Detection of discontinuities in vibration signals from mechanical systems

this paper an approach to the detection of discontinuities in signals from mechanical systems based on the use of wavelet transform is presented. Morlet wavelets have been used, by defining an automated procedure to detect phase and amplitude changes of the transform which can be related to variations of the statistical structure of the signals. The results obtained by processing synthetic signals which simulated possible fault conditions, and some first results with real signals are reported. It emerged that the method is capable of detecting the presence of typical discontinuities, and that is susceptible of an automated application.