Model Development for Investigation of Localized Defects in Taper Roller Bearings Using Matrix Method of Dimensional Analysis

Catastrophic failures of the rotating machineries can be avoided by tracing the faults generated in the rolling contact bearings used for supporting these machines and are important sources of noise, vibration as well as sudden stoppage of the entire production or interruption of processes. A generalized model is developed using Matrix Method of Dimensional Analysis (MMDA) to establish dimensionless correlation between the response and consequence parameters for the assessment of localized surface defects in the different components of taper roller bearings tested on a developed test rig. Response surface methodology (RSM) is employed for the experimentation and to explore the dependence of various factors on the vibrations of these bearings. A numerical analysis performed in the study showed the effectiveness of MMDA model along with frequency domain scrutiny of the vibration data for detection of localized bearing defects.