Design of Fiber Bragg Grating Sensor for Eccentricity Measurements in Ball Bearings

This study reports a novel, cost effective method to measure the eccentricity and vibration of a ball bearings by using fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors in electrical and mechanical motors. It will help to monitor the health condition of the motors. Bearings are playing a major role in industry, and it directly depends on smooth working of machine without any vibration and breakdown. Usually, health monitoring of rotating machines is done by sensing the vibration signals from the machine. This study provides an analysis of the bearing faults based on the sensor axial strain information obtained from the FBG sensors. Vibration study has been done for both healthy and defected bearings with designed 3-D printed sensor module. Different rpm tests are performed on the motor for vibrational analysis. Furthermore, hammering experiments are done on the sensor module to study resonant frequency characteristics of the sensor.