Ball bearing coefficients are often identified using the experimentally determined natural frequencies of the rotorbearing systems because of the stationarity in the natural frequency determination. On the other hand, a part or all of the natural frequencies used may not be sensitive enough to the variations of the bearing properties and, instead, susceptive to the variations of the system geometry, so that the accurate estimation of bearing parameters is not allowed.
In this paper, a new, yet reliable procedure for bearing parameter identification is developed based upon the dynamic sensitivity analysis of the uniform shaft-bearing system. It features that it eventually renders an optimal geometry of the test stand for bearing parameter identification and that the identified parameters are highly reliable and accurate since the identification algorithm is based on the sensitivity of the system parameters to the natural frequencies. This procedure can be easily extended to the bearing parameter identification of general rotor-bearing systems.
