A simulation study of defects in a rolling element bearing using FEA

An internal impact usually happens when there is a small defect in one part of rolling bearings. The Fault signal from this impact is always masked by different noises such as strong vibrations from other parts and the random noise of instrumentation, which makes it difficult to extract an accurate feature signal for early fault diagnosis. In this paper, a simulation study is conducted using the method of finite element analysis (FEA) to understand the vibration characteristics from the small impact. The vibration responses have been modelled based on a typical bearing assembly. Common faults including outer ring defect, inner ring defect and rolling ball defect are simulated and their vibration responses are compared between different faults and at different locations in the bearing housing. The results obtained have shown that under the same defect size, the vibration from the outer ring is the highest whereas that from the rolling ball is the smallest. In addition the vibration close to the mounting hole attenuates considerably compared to that close to outer ring. These findings provide fundamental information to place vibration sensors and to analyse vibration signals.