Condition Monitoring of Thrust Ball bearings using Continuous AE

conference paper

English

In the last years AE become an important part of structural health or condition monitoring systems. AE analysers for that purpose should provide a long-time continuous signal records using relatively high sampling frequency. Recorded huge data must be analysed to disclose any faults in monitored processes or structures like e.g. leakages in pressure vessels or defects in rotating machines and gearboxes, etc. Fast and reliable AE signal processing and analysing methods, different from that used in burst AE, are required. In this paper we present such analysis of continuous AE recorded during endurance tests on flat washer parts reliably simulating critical rolling contact fatigue of the full-scale bearings. Two channels of continuous AE signal were partially recorded within whole specimen lifetime tests and compared with other experimental parameters as vibration rate or temperature. As an alternative to classical spectrogram analysis, we proposed to use histograms of time intervals between threshold amplitudes crossings in various frequency bands represented by the wavelet decomposition. Results obtained on long-time records are discussed, illustrating advantages of proposed AE signal processing, which can be done in real time to observe the processes before the onset of the final damage on the surface of the specimen more precisely than vibrodiagnostics. Continuous AE monitoring together with low frequency vibration analysis can be integral part of the rotating machinery condition monitoring system.

Continuous acoustic emission, rolling contact fatigue, thrust ball bearing, histogram of counting periods, wavelet analysis

CHLADA, M.; NOHÁL, L.; PŘEVOROVSKÝ, Z.

7. 9. 2016

Česká společnost pro nedestrukticní testování

Brno

978-80-214-5386-9

32nd Eropean Conference on Acoustic Emission Testing - Proceedings

2016

1

211

216

270

http://www.ndt.net/article/ewgae2016/papers/211_paper.pdf