Bearing Localized Defect Detection by Bicoherence Analysis of Vibrations

Abstract

For automatic detection and diagnosis of localized defects in rolling element bearings, bicoherence spectra are used to derive features that signify the condition of a bearing. These features quantitatively describe the degree of phase correlation among any three harmonics of bearing characteristic defect frequencies. In this paper, theory of bicoherence is explored to establish its utilization in the detection of bearing localized defects. Experimental results show that the proposed method is effective in bearing defect detection and sensitive to incipient defects.