Design and Fabrication of a Test Rig for a New Approach on Health Monitoring of Roller Bearings Using Acoustic Emission

This thesis presents the design, fabrication and initial testing of a bearing test rig which uses acoustic emission (AE) for fault detection and health monitoring. The method used for the acquisition and processing of the AE signal is a new approach utilizing an encoder to place the data measured within the rotation of the bearing being tested, effectively aligning the phase for each revolution of the test bearing. The design and fabrication of the test rig is presented along with the method for the acquisition of the data and its processing. Series of bearing tests are performed and described with preliminary analysis. Surface plots and intensity images of the data are constructed and discussed. Results are presented with the intent for the research to be easily continued. The method described has the ability to eliminate phase related issues of rotational machinery when performing data processing and offers a way to present a visualization of the data for analysis of the test bearing condition. The results indicate that the method offers more detailed information regarding the condition of bearings than traditional trend based analysis. The design and fabrication of the test rig along with the description of the method for data acquisition and processing should be helpful for those who intend to implement testing facilities for rolling element bearings.Ranní