Vibration Characteristics in Ball Bearing due to Unbalanced Mass

Bearings are the critical element in an equipment, where rotary motions are mandate to full fill its operation. Condition at which the bearing fails to contribute its purpose, leads to system breakdown and hence a major setback in successful operation of the equipment. Monitoring and maintaining the continuous and uninterrupted operational condition of the bearing in a rotary system becomes primary task. Diagnosing and preventing the unexpected failure of bearing is a prime goal of the industrial personnel, for which they must have the information of the present working condition of the bearing. There are several ways to gauge the present working condition of the bearing, like knowing the vibrations, temperature and noise at the bearing, during its operation. In context with this, an experimental study is designed to simulate the actual shop floor condition to obtain the bearing vibration characteristics, influenced by the predefined parameters such as speed, mass and angular orientation of the mass with respect to shaft axis. The experimental study could be able to yield the bearing characteristic, operated under the combination of these parameters. The study supports the decision-making process in bearing failure analysis through vibration characteristics. Major Findings: The investigation is engrossed on finding the vibrational behavior of the ball bearing, subjected to combinations of speed, counter mass and angular position of the counter mass. The study enlightens on the supremacy of axial and tangential accelerations due to counter mass and its angular location from the shaft axis.