Grant: Engage Grants Program

Bearings are the most common elements in any rotary machines that compromise their structural integrity. Failure of any single bearing can be disastrous and can lead to break or seizure of other machines elements and in some circumstances it can even cause severe workplace injuries. Condition monitoring of bearing elements has received considerable amount of attention in the past few decades. However, prediction of the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of bearing elements within reasonable accuracy is still a challenging task. At Ontario Power Generation (OPG) assessment of the life expectancy of bearing elements once a defect is identified by conventional vibration measurements is extremely important and it has been a continuous challenge. It is crucial to reliably ensure that nuclear equipment where a faulty bearing is identified can last until their next scheduled outage to avoid loss and of production and revenue. The main objective of this project is to provide a methodology for determining the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of the rolling element bearings when the early sign of failure is detected.