Tribology International 40 (2007) 763769

Bearing fault detection using wavelet packet transform

of induction motor stator current
Jafar Zarei, Javad Poshtan

Department of Electrical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Narmak 16846, Tehran, Iran
Received 27 November 2005; received in revised form 10 April 2006; accepted 19 July 2006
Available online 20 September 2006
Abstract
Induction motor vibrations, caused by bearing defects, result in the modulation of the stator current. In this research, bearing defect is
detected using the stator current analysis via Meyer wavelet in the wavelet packet structure, with energy comparison as the fault index.
The advantage of this method is in the detection of incipient faults. The presented method is evaluated using experimental signals. Sets of
data are gathered before and after using defective bearings. Compared to conventional methods, the superiority of the proposed method
is shown in the success of fault detection.
r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Wavelet packet transform; Induction motor; Bearing; Fault detection
1. Introduction
Electrical motors are the majority of the industry prime
movers and are the most popular for their reliability and
simplicity of construction [1].
Since the apparatus driven by induction motors has
important role in industry, their safety, reliability, ef-
ciency and performance are highly considered by engineers.
Although induction motors are reliable, they are subjected
to some failures. Therefore in the past two decades, there
has been substantial amount of research to provide new
condition monitoring techniques for induction motors
mostly based on analyzing vibration signals, and hence
many commercial tools are available in this area [13].
Recent studies show that more than 40% of induction
motor failures are related to bearings. Therefore, this type
of fault must be detected as soon as possible to avoid fatal
breakdowns of machines that may lead to loss of
production. Bearing defects may be categorized as dis-
tributed or local [4]. Distributed defects include surface
roughness, waviness, misaligned races and off-size rolling
elements. Localized defects include cracks, pits and spalls
on the rolling surfaces. The dominant mode of failure in
rolling element bearings is spalling of the races or the
rolling elements. Localized defects generate a series of
impact vibrations every time a running roller passes over
the surface of a defect. Therefore, vibration analysis is a
conventional method for bearing fault detection. Although
vibration analysis has been used for mechanical fault
detection for many decades, more recent studies on
induction motors concentrate on monitoring electrical
signals such as stator current [5]. Because the vibration
produced by defect is also modulated on the stator current,
and this signal can be easily measured for condition
monitoring and control purposes, Motor Current Signa-
ture Analysis provides a non-intrusive approach to obtain
information about bearing health using already available
line current.
Time, frequency, and timefrequency domain analysis
methods are used to analyze vibration signals [4]. However,
frequency and timefrequency domain analyses are often
used to analyze stator current signals [5,6]. Time domain
methods such as RMS and Crest Factor have achieved
limited success for the detection of localized defects [4].
Some statistical properties, such as Kurtosis also has been
used in the time domain. Kurtosis is the fourth moment,
ARTICLE IN PRESS
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0301-679X/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.triboint.2006.07.002

Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 21 772 40492; fax: +98 21 772 40490.
E-mail addresses: jzarei@iust.ac.ir (J. Zarei), jposhtan@iust.ac.ir
(J. Poshtan).
normalized with respect to the fourth power of standard
deviation. Kurtosis has not become a very popular method
in industry for the condition monitoring of bearings;
however, it has been suggested to measure kurtosis in
selected frequency bands [4].
Frequency analysis methods using vibration and current
signals are developed extensively for bearing fault detec-
tion. FFT is the simplest frequency domain analysis
method [5]. The Combination of FFT and Envelope
methods using vibration analysis has shown successful
application in industry [4]. This method is the examination
of high-frequency resonances caused by fault in the
spectrum of the signal. Because the impact vibration
generated by a bearing fault has relatively low energy, it
is often overwhelmed by noise with higher energy and
vibration generated from other macrostructural compo-
nents. Therefore, it is difcult to identify the bearing fault
in the spectra using conventional FFT methods.
In order to overcome FFT problems, recent advanced
signal processing methods such as Short-Time-Fourier-
Transform, WignerVille and wavelet analysis have been
used. In [7], wavelet transform using vibration signal is
used to detect inner and outer race defects independently
and in conjunction with each other. In [8], using wavelet
packet transform and Daubechies 12 wavelet analysis of
vibration signal, faults have been detected on the inner and
outer races of bearing.
In this study, stator current analysis via Meyer mother
wavelet function, because of high resolution, in wavelet
packet structure is used in stator current analysis for
induction motor bearing fault detection. In this regard, the
paper will appear as follows: a brief review of wavelet and
wavelet packet transform theory is explained in Sections 2
and 3, respectively. Fault detection algorithm via WPT is
described in Section 4, and mother wavelet selection for
this application is discussed in Section 5. The experimental
results, given in Section 6, show the success of the proposed
algorithm in detecting rings defect.
2. A review of wavelet transform theory
The continuous wavelet transform of nite-energy
signals f t 2 L
2
r with the analyzing wavelet c(t), is
the convolution of f(t) with a scaled and conjugated
wavelet [9]:
W
f
a; b
_
1
1
f t
1

a
p c

t a
b
_ _
dt, (1)
where c(t) is the wavelet function, a and b are the dilation
and translation respectively. The factor 1=

a
p
is used for
energy preservation. Eq. (1) indicates that wavelet analysis
is a timefrequency analysis, or more properly termed a
time-scaled analysis.
Since continuous a and b cause computational complex-
ity, usually the discrete forms are used. A useful selection
is a 2
j
and b k2
j
, where k and j are integer values.
This wavelet system is called dyadic wavelet transform.
Therefore, wavelet transform is obtained by:
W
f
j; k
_
1
1
f t2
j=2
c

2
j
t k dt. (2)
Discrete wavelet analysis can be implemented by scaling
lter h(n), which is a low-pass lter related to the scaling
function f(t), and the wavelet lter g(n), which is a high-
pass lter related to the wavelet function c(t):
f
j
t

k
hk2
j1=2
f2
j1
t k, (3)
c
j
t

k
gk2
j1=2
f2
j1
t k. (4)
The basic step of a fast wavelet algorithm is illustrated in
Fig. 1 which can be implemented in two opposite
directions: decomposition and reconstruction. In the
decomposition step, the discrete signal f is convolved with
a low-pass lter L and a high-pass lter H, resulting in two
vectors cA
1
and cD
1
. The elements of the vector cA
1
are
called approximation coefcients, and the elements of
vector cD
1
are called detailed coefcients. The symbol k2
denotes down sampling.
3. Wavelet packet transform
The classical two-band wavelet transform results in a
logarithmic frequency resolution [10]. The low frequencies
have narrow bandwidths and the high frequencies have
wide bandwidths, as illustrated in Fig. 2. Therefore, the low
frequencies are investigated with ner resolution, while
wide bandwidth at high frequencies results in a poor
resolution. The wavelet packet system is a generalization
of wavelet transform, in which at all stages both the low-
pass and high-pass bands are split. Therefore, it can
allow a ner adjustable resolution of frequencies at high
ARTICLE IN PRESS
2
f
L
H 2
cA
1
cD
1
2 L
H 2
cA
1
cD
1
f
Fig. 1. Basic steps of decomposition and reconstruction of the wavelet
transform lter bank.
0
8 4 2
v
0
w
0
w
1
w
2
H

(

Fig. 2. Frequency bands for two-band wavelet transform.

J. Zarei, J. Poshtan / Tribology International 40 (2007) 763769 764
frequencies. It also gives a rich structure that allows
adaptation to particular signals or signal classes. The cost
of this richer structure is a computational complexity of
O(Nlog
2
(N)), similar to the FFT, in contrast to the
classical wavelet transform which is O(N) [10].
If the conjugate mirror lters h and g have nite impulse
responses of size K, it has been proved that f c
0
0
has a
compact support of size K1, hence:
c
2p
j1

1
n1
hnc
p
j
t 2
j
n; 0opo2
j
1,
c
2p1
j1

1
n1
gnc
p
j
t 2
j
n; 0opo2
j
1. 5
The frequency localization of wavelet packets is more
complicated to analyze. The Fourier transform of (5)
proves that the Fourier transforms of wavelet packet
children are related to their parent by:
^
c
2p
j1

^
h2
j
o
^
c
p
j
o,
^
c
2p1
j1
^ g2
j
o
^
c
p
j
o. 6
The energy of
^
c
p
j
is mostly concentrated over a frequency
band and the two lters
^
h2
j
o and ^ g2
j
o select the lower
or higher frequency components within this band.
The resulting three-scale analysis tree (three-stage tree) is
illustrated in Fig. 3. The delicate point is to realize that
h(2
j
o) does not always play the role of a low-pass lter
because of the side lobes that are brought into the interval
[p, p] by the dilation. Therefore, unlike Wavelet Trans-
form, frequency order is not the same as the node
order. Coifman and Wickerhauser have a proposition to
arrange nodes at depth j, proportional to the frequency
intervals [9].
WPT coefcients at each stage are computed by:
d
2k
j1
n d
k
j
n h2n; 0oko2
j
1, (7)
d
2k1
j1
n d
k
j
n g2n; 0oko2
j
1. (8)
In wavelet tree, scale parameter (depth) is demonstrated
by j, and frequency parameter (nodes) by 2k and 2k+1.
Coefcient energy at each node is computed by:
E

M
k1
d
p
j
k
2
M
_ _
1=2
. (9)
where M is the number of samples at the node.
4. Fault detection algorithm
Local defects or wear defects cause periodic impulses in
vibration signal. Amplitude and period of these impulses
are determined by shaft rotational speed, fault location,
and bearing dimensions. The frequency of these impulses,
considering different fault locations as in Fig. 4 are
obtained by (10)(13) [4].
Fundamental cage frequency is given by:
f
c

f
s
2
1
d
D
cosa
_ _
. (10)
Ball defect frequency is two times the ball spin frequency
and can be calculated as:
f
bd

D
d
f
s
1
d
2
D
2
cos
2
a
_ _
. (11)
ARTICLE IN PRESS
f (t)
(0-125 Hz) (125-250 Hz) (375-500 Hz) (250-375 Hz) (750-875 Hz) (875-1000 Hz) (500-625 Hz)
Level 2
Level 3
(3, 0) (3, 1) (3, 2) (3, 3) (3, 4) (3, 5) (3, 6) (3, 7)
(625-750 Hz)
(2, 0)
(1, 0)
(2, 1)
(1, 1)
(2, 2)
(2, 3)
(0-250 Hz) (250-500 Hz) (750- 1000 Hz) (500- 750 Hz)
(500-1000 Hz) (0-500 Hz)
(0, 0)
(0-1000 Hz)
Level 1
Fig. 3. Three-level wavelet packet decomposition tree.
J. Zarei, J. Poshtan / Tribology International 40 (2007) 763769 765
Inner race defect frequency is given by:
f
id
nf
s
f
c

nf
s
2
1
d
D
cosa
_ _
. (12)
Outer race defect frequency is given by:
f
od
nf
c

nf
s
2
1
d
D
cosa
_ _
, (13)
where f
s
is the shaft rotation frequency, n is the number of
rollers, d is the roller diameter, and D is the pitch diameter
of the bearing.
Since these mechanical vibrations produce anomalies in
the air gap ux density, they result in the modulation of
stator current. These frequencies can be calculated by [11]:
f
bng
f
e
m f
v

, (14)
where m 1; 2; 3; . . . and f
e
is the electrical power supply
frequency and f
v
is one of the characteristic vibration
frequencies which are calculated by (10)(13). As the
impact vibration generated by a bearing fault has relatively
low energy, it is often overwhelmed by noise with higher
energy and vibration generated from other macrostructural
components. Therefore, it is difcult to identify the bearing
fault in the spectra using the conventional FFT method,
and hence advanced signal processing techniques are
needed. Since wavelet packet transform is able to
concentrate on a frequency range, characteristic frequen-
cies of a signal can be achieved carefully.
In this study, stator current measured in various
conditions is rst decomposed in sub-bands at predeter-
mined levels using wavelet packet algorithm. Then, defect
frequency region is determined, and coefcient energies in
related nodes are calculated. In comparison with a healthy
condition, energy is increased in the nodes related to defect
frequency regions, therefore it can be used as a fault index.
Fig. 5 shows the fault detection procedure using this
algorithm. Bearing defects of an induction motor are
successfully detected using the proposed method in a
laboratory experiment.
5. Wavelet selection
In order to study the frequency characteristic of a signal,
a high-frequency-resolution wavelet is required. Among
orthogonal wavelets, Shannon wavelet has the most
resolution theoretically [9]. High- and low-frequency lter
of Shannon wavelet select the frequency range p=2; p=2
and p; p=2 [ p=2; p, respectively. Sharp edges of these
lters make them non-causal, and hence in practice their
approximation is used. Meyer wavelet is an approximation
of Shannon wavelet. This wavelet is a frequency band-
limited function whose Fourier transform is smooth, unlike
that of the Shannon wavelet, and cause a faster decay of
wavelet coefcient in the time domain. However, the time
decay of this wavelet in time domain is high. It is faster
than Shannon wavelet, but the supporting area in time
domain is not limited and an approximation of it is used as
ARTICLE IN PRESS
f
c
f
od
f
od
f
id
f
r
d

D
Fig. 4. Bearing dimension and characteristic defect frequencies.
Decision
Input Data
Calculating WP
Coefficients
Comparison with
Healthy Condition
Zoom on defect
frequency range
Calculating energy
Fig. 5. Fault detection algorithm procedure.
-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
Meyer wavelet
-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
Meyer scaling function
Fig. 6. Discrete Meyer wavelet and scaling functions.
J. Zarei, J. Poshtan / Tribology International 40 (2007) 763769 766
Discrete Meyer. Fig. 6 shows the Discrete Meyer wavelet
and the scaling function.
In order to compare the resolution of the DMeyer
mother wavelet function with other wavelets such as
Daubiches, Symlet and Coiet, WPT coefcients of a
sinusoid signal with two components (5 and 25 Hz) are
computed, and the resulting timefrequency space in each
case is shown in Fig. 7. The signal was dened as:
f t sin2p5t sin2p25t. (15)
This signal was sampled at 64 Hz, and was decomposed
into ve levels via WPT algorithm using dB4, coif4, sym4
and dmey wavelets. In this gure the amplitude of each
frequency is shown by a color bar. It is observed that when
dmey wavelet is used, the separation of frequency band is
obtained with a better resolution. Therefore, in this
research, dmey is used as the mother wavelet function.
6. Experimental result
In this study a three-phase, 1.2 KW, 380 V, 50 Hz,
1400 rpm, four pole induction motor was used. Both
shaft-end and fan-end bearings are 6205-2Z. From the
6205-2Z bearing data sheet, the outside diameter is 52 mm
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Sym 4
Sample
N
o
d
e
2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000
47
48
50
49
53
54
52
51
59
60
62
61
57
58
56
55
39
40
42
41
45
46
44
43
35
36
38
37
33
34
32
31
20
40
60
80
100
120
db4
Sample
N
o
d
e
2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000
47
48
50
49
53
54
52
51
59
60
62
61
57
58
56
55
39
40
42
41
45
46
44
43
35
36
38
37
33
34
32
31
20
40
60
80
100
120
dmey
Sample
N
o
d
e
2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000
47
48
50
49
53
54
52
51
59
60
62
61
57
58
56
55
39
40
42
41
45
46
44
43
35
36
38
37
33
34
32
31
20
40
60
80
100
120
Coif4
Sample
N
o
d
e
2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000
47
48
50
49
53
54
52
51
59
60
62
61
57
58
56
55
39
40
42
41
45
46
44
43
35
36
38
37
33
34
32
31
20
40
60
80
100
120
Fig. 7. Timefrequency space of decomposed signal using different mother wavelets.
Table 1
Characteristic vibration frequency and modulation effect on the stator current
Condition Characteristic defect in vibration (Hz) Modulation effect on stator current and related nodes
Defective outer race 89.2 39.2 Hz (815), 128.4 Hz (848), 139.2 Hz (850)
Defective inner race 135.5 85.5 Hz (831), 185.5 Hz (856), 221 Hz (836)
Distributed defect 117.5 66 Hz (824), 166 Hz (863), 182 Hz (857)
J. Zarei, J. Poshtan / Tribology International 40 (2007) 763769 767
and the inside diameter is 25 mm. Assuming equal
thickness for the inner and outer races leads to a pitch
diameter equal to 38.5 mm (D 38.5 mm). The bearing has
nine balls (n 9) with an approximated diameter of
7.938 mm (d 7.938 mm). Assuming a contact angle, a,
of 01, and motor operation at the measured shaft speed of
1498 rpm (f
rm
24.96 Hz), the characteristic vibration
frequencies are calculated from (10)(13), and the modu-
lated frequency on stator current is derived by (14), as
shown in Table 1. Five tests were conducted to evaluate the
ability of the proposed method. At rst, while bearing was
in a healthy condition (named A), the stored stator current
was used as a baseline. In the second experiment as shown
in Fig. 8, a 1-mm hole was drilled on the outer race (named
B), while in the third experiment a similar hole was drilled
on the inner race (named C). Because inner race damage
has more transfer segments when transmitting to the outer
race surface of the case, usually the impulse components
are rather weak in the vibration signals. Hence, diagnosis
for inner race damages is very difcult [12]. Therefore, a
3-mm hole was drilled on the inner race to exaggerate the
case (named D). At last, in order to study a distributed
defect, two holes were drilled on the outer race (named E).
In all tests, the machine is connected to a line directly,
and stator current was sampled at F
s
2 KHz before and
after defects were made. Fig. 9 shows the average period-
ogram of signals with a sample number of N 80; 000,
Hanning window with length L 4000 and 50% overlap.
As seen in this Fig. 9, conventional spectral analysis could
not successfully detect the defect. For example, outer race
component at 39.18 Hz in the healthy condition is greater
than that in the faulty condition.
Now the stator current is analyzed with the proposed
algorithm in Section 4. In the rst step, the stator current is
decomposed via DMeyer wavelet at 8 levels. Therefore, we
have 256 nodes at ending level of which the frequency
resolution is 3.9 Hz. Afterwards energy is computed at all
nodes.
In Table 2 energy is compared around the outer race
defect frequency (39.18 Hz) for all cases. The largest energy
is related to bearing B with a 1-mm hole on the outer race.
As can be seen from this table, energy is increased for other
cases. This is caused by the modulation effect of sidebands
that have been attributed to time-related changes in the
defect position relative to the vibration measuring position
in cases when defect is on the moving elements such as
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Fig. 8. Defective bearing used in the second experiment.
0 20 40 60 80 100
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
20
Frequency (Hz)
P
o
w
e
r
/
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y

(
d
B
/
H
z
)
Power Spectral Density Estimste via Welch Algorithm
Healthy Bearing
Single Defect on Outer race
Fig. 9. Stator current spectrum: solid line () of healthy bearing; dotted
line (y) with a hole in the outer race of the shaft-end bearing.
Table 2
Energy comparison around 39.18 Hz (outer race defect frequency)
Condition Frequency range
Node (812) Node (813) Node (815)
(31.2535.15 Hz) (35.1539.06 Hz) (39.0642.96 Hz)
A 108.1 37.75 31.9
B 200.3 69.72 42.29
C 187.3 63.74 44.03
D 126.6 39.69 28.48
E 32.06 22.64 32.06
Table 3
Energy comparison around 85.5 Hz (inner race defect frequency)
Condition Frequency range
Node (830) Node (831) Node (829)
(78.1282.03 Hz) (82.0385.93 Hz) (85.9389.84 Hz)
A 6.28 5.72 4.37
B 9.18 3.59 10.14
C 4.4 5.74 8.33
D 7.42 8.45 6.25
E 8.89 7.07 3.88
Table 4
Energy comparison around 67 Hz
Condition Frequency range
Node (824) Node (825) Node (827)
(62.566.4 Hz) (66.470.31 Hz) (70.3174.21 Hz)
A 77.03 80.13 33.68
B 17.79 13.32 10.51
C 51.61 55.55 21.7
D 62.58 74.4 38.49
E 86.69 91.2 42.01
J. Zarei, J. Poshtan / Tribology International 40 (2007) 763769 768
inner race or a rolling element. The result shows that these
sidebands are located at 85 Hz whose modulation effect is
approximately near in the same range as 89.2 Hz.
In Table 3 energy is compared around 85.5 Hz. Since
bearing C has an incipient inner race defect, energy is
slightly increased. In case D with a 3-mm hole on the inner
race, the increase of energy is better viewed as expected.
Energy variations around 67 Hz related to distributed
defect (two 1-mm holes in the outer race) are shown in
Table 4. In Comparison with Table 2, it is observed that
the energy increase has happened around 67 Hz, and there
is no increase around 39.18 Hz. This fact is interpreted as
the modulation of stator current by vibration component
as follows: vibration signals of the motor housing were
evaluated using combination of envelope and WPT
methods as described in [8]. It was noticed again that in
the vibration spectrum, instead of a component in 89.2 Hz,
a component in 117.5 Hz was observed which was
modulated in 67.5 Hz in the stator current.
7. Conclusions
In this paper, Wavelet Packet Analysis is used as a
powerful diagnostic method for the detection of incipient
bearing failures via stator current analysis. An advanced
current signal processing algorithm applied to electric
current signals was proposed as a suitable alternative to
vibration signal to detect bearing faults.
The proposed method has several advantages over
Fourier analysis. Stator current in nature is non-stationary;
therefore, wavelet packet transform can provide better
analysis under various conditions. Moreover, the frequency
bands in defect detection are more tolerant due to the fact
that the actual bearing-defect induced vibration frequency
may vary slightly from the predicted values due to slippage
that occurs within bearing. Wavelet packet transform can
cover this range of frequency band. The proposed method
was successfully veried through ve laboratory tests.
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J. Zarei, J. Poshtan / Tribology International 40 (2007) 763769 769