Detection of rolling bearing degradation using infrared thermography

Our study deals with the quantification of the energy dissipated by a defect of spalling on the outside ring of a rolling bearing. A previous work showed a correlation between the thermal heating and the vibratory level generated by the progressive appearance of the defect. First, we propose a numerical model of the heat transfers In a second time, we developed an experimental setup. The results obtained in this first step are encouraging. Indeed, the defect generated in the rolling bearing leads to a quantifiable heating of the surface, and the numerical model and the experiments allow quantifying the involved flux.