Acoustic Emission Analysis for Monitoring of Tribological Systems

Today, for the monitoring of hydrodynamic bearings, a multitude of measurement systems is available, of which however none has yet prevailed in practice. A practicable and effective principle to detect first rubbing processes in nonstationary charged sliding contacts is still missing. E. g., a failing bearing in a ship’s engine may lead to the threat of machine, ship and environment as far as to human lives, and certainly to high repairing costs and downtime. Failure-free running machinery demands efficient and reliable monitoring systems which make possible to evaluate the current condition of the bearing arrangement in operation.