Comparison of denoising methods for the early detection of fatigue bearing defects by vibratory analysis

The aim of this article is to show the interest of three major denoising methods for the improvement of the sensitivity of scalar indicators (crest factor, kurtosis) within the application of conditional maintenance by vibratory analysis on ball bearings. The case of a bearing in good condition of use is considered. The distribution of amplitudes in the vibratory signal is of the Gaussian kind. When the bearing is damaged, the appearance of spalling comes to disturb this signal, modifying this distribution. This modification is due to the presence of periodical impulses produced each time a rolling element meets a discontinuity on its way. Nevertheless, the presence of background noise induced by random impulse excitations can have an influence on the values of these temporal indicators. The denoising of these signals allows to improve the sensitivity of these indicators and to increase the reliability of the diagnosis.