Estimation of rolling bearing life with damage curve approach

The ability to determine the bearing life time is one of the main purposes in maintenance of rotating machineries. Because of reliability, cost and productivity, the bearing life time prognostic is important. In this paper, a stiffness-based prognostic model for bearing systems is discussed. According to presumed model of bearing and fundamental of damage mechanics, damage curve approach is used to relate stiffness of vibratory system and bearing running life. Furthermore, using the relation between acceleration amplitude at natural frequency and stiffness, final relation between acceleration amplitude at natural frequency and running life time according to damage curve approach can be established and the final running time is predicted. Experiments have been performed on self alignment bearing under failures on inner race and outer race to calibrate and to validate the proposed model. The comparison between model-calculated data and experimental results indicates that this model can be used effectively to predict the failure lifetime and the remaining life of a bearing system.