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Vibration monitoring of very slow speed thrust ball bearings

Conference Paper · November 2013

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 VIBRATION MONITORING OF VERY SLOW SPEED
THRUST BALL BEARINGS
Vipul M. Patel and Naresh Tandon
ITMME Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India
e-mail: ntandon@itmmec.iitd.ernet.in

Condition monitoring of slow speed bearing is reported to be difficult with conventional vi-
bration monitoring technique because of high the noise to signal ratio. This research work
was carried out in order to investigate the applicability of vibration monitoring techniques for
different defects seeded on thrust ball bearing race, running under different operating speeds.
The measurements were performed on a test rig developed for this purpose. The study reveals
that standard accelerometer can be used for vibration monitoring of slow speed bearings. The
results show that the defect frequencies measured are different from calculated defect fre-
quencies due to slip. .

1. Introduction
Rolling element bearings play vital role in the domestic as well as in industrial equipments.
Proper functioning of these equipments is ensured by quiet and smooth running of these bearings.
An unexpected failure of bearing in industry can bring production to a standstill. Failure of the
bearings can be avoided by early detection of the minor errors and defect present in the bearing.
Bearing acts as a source of vibration and noise due to either varying compliance or the presence of
defect in them. Whenever a local defect on an element interacts with its mating element, abrupt
changes in the contact stresses at the interface occur. This results in generation of very short dura-
tion pulse which causes vibration and noise. By monitoring these, we can predict the health of the
bearing.
Examples of slow speed machinery in industries are wind turbine power plant, rolling ma-
chinery of paper mill, machines used in steel pipe and mining industries, mixers air preheater in
thermal power plant, rotating biological contractor for processing waste water and many more.
Many of these machines have bearings running at less than 30 rpm. Vibration monitoring is a well
established technique for monitoring high and medium speed bearings but reported to be not so suc-
cessful for monitoring slow speed bearings. Difficulties associated with Vibration monitoring of
slow speed bearings are; i) the energy released rate from defect reduces as speed reduces. ii) the
associated defect repetition frequencies become very low and difficult to detect amongst back-
ground noise. iii) very long time records need to be digitized and further processed. iv) conventional
vibration system employs accelerometer, though displacement sensors are best suited to measuring
low frequency vibration. v) inherent low-frequency instrument noise problems and, low-frequency
roll-off filters of typical data analyzers. This requirement has the disadvantage of disguising the
low frequencies of interest. vi) similarly, most sensors have roll-off filters that affect the magnitude

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20th International Congress on Sound and Vibration (ICSV20), Bangkok, Thailand, 7-11 July 2013

of signals detected within the roll-off frequency range. vii) if frequency analysis (Fourier transfor-
mation) is required, then the signal processing itself produces very large mathematical errors at the
very low frequency end of the spectral range, which changes the genuine frequency data and alters
the overall amplitude values. Slow speed rolling bearings are often very massive and stiff.
Vibration monitoring technique has many methods for fault detection such as: overall vibra-
tions, time waveform analysis, high frequency resonance technique (also called, demodulation or
enveloping), phase analysis, band trending and cepstrum analysis. In the time domain, typically
statistical features of the measured vibration signal such as R.M.S., peak value, kurtosis etc. are
trended over the duration of the test and change in the pattern are attributed to the presence of de-
fects.
Most published work is related to the applicability of vibration monitoring technique in de-
tecting seeded faults artificially introduced on the bearing. Ray1 investigated the use of SPM to
monitor low-speed bearings (25 rpm) and concluded that the SPM failed to register defects at
speeds below 750 rpm. Prashad2 has reported the effect of cage and roller slip on the measured
defect frequency response of rolling element bearings with the help of HFRT as a survei llance
module. Percentage roller slip varies between -5.8 to 7.1. It was found that negative roller slip
is predominant at moderate speed under no load and load operation. Positive slip is significant
at high speed under no load operation. Murphy3 suggested that a strong magnetic clamp be used
to attach the sensor to the machine, thus avoiding the rocking effects that would be experienced
with hand held probe, thereby reducing unwanted noise at very low frequencies. Tandon and Nakra4
have compared the vibration and acoustic measurement method for defect detection of ball bearing.
Measurements have been performed on new bearings and bearings with seeded defects in their ele-
ments, for 100 to 1500 rpm range. The authors have measured overall vibration acceleration, enve-
lope detected acceleration, overall sound intensity and sound pressure, shock pulse, and acoustic
emission ring down counts and peak amplitude. The results indicate that, in general, the detection of
defects by acoustic emission and envelope detected acceleration are better as compared to other
measurements. Robinson and Canada5 described that by using a low noise accelerometer having
sensitivity of 500mV/g, and state of the art portable data collector with sufficient dynamic range, a
meaningful vibration analysis can be carried out on slow speed machinery. They developed a slow
speed technology (SST) system for measuring vibrations on low-speed rotating machinery which
was based on separating the high frequency noise of the machine from the low frequency signa-
tures of interest. Furthermore, it is reported that this method could be applied at speeds as low as 10
rpm. Robinson6 suggested new methodology for vibration monitoring of low speed machinery. This
builds on SST method described above. It involves segmenting the signal in to time intervals, de-
pended on the sampling frequency and obtaining peak values for continuing time intervals until the
desired number are captured for processing, called peak value techniques. Processing peak values
involved spectrum analysis. This method was successfully applied on bearing rotating at 10 rpm
with low frequency accelerometer and detected the inner race defect one month prior to failure. Bar-
ratt7 suggested that low frequency piezoceramic sensor can be used for condition monitoring of low
frequency. Piezoceramic transducer provides superior performance over the broad frequency and
amplitude ranges required in industrial applications. Enveloping method can be used to study sig-
nals as enveloping enhances the response signals of small repetitive defect impacts. Mba8 described
main problems associated with vibration analysis in to three sections: i) conventional vibration sys-
tem employs accelerometer, though displacement sensors are best suited for measuring low fre-
quency vibration. ii) inherent low frequency noise problem and low frequency roll off filters for
typical data analyzers, which will have negative effect on low frequency of interest. iii) most sen-
sors have a roll off filters that affects the magnitude of the signals detected within the roll- off fre-
quency range. Shumin9 mentioned that at low rotating speed, weak impact of rolling element with
defect may not be able to excite the resonance of the piezoelectric sensor. Hence, they designed
special sensor for monitoring of low speed bearing. Natural frequency of this sensor can be changed

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20th International Congress on Sound and Vibration (ICSV20), Bangkok, Thailand, 7-11 July 2013

by varying the length of cantilever plate (integral part of sensor). Selvaraj and Marappan10 investi-
gated the effect of operating parameters (shaft speed, radial load, viscosity of lubricating oil, num-
ber of rollers and bearing temperature) on cage slip in cylindrical roller bearing. They have con-
cluded that the decreased load cause initiation of cage slip whereas the increased shaft speed in-
crease the magnitude of the cage slip. Increased viscosity increases the cage slip. Increased bearing
temperature decreases the cage slip because of the reduced viscosity and no significant changes
observed in the critical load.
The literature indicates that conventional vibration acquisition setup may not be capable for
monitoring slow speed bearing. There is a need for emphasis on proper selection of vibration sensor
which has high sensitivity and very low cut off frequency and there may be deviation of defect fre-
quency observed because of either slippage or skidding action of balls and cage. Percentage roller
slip varies between -5.8 to 7.1, depending on operating condition. Present work was under-
taken to study the vibration spectrum of extremely slow speed thrust bearing with seeded d e-
fects using standard accelerometer.

2. Experimental set up and tests

Test rig used for the present work is shown in Fig. 1. In this rig, a shaft can be driven at very
low rpm (2 to 18) by a motor using a variable speed drive which controls the frequency of incoming
power and helps in maintaining desired speed. Test bearing used is SKF 51204 thrust ball bearing.
The test bearing is at the top end of the shaft. Vibration transducer was mounted on the top of the
hollow cup with the help of magnetic clamp. The defects of 500 µm, 1 mm and 1.5 mm diameters
with 300 µm depth were created in the test bearing. To measure the low frequency vibrations, fre-
quency range of FFT analyzer is important. The transducer used for measuring vibration signal was
piezoelectric type transducer Bruel & Kjaer type 4368 accelerometer along with Bruel & Kjaer type
2635 charge amplifier. B & K Pulse analyzer 3560C was used for this work because it has frequen-
cy range starting from direct DC, hence suitable to measure low frequency vibration as well as it is
compatible with vibration transducer. Transducer was mounted just above the test bearing to ensure
that it was kept just close to loading zone.

Test
Motor Variable
Bearing
speed drive

Weight
holder

Figure 1. The test rig assembly.

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20th International Congress on Sound and Vibration (ICSV20), Bangkok, Thailand, 7-11 July 2013

The test rig was operated under constant load of 10 kg and different operating speeds of 12
rpm, 14 rpm and 16 rpm. Three different sizes of defects were seeded with spark erosion technique
on the upper race of the bearing. Frequency span was set up to be 6.25 Hz. Number of lines selected
were 800 and signal enhancing mode was used.
Bearing defect frequency is given by:
Nb Bd cos
1 RPM
2 Pd
Where Nb is number of balls in the bearing, Bd is ball diameter, Pd is pitch circle diameter of
the bearing and α is the contact angle. Putting the dimensions for SKF 51204 bearing in the above
equation, the calculated bearing defect frequency is 6 times the RPM (α = 90 ).

3. Results and discussion

Vibration spectra of new test bearing at speeds of 12, 14 and 16 rpm were observed and did
not show peak at bearing defect frequencies. The spectra of bearing with 500 µm size defect are
shown in Figs. 2 to 4. At 10 kg load and for the operating speeds of 12, 14 and 16 rpm, peaks were
observed at 1.146 Hz, 1.336 Hz and 1.484 Hz instead of bearing defect frequencies i.e. 1.2 Hz, 1.4
Hz and 1.6 Hz respectively. This appears to be because skidding action of balls and cages. Under
skidding action, balls rotate at single position rather than travelling with pure rotary motion. Hence
less number of balls pass through defect and defect frequency lesser than calculated one is obtained.
Percentage deviation of bearing defect frequencies from calculated one is shown in Table 1.

950

850
800
Vibration amplitude (µm/s2)

750
800
650
650
800
650 2 BPF
550
800
650
450
550
450
800
650 1 BPF
550
350
800
450
300
650
550
250
450
800
650
300
150
550
150
450
800
300
650
550
150
50
50
450
800
300
650
150
550
450
50 0
800 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3 3.2 3.4 3.6
300
650
150
550 Frequency (Hz)
50
450
300
650
150
550 Figure 2. Vibration spectrum of bearing with 500 µm defect at 12 rpm.

Table 1. Deviation of bearing defect frequencies for defect size of 500 µm.

Calculated bearing Observed bearing

Speed (rpm) % Deviation
defect frequency (Hz) defect frequency (Hz)
12 1.2 1.148 4.33
14 1.4 1.336 4.57
16 1.6 1.461 8.68

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20th International Congress on Sound and Vibration (ICSV20), Bangkok, Thailand, 7-11 July 2013

950
850
800
Vibration amplitude (µm/s2)

750
800
650
650 2 BPF
800
650
550
800
650
550
450
450 1 BPF
800
650
550
350
450
800
300
650
550
250
450
800
300
650
150
550
150
450
800
300
650
150
550
50
50
450
800
300
650
150
550
50 0
450
800 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3 3.2 3.4 3.6
300
650
150
550
50
450
300
650 Frequency (Hz)
150
550
50
450
300 Figure 3. Vibration spectrum of bearing with 500 µm defect at 14 rpm.

1500
1400
800
1300
800
1200
Vibration amplitude (µm/s2)

650
800
1100
650
800
1000 2 BPF
550
650
800
900 1 BPF
550
650
800
800
450
550
650
800
700
450
550
650
800
600
300
450
550
650
800
500
300
450
550
800
650
400
150
300
450
550
650
800
300
150
300
450
650
550
800
200
50
150
300
450
550
650
800
100
50
150
300
550
450
650
800
50
150
300
450
550
650 0
800 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3 3.2 3.4 3.6
50
150
450
300
550
650
50
150
300
450
550 Frequency (Hz)
650
50
300
150
450
550
Figure 4. Vibration spectrum of bearing with 500 µm defect at 16 rpm.

The defect size was raised to 1 mm with spark erosion machine. The FFT was taken at the
same speeds (12, 14, 16 rpm). Figure 5 shows frequency spectrum of defective bearing at 14 rpm.
Here also peaks were observed at frequencies which are deviated from calculated defect frequencies
are observed because of skidding action of balls. Percentage deviations of frequencies are shown in
Table 2.

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20th International Congress on Sound and Vibration (ICSV20), Bangkok, Thailand, 7-11 July 2013

950
850
Vibration amplitude (µm/s2)

800
750
800
650
650
800
650
550
800 2 BPF
650
550
450
450
800
650 1 BPF
550
350
450
800
300
650
550
250
450
800
300
650
150
550
150
450
800
300
650
150
550
50
450
800
300
650
150
550
50 0
450 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3 3.2 3.4 3.6
800
300
650
150
550
50
450 Frequency (Hz)
300
650
150
550
50 Figure 5. Vibration spectrum of bearing with 1 mm defect at 14 rpm.

Table 2. Deviation of bearing defect frequencies for defect size of 1 mm.

Calculated bearing Observed bearing

Speed (rpm) % Deviation
defect frequency (Hz) defect frequency (Hz)
12 1.2 1.164 3
14 1.4 1.352 3.42
16 1.6 1.484 7.25

The defect size was then raised to 1.5 mm and the FFT was obtained taken at 12, 14 and 16
rpm. The frequency spectrum at 14 rpm is shown in Fig. 6. Here again there is a deviation in defect
frequencies as compared to calculated defect frequencies of the thrust bearing used, as given in Ta-
ble 3.

950
850
800
Vibration amplitude (µm/s2)

750
800
650
650
800
650
550
800
650 2 BPF
550
450
450
800
650
550
350 1 BPF
450
800
300
650
550
250
450
800
300
650
150
550
150
450
800
300
650
150
550
50
450
800
300
650
150
550
50 0
450 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3 3.2 3.4 3.6
800
300
650
150
550
50
450
300
650
Frequency (Hz)
150
550
50
450
Figure 6. Vibration spectrum of bearing with 1.5 mm defect at 14 rpm.

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20th International Congress on Sound and Vibration (ICSV20), Bangkok, Thailand, 7-11 July 2013

Table 3. Deviation of bearing defect frequencies for defect size of 1.5 mm.

Calculated bearing Observed bearing

Speed (rpm) % Deviation
defect frequency (Hz) defect frequency (Hz)
12 1.2 1.172 2.8
14 1.4 1.359 2.92
16 1.6 1.484 7.25

Figures 2 to 6 show a general decrease of the vibration amplitudes at defect frequencies,

with increase in defect size. This is opposite to that of usual expected trend and could be due to
skidding. From Fig. 7, it is observed that % deviation decreases with increasing defect size and
hence % of skidding and thus impact energy associated with it is also decreasing. It is also observed
that at higher speeds the skidding is more (Fig. 11).

Figure. 7 Variation of % deviation of defect frequency from calculated defect frequency with defect
size.

4. Conclusions
Defects of extremely slow speed rolling bearings can be detected even by using a standard pie-
zoelectric type transducer. The instrument settings are very important for capturing the signal. Be-
cause of skidding of balls, bearing defect frequency may deviate from theoretically calculated bear-
ing defect frequency. This deviation increases with increase in bearing speed. The percentage devia-
tion in this study varied from 2.8 % to 8.68 % for the operating conditions used.

REFERENCES
1
Ray AG, Monitoring rolling contact bearings under adverse conditions, Proceedings of 2nd
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 20th International Congress on Sound and Vibration (ICSV20), Bangkok, Thailand, 7-11 July 2013

3
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