Quantitative diagnosis for bearing faults by improving ensemble empirical mode decomposition

The noncontact measurement of vital sign signals is useful for medical care, rescuing disaster survivors from ruins and public safety. In this paper, a novel vital sign signal extraction method based on permutation entropy (PE) and ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) algorithm is proposed. The proposed algorithm analyzes the permutation entropy of radar-received pulses; the range between a human target and ultra-wideband (UWB) radar can be obtained by permutation entropy. Permutation entropy represents the complexity of signals, so we can use PE to select and recombine human life signals that are distributed in the adjacent distance gate. Moreover, EEMD algorithm is adopted to decompose the combined signal into intrinsic mode functions (IMF), and both the respiration and the heartbeat signals are reconstructed by IMF via reaching the energy threshold in the time domain. Experiments are carried out using UWB radar. Compared with traditional algorithms, the proposed algorithm can be used to extract the range and frequency information of human targets efficiently and accurately.

Application of the spectral analysis technique Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) to hydroclimatic time series produces an orthogonal set of decreasing frequency Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs) and a residual (or trend). As the EEMD algorithm is locally adaptive it is suitable for decomposing time series that appear non-stationary in terms of mean and variance: characteristics that are not uncommon in hydroclimatic series. EEMD utilises ensemble averaging to overcome the mode mixing problem observed in traditional Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD). Here EEMD is briefly outlined and issues relating to the calculation of the Hilbert spectrum from EEMD output are discussed. EEMD is then applied to three climatic indices relevant to Australian hydroclimatic variability, namely the Southern Oscillation Index, Indian Ocean Dipole mode index and the Tasman Sea Index. Analysis of these indices reveals EEMD is capable of identifying physical process signals. For example, the known spectral structure of the SOI is identified by the EEMD algorithm. It was observed during analysis of the Indian Ocean Dipole mode index that EMD post processing may introduce end effects previously minimised by the EEMD ensemble average. These effects may inflate existing features, or potentially introduce low frequency artefacts, though this danger can be mitigated through careful examination of the complete Hilbert spectrum. EEMD and Hilbert spectrum analysis of hydroclimatic data provides insight into long-term trends, dominant frequencies and changes in energy with time for time series that are usually problematic to analyse with traditional spectral analysis techniques. The spectral fingerprints of the climatic indices assessed here are used in a companion paper that looks for those fingerprints within Australian precipitation and temperature data (Srikanthan et al., 2011).

Ballistocardiogram (BCG) could reflect mechanical activity of cardiovascular system instead of ECG. And it is often acquired by sensitive mattress or chair without any constraints and limitations, but it contains many noise because of the impact of body and acquired equipment, those questions make heart rate detection difficult from the original BCG. In the paper, we propose an adaptive method which is used to extract heartbeat intervals (RR), and the method acquire automatically input parameters of Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) algorithm, and then decompose BCG signal using EEMD algorithm, and select adaptively decomposition component of BCG signal, whose periodicity is in accordance with the cardiac cycle completely as the target signal. Furthermore we detect the peak points and calculate the heartbeat intervals series using the target signal. In the result, the proposed method is tested using the BCG datasets from 18 subjects, including 8 females and 10 males (age 20–72). Finally, the heart rate from BCG will be compared with ECG, and the results are satisfactory and have a high accuracy.

In this work, a new instantaneous fundamental frequency extraction method is presented, with the attention especially focused on its robustness for pathological voices processing. It is based on the Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) algorithm, which is a completely data-driven method for signal decomposition into a sum of AM - FM components, called Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs) or modes. Our results show that the speech fundamental frequency can be captured in a single IMF. We also propose an algorithm for selecting the mode where the fundamental frequency can be found, based on the logarithm of the power of the IMFs. The instantaneous frequency is then extracted by means of well-known techniques. The behaviour of the proposed method is compared with other two ones (Robust Algorithm for Pitch Tracking -RAPT- and auto-correlation based algorithms), both in normal and pathological sustained vowels.

Various faults inevitably occur in mechanical systems and may result in unexpected failures. Hence, fault detection is critical to reduce unscheduled downtime and costly breakdowns. Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is an adaptive time-frequency domain signal processing method, potentially suitable for nonstationary and/or nonlinear processes. However, the EMD method suffers from several problems such as mode mixing, defined as intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) with incorrect scales. In this paper, an ensemble noise-reconstructed EMD method is proposed to ameliorate the mode mixing problem and denoise IMFs for enhancing fault signatures. The proposed method defines the IMF components as an ensemble mean of EMD trials, where each trial is obtained by sifting signals that have been reconstructed using the estimated noise present in the measured signal. Unlike traditional denoising methods, the noise inherent in the input data is reconstructed and used to reduce the background noise. Furthermore, the reconstructed noise helps to project different scales of the signal onto their corresponding IMFs, instrumental in alleviating the mode mixing problem. Two critical issues concerned in the method, i.e., the noise estimation strategy and the number of EMD trials required for denoising are discussed. Furthermore, a comprehensive noise-assisted EMD method is proposed, which includes the proposed method and ensemble EMD (EEMD). Numerical simulations and experimental case studies on accelerometer data collected from an industrial shaving process are used to demonstrate and validate the proposed method. Results show that the proposed method can both detect impending faults and isolate multiple faults. Hence, the proposed method can act as a promising tool for mechanical fault detection.

Climate dynamics and trends have significant environmental and socioeconomic impacts; however, in the Benin Republic, they are generally studied with diverse statistical methods ignoring the nonstationarity, nonlinearity, and self‐similarity characteristics contained in precipitation time series. This can lead to erroneous conclusions and an unclear understanding of climatic dynamics. Based on daily precipitation data observed in the six synoptic stations of Benin Republic, in the period from 1951 to 2010, we have proposed (i) determining the local trends of precipitations, (ii) investigating precipitation nonlinear dynamics, and (iii) assessing climatic shift in the study period by Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) and Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (MFDFA) method. To overcome the detrending issue in the standard MFDFA method, the EEMD algorithm is embedded into the MFDFA. The study period is subdivided into three subperiods: 1951–1970, 1971–1990, and 1991–2010. Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs) are obtained according to the climatic region in which the stations are located. Results show that precipitation variation is significantly governed by the five first IMFs, in which oscillation periods vary from 1 to 25 days. The trend curves decrease at all the synoptic stations, and their slope values vary accordingly to the subperiods. Referring to the values of the multifractal spectrum parameters, α0, and the width of the spectrum w, consistent changes are observed regardless of the subperiods and the concerned stations. The spatial and temporal variability of precipitation indicates that the multifractal properties are good indicators for assessing changes in precipitation dynamics, and the changes in their features could be explained by the global change than by the local climate variation (climatic zones). Despite the observed differences in multifractal spectra properties from the three subperiods, it is not possible to verify the subdivision of 1951–2010 in three subperiods as it is done by previous studies in West Africa. Our findings can be used in the validation of global and regional climate models since a valid model should explain empirically detected scaling properties in observed data.

The acoustic emission (AE) method is used in certain industries for the measurement of pneumatic conveying. Instead of the non-intrusive sensors, the comparison of two different intrusive probes in pneumatic conveying is presented in this work, and the AE signals generated by the flow for different particle flow rates and particle sizes were studied. Comparing the distribution of root mean square (RMS) values indicates that the AE signal acquired by a wire mesh probe was more reliable than that from a T-type probe. Limited intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) were extracted from the raw signals by the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) algorithm. The characteristics of these signals were analyzed in both the time and frequency domains, and the energies of different IMFs were used to predict the particle mass flow rates, demonstrating a relative error under 10% achieved by the proposed monitoring system. Additionally, the mean squared error contribution fraction, instead of the energy fraction, can predict the particle size.

Application of the EEMD method for distinction and suppression of motion-induced noise in grounded electrical source airborne TEM system

Aiming at the problem of a large number of switch machines, harsh working environment and high frequency of equipment failures caused by many factors, in order to accurately diagnose railway switch machine faults, a switch machine fault diagnosis method based on adaptive neural fuzzy network (ANFIS) optimized by dynamic weight particle swarm (DPSO) algorithm is proposed by analyzing the vibration signals generated during the operation of the switch machine. Firstly, the working vibration signal is decomposed into several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) and selected by using the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) algorithm; then, the feature values of IMFs are extracted by using the improved time domain multiscale scatter extraction (ITMDE) algorithm, and then input into the optimized ANFIS model to learn and realize fault diagnosis; finally, the method is compared and analyzed with various diagnostic model algorithms and learning algorithms. The experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively diagnose switch machine faults, which has certain reference significance for intelligent diagnosis of switch machine faults and related research in the future.

The carbon emission trading market is crucial for reducing emissions, conserving energy, and enhancing the climate and environment. Studying carbon price forecasting can encourage China's involvement in international carbon financial instruments trading and promote the development of China's pilot carbon markets. This study employs ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEDM) to convert the initial carbon price, which is a non-stationary signal, into several intrinsic mode functions and residual terms. Subsequently, hybrid machine learning methods are used to estimate the carbon price. For empirical analysis, the three main carbon markets with large trading volumes, Guangdong, Hubei, and Shenzhen, are selected from the eight pilot carbon markets. To achieve short-term carbon price prediction, a hybrid model combining a genetic algorithm (GA) and back propagation (BP) neural network is used. This model effectively addresses the issue of neural networks falling into local optimization. The results indicate that the hybrid algorithm is significantly superior to other algorithms for short-term prediction. Additionally, another hybrid model, combining the least squares support vector machine (LSSVM) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms, is employed to reduce forecast error while minimizing search parameters, which is not possible with traditional neural network models.

Although the induction motor (IM) is known for its robustness and low cost of construction, it can happen that the it presents electrical, magnetic or mechanical faults. In this paper, a Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT) spectral envelope of the stator current signature is proposed for the diagnosis of an IM rotor broken bar (RBB) fault. Firstly, the classical well-known spectral analysis Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) technique is applied to the stator current signal to obtain the harmonic frequency characterizing the RBB fault. Secondly, the HHT technique based on the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) algorithm is proposed and applied to the stator current signal to obtain a function called the intrinsic mode function (IMF) containing the frequency that is related to the harmonic frequency characterizing the RBB fault. A comparative study is then carried out to illustrate the HHT technique merits and its superiority with respect to the FFT classical one. To test the effectiveness of the proposed HHT technique and validate the simulation results obtained, several experimental tests are also conducted using a test bench.

The power quality signals are always mixed with noise, which will influence the accurate measurement and characteristic extraction. Therefore, it’s important to denoise for the signal processing. This paper puts forward a novel denoising algorithm for power quality disturbances (PQDs) based on variational mode decomposition (VMD) and the truth that the energy density times the average period of each intrinsic mode function (IMF) is a constant. Firstly, the VMD algorithm is used to decompose the white noise into several IMF components. Then, the average period energy product of each IMF component is calculated, and some of the IMF components are selected for reconstruction according to the judgment criterion to obtain the denoised signal. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can greatly improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and the denoising effect is better than that of wavelet threshold and ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) algorithm.

Feature extraction is one of the most important, pivotal, and difficult problems in mechanical fault diagnosis, which directly relates to the accuracy of fault diagnosis and the reliability of early fault prediction. Therefore, a new fault feature extraction method, called the EDOMFE method based on integrating ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD), mode selection, and multi-scale fuzzy entropy is proposed to accurately diagnose fault in this paper. The EEMD method is used to decompose the vibration signal into a series of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) with a different physical significance. The correlation coefficient analysis method is used to calculate and determine three improved IMFs, which are close to the original signal. The multi-scale fuzzy entropy with the ability of effective distinguishing the complexity of different signals is used to calculate the entropy values of the selected three IMFs in order to form a feature vector with the complexity measure, which is regarded as the inputs of the support vector machine (SVM) model for training and constructing a SVM classifier (EOMSMFD based on EDOMFE and SVM) for fulfilling fault pattern recognition. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by real bearing vibration signals of the motor with different loads and fault severities. The experiment results show that the proposed EDOMFE method can effectively extract fault features from the vibration signal and that the proposed EOMSMFD method can accurately diagnose the fault types and fault severities for the inner race fault, the outer race fault, and rolling element fault of the motor bearing. Therefore, the proposed method provides a new fault diagnosis technology for rotating machinery.

Modifying the Hilbert-Huang transform using the nonlinear entropy-based features for early fault detection of ball bearings

Recently, ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) method has been developed for non-linear and non-stationary signal analysis. The method can work on nature signals (non-linear and nonstationary signals) and reduce the speckle noise. With the EEMD method, the signal is decomposed into several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) and the frequencies of IMFs are arranged in decrease order (high to low) after the EEMD processing. The scaling mode of the EEMD method is similar to wavelet transform, but the signal resolutions in different frequency domains do not decrease by down-sampling. There are a large population and a developed economy in Weihe watershed, the disasters of droughts and floods caused by the autumn precipitation (here is precipitation in September and October) less or more than normal cause great loss and serious influence. In this paper, we propose the EEMD method to decompose the autumn precipitation series in the Weihe river basin during last 50 years into several IMFs, then extract the information including in the precipitation series and get the characteristics of multi-scales. The result shows that it is well response to the autumn precipitation series in the Weihe river basin and to the abrupt climate change in late 1970s and early 1980s of last century. The response appears earlier for high time scales than for low time scales In addition, the expression of the response for high time scales is the form of variability, but it is the amplitude of variability for low time scales.