Test Investigation and Rule Analysis of Bearing Fault Diagnosis in Induction Motors

Zhiyong Zhou (), Junzhong Sun, Wei Cai and Wen Liu
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Zhiyong Zhou: Department of Electromechanical Power, PLA Navy Submarine Academy, Qingdao 266042, China
Junzhong Sun: Department of Electromechanical Power, PLA Navy Submarine Academy, Qingdao 266042, China
Wei Cai: Department of Electromechanical Power, PLA Navy Submarine Academy, Qingdao 266042, China
Wen Liu: Department of Electromechanical Power, PLA Navy Submarine Academy, Qingdao 266042, China

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 2, 1-13

Abstract: In this paper, a series of tests were conducted on the bearings of induction motors to investigate vibration signal analysis-based diagnosis of bearing faults, and a thorough analysis was also conducted. In the engineering field, the kurtosis coefficient of vibration acceleration and the root mean square of vibration velocity, as well as resonant demodulated spectrum analysis of vibration acceleration, have been widely used for bearing fault diagnosis. These are integrated in almost any commercially available device for diagnosing bearing faults. However, the unsuitable use of these devices results in many false diagnoses. In light of this, they were selected as research objects and were investigated experimentally. In three induction motors, faults of different severity in the bearing outer race and cage were modeled for tests, and the corresponding results were used to evaluate the performance of the selected diagnosis methods. Some vague information in engineering was clarified, and some instructive rules were outlined to improve the bearing fault diagnosis performance. Taking the kurtosis coefficient of vibration acceleration ( K u ) as an example, in engineering, K u = 4 is generally taken as the diagnostic threshold of bearing faults. This means the following rule applies: if K u ≤ 4, the bearing is healthy; otherwise, the bearing is faulty. However, the test results in this paper show that even if K u ≤ 4, the bearing might be faulty; if K u > 4, the bearing is indeed faulty. Therefore, the diagnostic rule should be improved as follows: if K u > 4, the bearing is faulty (which can be assured), and if K u ≤ 4, the status of the bearing is still undetermined. Thus, this paper can be helpful for researchers to gain an experimental understanding of the selected diagnosis methods and provides some improved rules on their use for reducing false diagnoses.

Keywords: induction motor; bearing fault; outer race fault; cage fault; diagnosis method; test investigation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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