Bearing incipient fault diagnosis based upon maximal spectral kurtosis TQWT and group sparsity total variation denoising approach

Localized faults in rolling bearing tend to result in periodic shocks and thus arouse periodic responses in the vibration signal. In this paper, a novel fault diagnosis method based on maximal spectral kurtosis tunable Q-factor wavelet transformation (TQWT) and group sparsity total variation denoising (GS-TVD) is proposed to address the issue of bearing incipient failure. Firstly, the range of Q-factor was pre-selected according to the spectral distribution of impulse component, and bearing vibration signal was transformed by the TQWT method. Then, the spectral kurtosis of each scale transform coefficients was calculated, and the optimal Q-factor and decomposition scale can be selected according to the kurtosis maximum principle. In order to remove the interference components and high-frequency noise from the reconstructed vibration signal generated by inverse TQWT, the GS-TVD approach is employed, thus the cyclic periodicity characteristic and transient impulses can be detected obviously. The two cases experimental results indicate that the proposed technique is more effective and applicable for bearing incipient fault diagnosis compared with traditional method

Information Theory and Its Application in Machine Condition Monitoring

Condition monitoring of machinery is one of the most important aspects of many modern industries. With the rapid advancement of science and technology, machines are becoming increasingly complex. Moreover, an exponential increase of demand is leading an increasing requirement of machine output. As a result, in most modern industries, machines have to work for 24 hours a day. All these factors are leading to the deterioration of machine health in a higher rate than before. Breakdown of the key components of a machine such as bearing, gearbox or rollers can cause a catastrophic effect both in terms of financial and human costs. In this perspective, it is important not only to detect the fault at its earliest point of inception but necessary to design the overall monitoring process, such as fault classification, fault severity assessment and remaining useful life (RUL) prediction for better planning of the maintenance schedule. Information theory is one of the pioneer contributions of modern science that has evolved into various forms and algorithms over time. Due to its ability to address the non-linearity and non-stationarity of machine health deterioration, it has become a popular choice among researchers. Information theory is an effective technique for extracting features of machines under different health conditions. In this context, this book discusses the potential applications, research results and latest developments of information theory-based condition monitoring of machineries

30th International Conference on Condition Monitoring and Diagnostic Engineering Management (COMADEM 2017)

Proceedings of COMADEM 201

Exploiting gan as an oversampling method for imbalanced data augmentation with application to the fault diagnosis of an industrial robot

O diagnóstico inteligente de falhas baseado em aprendizagem máquina geralmente requer um conjunto de dados balanceados para produzir um desempenho aceitável. No entanto, a obtenção de dados quando o equipamento industrial funciona com falhas é uma tarefa desafiante, resultando frequentemente num desequilíbrio entre dados obtidos em condições nominais e com falhas. As técnicas de aumento de dados são das abordagens mais promissoras para mitigar este problema. Redes adversárias generativas (GAN) são um tipo de modelo generativo que consiste de um módulo gerador e de um discriminador. Por meio de aprendizagem adversária entre estes módulos, o gerador otimizado pode produzir padrões sintéticos que podem ser usados para amumento de dados. Investigamos se asGANpodem ser usadas como uma ferramenta de sobre amostra- -gem para compensar um conjunto de dados desequilibrado em uma tarefa de diagnóstico de falhas num manipulador robótico industrial. Realizaram-se uma série de experiências para validar a viabilidade desta abordagem. A abordagem é comparada com seis cenários, incluindo o método clássico de sobre amostragem SMOTE. Os resultados mostram que a GAN supera todos os cenários comparados. Para mitigar dois problemas reconhecidos no treino das GAN, ou seja, instabilidade de treino e colapso de modo, é proposto o seguinte. Propomos uma generalização da GAN de erro quadrado médio (MSE GAN) da Wasserstein GAN com penalidade de gradiente (WGAN-GP), referida como VGAN (GAN baseado numa matriz V) para mitigar a instabilidade de treino. Além disso, propomos um novo critério para rastrear o modelo mais adequado durante o treino. Experiências com o MNIST e no conjunto de dados do manipulador robótico industrial mostram que o VGAN proposto supera outros modelos competitivos. A rede adversária generativa com consistência de ciclo (CycleGAN) visa lidar com o colapso de modo, uma condição em que o gerador produz pouca ou nenhuma variabilidade. Investigamos a distância fatiada de Wasserstein (SWD) na CycleGAN. O SWD é avaliado tanto no CycleGAN incondicional quanto no CycleGAN condicional com e sem mecanismos de compressão e excitação. Mais uma vez, dois conjuntos de dados são avaliados, ou seja, o MNIST e o conjunto de dados do manipulador robótico industrial. Os resultados mostram que o SWD tem menor custo computacional e supera o CycleGAN convencional.Machine learning based intelligent fault diagnosis often requires a balanced data set for yielding an acceptable performance. However, obtaining faulty data from industrial equipment is challenging, often resulting in an imbalance between data acquired in normal conditions and data acquired in the presence of faults. Data augmentation techniques are among the most promising approaches to mitigate such issue. Generative adversarial networks (GAN) are a type of generative model consisting of a generator module and a discriminator. Through adversarial learning between these modules, the optimised generator can produce synthetic patterns that can be used for data augmentation. We investigate whether GAN can be used as an oversampling tool to compensate for an imbalanced data set in an industrial robot fault diagnosis task. A series of experiments are performed to validate the feasibility of this approach. The approach is compared with six scenarios, including the classical oversampling method (SMOTE). Results show that GAN outperforms all the compared scenarios. To mitigate two recognised issues in GAN training, i.e., instability and mode collapse, the following is proposed. We proposed a generalization of both mean sqaure error (MSE GAN) and Wasserstein GAN with gradient penalty (WGAN-GP), referred to as VGAN (the V-matrix based GAN) to mitigate training instability. Also, a novel criterion is proposed to keep track of the most suitable model during training. Experiments on both the MNIST and the industrial robot data set show that the proposed VGAN outperforms other competitive models. Cycle consistency generative adversarial network (CycleGAN) is aiming at dealing with mode collapse, a condition where the generator yields little to none variability. We investigate the sliced Wasserstein distance (SWD) for CycleGAN. SWD is evaluated in both the unconditional CycleGAN and the conditional CycleGAN with and without squeeze-and-excitation mechanisms. Again, two data sets are evaluated, i.e., the MNIST and the industrial robot data set. Results show that SWD has less computational cost and outperforms conventional CycleGAN

Unsupervised Methods for Condition-Based Maintenance in Non-Stationary Operating Conditions

Maintenance and operation of modern dynamic engineering systems requires the use of robust maintenance strategies that are reliable under uncertainty. One such strategy is condition-based maintenance (CBM), in which maintenance actions are determined based on the current health of the system. The CBM framework integrates fault detection and forecasting in the form of degradation modeling to provide real-time reliability, as well as valuable insight towards the future health of the system. Coupled with a modern information platform such as Internet-of-Things (IoT), CBM can deliver these critical functionalities at scale. The increasingly complex design and operation of engineering systems has introduced novel problems to CBM. Characteristics of these systems - such as the unavailability of historical data, or highly dynamic operating behaviour - has rendered many existing solutions infeasible. These problems have motivated the development of new and self-sufficient - or in other words - unsupervised CBM solutions. The issue, however, is that many of the necessary methods required by such frameworks have yet to be proposed within the literature. Key gaps pertaining to the lack of suitable unsupervised approaches for the pre-processing of non-stationary vibration signals, parameter estimation for fault detection, and degradation threshold estimation, need to be addressed in order to achieve an effective implementation. The main objective of this thesis is to propose set of three novel approaches to address each of the aforementioned knowledge gaps. A non-parametric pre-processing and spectral analysis approach, termed spectral mean shift clustering (S-MSC) - which applies mean shift clustering (MSC) to the short time Fourier transform (STFT) power spectrum for simultaneous de-noising and extraction of time-varying harmonic components - is proposed for the autonomous analysis of non-stationary vibration signals. A second pre-processing approach, termed Gaussian mixture model operating state decomposition (GMM-OSD) - which uses GMMs to cluster multi-modal vibration signals by their respective, unknown operating states - is proposed to address multi-modal non-stationarity. Applied in conjunction with S-MSC, these two approaches form a robust and unsupervised pre-processing framework tailored to the types of signals found in modern engineering systems. The final approach proposed in this thesis is a degradation detection and fault prediction framework, termed the Bayesian one class support vector machine (B-OCSVM), which tackles the key knowledge gaps pertaining to unsupervised parameter and degradation threshold estimation by re-framing the traditional fault detection and degradation modeling problem as a degradation detection and fault prediction problem. Validation of the three aforementioned approaches is performed across a wide range of machinery vibration data sets and applications, including data obtained from two full-scale field pilots located at Toronto Pearson International Airport. The first of which is located on the gearbox of the LINK Automated People Mover (APM) train at Toronto Pearson International Airport; and, the second which is located on a subset of passenger boarding tunnel pre-conditioned air units (PCA) in Terminal 1 of Pearson airport. Results from validation found that the proposed pre-processing approaches and combined pre-processing framework provides a robust and computationally efficient and robust methodology for the analysis of non-stationary vibration signals in unsupervised CBM. Validation of the B-OCSVM framework showed that the proposed parameter estimation approaches enables the earlier detection of the degradation process compared to existing approaches, and the proposed degradation threshold provides a reasonable estimate of the fault manifestation point. Holistically, the approaches proposed in thesis provide a crucial step forward towards the effective implementation of unsupervised CBM in complex, modern engineering systems

Tracking the severity of naturally developed spalls in rolling element bearings

Condition monitoring of rolling element bearing is vital for condition-based maintenance (CBM) in many industries. A key obstacle at present is the ability to accurately quantify the severity of the bearing faults, which is commonly measured in terms of the bearing defect size. Limitations of previous studies in the area include: (i) most accelerometer-based approaches were developed for artificial bearing faults instead of naturally developed spalls, and (ii) a systematic comparison between accelerometers and alternative measurements is not available. Therefore, this thesis aims at obtaining effective methods to estimate and track the growth of bearing spalls. This has been achieved by both advancing the processing of accelerometer signals and exploiting the capabilities of alternative measurements. Firstly, a novel approach based on accelerometers is proposed, which utilises natural frequency perturbations to estimate spall size. By comparing it with the well-established existing methods, it was found that all methods are effective for artificial spalls, but only the newly proposed approach is successful for naturally developed faults. Then, three alternative measurements (acoustic emission, instantaneous angular speed, and radial load) are investigated and benchmarked against acceleration on UNSW’s bearing test rig. It was found that radial load was far superior in fault-size estimation comparing to all other sensors, and achieved more precise results than accelerometers with less complex processing. This was justified considering radial load as a proxy for radial displacement, whose potential was recently suggested by theoretical studies. To confirm this, in the last part of this work, actual displacement sensors (proximity probes) were installed on the bearing test rig and a larger gearbox facility. Both experiments demonstrated that the proposed displacement approach can effectively estimate the size of natural spalls, with very limited signal processing required. This thesis has therefore provided three significant novel contributions to the field of bearing fault severity assessment: (i) the development of a new acceleration-based approach, effective on natural spalls for the first time, (ii) the collection and analysis of a new and comprehensive database of alternative measurements, obtained on naturally developed spalls, (iii) the discovery of the superior effectiveness of direct displacement measurements

A Digital Triplet for Utilizing Offline Environments to Train Condition Monitoring Systems for Rolling Element Bearings

Manufacturing competitiveness is related to making a quality product while incurring the lowest costs. Unexpected downtime caused by equipment failure negatively impacts manufacturing competitiveness due to the ensuing defects and delays caused by the downtime. Manufacturers have adopted condition monitoring (CM) techniques to reduce unexpected downtime to augment maintenance strategies. The CM adoption has transitioned maintenance from Breakdown Maintenance (BM) to Condition-Based Maintenance (CbM) to anticipate impending failures and provide maintenance actions before equipment failure. CbM is the umbrella term for maintenance strategies that use condition monitoring techniques such as Preventive Maintenance (PM) and Predictive Maintenance (PdM). Preventive Maintenance involves providing periodic checks based on either time or sensory input. Predictive Maintenance utilizes continuous or periodic sensory inputs to determine the machine health state to predict the equipment failure. The overall goal of the work is to improve bearing diagnostic and prognostic predictions for equipment health by utilizing surrogate systems to generate failure data that represents production equipment failure, thereby providing training data for condition monitoring solutions without waiting for real world failure data. This research seeks to address the challenges of obtaining failure data for CM systems by incorporating a third system into monitoring strategies to create a Digital Triplet (DTr) for condition monitoring to increase the amount of possible data for condition monitoring. Bearings are a critical component in rotational manufacturing systems with wide application to other industries outside of manufacturing, such as energy and defense. The reinvented DTr system considers three components: the physical, surrogate, and digital systems. The physical system represents the real-world application in production that cannot fail. The surrogate system represents a physical component in a test system in an offline environment where data is generated to fill in gaps from data unavailable in the real-world system. The digital system is the CM system, which provides maintenance recommendations based on the ingested data from the real world and surrogate systems. In pursuing the research goal, a comprehensive bearing dataset detailing these four failure modes over different collection operating parameters was created. Subsequently, the collections occurred under different operating conditions, such as speed-varying, load-varying, and steadystate. Different frequency and time measures were used to analyze and identify differentiating criteria between the different failure classes over the differing operating conditions. These empirical observations were recreated using simulations to filter out potential outliers. The outputs of the physical model were combined with knowledge from the empirical observations to create ”spectral deltas” to augment existing bearing data and create new failure data that resemble similar frequency criteria to the original data. The primary verification occurred on a laboratory-bearing test stand. A conjecture is provided on how to scale to a larger system by analyzing a larger system from a local manufacturer. From the subsequent analysis of machine learning diagnosis and prognosis models, the original and augmented bearing data can complement each other during model training. The subsequent data substitution verifies that bearing data collected under different operating conditions and sizes can be substituted between different systems. Ostensibly, the full formulation of the digital triplet system is that bearing data generated at a smaller size can be scaled to train predictive failure models for larger bearing sizes. Future work should consider implementing this method for other systems outside of bearings, such as gears, non-rotational equipment, such as pumps, or even larger complex systems, such as computer numerically controlled machine tools or car engines. In addition, the method and process should not be restricted to only mechanical systems and could be applied to electrical systems, such as batteries. Furthermore, an investigation should consider further data-driven approximations to specific bearing characteristics related to the stiffness and damping parameters needed in modeling. A final consideration is for further investigation into the scalability quantities within the data and how to track these changes through different system levels

Diagnostics of machines and structures: dynamic identification and damage detection

This research work deals with damage detection of engineering machines and structures. This topic, developed in particular for bearing diagnostics in the first part of the work, is strictly related to dynamic identification when structures are considered. Thus, subspace-based methods are investigated in the second part of the work, with particular attention to nonlinear system identification. Changes in operational and environmental conditions for structures (such as air temperature, temperature gradients, humidity, wind, etc.) or machines (such as oil temperature, loads, rotating regimes, etc.) are known to have considerable effects on signal features and, consequently, on the reliability of diagnostics. Useful tools for eliminating this influence are provided by a Principal Component Analysis (PCA)-based method for damage detection. The same way as many published works applied PCA-based diagnostics of structures, in this research work a bearing diagnostic application is considered. After a detailed description of the test rig, the huge amount of acquired data, on several different damaged bearings, is investigated. Results are useful for giving an overview on how the PCA-based method for damage detection can be applied on a complicated real-life machine. In general cases of real structures, the application of efficient identification techniques is crucial for correctly exploiting the capabilities of the PCA-based method for damage detection. Moreover, in many cases damage causes a structure that initially behaves in a predominantly linear manner to exhibit nonlinear response: the application of nonlinear system identification methods to the feature-extraction process can also be used as a direct detection of damage. For these reasons, a detailed study of the nonlinear subspace-based identification methods is presented in the second part of this work. Since the classical data-driven subspace method can in some cases be affected by memory limitation problems, two alternative techniques are developed and demonstrated on numerical and experimental applications. Moreover, a modal counterpart of the nonlinear subspace identification method is introduced, to extend its relevance also to realistic large engineering structures. In a conclusive application, two of the main sources of non-stationary dynamics, namely the time-variability and the presence of nonlinearity, are analysed through the analytical and experimental study of a time-varying inertia pendulum, having a nonlinear equation of motion due to its large swinging amplitude