Fault severity assessment of rolling element bearings based on bicoherence spectrum

The condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of rolling element bearings not only depend on fault type but also fault severity which is also essential for making proper maintenance decision. Aiming at fault severity assessment of rolling element bearings, a new indicator based on the bicoherence spectrum is proposed. The quadratic phase coupling (QPC) which is one of the most important nonlinear characteristics of fault-related signals can be detected by the bicoherence spectrum. The deepening fault severity usually results in more frequency components involving in coupling. In order to quantify the coupling degree which is closely related to fault severity, we choose the mean value of the bicoherence spectrum as an indicator. Experiments results showed that the quantitative trend prediction of different fault severities of bearing is realized.