Preliminary investigation on bearing fault analysis in three phase induction motor by MEMS accelerometer

This paper proposes a simple method to detect single point defect in inner race of the bearing of smaller horse power induction motor by employing motor vibration and current signals. Experimental investigations have been carried out under no load, full load and unbalance voltage conditions. The effect of inner race bearing fault on the air gap length modulation has been investigated. The spectral analysis of both vibration and current signal has been carried out by using radix-2 decimation in time fast Fourier transform (DIT-FFT) algorithm. The results of both the methods are compared with theoretical values and found to be closely matching. This indicates that proposed method can be used as an alternative to conventional vibration and current signature analysis for condition monitoring of bearings.