Bearing Fault Diagnosis Based on Chaotic Dynamic Errors in Key Components

Ball bearings are one of the most common components used in rotating machines. They reduce the rotational friction between the shaft and fixed components and maintain the center line of rotation of the shaft. A damaged bearing will cause abnormal vibration and noise, and often results in machine failure and loss of production. In this study the public database on ball bearings, provided by the Vibration Institute of Machinery Failure Prevention Technology (MFPT), was used for data retrieval and analysis, and a diagnosis model was created according to the data sets of the bearing in the database. Three different approaches were used for the extraction of features and a classifier was used to implement a diagnostic system. The aim of this study was a comparison of three approaches. The first was the Short-time Fourier Transform (STFT) where the time-frequency domain image is extracted as the feature used for status identification. The second and third approaches were based on the Chen-Lee Chaotic and the Lorenz Chaotic Systems and chaotic dynamic error maps were used in analysis and feature status identification. Chaotic systems are particularly sensitive to the slightest changes in input signals, and the time domain signals from bearings in different conditions were mapped onto individual images. The feature images extracted by the three different approaches were then used for training and verification in a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). From the results of the experiments, it can be seen that all three approaches gave high identification rates. The interactive verification identification rate of the Chen-Lee chaotic system with CNN under three statuses reached 98.33%, and it also had the best computational efficiency in the condition without losing any classification accuracy. This will make a substantial contribution to real-time ball bearing fault diagnosis.