Vibration monitoring of

bearings at low speeds

J.D. Smith*

Some experimental observations and results are given comparing acceleration,

shock pulse transducer, acoustic emission and jerk measurements from
slightly damaged bearings at medium to low speeds. Additional results
showing defects at very low speeds with an acoustic emission transducer
are not easily explained

Keywords: vibration measurement, bearings, acoustoelectric devices, piezoelectric devices

When rolling bearings develop defects in their tracks, the

resulting vibration can be used to detect failure in a variety
of ways. Accelerometers, whether broad band response or w
working at a single frequency will detect the vibration
which occurs when a ball hits a crater in the track and can
be used to warn that failure is occurring. With large defects
and medium operating speeds, most methods of detection
will work satisfactorily but at low speeds with small defects, Fig 1 Sketch o f cross section o f rotating outer rig. B is the
problems arise; Ray 1 describes work at ISVR on measure- bearing under test, P is the drive pulley and the spindle is
ments at low speeds and discusses the difficulties which loaded axially with dead weights
arise. The inherent problem is the detection of signals
w
from the bearing damage in the presence of high levels
of vibration from other sources.
This article describes experimental results obtained from
investigations which compared methods at very low speeds
and attempts to explain the results.

Test set-up
Two rigs were used, the first an 'inside-out' rig with
stationary inner and rotating outer and the second with
conventional stationary outer. The objective of the set-up
with inner fixed was to detect vibrations generated at
contact between balls and inner before transmission W
through the balls and outer contact. Attention was con- Fig 2 Sketch o f cross section o f rotating inner rig. B is the
centrated on the inner-ball contact since this is normally bearing under test, P is the drive pulley and cords apply
where defects first occur and detection of outer-ball dead loads at W
contact problems is relatively easy. Figs 1 and 2 show
cross-sections of the rigs, both being driven by plain belts
from a variable speed eddy-current drive.
On the first rig, accelerometers were mounted as near as
possible to the bearing and on the pedestal base but on the
conventional set-up a high frequency accelerometer,
a shock pulse transducer and an acoustic emission trans-
ducer were fixed near the outer ring of the bearing;
subsequently strain gauges were also bonded onto the
housing; Fig 3 shows the second rig.
Accurate measurements of speed and relative position
were made by using reflective photocell detectors to
give exact once-per-revolution markers on the cage as
well as the supported member. In addition, a small
back-to-back gear test rig was mounted on the same base
to provide a typical background 'noise' from drive motor
and gears when required.

*University Engineering Department, Trumpington Street,

Cambridge, UK, CB2 1PZ Fig 3 View o f transducers on rotating inner rig

TRIBOLOGY international June 1982 0301-679X/82/030139-06 $03.00 1982 Butterworth & Co (Publishers) Ltd 139
Smith - Vibration m o n i t o r i n g o f bearings at Io w speeds
The bearing under test was a high quality angular contact
bearing of 17 mm bore, an SNFA.ED17.7CEI; this type
of bearing was chosen because the inner ring can be with-
drawn for inspection or alteration without disturbing the
cage, balls or outer. Axial loads were applied using a system
of dead weights which ranged from 200 kg down to 10 kg.
Predictions
Theories seem to be of little help in predicting what is
likely to occur when a ball encounters a small defect in
the track. A defect of the order of 20/am wide is smaller
than the width of the contact patch which might typically
be 50/am. At about 1800 r/min, the cage speed relative to
the inner ring is of the order of 1 m/s so that the initial
encounter of the contact patch with the defect should
occur in about 20/as and the whole occurrence should
be over in 70 #s. The amplitude of displacement at a
transducer is probably only about 10 -13 m, far too small
for detection in the form of displacement or velocity but
at a frequency of 50 kHz, giving an acceleration of the
order of 0.01 m/s 2 which would be measurable. Since
frequencies are high, the use of jerk rather than accelera-
tion is likely to give a signal which is more easily detect-
able. 'Jerk' is defined as the third differential of displace-
ment and so is the rate of change of acceleration. With the
figures above, the jerk would be about 3 x 103 m/s 3 .
The 'shock pulse meter' approach 3 uses a piezo-electric
accelerometer which resonates at a frequency of about
35 kHz and unlike a conventional accelerometer is only
required to respond at resonance. An impulse reaching
the transducer should produce a standard damped single
degree of freedom response (as in Fig 8) and provided
that the impulse is of shorter duration than half a period
of the vibration the amplitude of response will be pro-
portional to the height of the impulse. In comparison,
a conventional accelerometer might resonate at about
25 kHz and its response would not be relied upon above
15 kHz; a high frequency accelerometer (120 kHz) would
be used up to about 80 kHz.
Use of jerk as a parameter is likely to give results which
are similar to those obtained from a shock pulse meter
(spm) since both should respond to the leading edge of a
pulse of acceleration, though there is a slight difference
in that jerk depends on the rate of rise of acceleration
whereas the spm depends ol]ly on the height of the
acceleration pulse, provided it is fast.
If there are fast pressure pulses occurring in the system
with rise times of the order of 10/as, conventional accelero-
meters will not respond correctly in theory since their
natural frequency is unlikely to be high enough. The
accelerometer used, a BJD A/03/W, has a natural frequency
of 120 kHz, but this is still not fast enough for a 5/as
pulse, so in addition, an acoustic emission (ae) transducer
S1000BM was fitted. Acoustic emission transducers are
piezo-electric devices, similar to accelerometers, but with
natural frequencies very much higher since the force-
sensitive crystal carries no additional mass; constructional
details are not usually published by the manufacturers.
Such transducers respond up to 1 MHz without difficulty,
but their response below 200 kHz is uncertain. Sensitivity
is low and, although the transducers are calibrated in terms
of pressure of the incident stress waves, they appear to
respond to high frequency displacement of the surface
on which they are mounted.
140
Frequency analysis techniques are unlikely to be sensitive
since the contact between damage and ball opposite a
transducer occurs for about 100 ps in 100 ms. As the
vibration only occurs for about a thousandth of the total
time, even if it is 6 dB greater in amplitude than the back-
ground noise level, the average power level will be about
24 dB lower than the background and hence not detect-
able. Under these conditions, the normal approach is to
use signal averaging, but this technique will not work
satisfactorily because a variation in speed of only one
part in 10 000 is sufficient to give signal cancellation
instead of averaging when the period of the signal is
only 20 #s and a revolution takes 100 ms.
Another problem occurs with a conventional set-up with
rotating inner ring because the signal does not repeat at
once-per-revolution. The coincidence between ball and
inner occurs at a different position in space each revolu-
tion and so not only does the vibration not repeat exactly
at once-per-revolution but the physical path and hence
the transmissibility between source and pick-up varies 2 .
Experimental results
Initial tests used the inside-out rig and quickly showed
that there was no advantage in using a normal size accelero-
meter instead of a high frequency accelerometer so that all
subsequent testing used accelerometers with 120 kHz
natural frequency.
Conventional frequency analyses of the measured accelera-
tion, with and without a small scratch on the inner track,
gave results as shown in Fig 4. Tests at varying speeds and
loads gave the expected but discouraging information that
there was no significant difference between scratched
and undamaged bearings when simple frequency analysis
was used. Tests were made over a wide frequency range
by using a recorder capable of 300 kHz and analysing at
low as well as high speed.
The only useful deduction from the frequency analyses
was that there appeared to be relatively high vibration
over a band at about 50 kHz as well as some at 10 kHz.
Detailed inspection of the traces was of much more interest
as it showed small 'bursts' of acceleration which occurred
for only about 0.1 ms each revolution. Fig 5 shows a very
typical 'burst' with a few cycles of vibration at 50 kHz
standing out clearly from a background vibration which
also contains 50 kHz.
Explanation of the 50 kHz frequency presented problems
since it seemed rather high for a ball resonance frequency;
in this mode the mass of the ball vibrates on its two contact
stiffnesses with negligible movement of the inner and outer
races. At this stage, there was a suspicion that the observed
'vibrations' might be due to pressure waves reflecting across
the diameter of the spindle and so all further tests were
carried out on the conventional rig as shown in Fig 2.
The change of test rig eliminated the previous 10 kHz
component but the 50 kHz component remained and
showed up consistently in the observed traces. If this
frequency were due to ball resonance it would suggest a
contact stiffness of about 5 x 107 N/m.
A series of comparative tests of the levels of peak 'burst'
signal and background signal were taken for a particular
bearing with a scratch to obtain an idea of the signal-to-
noise ratios for measurement of acceleration, jerk, shock
pulse and acoustic emission. In addition, the correspond-
TRIBOLOGY international June 1982
 Smith - Vibration m o n i t o r i n g o f bearings at Io w speeds

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Fig 4 Frequency analysis o f acceleration signals from bearing at 1850 r/min

Fig 5 Typical vibration trace from bearing showing a 'burst' o f vibration at 50 kHz. (a) is acceleration and (b) is jerk.
The traces are 1 ms long
ing levels were measured with the gear drive switched on,
giving vibration from gears and motor; as the gears were
spur gears the noise and vibration levels were relatively
high. Fig 6 summarises the results from these tests. Without
the background gear noise the signal-to-noise ratio for all
four methods at speed is much the same for the particular
damage chosen with a ratio of about 4:1. There is perhaps
a marginal advantage for jerk but it is not significant.
Large differences occur when gearset noise is also taken
into account. Peak accelerations due to the gears are
high and so it would not be possible to detect the scratch
below about 1000 r/min whereas the spin transducer
would still allow detection down to about 500 r[min by
visual inspection of the traces.
Acoustic emission, like acceleration, gives fairly high back-
ground levels and so could only be used down to about
1000 r/min whereas jerk would be possible down to
500 r/min.
On the basis of these results, we could conclude that with
a surface track damage of about 20/am in 20 mm,
ie 0.1%, it is not possible to detect damage with back-
ground vibration below speeds of the order of 500 r/min
even with the use of visual inspection of the traces. There
is little to choose on this basis between jerk and spm as
both show similar bursts of frequency and have similar
discrimination.
Attempts to run at very low speeds, even without gear
background vibration, soon encountered trouble as the
observed signal levels disappeared into the electrical noise
of the measurement systems. Even after preamplification
by factors of 10 or 100, the signals were 40 dB down on
the most sensitive range (0.1 V) on the tape recorder.
At this stage it was observed that the acoustic emission
transducer, although it was not detecting 50 kHz bursts
of vibration when speeds were low, was responding at
once-per-revolution of the bearing. A check confirmed
that the position of the response was correct in relation
to the damage and further detailed checks on the traces
showed that every time a ball encountered the defect
there was a response on the ae transducer with larger
responses occurring when the contact was near the
transducer.
The form of the response was puzzling since the trans-
ducer was responding to once-per-ball distortions in the
casing at frequencies as low as 1 Hz and showing clearly
when defects occurred for periods of the order of 50 ms.

TRIBOLOGY international June 1982 141

Smith - Vibration m o n i t o r i n g o f bearings at Io w speeds

ae transducers are not supposed to respond to frequencies
as low as these and certainly should not respond to dis-
placements, pressures, or accelerations of the very low
amounts corresponding to the once-per-ball travelling
wave which slightly distorts the bearing housing.
In an attempt to clarify what was occurring, strain gauges
were fitted to the bearing housing to see if they would
respond in the same manner as the ae transducer. How-
ever, no conditions were found where there was any
visible response from the strain gauges; they showed neither
the once-per-ball wave nor the defect pulses. Investigation
of a velocity signal obtained by integrating the acceleration
also gave no evidence of pulses from the defect but showed
vibration at once-per-ball frequency. Figs 7(a) and (b) show
traces taken simultaneously of ae and velocity from a
slightly damaged bearing at 60 r/min (17 mm bore). Both
Fig 6 Comparative levels o f peak signal, P, and average rms
signal, A, for an arbitrary defect on a bearing. Bearing
internal diameter 17 ram. The horizontal line, G, is in each
case the background level o f vibration (peak) from a gear
drive running at 1600 r/rain. Both scales are logarithmic
with test speeds from 340 to 3750 r/rain and the ampli-
tudes quoted are for the signal from the transducer except
for the jerk signal which had a time constant o f differen-
tiation o/'2 x 10-6 s. Accelerometer sensitivity was
8 m V/g. (a) Acceleration, (b) shock pulse transducer,
(c) jerk and (d) acoustic emission
leo
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show the characteristic once-per-ball component but only
the ae shows the defect pulses.
There appeared to be no lower limit to the speed at which
the ae transducer responded to the defect. The lowest
speed tested was 10 r/min and the defects showed clearly.
As speed was increased, the visible effects reduced gradually
until it was no longer possible to see this particular defect
by about 300 r/min.
Discussion
The first point of interest was the form of the high
frequency vibration observed since the 'burst' did not occur
suddenly with the form expected, as shown in Fig 8, but
butt up over several cycles as in Fig 5. This occurred with
all systems regardless of variation in speed. As the signal
from the accelerometer is a good indication of the wave
reaching the spm, there appears to be a double filtering
effect with the sptn being excited by 50 kHz transients.
50 kHz appears to be a ball resonance frequency and it is
the initial transient from the 50 kHz which excites the
32 kHz response of the spm transducer.
Theoretically, since the signal-to-noise ratio of the jerk
signal is marginally better than that for the spm, the most
sensitive detection of faults would occur if the 50 kHz
from the defect were detected by a 50 kHz mechanical
or electrical tuned system. However, in practice, the ball
p /(
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142 T R I BO L O G Y i n t e r n a t i o n a l J u n e 1 9 8 2
 Smith - Vibration monitoring o f bearings at low speeds

II

b
Fig 7 Traces at low speed from (a) acoustic emission and (b) velocity. Bearing bore 17 mm, speed 60 r/min. Each section
corresponds to about 2 revolutions

resonance frequency is not known and may vary with

operating conditions. It thus appears that the spin method
is the best method for normal operating conditions unless
we have very sophisticated processing facilities which can
determine and respond to varying ball resonance
frequencies. Human inspection of vibration traces can do
this but it is rather laborious.
The technique of band pass filtering to select the 'best'
frequencies, followed by 'enveloping' and subsequent
power spectrum analysis is described by Ray 1 . The final
power spectrum analysis is to check whether the 'bursts'
are occurring at once-per-ball frequency, indicating damage
on the outer track, or at approximately once per revolution
frequency indicating damage on the inner. Unfortunately
the latter is not exact, due to the variable ball position and
Fig 8 Expected shape of vibration pulse due to small defect
the resulting speed of intervals between 'bursts' gives a
10% fluctuation. This technique is probably slightly
improved if jerk is used instead of acceleration, as signal
to noise ratios are much better. The circuit for measuring
jerk is more basic and more stable than that for measuring
acceleration so that experimentation is simplified; a simple
operational amplifier with resistor feedback is all that is
required.

TRIBOLOGY international June 1982 143

Smith - Vibration monitoring of bearings at Iow speeds
At very low speeds with small amounts of damage, back-
ground noise, whether mechanical or electrical has sub-
merged the high frequency signals; Ray I quotes a speed
as low as 25 r/min with 2% outer track damage on 31 mm
diameter as a possibility for detection using the sophisti-
cated techniques described above. The surprising possibility
in this very low speed range is the use of an ae transducer
since there is a clear signal. At 10 r/min on a 17 mm bore
with 0.1% track damage the presence of a defect showed
very clearly regardless of whether there was background
noise and vibration from a gear rig running at 1200 r/min
with spur gears. As this represents an order of improve-
ment over the conventional methods, it is of considerable
interest.
Since ae transducers, like accelerometers, should not
respond to these low amplitude, low frequency signals,
any response must be due to a 'side-effect' which in this
case is probably a response due to base strain. Accelero-
meters are carefully designed to be insensitive to base
strain, usually by using crystals in shear instead of
compression, and stud mounting helps to prevent base
bending being transmitted to the transducer. The ae trans-
ducer used is rather small for stud fitting and so is bonded
to the surface with instant adhesive and does not use a
shear design due to the very small size and high frequency
response required.
The hypothesis that base bending strain was giving a
response led to the deduction that strain gauges on the
housing might give a similar response and might be less
susceptible to attachment methods so a crossed pair of
gauges was fitted, with one gauge responding to hoop
stress round the housing and the other gauge oriented
axially for temperature compensation. No visible response
from the gauges was observed despite clear signals from
the ae transducer;the sensitivity of measurement corres-
ponded to strains of about a tenth of a microstrain; ball
passing frequency was not visible either.
An alternative approach was to measure the radial velocity
of the bearing housing since it was known that this showed
ball passing frequency. The traces obtained showed ball
frequency but not defect pulses. This information was
potentially interesting because it would allow deduction
of the size of the ball frequency travelling wave and hence
the possible levels of strain in the surface due to the wave.
Unfortunately, checking amplitudes showed that the
observed 'velocity' signal obtained by integrating the
accelerometer output corresponded to an unrealistic
0.3 mm displacement at the bearing housing. The conclu-
sion to be drawn was that like the ae transducer, the
accelerometer was giving an output due to base strain
instead of acceleration but that the overall effect was
not the same due to the different fixing method and the
smoothing effect of the integration. Rechecking with the
acceleration signal at low speed showed that there was
no significant defect response in the original signal so
the difference could not be attributed to the integration.
Estimates of possible housing strains due to the ball
contacts are not likely to be accurate since the stress
system is complex and ball spacing is small compared
with the housing thickness. The strains are at most about
1 microstrain and so minor variations in the load on a
ball are likely to be below one tenth of a microstrain.
144
This makes the lack of response of strain gauges reasonable
but suggests extreme sensitivity of the ae transducer to
local bending.
The inference that it is bending stresses which affect the
ae transducer is reinforced by the form of the traces which
show an upward deflection when a ball is directly under
the transducer and smaller downward deflections for the
coincidences either side.
Visual inspection of the traces, whether of medium speed
bursts or low speed ae, gave clear indications of which
observed responses were due to the defect and which
were random responses. Transferring the levels of
sophisticated detection logic used by a human to an
automatic system would not be easy since computers
cannot easily be programmed to be as sensitive to appear-
ance as humans.
Conclusions
Operation at medium speeds showed acceleration signals
which were dominated by relatively low frequency effects
from gears and background and so the use of jerk should
improve signal to noise ratios. High natural frequencies
should be used otherwise accelerometer resonances may
interfere with responses.
Jerk and spin approaches are very similar and give similar
results with good immunity to background noise. Jerk
requires much more sophisticated analysis than spm but
can then give a marginal improvement in detection.
Unexplainable results were obtained with an ae transducer
which gave clear outputs at very low speeds apparently
due to sensitivity to base bending.
A problem common to all methods was that of isolating
genuine defect pulses from spurious pulses. The signals
do not repeat exactly at once per revolution and so
simple averaging techniques cannot be used. Human
inspection of the vibration traces is very laborious but gives
good results; conventional frequency analysis techniques
cannot be used.
The techniques used for high precision, axially loaded,
angular contact bearings will be applied to radially loaded
deep groove industrial precision bearings to see the effects
of more localised loadings and rougher surfaces on the
signal to noise ratios and sensitivities. Investigations into
the reasons for the behaviour of the ae transducer should
allow the production of a transducer with known capa-
bilities for low speed defect detection.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the SRC for their support for
this work and the staff of the Cambridge University
Engineering Department, particularly F.L. Dolman,
for their efforts and much help.
References
1. Ray A.G. Monitoring Rolling Contact Bearings under Adverse
Conditions. L Mech. E. Conference on Vibrations in Rotating
Machinery, Churchill College, Cambridge, 1980, 187
2. HemmingsR.C. and Smith J.D. Information from Bearing
Vibration. Conference on Vibrations in Rotating Machinery.
I. Mech. E., Sept. 1976, 117
3. Brown P.J. Condition Monitoring of Rolling Element Bearings.
Noise Control Vibration and lnsulation, Feb. 1977, 41
T R I BO LOGY international June 1982