This paper presents the vibrational and structural behavior of a ball bearing with an integrated sensor module. The sensor integration was accomplished by cutting a slot across the width of the bearing's outer raceway to accommodate a miniaturized piezoelectric sensor. The purpose of this integration was to bring condition monitoring capability directly into the bearing to enable on-line self-diagnosis. A structural model was developed to predict the sensor output due to rolling element load. Experimental results obtained using a commercially available deep groove ball bearing verified the model.
