Bearing Failure Signatures Use Case

Unplanned bearing failures can lead to a host of problems. Not only is failure disruptive and often expensive but bearing failure can also mask deeper system problems.

HRI has previously investigated the relationship of bearings to the rest of the hydropower system in our work completing a joint-utility Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) on bearings. Results from this analysis demonstrated both the interrelatedness of bearings to other major systems and the importance to our members of fully understanding how to prevent bearing problems. The next step sequential to the FMEA was to determine whether failure could be predicted by leveraging the HRI dataset.

The importance of bearings within a complex and interrelated system means that knowing failure is coming is critical to planning and reliability. Through predicting failure before it occurs, utilities can perform maintenance to ensure their units remain online to reliably meet their demand. They can save substantial money by performing lower cost maintenance as compared to repairing a failed bearing and often other surrounding systems that also suffer as a result of failure.

The results of the full Bearing Failure Signature Use Case are available to utility members in the Member Portal.