Characterization of bearing health in a noisy environment using vibroacoustic approach

The bearing fault detection localized at outer race on a rotating machine operating in the same environment with another machine (whose wind tunnel generates a different noise) is investigated using acoustic and vibration analysis. The impact of increased acoustic and vibratory background noise on outer race defect detection is studied through spectral kurtogram representation and envelope analysis. The spectral power densities of these two types of noise clearly show that the nature of their associated radiation (airborne or solid-borne) has a different impact. The presence of a strongly amplified background noise demonstrates that the acoustic modality can detect the outer race defect peak at higher levels than the vibratory modality.