AUTOMATED ROLLING CONTACT BEARING FAULT DETECTION USING CEPSTRUM ANALYSIS

ABSTRACT Integral to a versatile automated expert diagnostic system is the ability to detect rolling contact bearing wear without specific knowledge of the type or geometry of the bearings in the machine component. The fact that rolling contact bearing faults generate harmonics and sidebands lends itself to the application of Cepstrum analysis. An algorithm is described in which bearing fault related peaks in machinery vibration signatures are identified without reference to predicted bearing tone frequencies. This information is provided as input to an expert diagnostic system and used to identify and quantify rolling contact bearing faults. Several examples of automated expert diagnostic system reporting and results of subsequent machinery inspections are presented.