer (V) 0.0007 0.005 0.05 0.5
500 mV/g accelerometer (V) 0.0035 0.025 0.25 2.5
100 mV/ips piezovelocity transducer (V) 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03

Table 2: Number of lines in FFT to achieve 95% confidence level for 25 μm

(p-p) for 10 Hz frequency range (Robertson et al, 1992).
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500 mV/g accelerometer 100 mV/g accelerometer

Speed
Blocks Blocks
(rpm)
100 10 4 1 100 10 4 1
10 3200
15 400 800 1600
20 400 400 800
30 400 1600
40 400 800 1600
50 400 400 400 800
60 400

(Robertson et al, 1993). Although frequency analysis
is commonly used to determine the component
passage frequencies, it relies greatly on the resolution
of the analyser. Table 2 shows the resolution in FFT
analysis, and it is shown that as the data block gets
smaller, the rotating frequency gets bigger. For a fixed
data block, as the accelerometer sensitivity increases,
the measurement rotation speed decreases. For
example, with 10 blocks of data and using 800 lines,
the maximum operating speed for the 100 mV/g
accelerometer is 40 rpm and the operating speed can
be as low as 15 rpm for the 500 mV/g accelerometer.
Also for a fixed sensitivity and data block, it can be
seen from the table that the number of lines in FFT
increases as the speed decreases.
New methodologies for vibration monitoring of
low-speed machines ranging from 0.5 to 600 rpm,
known as PeakVue, can be seen in Murphy (1992). It
was reported that PeakVue presents consistent results
and is independent of the speed of the machine
or analysis bandwidth. Based on this approach,
several case studies involving multiple race defects,
loose mounting of belt driven pump and defective
spherical conveyor bearings were presented. Time
waveform parameters of vibration acceleration such
as peak/peak value and crest factor are used to detect
bearing failure operating at 250 rpm and dry roll
bearing acceptance test operating at 12 rpm (Murphy,
1992). Although the results were very promising,
the author did not specify the sensitivity of the
accelerometer used in those operations.
The results of an experimental test to evaluate the
sensitivity of acceleration measurement for low-
speed bearings are shown in table 3. A damaged
bearing with an outer race defect was tested with
a range of operating speeds from 30 to 1200 rpm.
The values in the table are the relative percentage
differences of statistical parameters between
healthy bearing and defective bearing. As the speed
decreases, the differences are getting smaller, even
minus value in some parameters, while they are
big enough at high speed. The results indicate that
acceleration measurement is not sensitive at low-
speed operations for condition monitoring.
3 ULTRASOUND METHOD
In low-speed operations, the bearing rotating
elements making contact with a defect will generally
produce low-level vibration signals and are normally
buried in background noise. However, the initiation
of a defect within the bearing component leads
to material deformation and can result in high-
frequency signal generation in the ultrasound range.
In low-speed condition monitoring, it is becoming

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 64 “Condition monitoring of low-speed bearings – a review” – Tan, Kim & Kosse

Table 3: Relative percentage differences of statistical parameters from accelerometer

against shaft speeds.

rpm Mean RMS Skewness Kurtosis CrestF

30 –78.947 –25.01 0.795 –1.163 0.273
76 –93.71 –13.95 1.203 0.744 1.646
150 –212.58 23.92 –12.179 –10.238 –1.472
300 179.64 26.09 –3.869 –1.135 20.149
600 116.53 57.52 –54.002 51.695 104.040
1200 1792.1 54.73 128.990 246.550 101.400

Table 4: Relative percentage differences of statistical parameters from ultrasound

against shaft speeds.

rpm Mean RMS Skewness Kurtosis CrestF

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30 6278.6 122.63 75.899 4957.70 60.291

76 –297.87 149.78 –97.842 1237.70 70.374
150 –285.5 375.58 433.300 1131.00 93.033
300 –102.35 813.03 –208.720 496.54 36.439
600 –168.14 442.30 –89.644 –55.69 14.853
1200 4139.5 551.52 107.640 1.59 –14.496

common to use ultrasound techniques with vibration
analysis to monitor component of damage and to
predict bearing failure. It has been reported that
NASA used ultrasound technology to monitor and
locate bearing wear and its results showed that the
technique was more superior to using traditional
heat and vibration methods (Kanagawa et al, 2001).
In low-speed operations, an ultrasound instrument
such as UE Systems can be used to “listen” for
the heterodyned sound of the rollers or bearings.
The ultrasound instrument of the system expands
the capability of the FFT analyser to provide a
more comprehensive analysis of the ultrasonic
emissions that can identify a mechanical fault. In
Enercheck Systems (n. d.), airborne ultrasound
instruments are used to detect leak, electrical arcing,
mechanical inspection and slow-speed bearings. The
development of reliable ultrasonic sensors requires
improved discrimination against background
noise, which is dependent on the size of the sensing
elements.
Both piezoceramic (PZT) elements and optical-fibre
materials were investigated for the construction of
ultrasound sensors to measure tangential surface
strains at ultrasonic frequencies (Miettinen &
Pataniitty, 1999). Their results show that the optical-
fibre sensor’s efficiency is very low and, depending
on the configuration of fibre, the sensitivity can range
from as low as 3% to 40%. A limitation of this sensor
is that it can only be designed for frequencies up to
200 kHz. In their study, the PZT bases sensor offers
numerous outstanding results. Furthermore, the
advantage of a PZT-based ultrasound sensor is that
the sensing elements are small in size and relatively
inexpensive. It has a frequency range from 50 kHz
to 2 MHz. Although the frequency response of the
ultrasound sensor is not as flat, the authors claim that
it is adequate for detection of broadband signals.
To evaluate the capability of ultrasound signals
in low-speed condition monitoring, a series of
experimental tests with a range of rotating speeds
from 30 to 1200 rpm and a simulated defect on the
bearing outer race were conducted. Table 4 shows
the relative percentage differences of parameters
between healthy and defective bearings from the
tests using an Ultraprobe 9000 from UE Systems. It
can be seen that as the rotating speed decreases, the
difference of kurtosis value dramatically increases.
This means kurtosis of ultrasound signals is the
best condition monitoring parameter in low-speed
bearings. It is also worth noting that the differences
of root-mean-squared (RMS) value have stable
values with more than 100% increases at all speeds,
which imply the RMS value is also good indicator
regardless of speeds. The mean value, skewness,
based on kurtosis values of vibration and u and
crest factor are relatively unstable. The results show
that ultrasound signal is effective for low-speed
operation. Figure 2 shows the plots of relative
percentage difference of kurtosis values between a
healthy and a defective bearing. It can be seen that
as the rotating speed decreases the difference of
acceleration kurtosis falls down to zero, while the
ultrasound reading shows a tremendous increase.

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 “Condition monitoring of low-speed bearings – a review” – Tan, Kim & Kosse
300
250
Accelerometer
200
Accelerometer (%)
150
100
50
0 0
1200 600 300
-50
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Shaft Speed (rpm)
Figure 2: Relative percentage differences of kurtosis value between a healthy and defective bearing.
4 ACOUSTIC EMISSION METHOD
AE occurs in a material by crack initiation, fracture
and other mechanisms due to dislocations, phase
transformations in materials and electrical charges.
The response can be characterised by a rapid burst
of a group of atoms (M. C. M. E. BV PdM Partners,
n. d.). It is a wave generated within a material when
it is under stress and the frequency bandwidth can
range as high as 1000 kHz. Most AE sources act as
point sources and are non-directional. The sources
radiate energy in spherical wavefronts, and therefore
the sensor can be located anywhere in the vicinity of
the AE sources and it can detect the emission signal
(Smith, 1982). While as vibration measurement
depends on the measurement direction, AE is
dependent on the measurement axis of the sensor.
Application of the AE technique in bearing failure
detection operating at normal speeds can be seen
from Beattie (1983), Li & Li (1995) and Tan (1990).
Different parameters have been used to evaluate the
energy content of the AE source. Typical AE response
is a burst type of signal that can be characterised in
terms of time duration of the AE event; emission
counts exceeding a predetermined level; rise and
decay time; and signal and peak amplitude. Statistical
parameters of AE in terms of standard deviation,
kurtosis, variance, skewness and RMS level to
describe the signal energy content is presented in
Beattie (1983). In Tan (1990), the area under the time
waveform of the AE signal is used to gauge the
activity level of the defective bearing.
Early work on the application of the AE method to
monitor rolling element bearings operating at low
speed can be seen in Tandon & Nakra (1990) and
McFadden & Smith (1984). Since then, the application
of AE technique for bearing health monitoring has
generated a great deal of interest. In Smith (1982),
Australian Journal of Mechanical Engineering
M08-TR12 Tan.indd 65
65
6000
5000
Ultrasound
4000
Ultrasound (%)
3000
2000
1000
150 75 30
-1000
the pulse count method has been used for condition
monitoring of rolling element bearings condition
operating from 0.5 to 5 rpm. The advantage of
the method is that the size of AE data recording
can be greatly reduced; otherwise the data file can
be large and become unmanageable. However, a
problem with this method or peak value technique
is that if the time cycle is short, it may be difficult to
determine the time duration of the measurement so
that different clusters will not be mixed together in
the measurement. A possible solution to this problem
is the application of AE overall pulse count level or
the AE activity RMS value.
Recent applications of AE method to monitor
extremely slow rolling element bearings are shown
in Jamuludin et al. (2001) and Jamuludin & Mba
(2002). The AE method is applied to detect early
stages of loss of mechanical integrity in rolling
element rotating at 1.1 rpm. In real life situations, the
measured AE signals could contain background noise
of similar energy levels as the fault signal, therefore
making it difficult to differentiate the fault signal
from the observed measured signals. According to
Jamuludin et al (2001), the shape of the background
noise is generally random, while as the faulty AE is
generally of similar pattern. The clustering of the AE
coefficients associated with all AE activities yield
distinct cluster groups and can be used to provide
evidence of early signs of deterioration.
Table 5 shows the relative percentage differences
of AE parameters with its maximum value against
shaft speeds. For speeds between 30 to 150 rpm, the
maximum of Rise Time, Energy and Duration are
good parameters for condition monitoring as they
show large differences between healthy and defective
condition, while the differences of AE RMS is
getting smaller as shaft speed decreases. The relative
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 66 “Condition monitoring of low-speed bearings – a review” – Tan, Kim & Kosse

Table 5: Relative percentage differences of AE parameters against shaft speeds.

rpm Rise Time Counts Energy Duration RMS Signal Strength

30 758.6 67.0 460.0 191.8 –4.0 151.4
76 571.3 109.1 320.0 252.0 71.4 222.9
150 524.8 84.5 211.6 122.2 433.3 192.6
300 70.0 264.5 714.6 150.6 760.0 666.3
600 –62.4 39.1 238.1 –45.1 698.3 233.6
1200 –27.1 –45.8 17.3 –25.7 548.8 17.2

percentage difference for Rise Time is about 5.2 to 7.58
times from that of an undamaged bearing.
5 CONCLUSIONS
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Berry, J. E. 1992, Required vibration analysis techniques
and instrumentation on low speed machines (particularly
30 to 300 rpm machinery), Technical Associates of
Charllotte, Inc, 2nd Edition, pp. 46-47.

Enercheck Systems, (n. d.), Using ultrasound

Low-speed machines are often large and represent
a large capital investment. Due to high inertias and
slow rotation, incipient defects do not normally
appear in vibration measurement until the size of the
defect has accelerated beyond the background noise
levels. The breakdown normally does not provide
any lead time for remedial actions to be taken.
Condition monitoring of rolling elements bearing
operating at low speed continue to be a challenge
to diagnosticians. Traditional vibration monitoring
methods are only suitable when the defect size is
large. The sensitivity of the sensor plays a critical
role in detecting a reasonable size defect. Peak value
detection and envelope method can be effective in
detecting a bearing defect at low speed.
AE method is concerned with material dislocation
movement with a structure and caused by initial
crack, pressure leak and surface contact. In rolling
element bearings, AE has been applied in numerous
situations and has proven to be an effective tool for
low-speed condition monitoring. However, a major
problem is that background could be included in
the AE signals and advanced signal processing
techniques are required to suppress the background
noise or to enhance the source signals.
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with vibration analysis to monitor bearings, www.
enerchecksystems.com/articl21.html.
Jacobs, L., Jarzynski, J., Shi, Z., Beadle, B. & Hurabus,
S. (n. d.), Sensing acoustic emission and transmission,
Technical notes, Georgia Inst of Technology.
Jamuludin, N. & Mba, D. 2002a, “Monitoring
extremely slow rolling element bearings: part 1”,
NDT&E International, Vol. 35, pp. 349-358.
Jamuludin, N. & Mba, D. 2002b, “Monitoring
extremely slow rolling element bearings: part 2”,
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Jamuludin, N., Mba, D. & Bannister, R. H. 2001,
“Condition monitoring of slow-speed rolling element
bearings using stress waves”, Procs of the IMechE, Vol.
215, No. 4, ProQuest Science Journal, pp. 245-271.
Jamuludin, N., Mba, D. & Bannister, R. H. 2002,
“Monitoring the lubricant condition in a low-speed
rolling element bearing using high frequency stress
waves”, Proc Inst of Mech Engrs, Vol. 216, Part E, J
process Mech Eng, pp. 73-88.
Jones, B. (n. d.), “Monitoring of slow speed bearings
using the Microlog CMVA60 ULS (Ultra Low
Speed)”, SKF Application Note CM3052.

Kanagawa, M., Tomosada, Y. & Yamanaka, Y. 2001,

Barrett, R. M. 1993, “Industrial vibration sensor
selection: Piezo-velocity transducers (PVT)”, Proc.
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Ber & Karin, (2000), Home page, http://wxs.
nl/~uptime/ lowspeed.htm.
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Li, C. J. & Li, S. Y. 1995, “Acoustic emission for bearing
condition monitoring”, Wear, Vol. 185, pp. 67-74.
Mba, D. 2002, “Application of acoustic emissions
to monitoring the mechanical integrity of bolted
structures in low speed rotating machinery: case
study”, NDT&E International, Vol. 35, pp. 293-300.

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McFadden, P. D. & Smith, J. D. 1984, “Acoustic
emission transducers for the vibration monitoring
of bearing at low speed”, Proc of the Inst of Mech
Engineers, Part C, Vol. 198, No. 8, pp. 127-130.
M. C. M. E BV PdM Partners, (n. d.), Technology
overview: Ultrasonic detection, www.mcme.nl/
ultrasone. html.
Mechefsky, C. K. & Mathew, J. 1992, “Fault detection
and diagnosis in low speed rolling element bearings.
Part 1: the use of parametric spectra”, MSSP, Vol. 6,
No. 4, pp. 297-307.
Miettinen, J. & Pataniitty, P. 1999, “Acoustic emission
in monitoring extremely slowly rotating rolling
bearing”, Proc of COMADEM ’99, Oxford, ISBN
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1-901892-13-1, pp. 289-297.
Miller, R. K. & McIntire, P. (n. d.), Nondestructive
Testing Handbook, Vol 5: Acoustic emission testing,
American Society for Nondestructive Testing, ISBN
0-931403-02-2, pp. 603.
Murphy, T. J. 1992, “The development of a data
collector for low speed machinery”, Proc of the 4th Int
Conf on Profitable Condition Monitoring, December,
pp. 251-258.
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Robertson, J. C., LeVert, F. E. & Mott, J. E. 1992, “Vibration
data acquisition of low speed machinery using a portable
data collector and a low impedance accelerometer”, P/
PM Technology, May/June, pp. 26-30.
Robertson, J. C., Canada, R. G. & Piety, K. R. 1996,
“Vibration monitoring on slow speed machinery:
new methodologies covering machinery from
0.5 to 600 rpm”, 5th Int Conf on Profitable Condition
Monitoring, December.
Schloss, F. 1993, “Accelerometer Noise”, Sound and
Vibration, March, pp. 22-23.
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at low speed”, Tribology International, Vol. 15, No. 3,
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Vegas, 24-26 June, pp. 183-188.
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 68 “Condition monitoring of low-speed bearings – a review” – Tan, Kim & Kosse

ANDY TAN

Prof Andy CC Tan received his BSc(Eng) and PhD degrees in Mechanical
Engineering from the University of Westminster, London. His research
interests include noise and vibration condition monitoring, and sensors for
active vibration control. He has applied adaptive signal processing and the
blind deconvolution algorithms to enhance the desired signals corrupted
by noise for the detection of incipient faults. These algorithms, together
with Acoustic Emission sensors, are currently being used in low-speed
machinery condition monitoring. He is expanding his research into machine
diagnostics/prognostics. Andy is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the
Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering at the Queensland University
of Technology, Brisbane, and his academic interests include dynamics of
mechanical systems, noise and vibrations, and mechanism design. He is a
Fellow of Engineers Australia.
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YONG-HAN KIM

Yong-Han Kim received his BS, Masters and PhD degrees in Mechanical
Engineering from Pukyong National University, Korea, in 1997, 1999 and
2004, respectively. His research background is in evolutionary algorithms
and its application for optimum design and parameter identification of
rotating machineries. Currently, he is a research fellow in the research centre
for Engineering Asset Management, Queensland University of Technology,
Brisbane. His primary research interests are in the areas of diagnostics and
prognostics of rotating machineries, and the application of acoustic emission
techniques for condition monitoring.

VLADIS KOSSE

A/Prof Vladis Kosse has more than 30 years experience as an academic,

researcher and consultant. He started his academic career in Ukraine at the
Azov State technical University. He moved to Australia in 1992, working for
Monash University, Melbourne. Since 1999, he has been at the Queensland
University of Technology, Brisbane, being responsible for engineering design.
Vladis’s area of research interest includes drive-train dynamics, computer
modelling of transition processes in drives, machinery failure analysis
and engineering creativity. He is internationally renowned as an expert on
the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ). He has published more
that 80 refereed papers and a book Solving problems with TRIZ – an exercise
handbook, which has been printed in three international editions in the USA
and Japan.

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