A Systematic Sensor-Placement Strategy for Enhanced Defect Detection in Rolling Bearings

This paper presents a systematic approach to determining optimal sensor locations with the goal to improve data-acquisition quality and the effectiveness in machine condition monitoring. The presented method ranks an initial set of candidate sensor locations based on their respective effective-independence (EfI) value, which is a measure for the contribution of each location to the measurement data matrix. Through an iterative procedure, locations having relatively low EfI values are progressively eliminated from the candidate set. The remaining locations with high EfI values have shown to be more effective in providing sensing coverage of the machine component being monitored. The method was applied to selecting locations for four accelerometers to monitor a rolling element bearing with a localized defect. Experimental tests have confirmed the effectiveness of the method in improving sensing quality