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The hole edge crack monitoring of metal structures with holes is of great significance for ensuring flight safety and enhancing the reliability of aircraft structures. In order to monitor the crack growth at the hole edge, the fatigue loading test of porous aluminum alloy plate containing the corner crack at the hole edge is carried out, and the a-N curve of the test piece of porous aluminum alloy plate and the center wavelength offset of the optical fiber grating strain sensor during the crack growth at the hole edge are obtained. The damage identification algorithms such as envelope analysis method and BP neural network are used to process and analyze the test data. The monitoring model that can identify the crack growth at the hole edge with the center wavelength offset of the optical fiber grating strain sensor is established, and verified with test parts. The results show that the established monitoring model can effectively identify the propagation and penetration of the corner crack at the hole edge, and the accuracy of monitoring the propagation length of the corner crack at the hole edge has reached 97.2%, which can be applied to the ground fatigue test of the whole aircraft, aircraft structure health monitoring and other scenarios in the future.

In the presence of the pandemic caused by covid-19, digital platforms were implemented to continue with the education processes from isolation. In the case of higher education that imparts various areas of knowledge, different results were identified in the use of the same digital platforms. In response to this, it was necessary to analyze how the technological characteristics implemented at a higher level in Mexico have influenced the participation, attendance and evaluation of students by area of knowledge. Therefore, a data envelopment analysis was performed to measure the efficiency of the inputs and outputs described by the literature; the limitations of the research was circumscribed by the amount of data to be analyzed. As a result, it was identified that the greater the number of features added to the digital platforms, the better levels of participation, attendance and evaluation of students by academic area. Likewise, when considering future lines of research, it is considered ideal to elaborate on the various methods of digital evaluation, such as the digital portfolio and feedback.

Study objectiveTraditionally, age-related deterioration of sleep architecture in older individuals has been evaluated by visual scoring of polysomnographic (PSG) recordings with regard to total sleep time and latencies. In the present study, we additionally compared the non-REM sleep (NREM) stage and delta, theta, alpha, and sigma wave stability between young and older subjects to extract features that may explain age-related changes in sleep.MethodsPolysomnographic recordings were performed in 11 healthy older (72.6 ± 2.4 years) and 9 healthy young (23.3 ± 1.1 years) females. In addition to total sleep time, the sleep stage, delta power amplitude, and delta, theta, alpha, and sigma wave stability were evaluated by sleep stage transition analysis and a novel computational method based on a coefficient of variation of the envelope (CVE) analysis, respectively.ResultsIn older subjects, total sleep time and slow-wave sleep (SWS) time were shorter whereas wake after sleep onset was longer. The number of SWS episodes was similar between age groups, however, sleep stage transition analysis revealed that SWS was less stable in older individuals. NREM sleep stages in descending order of delta power were: SWS, N2, and N1, and delta power during NREM sleep in older subjects was lower than in young subjects. The CVE of the delta-band is an index of delta wave stability and showed significant differences between age groups. When separately analyzed for each NREM stage, different CVE clusters in NREM were clearly observed between young and older subjects. A lower delta CVE and amplitude were also observed in older subjects compared with young subjects in N2 and SWS. Additionally, lower CVE values in the theta, alpha and sigma bands were also characteristic of older participants.ConclusionThe present study shows a decrease of SWS stability in older subjects together with a decrease in delta wave amplitude. Interestingly, the decrease in SWS stability coincided with an increase in short-term delta, theta, sigma, and alpha power stability revealed by lower CVE. Loss of electroencephalograms (EEG) variability might be a useful marker of brain age.

Rolling element bearings (REBs) are an essential part of rotating machinery. A localised defect in a REB typically results in periodic impulses in vibration signals at bearing characteristic frequencies (BCFs), and these are widely used for bearing fault detection and diagnosis. One of the most powerful methods for BCF detection in noisy signals is envelope analysis. However, the selection of an effective band-pass filtering region presents significant challenges in moving towards automated bearing fault diagnosis due to the variable nature of the resonant frequencies present in bearing systems and rotating machinery. Cepstrum Pre-Whitening (CPW) is a technique that can effectively eliminate discrete frequency components in the signal whilst detecting the impulsive features related to the bearing defect(s). Nevertheless, CPW is ineffective for detecting incipient bearing defects with weak signatures. In this study, a novel hybrid method based on an improved CPW (ICPW) and high-pass filtering (ICPW-HPF) is developed that shows improved detection of BCFs under a wide range of conditions when compared with existing BCF detection methods, such as Fast Kurtogram (FK). Combined with machine learning techniques, this novel hybrid method provides the capability for automated bearing defect detection and diagnosis without the need for manual selection of the resonant frequencies. The results from this novel hybrid method are compared with a number of established BCF detection methods, including Fast Kurtogram (FK), on vibration signals collected from the project I2BS (An EU Clean Sky 2 project ‘Integrated Intelligent Bearing Systems’ collaboration between Schaeffler Technologies and the University of Southampton. Safran Aero Engines was the topic manager for this project) and those from three databases available in the public domain—Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Intelligent Maintenance Systems (IMS) datasets, and Safran jet engine data—all of which have been widely used in studies of this kind. By calculating the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of each case, the new method is shown to be effective for a much lower SNR (with an average of 30.21) compared with that achieved using the FK method (average of 14.4) and thus is much more effective in detecting incipient bearing faults. The results also show that it is effective in detecting a combination of several bearing faults that occur simultaneously under a wide range of bearing configurations and test conditions and without the requirement of further human intervention such as extra screening or manual selection of filters.

In modern power systems or new energy power stations, the medium voltage circuit breakers (MVCBs) are becoming more crucial and the operation reliability of the MVCBs could be greatly improved by online monitoring technology. The purpose of this research is to put forward a fault diagnosis approach based on vibration signal envelope analysis, including offline fault feature training and online fault diagnosis. During offline fault feature training, the envelope of the vibration signal is extracted from the historic operation data of the MVCB, and then the typical fault feature vector M is built by using the wavelet packet-energy spectrum. In the online fault diagnosis process, the fault feature vector T is built based on the extracted envelope of the real-time vibration signal, and the MVCB states are assessed by using the distance between the feature vectors T and M. The proposed method only needs to handle the envelope of the vibration signal, which dramatically reduces the signal bandwidth, and then the cost of the processing hardware and software could be cut down.

For the problem of inconsistent quantitative standards for running status analysis of rolling bearings, this paper uses principal component analysis (PCA) to extract a new index F, which is the joint parameters of time domain and frequency domain, and by establishing the value of F to analyze the running states of the rolling bearings. Firstly, the acceleration sensors are used to collect the vibration signal of the whole life cycle of the rolling bearings. Secondly, empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method is used to denoise the acquired vibration signal. Then, the main components of the denoised vibration signal are used to propose the characteristic parameters and synthesized into new parameter indicators. Finally, envelope analysis spectrum is used to analyze the fault classification under the new parameter index. The exepriment results show that the whole life cycle of the rolling bearings can be classified into five different operating periods by using the new parameter index, and each period represents a different bearing operating state.

The induction motors (IMs) are undoubtedly the most used machines in industries because of the advantages they offer such as simplicity, service continuity and low cost. Due to wear and tear, the motor suffers different types of mechanical and electrical failures. Depending on the criticality of the plant motors, it could be necessary to implement predictive techniques in order to detect the faults before they can cause unnecessary downtime. Therefore, in this paper, the research approach was to develop a low cost measurement system based on a micro controller platform for machine diagnosis. The FRDM K64F developing board was selected as the most suitable for satisfying the system conditions, and it was used to collect induction motor`s current data. In order to validate the accuracy of the developed system, the Frequency Transfer Functions (FRF) of the developed measurement system and the standard system (NI USB-6009) were compare. It showed a flat frequency spectrum from 0 to 1 KHz, with small fluctuations of about 0.25 dB standard deviation. A fully automated test bench was implemented, which allows to perform all the measurement tests with the IMs, and in this case, the detection and diagnosis of broken bars. Around 240 tests were performed with varying loads, different rotation speeds, and with different severity damage levels in the rotor. The data analysis procedure for broken rotor bar detection and motor diagnosis was performed by the Motor Current Signature Analysis (MCSA), FFT and Enveloped Analysis (EA). Finally, the research approach was successfully accomplished, by the team by developing a software firmware measurement ultra-low cost development platform for machine diagnosis. It was also developed a proper antialiasing filter to reduce industrial noise. The effectiveness of the proposed system is detecting a weak fault in a noise signal. It was found out a new consistent and robust parameter called the pole pass frequency (fpsf), which could be used as a diagnosis parameter for detection of broken rotor bars faults, with their damage severity degree. The detected parameter can be found around 2.6 Hz, and it increases in amplitude with increasing damage severity.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) severity assessment is based on manually scored respiratory events and their arbitrary definitions. Thus, we present an alternative method to objectively evaluate OSA severity independently of the manual scorings and scoring rules. A retrospective envelope analysis was conducted on 847 suspected OSA patients. Four parameters were calculated from the difference between the nasal pressure signal’s upper and lower envelopes: average (AV), median (MD), standard deviation (SD), and coefficient of variation (CoV). We computed the parameters from the entirety of the recorded signals to perform binary classifications of patients using three different apnea–hypopnea index (AHI) thresholds (5-15-30). Additionally, the calculations were undertaken in 30-second epochs to estimate the ability of the parameters to detect manually scored respiratory events. Classification performances were assessed with areas under the curves (AUCs). As a result, the SD (AUCs ≥ 0.86) and CoV (AUCs ≥ 0.82) were the best classifiers for all AHI thresholds. Furthermore, non-OSA and severe OSA patients were separated well with SD (AUC = 0.97) and CoV (AUC = 0.95). Respiratory events within the epochs were identified moderately with MD (AUC = 0.76) and CoV (AUC = 0.82). In conclusion, envelope analysis is a promising alternative method by which to assess OSA severity without relying on manual scoring or the scoring rules of respiratory events.

The generation of synthetic vibration signals enables the testing of novel machine diagnostic methods without the costly introduction of real failures. One of major goals of vibration-based condition monitoring is the early detection of bearing faults. This paper presents a novel modeling technique based on the combination of the known mechanical properties of a modeled object (phenomenological part) and observation of a real object (behavioral part). The model uses the real pulse response of bearing housing, along with the external instantaneous machine speed profile. The presented method is object-oriented, so it is applicable to a large group of machinery.

To multi-faults of a gearbox, the strong fault feature vibration of gearing always interfered with rolling element bearing weak fault vibration. The traditional methods are difficult to extract the weak bearing fault feature. In order to solve the problem, a vibration analysis scheme for multi-faults vibration of gearbox based on discrete random separation（DRS） is proposed. In the proposed method, the resonance parameters of the gearbox vibration is obtained based on the fast kurtogram algorithm at first, built a bandpass filter that included resonance parameters, and the envelope is extracted by Hilbert transform. Then, converted envelope to the angle domain based on the equi-angle increment resampling to remove speed fluctuation. Next, the SANC is performed to separate the envelope in the angle domain. As a result, the gear fault corresponding envelope component and the bearing fault related envelope component are obtained; Finally, the spectrum analysis is carry out on the two envelope components respectively for the fault diagnosis information. Test results show that this method can be used to extract the gear and bearing fault features effectively.

Increasing industrial competitiveness has led to an increased global interest in condition monitoring. In this sector, rotating machinery plays an important role, where the bearing is one of the most critical components. Many vibration-based signal treatments are already being used to identify features associated with bearing faults. The information embedded in such features are employed in the construction of health indicators, which allow for evaluation of the current operating status of the machine. In this work, the use of contour maps to represent the diagnosis map of a bearing, used as a health map, is presented for the first time. The results show that the proposed method is promising, allowing for the satisfactory detection and evaluation of the severity of bearing damage. In this initial stage of the research, our results suggest that this method can improve the classification of bearing faults and, therefore, optimise maintenance processes.

Envelope analysis is a widely used tool for fault detection in rotating machines. In envelope analysis, impulsive noise contaminates the measured signal, making it difficult to extract the features of defects. This paper proposes a time–frequency envelope analysis that overcomes the effects of impulsive noises. Envelope analysis is performed by dividing the signal into several sections through a time window. The effect of impulsive noises is eliminated by using the frequency characteristics of the short time rectangular wave. The proposed method was verified through simulation and experimental data. The simulation was conducted by mathematically modeling a cyclo-stationary process that characterizes rotating machinery signals. In addition, the effectiveness of the method was verified by the measured data of normal and defective air-conditioners produced on the actual assembly line. This simple proposed method is effective enough to detect the faults. In the future, the approaches of big data and deep learning will be required for the development of the prognostic health-management framework.

A wheelset bearing is one of the main components of the train bogie frame. The early fault detection of the wheelset bearing is quite important to ensure the safety of the train. Among numerous diagnostic methods, envelope analysis is one of the most effective approaches in the detection of bearing faults which has been amply applied, but its validity greatly depends on the informative frequency band (IFB) determined. For the wheelset bearing faulty signal, it is often difficult to identify the IFB and extract fault characteristics due to the influence of complex operating conditions. To address this problem, a novel method to select optimal IFB, called the Mkurtogram, is proposed for railway wheelset bearings fault diagnosis. It takes the multipoint kurtosis (Mkurt) of unbiased autocorrelation (AC) of the squared envelope signal generated from sub-bands as assessment indicator for the first time. The fundamental concept which inspires this proposed method is to make full use of regular periodicity of AC of squared envelope signal. In the AC domain, the impulsiveness and periodicity, two distinctive signatures of the repetitive transients, have achieved a united representation by Mkurt. A simulated signal with multiple interferences and two experimental signals collected from wheelset bearings are applied to verify its performances and advantages. The results indicate that the proposed method is more effective to extract the wheelset bearings fault feature under complex interferences. It can not only decrease the influence of large impulse interference and the discrete harmonics interference, but also effectively overcome the influence of amplitude fluctuation caused by variable working conditions. Moreover, based on the periodic directivity of Mkurt, the proposed method also can be applied to the compound faults diagnosis of the wheelset bearing.

Demodulation is one of the most useful techniques for the fault diagnosis of rotating machinery. The commonly used demodulation methods try to select one sensitive sub-band signal that contains the most fault-related components for further analysis. However, a large number of the fault-related components that exist in other sub-bands are ignored in the commonly used envelope demodulation methods. Based on a weighted-empirical mode decomposition (EMD) de-noising technique and time–frequency (TF) impulse envelope analysis, a multi-scale demodulation method is proposed for fault diagnosis. In the proposed method, EMD is first employed to divide the signal into some IMFs (intrinsic mode functions). Then, a new weighted-EMD de-noising technique is presented, and different weights are assigned to IMFs for construction according to their fault-related degrees; thus, the fault-unrelated components are suppressed to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). After that, continuous wavelet transformation (CWT) is adopted to obtain the time–frequency representation (TFR) of the de-noised signal. Subsequently, the fault-related components in the entire frequency range scale are calculated together, referring to the TF impulse envelope signal. Finally, a fault diagnosis result can be obtained after the fast Fourier transformation of the TF impulse envelope signal. The proposed method and three commonly used methods are applied to the fault diagnosis of a planetary gearbox with a sun gear spalling fault and a fixed shaft gearbox with a crack fault. The results show that the proposed method can effectively detect gear faults and yields better performance than other methods.

Predictive maintenance strategies are established in the industrial context on account of their benefits in terms of costs abatement and machine failures reduction. Among the available techniques, vibration-based condition monitoring (VBCM) has notably been applied in many bearing fault detection problems. The health indicators construction is a central issue for VBCM, since these features provide the necessary information to assess the current machine condition. However, the relation between vibration data and its sources intimately related to bearing damage is not effortlessly definable from a diagnostic perspective. This study discloses a diagnostic investigation performed both on the vibration signal and on the contact pressure signal that is supposed to be one of main forcing terms in the dynamic equilibrium of the damaged bearing. Envelope analysis and spectral kurtosis (SK) are applied to extract and compare diagnostic features from both signals, referring to the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) case-study. Namely, health indicators are constructed by means of physical considerations based on the effect of faults on the signal power contents. These indicators show to be promising not only for damage detection but, also, for damage severity assessment. Moreover, they provide an invaluable reading key of the link occurring between the contact pressure path and the vibration response.

This paper presents a MATLAB-based tutorial to conduct fault diagnosis of a rolling element bearing. While there have been so many new developments in this field, no studies have addressed the tutorial aspects in this field to help the engineers learn the concept and implement by their own effort. The three most common techniques—the autoregressive model, spectral kurtosis, and envelope analysis—are selected to demonstrate the bearing diagnosis process. Simulation signal is introduced to help understand the characteristics of fault signal and carry out the process toward the fault identification. The techniques are then applied to the two real datasets to demonstrate the practical applications, one made by the authors and the other by the Case Western Reserve University, which is known as a standard reference in testing the diagnostic algorithms.

Bearing is a key component of satellite inertia actuators such as moment wheel assemblies (MWAs) and control moment gyros (CMGs), and its operating state is directly related to the performance and service life of satellites. However, because of the complexity of the vibration frequency components of satellite bearing assemblies and the small loading, normal running bearings normally present similar fault characteristics in long-term ground life experiments, which makes it difficult to judge the bearing fault status. This paper proposes an automatic fault diagnosis method for bearings based on a presented indicator called the characteristic frequency ratio. First, the vibration signals of various MWAs were picked up by the bearing vibration test. Then, the improved ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) method was introduced to demodulate the envelope of the bearing signals, and the fault characteristic frequencies of the vibration signals were acquired. Based on this, the characteristic frequency ratio for fault identification was defined, and a method for determining the threshold of fault judgment was further proposed. Finally, an automatic diagnosis process was proposed and verified by using different bearing fault data. The results show that the presented method is feasible and effective for automatic monitoring and diagnosis of bearing faults.

The bearing reliability plays major role in obtaining the desired performance of any machine. A continuous condition monitoring of machine is required in certain applications where failure of machine leads to loss of production, human safety and precision. Machine faults are often linked to the bearing faults. Condition monitoring of machine involves continuous watch on the performance of bearings and predicting the faults of bearing before it cause any adversity. This paper investigates an experimental study to diagnose the fault while bearing is in operation. An acoustic emission technique is used in the experimentation. An algorithm is developed to process various types of signals generated from different bearing defects. The algorithm uses time domain analysis along with combination low frequency analysis technique such as fast Fourier transform and high frequency envelope detection. Two methods have adopted for envelope detection which are Hilbert transform and order analysis. Experimental study is carried out for deep groove ball bearing cage defect. Results show the potential effectiveness of the proposed algorithm to determine presence of fault, exact location and severity of fault.

This paper proposes an online fault diagnosis system for bearings that detect emerging fault modes and then updates the diagnostic system knowledge (DSK) to incorporate information about the newly detected fault modes. New fault modes are detected using k-means clustering along with a new cluster evaluation method, i.e., multivariate probability density function’s cluster distribution factor (MPDFCDF). In this proposed model, a heterogeneous pool of features is constructed from the signal. A hybrid feature selection model is adopted for selecting optimal feature for learning the model with existing fault mode. The proposed online fault diagnosis system detects new fault modes from unknown signals using k-means clustering with the help of proposed MPDFCDF cluster evaluation method. The DSK is updated whenever new fault modes are detected and updated DSK is used to classify faults using the k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) classifier. The proposed model is evaluated using acoustic emission signals acquired from low-speed rolling element bearings with different fault modes and severities under different rotational speeds. Experimental results present that the MPDFCDF cluster evaluation method can detect the optimal number of fault clusters, and the proposed online diagnosis model can detect newly emerged faults and update the DSK effectively, which improves the diagnosis performance in terms of the average classification performance.

This paper proposes a feature extraction method based on information theory for fault diagnosis of reciprocating machinery. A method to obtain symptom parameter waves is defined in the time domain using the vibration signals, and an information wave is presented based on information theory, using the symptom parameter waves. A new way to determine the difference spectrum of envelope information waves is also derived, by which the feature spectrum can be extracted clearly and machine faults can be effectively differentiated. This paper also compares the proposed method with the conventional Hilbert-transform-based envelope detection and with a wavelet analysis technique. Practical examples of diagnosis for a rolling element bearing used in a diesel engine are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The verification results show that the bearing faults that typically occur in rolling element bearings, such as outer-race, inner-race, and roller defects, can be effectively identified by the proposed method, while these bearing faults are difficult to detect using either of the other techniques it was compared to.

Large, slow turning bearings remain difficult to analyze for diagnostics and prognostics. This poses a critical problem for high value assets, such as drilling equipment top drives, mining equipment, wind turbine main rotors, and helicopter swash plates. An undetected bearing fault can disrupt service, and cause delays, lost productivity, or accidents. This paper examines a strategy for analysis of large slow bearings to improve the fault detection of condition monitoring systems. This helps reduce operations and maintenance cost associated with these bearing faults. This analysis is primarily concerned with vibration, and is compared to temperature and grease analysis. Data was available from three wind turbines, where one of the turbine was suspected of having a faulted main bearing.

This paper brings up a novel method for detecting induction motor stator winding faults at an early stage. The contribution of the work comes from the delicate handling of motor vibration by applying envelope analysis, which makes it possible to capture electrical short-circuit signature in mechanical signals, even if the magnitude of the fault is fairly incipient. Conventional induction motor condition-based maintenance methods usually involve current and voltage measurements, which could be expensive to collect, and vibration-based analysis is often only capable of detecting the fault when it is already quite significant. In contrast, the solution presented in this study provides a refreshing perspective by applying time synchronous averaging to remove the discrete frequency component, and amplitude demodulation to further enhance the signal with the help of kurtogram. Experimental results on a three-phase induction motor show that the method is also able to distinguish different fault severity levels.

Envelope analysis allows fast fault location of individual gearboxes and parts of bearings by repetition frequency determination of the mechanical catch of an amplitude-modulated signal. Systematic faults arise when using envelope analysis on a signal with strong changes. The source of these events is the range of function definition of used in convolution integral definition. This integral is used for Hilbert image calculation of analyzed signal. Overshoots (almost similar to Gibbs events on a synthetic signal using the Fourier series) are result from these faults. Overshoots are caused by parasitic spectral lines in the frequency domain, which can produce faulty diagnostic analysis.This paper describes systematic arising during faults rising by signal numerical calculation using envelope analysis with Hilbert transform. It goes on to offer a mathematical analysis of these systematic faults.

The presence of periodical or nonperiodical impulses in vibration signals often indicates the occurrence of machine faults. This knowledge is applied to the fault diagnosis of such machines as engines, gearboxes, rolling element bearings, and so on. The development of an effective impulse detection technique is necessary and significant for evaluating the working condition of these machines, diagnosing their malfunctions, and keeping them running normally over prolong periods. With the aid of wavelet transforms, a wavelet-based envelope analysis method is proposed. In order to suppress any undesired information and highlight the features of interest, an improved soft threshold method has been designed so that the inspected signal is analyzed in a more exact way. Furthermore, an impulse detection technique is developed based on the aforementioned methods. The effectiveness of the proposed technique on the extraction of impulsive features of mechanical signals has been proved by both simulated and practical experiments.