Treffer: Bearing Load Measurement System

The advancement of sensor technology plays a crucial role in enhancing performance and reliability of mechanical systems. In the world of industrial applications, the accurate monitoring of mechanical components is essential to ensure good operational performance and efficiency with prevention of failures. One promising technology for such monitoring tasks is the Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors (FBG). This thesis helps us validate and verify the application of Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors for monitoring axial strain on mechanical ball bearings of an electric motor. It focuses on the effectiveness of the sensors in providing precise strain measurements for improving monitoring technology in mechanical systems. The research research was divided into 4 main tasks: preliminary research, development of python-based interrogator software including a graphical user interface (GUI) for data capture, test setup development for applying axial loads on the bearing and data analysis/- post processing. This research employs Python software for every process involved from collecting the FBG data to post process of the data. The preliminary research involved an extensive review of existing literature to establish a strong theoretical foundation on sensor technology and its application. A python-based software was developed to interface with the Sentea interrogator for which a user-friendly GUI was designed to capture real-time sensor data for data visualization and export. The test rig setup involved applying axial loads to the rotor shaft of the electric motor using a hydraulic press, with custom-designed components to ensure accurate application of force on the bearings and for accurate measurement. The sensors were installed along the outer-ring of the ball bearings and the tests were conducted under varying load conditions with rotation speed of 600rpm with the use of hand drill. The collected data was processed to calculate strain and stress. The post-processing involved filtering the data, calculating strain and stress, ...