A quantitative estimation method of ball bearing localized defect size based on vibration instantaneous energy analysis

The quantitative evaluation of bearing damage size is of great significance for accurately predicting the remaining useful life of bearing. Existing studies have shown that rolling elements will produce corresponding vibration features when they enter and leave localized defects, and these features are the premise of accurately estimating the defect size. This paper presents an accurate quantitative estimation method of bearing localized defect size based on vibration instantaneous energy analysis. The time interval of rolling element entry and exit the damaged area is determined by analysing the instantaneous energy of fault impulse. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by the experiments of different defect sizes of the outer race and inner race at various speeds. Besides, the proposed method has higher accuracy compared with the conventional methods, which provides a new idea for fast and convenient estimation of the ball bearing localized defect size.