Vibration analysis based on the spectrum kurtosis for adjustment and monitoring of ball bearing radial clearance

Vibration signal analysis is a common tool to detect bearing condition. Effective methods of vibration signal analysis should extract useful information for bearing condition monitoring and fault diagnosis. Spectral kurtosis (SK) represents one valuable tool for these purposes. The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between bearing clearance and bearing vibration frequencies based on SK method. It also reveals the effect of the bearing clearance on the bearing vibration characteristic frequencies This enables adjustment of bearing clearance in situ, which could significantly affect the performance of the bearings. Furthermore, the application of the proposed method using SK on the measured data offers useful information for predicting bearing clearance change. Bearing vibration data recorded at various clearance settings on a floating and a fixed bearing mounted on a shaft are the basis of this study