Distributed bearing fault diagnosis based on vibration analysis

•Distributed faults can be distinguished from localized via vibration analysis.•Under distributed fault sidebands of BPFO/I are multiples of FTF.•Randomness of ball diameter is the cause of observed modulations.•Distributed and localized faults differ in the presence of these modulations.

Distributed bearing faults appear under various circumstances, for example due to electroerosion or the progression of localized faults. Bearings with distributed faults tend to generate more complex vibration patterns than those with localized faults. Despite the frequent occurrence of such faults, their diagnosis has attracted limited attention. This paper examines a method for the diagnosis of distributed bearing faults employing vibration analysis. The vibrational patterns generated are modeled by incorporating the geometrical imperfections of the bearing components. Comparing envelope spectra of vibration signals shows that one can distinguish between localized and distributed faults. Furthermore, a diagnostic procedure for the detection of distributed faults is proposed. This is evaluated on several bearings with naturally born distributed faults, which are compared with fault-free bearings and bearings with localized faults. It is shown experimentally that features extracted from vibrations in fault-free, localized and distributed fault conditions form clearly separable clusters, thus enabling diagnosis.