A review of vibration and acoustic measurement methods for the detection of defects in rolling element bearings

A review of vibration and acoustic measurement methods for the detection of defects in rolling element bearings is presented in this paper. Detection of both localized and distributed categories of defect has been considered. An explanation for the vibration and noise generation in bearings is given. Vibration measurement in both time and frequency domains along with signal processing techniques such as the high-frequency resonance technique have been covered. Other acoustic measurement techniques such as sound pressure, sound intensity and acoustic emission have been reviewed. Recent trends in research on the detection of defects in bearings, such as the wavelet transform method and automated data processing, have also been included. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.