Influence of the local defect distribution on vibration characteristics of ball bearings

Local defects in ball bearings may occur at the center line of raceway and its surrounding areas. However, most current studies were concentrated in studying the influence of the local defect located at the centerline of raceway on the bearing vibrations, where the effects of local defects surround the centerline were ignored. To overcome this problem, based on Hertzian point contact theory and multi-body dynamic algorithm, a multi-body dynamic model considering the offset and angular distributions for a ball bearing with a local defect on its outer raceway is established. The influences of offset distance and skew angle between the geometric center of local defect and the centerline of outer raceway on the bearing vibrations are investigated. The relationship between the offset distance and the impulse waveform characteristics is obtained, as well as that between the skew angle and the impulse waveform characteristics. The results show that the offset distance and skew angle of the local defect have a great influence on the time-domain impulse waveform characteristics of the bearing accelerations. This paper can provide a useful guidance for the accurate diagnosis of early local fault in the ball bearings.