An Automated Data Fusion-Based Gear Faults Classification Framework in Rotating Machines

The feasibility and usefulness of frequency domain fusion of data from multiple vibration sensors installed on typical industrial rotating machines, based on coherent composite spectrum (CCS) as well as poly-coherent composite spectrum (pCCS) techniques, have been well-iterated by earlier studies. However, all previous endeavours have been limited to rotor faults, thereby raising questions about the proficiency of the approach for classifying faults related to other critical rotating machine components such as gearboxes. Besides the restriction in scope of the founding CCS and pCCS studies on rotor-related faults, their diagnosis approach was manually implemented, which could be unrealistic when faced with routine condition monitoring of multi-component industrial rotating machines, which often entails high-frequency sampling at multiple locations. In order to alleviate these challenges, this paper introduced an automated framework that encompassed feature generation through CCS, data dimensionality reduction through principal component analysis (PCA), and faults classification using artificial neural network (ANN). The outcomes of the automated approach are a set of visualised decision maps representing individually simulated scenarios, which simplifies and illustrates the decision rules of the faults characterisation framework. Additionally, the proposed approach minimises diagnosis-related downtime by allowing asset operators to easily identify anomalies at their incipient stages without necessarily possessing vibration monitoring expertise. Building upon the encouraging results obtained from the preceding part of this approach that was limited to well-known rotor-related faults, the proposed framework was significantly extended to include experimental and open-source gear fault data. The results show that in addition to early established rotor-related faults classification, the approach described here can also effectively and automatically classify gearbox faults, thereby improving the robustness.