METHOD FOR DIAGNOSING WHEEL BEARING
20210278315 · 2021-09-09
Assignee
Inventors
Cpc classification
G01P15/00
PHYSICS
International classification
G01P15/00
PHYSICS
Abstract
There is provided a method for diagnosing the presence of failure or abnormal operation of a wheel bearing. The method includes detecting acceleration information by an acceleration sensor mounted to a rotational central axis of the wheel bearing or at a position radially spaced apart from the rotational central axis and configured to rotate together with the wheel bearing; calculating speed information based on the acceleration information detected by the acceleration sensor; and diagnosing the wheel bearing based on the acceleration information detected by the acceleration sensor and the speed information calculated from the acceleration information. In the acceleration detection step, the acceleration sensor collects the acceleration information in at least one of a first direction extending radially from the rotational central axis of the wheel bearing and a second direction perpendicular to the first direction on a plane perpendicular to the rotational central axis of the wheel bearing.
Claims
1. A method for diagnosing the presence of failure or abnormal operation of a wheel bearing, the method comprising: an acceleration detection step of detecting acceleration information by an acceleration sensor mounted to a rotational central axis of the wheel bearing or at a position radially spaced apart from the rotational central axis and configured to rotate together with the wheel bearing; a speed calculation step of calculating speed information based on the acceleration information detected by the acceleration sensor; and a diagnosis step of diagnosing the wheel bearing based on the acceleration information detected by the acceleration sensor and the speed information calculated from the acceleration information, wherein in the acceleration detection step, the acceleration sensor is configured to collect the acceleration information in at least one of a first direction extending radially from the rotational central axis of the wheel bearing and a second direction perpendicular to the first direction on a plane perpendicular to the rotational central axis of the wheel bearing.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the acceleration sensor outputs the acceleration information in the at least one of the first direction and the second direction as a sinusoidal signal according to the rotation of the wheel bearing.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the speed information calculated based on the acceleration information detected by the acceleration sensor is calculated in consideration of a time taken to form one-cycle of the sinusoidal signal outputted from the acceleration sensor.
4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: a signal separation step of separating a signal of the acceleration information into a base signal and a vibration signal between the acceleration detection step and the speed calculation step.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein in the speed calculation step, the speed information is calculated based on the base signal.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein in the diagnosis step, the diagnosis of the wheel bearing is performed based on the vibration signal.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the diagnosis step is configured to determine that the failure or abnormal operation of the wheel bearing is present when a frequency band where a peak signal is generated in the vibration signal coincides with a defect frequency band calculated from the base signal.
8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: a warning step of displaying the diagnosis result to the outside when it is determined that the failure or abnormal operation of the wheel bearing is present in the diagnosis step.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the acceleration sensor is configured to be detachably mounted to one side of a wheel mounted to the wheel bearing so as to detect the acceleration information.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
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[0032]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0033] Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the appended drawings to such an extent that the present disclosure can be readily practiced by one of ordinary skill in the art.
[0034] Detailed descriptions of parts irrelevant to the present disclosure will be omitted for the purpose of more clearly describing the present disclosure. Throughout the specification, the same components will be described using same reference numerals. In addition, the shapes and sizes of the respective components illustrated in the drawings are arbitrarily illustrated for the sake of convenience in explanation, and hence the present disclosure is not necessarily limited thereto. That is, it should be understood that specific shapes, configurations and characteristics described in the specification may be modified in various embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the prevent disclosure, and positions or arrangements of individual components may be modified without departing from the spirit and scope of the prevent disclosure. Therefore, detailed descriptions to be described below should be construed as non-limitative senses, and the scope of the prevent disclosure should be understood to include appended claims and their equivalents.
[0035] Referring to
[0036] First, a structure of a wheel bearing 10 to which the diagnosis device and/or the diagnosis method according to one embodiment of the present disclosure can be applied will be described. As illustrated in
[0037] In the embodiment illustrated in the drawings, the structure of the wheel bearing is merely exemplarily illustrated to describe the diagnosis method for a wheel bearing according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. However, the diagnosis device and the diagnosis method according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, which will be described later, may be applied to wheel bearings having other various structures, in addition to the wheel bearing having the structure illustrated in the drawings.
[0038] When a vehicle is travelling, a high load and moment may be applied to a wheel bearing in radial and axial directions. Accordingly, an outer ring and an inner ring that support rolling elements may be damaged. Such damage may cause noise, vibration, heat generation, or the like, and in severe cases, may cause an accident in which the wheel bearing is stuck or separated from a driving shaft.
[0039] To prevent such a problem, the wheel bearing 10 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure may be configured to diagnose the presence of failure or abnormal operation of the wheel bearing 10 using a diagnosis device 100.
[0040] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the diagnosis device 100 may be mounted to one side of the wheel bearing 10 or a wheel W coupled to the wheel bearing 10 as illustrated in
[0041] Specifically, the diagnosis device 100 may be configured to be mounted on a rotational central axis of the wheel bearing 10 or at a position spaced radially apart from the rotational central axis, and may be configured to detect acceleration information and/or perform the failure diagnosis while rotating together with the wheel bearing 10 and the wheel W mounted to the wheel bearing 10.
[0042] For example, the diagnosis device 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure may be detachably mounted to a wheel mounting bolt and/or a wheel mounting nut, which are (is) used to mount the wheel W to the wheel bearing 10, as illustrated in
[0043] In the embodiment illustrated in the drawings, the diagnosis device 100 is configured to be detachably mounted to one side of the wheel W coupled to the wheel bearing 10, but the diagnosis device 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure is not limited thereto. The diagnosis device 100 may be modified to have other various structures unlike the embodiment illustrated in the drawings as long as the acceleration information used in diagnosing the failure of the wheel bearing 10 can be detected by the acceleration sensor that rotates together with the wheel bearing 10. For example, the diagnosis device 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure may be configured to be mounted to the rotating element of the wheel bearing 10 instead of the wheel W, or may be fixedly mounted to the wheel bearing 10 or the wheel W.
[0044] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the diagnosis device 100 may comprise a sensing part 110 configured to detect information about an operation state of the vehicle (or an operation state of the wheel bearing) for diagnosing the presence of failure or abnormal operation of the wheel bearing 10. For example, the sensing part 110 of the diagnosis device 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure may be configured as an acceleration sensor which detects acceleration information that is generated when the wheel bearing 10 is operated.
[0045] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the sensing part 110 (acceleration sensor) may be provided in the diagnosis device 100 and may be configured to detect a vibration state of the wheel bearing 10 while rotating together with the wheel bearing 10 according to the rotation of the wheel bearing 10. The sensing part 110 may be configured as a one-axis acceleration sensor capable of measuring acceleration in one of x, y, and z-axis directions perpendicular to each another, a two-axis acceleration sensor capable of measuring acceleration in two directions of the x, y, and z-axis directions, a three-axis acceleration sensor capable of measuring acceleration in all the x, y, and z-axis directions, or the like.
[0046] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the diagnosis device 100 may further comprise a diagnosis part 120 for diagnosing the presence of failure or abnormal operation of the wheel bearing 10; a storage part 130 for storing the acceleration information detected by the sensing part 110, the diagnosis result of the wheel bearing obtained at the diagnosis part 120, and the like; a display part 140 for displaying the diagnosis result to outside, and the like.
[0047] Referring to
[0048] For example, in the case in which the diagnosis device 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure has the single integral configuration as illustrated in
[0049] Meanwhile, in the case in which the diagnosis device 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure has the divided configuration in which the sensing device 100a for detecting the acceleration information (acceleration signal) and the diagnosis device 100b for diagnosing the presence of failure or abnormal operation of the wheel bearing are separately provided as illustrated in
[0050] The configurations of the diagnosis device 100 illustrated in
[0051] Further, the diagnosis device 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure may be configured to calculate speed information based on the acceleration information detected by the acceleration sensor of the sensing part 110, and diagnose the presence of failure or abnormal operation of the wheel bearing using both the acceleration information detected by the acceleration sensor and the speed information calculated from the acceleration information.
[0052] In general, a defect frequency of the wheel bearing varies depending on a speed. Therefore, in order to accurately diagnose the presence of failure or abnormal operation of the wheel bearing or the like, not only the acceleration information but also the speed information need to be considered.
[0053] For example, the defect frequency of the inner ring, the outer ring, the rolling elements and the like, which constitute the wheel bearing, varies depending on a rotational frequency associated with a rotational speed, as follows.
[0054] Inner ring:
[0055] Outer ring:
[0056] Rolling element:
[0057] [Where fi represents the defect frequency of the inner ring, fo represents the defect frequency of the outer ring, fb represents the defect frequency of the rolling elements, fr represents the rotational frequency of a shaft, Z represents the number of rolling elements, d represents the diameter of the rolling elements, D represents a pitch diameter of the rolling elements, and a represents the contact angle of the rolling elements.]
[0058] Accordingly, the diagnosis device 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure may be configured to diagnose the wheel bearing for performing a more reliable diagnosis by calculating the speed information based on the acceleration information detected by the acceleration sensor and then taking into account both the detected acceleration information and the speed information calculated from the detected acceleration information.
[0059] For example, the diagnosis device 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure may be configured to calculate and use the speed information from the acceleration information detected by the acceleration sensor in a below-described manner.
[0060] First, as described above, the diagnosis device 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure may be mounted to the rotational central axis of the wheel bearing 10 or at a position radially spaced apart from the rotational central axis, and may be configured to detect the acceleration information while rotating together with the wheel bearing 10 according to the rotation of the wheel bearing 10.
[0061] When the sensing part 110 (acceleration sensor) is configured to detect the acceleration information while rotating together with the wheel bearing 10 as described above, assuming that acceleration is detected by the acceleration sensor in a first direction (z-axis direction illustrated in
[0062] For example, assuming that the vehicle is traveling at a constant speed along a straight line, in the acceleration sensor that detects the acceleration in the first direction (z-axis direction illustrated in
[0063] On the other hand, in the acceleration sensor that detects the acceleration in the second direction (the x-axis direction illustrated in
[0064] In contrast, the acceleration sensor that detects acceleration in the third direction (for example, the vehicle axis direction) is not affected by the acceleration of gravity at any position. Thus, in the state in which the vehicle is travelling at a constant speed along a straight line, the acceleration signal of zero is outputted.
[0065] Accordingly, when the acceleration sensor constituting the sensing part 110 of the diagnosis device 100 is configured to measure the acceleration in the first direction (z-axis direction illustrated in
[0066] To do this, in the diagnosis device 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the acceleration sensor provided in the sensing part 110 may be configured to detect the acceleration in at least one of the first direction (the z-axis direction illustrated in
[0067] The diagnosis device 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure is capable of performing the speed information calculation and the failure diagnosis by detecting the acceleration signal in any one of the first direction and the second direction described above. However, when the diagnosis device 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure is configured to measure and use the acceleration signal in each of the first direction and the second direction, it is possible to perform the speed information calculation and the failure diagnosis while comparing the detected acceleration signals with each other, which may be more advantageous for reliable failure diagnosis.
[0068] For example, in the diagnosis device 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the acceleration sensor provided in the sensing part 110 may be configured as a three-axis MEMS acceleration sensor or the like that can measure acceleration in all of the first direction (the direction extending radially from the rotational central axis of the wheel bearing 10), the second direction (the direction perpendicular to the first direction on the plane perpendicular to the rotational central axis), and the third direction (the direction perpendicular to both the first direction and the second direction; the vehicle axial direction).
[0069] On the other hand, the acceleration information detected during the traveling of the vehicle may be outputted as a mixture of an acceleration signal (a base signal) corresponding to the rotational speed of the wheel bearing and an acceleration signal (a vibration signal) generated by internal and external factors of the vehicle.
[0070] Accordingly, in order to perform a more simple and reliable speed calculation and failure diagnosis, the diagnosis device and the diagnosis method according to one embodiment of the present disclosure may be configured to separate the signal of the acceleration signal detected by the acceleration sensor into the base signal outputted in accordance with the rotational speed of the wheel bearing and the vibration signal generated by components of the wheel bearing or the internal and external factors of the vehicle (see
[0071] For example, the base signal extracted from the acceleration signal may be used to calculate the rotational speed of the wheel bearing and/or the driving speed of the vehicle according to the above-described speed calculation method, and the vibration signal may be used as basic data for determining the presence or absence of failure of each component (for example, the inner ring, the outer ring, the rolling elements, and the like) of the wheel bearing through frequency analysis (e.g., FFT analysis) and the like.
[0072] As described above, the diagnosis device 100 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure is configured to calculate the speed information based on the acceleration information detected by the acceleration sensor of the sensing part 110 and perform the failure diagnosis of the wheel bearing based on the detected acceleration information and the speed information calculated therefrom. Accordingly, it is possible to smoothly diagnose the operational state of the wheel bearing without separately receiving speed information from the wheel speed sensor or the like. This eliminates a need to provide a diagnosis device having a complex structure in the wheel bearing or in the vicinity of the wheel bearing, which has been required in the related art. Thus, it is possible to further simplify the structure of the diagnosis device and the wheel bearing and reduce the manufacturing cost.
[0073] Referring to
[0074] As illustrated in
[0075] When the acceleration information is detected by the acceleration sensor in this manner, the detected acceleration signal may be separated into a base signal and a vibration signal in a signal separation step S200. The base signal may be used to calculate speed information or the like based on the detected acceleration information (for example, the acceleration information illustrated in
[0076] Specifically, the base signal may be used to calculate the speed information (and/or rotational frequency information) in the manner described above with reference to
[0077] In the meantime, when basic data required for performing the failure diagnosis is collected through the above-described steps, a failure diagnosis step (S700) of determining the presence or absence of failure or abnormal operation of the wheel bearing may be performed based on the collected basic data. The diagnosis result may be displayed on an external display device or the like.
[0078] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in the defect diagnosis step S700 of determining the presence or absence of failure or abnormal operation of the wheel bearing, for example, when a frequency band where a peak signal is generated in the vibration signal coincides with a defect frequency band calculated from the base signal, it is determined that the failure of the wheel bearing is present, whereas when the frequency bands do not coincide with each other, it is determined that the operational state of the wheel bearing is normal.
[0079] The above-described diagnosis process illustrated in
[0080] For example, the steps of the diagnosis process illustrated in
[0081] While the present disclosure has been described above by way of particular features such as specific components and the like, and exemplary embodiments, these embodiments are provided to further facilitate overall understanding of the present disclosure, and the present disclosure is not limited thereto. Various modifications and variations may be made from the above descriptions by those skilled in the art.
[0082] Therefore, the spirit of the present disclosure should not be limited to the above-described embodiments, and not only the append claims but also all those modified equally or equivalently to the claims are intended to fall within the scope of the spirit of the present disclosure.
EXPLANATION OF REFERENCE NUMERALS
[0083] 10: wheel bearing for vehicle [0084] 100: diagnosis device [0085] 100a: sensing device [0086] 100b: diagnosis device [0087] 110: sensing part (acceleration sensor) [0088] 120: diagnosis part [0089] 130: storage part [0090] 140: display part [0091] 150: first input/output part [0092] 160: second input/output part