Advances and Challenges in Non-Contact Acoustic Signal-Based Bearing Fault Diagnosis: A Review

Bearings are core components of rotating machinery, and the development of precise and efficient fault diagnosis technologies is of paramount importance for realizing early warning and accurate localization of faults. This paper briefly analyzes bearing fault mechanisms and provides a comprehensive review and critical commentary on the research progress of bearing fault diagnosis methods, outlining future development trends. Specifically, this study begins by introducing common bearing fault types and reviewing the advancements in fault signal acquisition techniques. Subsequently, it categorizes fault diagnosis methods based on vibration signals and critically evaluates their respective research methodologies. Furthermore, focusing on non-contact acoustic signal diagnosis, the paper summarizes mainstream technical pathways for acoustic signal denoising and highlights innovative applications of deep-learning models tailored to acoustic characteristics. Finally, addressing the urgent demands for industrial deployment, future research directions are projected from three perspectives: the deep integration of physics-driven and data-driven multi-modal fusion, interpretable diagnosis assisted by Large Language Models (LLMs), and lightweight engineering deployment. This work aims to provide a reference for constructing an all-scenario intelligent monitoring system.