Full-circle localization diagnosis of rolling bearing outer ring defects based on double-vibration signal fusion

Localization diagnosis (LD) of rolling bearing outer ring defects plays an important role in failure cause analysis and residual life prediction. This study aims to solve three main issues in the existing LD methods. Firstly, a full-circle functional relationship between outer ring defect and localization index is established based on the dynamics simulation analysis of bearing system. Secondly, the generation mechanism and solution method of the positioning datum are determined using a novel finite element transient dynamic model. Furthermore, variation law of the initial direction of the fault impact under different angular positions is investigated. Lastly, a general localization rule applicable to outer ring defects in the full-circle range is proposed. Therefore, a full-circle localization formula for outer ring defects based on the characteristic fusion of horizontal–vertical signals is proposed. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed localization formula. Additionally, a morphological filter for LD is investigated to resolve the diagnostic error caused by noise interference in the actual signal. Experimental results show that the presented method can considerably improve diagnostic accuracy.