Determination of the Bearing Quality by Means of Vibroacoustic Response

Abstract

A signal of mechanical and acoustical vibration generated during a bearing’s quality testing contains variety of useful information about their operational conditions. At defined testing speeds, the bearings generate a periodical and a non-periodical vibroacoustic signal of different intensities, which are dependent on the quality of bearings and/or their damage type. A dynamical response of the tested bearings recorded in time characterizes also the nature of the unwanted noise of bearings. Therefore the dynamical response of the maximum acceleration recorded in time is one of the major criteria of bearing quality evaluation in terms of noisiness. The second criterion is a determination of statistically significant frequency interval for the equivalent acceleration value expressed in decibels. Consequently, from the effective acceleration value, the bearing quality can be determined in terms of its vibration severity, as well as its noise level. This objective methodology substitutes the evaluation bearing quality by means of measurement of the vibration acceleration on the given test device and simultaneously evaluation of the noise quality and its intensity auditorily. Verifying the proposed methodology 100 % conformity was achieved between the methodology currently used and the new methodology, which eliminates the subjective quality evaluation of bearings auditorily.