Diagnostic Techniques for the

Vibration Analysis of Bearings

E. Estupiñan
Professor University of Tarapacá - eestupin@uta.cl
Casilla 6 – D, Arica - CHILE

P. Saavedra
Professor University of Concepción - psaavedr@udec.cl
Vibrations Laboratory – Mechanical Engineering Department
Casilla 160 – C, Concepción – CHILE

Abstract
The vibration signal emitted by a bearing can contain spectral components that are related to the
geometry of the bearing, the number of rolling elements, the speed of rotation, the location of the
defect and the type of applied load; which marks the difference with a journal bearing type. It is of
great importance in the modern industry to detect defects in the bearings of critical machines in
an incipient fault stage. In the present work we have used some of the modern techniques of
vibration analysis included today in some commercial vibration analyzers. For the experimental
study, good shape ball bearings and localized defect in the outer race ball bearings, were tested
under different levels of fault severity and various load and speed conditions. Normal spectral
analysis, demodulation, PeakVue and real zoom analysis were the techniques used for the
analysis.

Key Words – Bearings, Faults Diagnostic, Predictive Maintenance, Vibration Analysis,

Demodulation, PeakVue, Spectral analysis.

Introduction
The bearings act as a source of noise and vibration due to varying compliance as much as the
presence of defects in them, which may be classified into distributed and localized defects [1].
The fact that the load distribution on the bearings varies, as the rolling element set rotates round
the rings, causes the bearings to behave themselves as a vibration generator. This behavior may
arise as much as from a geometrically perfect bearing as one which possesses imperfections
from manufacture, installation, lubrication or inadequate ambient running conditions or some
other factor that may help to cause wear or fatigue [2].

Localized defects
The most common type is the crack of the races or rolling elements, mainly caused when a crack
due to fatigue originated sub-superficially is propagated towards the surface until a metal piece is
detached causing a small defect. The fault caused by superficial fatigue is accelerated when the
bearing is overloaded or submitted to shock or impact loads during their functioning or installation
and also with the increase of the rotational speed.

Distributed defects
Within these we find: the surface roughness, waviness, misaligned races and unequal rolling
elements. They can be caused by manufacturing errors, inadequate installation or due to wear.
The variation of the contact forces between the rolling elements and the races cause an increase
in the vibration level. Because it is difficult to discern when the vibration is caused by either
distributed or localized defects, it is highly recommended to make an analysis based on; one
hand the frequency and, on the other the amplitude of the spectral components [3].

Evolution of the fault due to crack

The first symptom that appears when the fault arises, at an early stage, is a vibration with high
frequency components (generally higher than 5 KHz) due to the generation of stress waves and
other kinds, which can excite natural frequencies of housing and races of the bearings or the
measuring sensor. In this stage, there is no temperature increase and the cracks are not visible, it
is not necessary to change the bearings.
In a second stage the cracks start to be visible and the bearings produce audible sound and in
some cases the temperature arises. In this fault stage spectral components related to fault
frequency of bearings in the low and intermediate frequency range (less than 5 KHz) appear.
These frequencies are commonly named as “characteristic defect frequencies” and they are
designed as BPFO (ball pass frequency outer race), BPFI (ball pass frequency inner race), BSF
(ball spin frequency) and FTF (fundamental train frequency), depending on the location of the
defect; whether it is on the inner race, outer race or on one of the rolling elements [3, 4]. They are
determined based upon the geometry and rotational speed of the bearing and can be calculated
from simple mathematical expressions or using commercial software [3, 4]. It is necessary in this
fault stage to program the change of the bearing.

In a third stage, close to a catastrophical failure, the noise increases significantly an overheating
may arise, the vibration in the high frequency range decreases, the spectral components of the
low frequency range increases and it will be necessary to change the bearing immediately [5, 6].
Although this, the most usual way for it to show when a bearing develops a fault, each bearing
could have different fault modes with a different progression rate, it depends of the load,
rotational velocity and lubrication conditions mainly .

Diagnosis techniques
To detect a defect in an early fault stage, different techniques and instruments have been
developed depending on the range of frequencies within which the vibration analysis will be
carried out. Some techniques have the high range frequency analysis approach; others have the
medium and low range approach. The techniques which analyze the high frequency zone are
based on the excitation of the natural frequency of the sensor, bearing parts and housing
structures due to when such a defect on one surface strikes its mating surface, a pulse of short
duration is produced (see Fig. 1). When the bearing rotates with a constant rotational speed,
these pulses are generated periodically and the frequency is the characteristic defect frequency.

Figure 1. High frequency waves produced due to a defect in the outer race.

The main symptom that allows detecting incipient defects is the presence of components of high
frequency. When the fault progresses, the impulsive excitation of type increases even up to a
time until when the edges, corners or rims of the defects smooth down due to the wear and the
impact levels diminishes and they can even get to disappear. Most of the techniques of high
frequency analysis give only an overall value of the energy caught by the sensor, which is
compared with reference values and related to the severity of the defect. Within these techniques,
there are the shock pulse measurement (SPM), the detection of acoustic emissions (AE), emitted
spectral energy (SEE), technique of detection of high frequency (HFD) and the ultrasound.
Other techniques of high frequency analysis related to the excitation of natural frequencies are
the techniques of enveloping or demodulation and PeakVue or peak value analysis. Techniques
that will be described briefly later in this work. In the high frequency analysis there are two
difficulties mainly, the first one is the low amplitude of the high frequency bursts compared with
the components of low frequency. And second it is the difficult to identify the characteristic defect
frequencies of the bearings due to the noise and the bad spectral resolution.
To facilitate the tasks of diagnosis, it is necessary to isolate the high frequency vibrations from
others using a high pass or band pass filters around the natural frequency that is excited. Thus
the vibration generated only by the impacts can be analyzed identifying the discrete frequencies
and evaluating the severity of fault. In this work we have analyzed two of the techniques that can
be used for this purpose, the demodulation and PeakVue analysis.

Figure 2a. Enveloped detector. Figure 2b. Peak value detector.

Demodulation
Basically this technique consists of using a high pass or band pass filter on the temporal signal,
with the purpose of isolating resonant zones of high frequency, then to rectify the modulated
signal, to eliminate de DC component and finally using an enveloped detector (Fig. 2a) and a low
pass filter the modulator signal is obtained, how it is shown in Fig. 3.

Figure 3. Demodulation process.

PeakVue
This is a technique that captures the peak value of the stress waves that are produced (see Fig.
2b), and then via a spectral analysis the repetition frequency of the impacts is obtained. PeakVue
detects the presence of the stress waves mainly due to metal to metal contact during an early
stage of the failure. Like the demodulation, this technique isolates the resonance zones by means
of high pass or band pass digital filters, but it is differentiated from the demodulation technique in
that in the final stage the enveloped detector is not used, rather using a high frequency sampling
(100 kHz) catches the peak value for each interval of the normal sampling time [7], see Fig. 4.

Figure 4. Peak Value detection using a high sampling frequency.

Real Zoom
The real zoom analysis, allows by means of digital filters to acquire the signal with a narrow
bandwidth around the resonant frequency, which must previously be identified. A spectrum with a
good resolution is obtained this way, identifying the modulator frequencies that actually cause the
excitation of the resonant zone in an easier manner. In Fig. 7, the obtained result of an analysis
with real zoom around the resonant frequency of 60 Kcpm is shown.

Experimental study
In this work good shape ball bearings and localized defect in the outer race ball bearings, were
tested under different levels of fault severity and various load and speed conditions. In these tests
the normal spectral analysis, demodulation, PeakVue and real zoom analysis, were used. A
testing station as the one shown on Fig. 5 (characteristics are shown on Table I), was used to
carry out the testing. For the vibration analysis a CSI-2120 analyzer, high and low frequency
accelerometers (0.1 mV/g and 0.5 mV/g) and analog signals digital recorder were used.

Figure 5. Testing station

Table I. Characteristics of testing station.

No Designation Description
A Outer bearing Ball bearings
B Inboard bearing SKF Ref. 6306-2z.
C Pulley Ref. 6207-2z
D Coupling Flexible
E Motor 1400 rpm Induction AC (1.5hp)
Controlled with a frequency
converter.

The measured vibrations taken in the housing of the outboard bearing in vertical direction were
compared, between faultless and faulty bearings. The testing was carried out for the speed
condition of 1000 rpm. In addition, 60 rpm and a 200-Kg over the pulley were applied. In the faulty
bearings the defects was intentionally made in order to simulate a defect at an early stage.

In Fig. 6 the spectra in acceleration units, obtained from a faultless and faulty bearing for the
turning velocity of 1000 rpm is shown. It can be clearly observed in the faulty bearing spectrum a
high energy vibration zone around the 60 Kcpm, frequency which corresponds to a natural
frequency. When a real zoom is carried out around this frequency, sidebands can be
distinguished in the spectrum with a separation between them to the BPFO frequency showing a
fault in the outer race (see Fig. 7).

Figure 6. Acceleration spectrum (Running speed = 1000 rpm)

Figure 7. Real Zoom Analysis. (see the sidebands)

Observing the acceleration waveform, the periodicity of the impact produced due to the passing
of the rolling elements over the defect is identified as shown in Fig. 8.
 Figure 8. Impacts identified in the waveform time.
In Figs. 9 and 10, the obtained results from the demodulation and PeakVue analysis are shown.
In the case of the faulty bearing the BPFO components and its harmonics are clearly identified,
confirming the presence of a defect in the outer race.

Figure 9. Demodulation (Running speed = 1000 rpm)

 Figure 10. PeakVue (Running speed = 1000 rpm).

When these techniques are applied to the low speed turning bearings (60 rpm), in the
acceleration spectrum the excitation of the resonance zone in a faulty bearing is observed (see
Fig. 11). Applying the PeakVue and the demodulation techniques, the presence of faults is
identified but not clearly as in the former case (see Figs. 12 and 13).

Figure 11. Acceleration spectrum. (Running speed = 60 rpm)

 Figure 12. Demodulation spectrum. (Running speed = 60 rpm)

Figure 13. PeakVue spectrum. (Running speed = 60 rpm)

Discussion
From the results obtained in the different tests, we may conclude the following:
- Independently of the running speed, in the fault bearing, an excitation over the high frequency
zone is produced. However, a lower intensity excitation is produced and the lower natural
frequencies are excited in the cases of low rotational velocity.
- Using the real zoom and waveform time analysis, it is possible to identify the periodically
produced impacts. In the low speed cases the results obtained using these techniques were
not satisfactory due to the low amplitude of the impacts produced and they were also mixed
with the low frequency spectral components.
- The results delivered from the demodulation and PeakVue techniques were similar.
Nevertheless, the amplitude obtained using PeakVue were higher than when using
demodulation. In low velocity applications it is more advantageous to use these techniques
rather than the traditional ones in which case the results obtained were not so good.

It is important to keep in mind that this work was carried out under controlled noise and vibration
conditions. In the industry, more difficulties can be found especially in the low rotation speed
machines due to the various noise sources, vibrations coming from other machines and the
speed and load variation during the measurements. Therefore the traditional spectral analysis
must be complemented with the use of other techniques which are nowadays available in most
commercial vibration analyzers such us the synchronic time average, the tracking filter and order
tracking analysis.

Conclusions
It is possible to detect in the bearings the presence of defects when these are at an early stage,
using vibration analysis integrated with the demodulation and /or PeakVue analysis techniques
which are centered on the high frequency analysis.

The demodulation and PeakVue techniques are more useful than the normal spectral analysis in
the early fault detection for the analysis of low velocity turning bearings.

References
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detection of defects in rolling element bearings – a review. The Shock and Vibration Digest.
Vol. 24 (3), 3-11.
[2] AKTÜRK N., GOHAR R. (1998). Vibrations associated with ball bearings. ImechE,
Conference Transactions, Multi-Body Dynamics. December 10-11 No.13, 43-64.
[3] TANDON N., CHOUDHURY. (1999). A review of vibration and acoustic measurement
methods for the detection of defects in rolling element bearings. Tribology International.
Vol.32, 469 –480.
[4] HARRIS T. (1966). Rolling bearing analysis. NewYork : John Wiley and Sons.
[5] JONES R. M. (1996). Enveloping for bearing analysis. Sound and Vibration. February, 10-15.
[6] SAAVEDRA P. (1998). Análisis de vibraciones de máquinas rotatorias (Nivel III). Cap 4. 10-
17. Universidad de Concepción - Chile.
[7] CANADA R., PIETY K., ROBINSON J.C. (1998). New Methodology for bearing fault defect:
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