IMTC 2 0 4 Lnslrummlalion and Mca~uremcnf Technology Conkrcncc Cornu. Italy.

18-20Mny 2004
~

Machine Fault Detection Using Bicoherence Spectra

Byungchul Jang', Changyong Shin', Edward J. Powers', and W. M. Grady4
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX 78712-0240, U.S.A. Phone: +1-512-471-1662, Fax: +I-5 12-471-1856 Email: ('bjang, 'cyshin, 'ejpowers, 'grady j @maiI.utexas.edu

Abstract

- T1ri.s p o p r drscrihes the drrrrriori ond idcntijcalion cf an iizducrioii iito~or 'S as~mnirrric/nulrs l q iiieosuriiig vibration datu arid amlxiitg rhr nonliirrarin. of thr nrrichine usin8 higher-order specrrul (HOS) onal\.ris. Since doinaged or abnonwl-sratr muchina o/im g~rirrarrhighly noriliii~~ar signals, ir is desirnhlc 10 use U tool rhar can deercct and anuly:r iionlinror signoruws. The hispectrum I u s bcrrr co~ir~iroiil~ pro/msed fin- surh nonlinear analysis. Howevcr, we utili:<, rlip hicoherenr~,us a noor/ tool to d&.tecr a,rd ~IIIUIKC rhe nwcliinr condition. The priiicipal advantage o f llir hicohcrmc<, i.r rhot it is U dirvcr titcosuw o f rke phase roupliizg introduced I>? nonlitwarirks, but indeprndenr o f the anzpliiude o f the inrrractiiig frequeiicies. The u,sqiilness mid srarisrical robustness o f this rnerhod are cotl/irnied in the
experiiiieirts.

- Machine rondirion mititoring. machine fault det'4on. bispecrmuni. bicohermcc, vihrotion, uswtmelric ckariral fault, induction ,nolor. higher 0rdr.r spectra
Keywords

I. INTRODUCTION
The early identitication of the degeneration of machines is advantageous not only in terms of cost and avoiding potential catastrophe, hut also in terms of maximization of productivity. Therefore, machine condition monitoring, or machine health monitoring, and fault condition detection has received much attention in recent years. One of the most important considerations in machine condition monitoring is to obtain reliable and accurate information about faulty conditions. Perhaps the single most important machine is a rotational machine. Of machine condition monitoring techniques, the processing of vibration signals to extract a diagnosis signature is often satisfactory. If changes of machine condition occur due to some faulty conditions. the resonant frequencies of the machine will be changed. Thus, the vibration characteristics ofthe machine are also changed. To detect machine faults, many techniques including artificial neural networks (ANNs) [I], 121. fuzzy logic 131 and model-based methods 141 have been utilized. The main drawback of the ANN technique is that the method requires a priori fault data to train the network. Other model-hased methods do not need U priori data. but they require highly accurate descriptions of a machine for successful machine

condition diagnosis. Othcr recent signal processing tools are also available in the machine condition monitoring field, such as wavelets [SI, [6]. On the other hand, higher-order statistics is a novel method of detecting and diagnosing machine fault conditions from a single, or possibly multiple, sensor measurement(s). This method does not require a priori fault dava or a highly accurate description of the system as many other conditionmonitoring techniques do. The use of higher order statistics, e.g., higher-order spectra, is hased on the premise that machine faults frequently possess a nonlinear signature. Many articles using higher-order statistics as fault detection technique have mainly focused o n hispectral analysis [71-[Yl as a signature. The main detection scheme using the bispectrum depends on the magnitude [71 or phase 181 of the bispectrum. However, a problem with using the hispectrum method arises from the fact that its value not only depends upon the degree of quadratic phase coupling between the nonlinearly interacting frequencies, but also on the Fouricr amplitude of these frequencies. While the bispectrum is the dominant approach in machine condition motoring using higher-order statistics, there were efforts made to detect faults by using hicoherence [3J. However, the signatures obtained by the bicoherence were simply used as parameters in order to conduct a fuzzy logic approach. In this paper. the bicoherence is used to remove the amplitude dependency of the bispectrum and to detect faults of a n induction machine based on the detection of quadratic phase coupling between various nonlinearly interacting frequencies satisfying the frequency selection rule f 3 = 1; + f,. which is characteristic of quadratically nonlinear systems. Based on the analysis of the experimental data, the proposed bicoherence detection technique is found tn he more useful and more statistically robust than the bispectrum methods. The paper is organized as follows. In Section 11, a hrief review of the bispectrum and bicoherence is addressed. The fault detection experimental setup is presented in Section 111. Data processing and analysis of the experimental data are given in Section IV. Finally, in Section IV, the conclusion based on the bicoherence technique is described.

0-7803-8248-x/04/$17.00 02004 IEEE

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11. BISPECTRUM AND BICOHERENCE

Higher order spectra are a powerful technique in signal processing research areas, such as acoustics, specch processing. underwater acoustics, and machine condition miinitoring. One of the ma,jor advantages of using higher order spectra is the ahility t o detect nonlinearity 1 IO]. Since damaged machines are often related to nonlinear phenomenon. higher order spectra analysis can provide more information than the power spectrum. One of the characteristics of nonlinearities is that vmious frequencies mix to form new comhinations of sum and difference frequencies, In addition to the appearance of the new sum and difference frequencies, an important signature is based on the fact that there exists a phase coherence, or phase coupling, hetween the primary interacting frequencies and the resultant new sum and difference frequencies. Since all phase information is destroyed in computing the classical power spectrum, the power spectrum is incapable of detecting the phase coupling signature. To d o this we must use a higher-order spectrum, such as the hispectrum and hicoherence. The hispectrum has previously heen used for machine fault detection [4], hut unfortunately it suffers from one potentially serious limitation, namely the values are dependent not only on the degree of phase coupling hut also on the amplitude of the interacting frequency components. Consequently. this amplitude dependence sumctimcs makes it difficult to detect the degree of phase coupling, which is the principal nonlinear signature associated with many faults. To circumvent the amplitude dependence problem, one may use the hicoherence spectrum, which is essentially a normalized hispectrum, is hounded hy zero and unity, and is amplitude independent [ I I]. Values near unity indicate a high degree of phase coupling, and near zero low or no phase coupling.

rule, f ? = 1;+ f > .includcs hoth sum and difference frequency interactions, since the frequencies may he hoth positive and ncgativc. For the hispcctrum to he non-zero at (J;.fij, the f? and f, = J; + f. must he non-zero. Fourier transform at J,. In addition, these three spectral components must he correlated. otherwise when thc cxpeclation is carried out the hispectrum will hc zero due to phase mixing. The correlation is usually provided by phase coupling. associated with quadratic interactions. Unlike the power spcctrum, even though x ( t ) is a real valued random process, the hispectrum, is complex. The value of the hispectrum at frequency coordinate point (f,.fi) is determined by thc dcgrcc of phase coupling between f,,f? and 1; =J,+f,. and the Fourier amplitudes of f,.f, and f 3 = / ; + f i . However, the disadvantage of using thc hispectrum is its sensitivity to the Fourier amplitudes which makes it difficult to determine the true degree of phase coupling, which is the true nonlinear signature.

B. Bicohererice
A common [unction used fix normalizing the hispectrum is called the hicoherence. Thc hicoherence is defined in (3).

where h(f;. f2)is the hicoherence and ( X ( , f ) l is the absolute value of X ( f ) . The hicoherence is independent of thc amplitude of the Fourier transform, and the values of the hicoherence are hounded bctween 0 and I . Thus, this hicohercnce is a useful mcasure of quadratic phase coupling introduced by quadratic interaction among frequencies, f , ,/? and f3= f, + f,, thereby indicating the degree of quadratically nonlinear relationship between

A. Bispectruni
k t us assume that x ( t ) is a zero mean stationary random signal. The third order moment function, called the bicorrelation function, and the third order moment spectrum, called the hispectrum, can be defined in ( I ) and (2). respectively.

X(.f,)X(f2)

and

X(f3 = f, + f 2 j . This occurrence of hicoherence can give us intriguing insight. If the value oT the hicoherence is close to
unity. a high degree of quadratic phase coupling occurs. When there is little or no quadratic phase coupling, the valuc of bicoherence moves closer to zero. Since the magnitude of the hispectrum is also dependent upon the magnitudc of the relevant Fourier coefficients, the hicoherence is frequently a more appropriate tool with which to characterize the quadratic nonlinear signature of a nonlinear signal. Motivated by these observations, we propose and investigate a fault detcction technique based on hicoherence.

R,.(7,.r2)=E(x(tlx(t+7,lx(t +7,)1 S,,(f,.f,) = EIX(f,)X(f,iX(fi = f, +{>)I

(1) (2)

where E ( x ( t ) ]denotes a statistical expected valuc of x(t), X ( f ) denotes the discrete Fourier transform or x ( t ) and * denotes thc complex conjuyate. Note the frequency sclcction

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111. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

In this cxperiment, a novel Vault detection schcmc using the hicohercncc is applicd to an induction motor with an unhalanced stator currcnt is introduced. Many papers [7[-[9I
"arlable Rerlslnl 0 200

Accelerom t r

1
Fig. 1. Schematic d i n p m uf lhe rxperiincntal saup

Fig. 2. View olexprimmtal setup

using higher order spectral analysis to detect faults have concentratcd on the hispcctrum signature. The fault detection methods using hispectrum traditionally locused o n simply finding differences in amplitudes or patterns of the hispectrum. On the other hand, as pointed out in the introduction, the philosophy of the hicoherence method used in this paper is hascd on the analysis of quadratic phase coupling phenomenon related lo nonlincar faulty states of a machine. The proposed method discriminatcs fault conditions hascd on Ihe amount vfthe quadratic phase coupling. Fig. 1 represents the experimental setup and apparatus used in measuring the vibration signals corresponding to the unbalanced stator current cases of a three-phase induction motor. The induction motor was powered by a thrcc-phase 60 Hz power and two phases were directly connected to the

motor. The third phase was connected through a variahle rcsistor in order to gencralc unbalanced currcnt in the stator of the induction motor. Therefore, the fault dctcction of the induction motor unbalance is based on thc vihration signals from thc stator core. In thc cxpcriment, the rated volvage, currcnt, and speed olthe motor wcre 208 V, 2.4 A, and 1,725 rpm. The (bur-polc induction motor was uscd to drivc a dc generator with il 333 R resistive load. The rated voltage, currcnt, and speed of the dc gcncralor were 125 V, 3.5 A, and 1725 rpm, respectively. An accelerometer was mounted on the top of thc motor and positioned close to the shaii. The uppcr frequcncy limit of the accclcrometer was I O kHz. The vibration signals were amplified by a charge amplifier with a gain of 316 mVlunit. The measured signals were then amplified and sampled by a data acquisition hoard through an 1 1 0 data acquisition connector. The data acquisition card, NI PCI-6023E. was interfaced to a computer to process the sampled signals. LahVlEW was uscd to display and to store the sampled data in binary format and the stored data werc further processed with MATLAB in ordcr to generate power spectra, hispcctra, and hicoherencc spectra. The actual view of the experiment and the three-phase induction motor is shown in Fig. 2. The experiments were performcd by measuring the vibration signals for three different cases. In order to avoid any transient statcs of the machine, thc mcasurements wcre carried out while the motor showed steady behavior. The balanced phase case was measured in order to he used as a reference for the other unhalanccd cases. In the unbalanced condition, the third phase was connected through either a I O R or 20 R rcsistor. A sampling rate of SO kHz was originally used in the experiment and each measurement was recorded for three minutes. Therefore, the total number of samples in each measurcment was 9M samples. A total of 150 mcasurements were recorded for the balanced, unbalanced with I O R, and unbalanced with 20 Cl cases. A digital tachometer was used to measure the actual rotational speed of the shaft during the experiment.

IV. DATA PROCESSING AND ANALYSIS

We first examinc the hicoherencc of the halanccd case, and thcn extract fault signatures induccd by the nonlinearity of thc induction motor for the unhalanced cascs. The hispectrum is also shown to be a potentially misleading analytical tool in this experiment. Finally, the statistical rohustness of the hicoherence fault detection method is confirmed. Since the raw data showed little information above 1,500Hz. the data was downsampled by a factor of 16 to yield an efrective sampling rate of 3,125 Hz.

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The actual shalt rotation spccd is expected to he greater than its full-load speed of 1,725 rpm, hut less than its synchronous spccd o f 1.800 rpm. In the no-fault case, i.e., the halanced case, the power spectrum and the hicoherence spectrum arc shown in Figs. 3 and 4 respectively. Note that Fig. 3 is a semi-log plot, and the 45 dcgree line (f, = f ? ) in Fig. 4 is an axis of symmetry. The rcsults for the halanced case are employed as a template in order to measure the degree of nonlinearity of the other
DiI X I . I . I _ I . ^ _ .

",i,f;'-'""

__ ..llll__l.lll__
. .. -. . . ., .. . ..

. _ _ _ I . ^ . .

Hz and at 1,050 Hz. Among those phase interactions shown as peaks in Figs. 5 and 6, the values are particularly large at fa = 120 Hz and fd = 1,050 Hz. This difference frequency interaction between fa and fd is marked as fc = Id - fa =1050120 = 930 Hz. As result of increased asymmetry in the 20R unhalanced case. an additional strong interaction between la and fc. lahclcd as ih = fc - fa = 930 - 120 = 810 Hz, is also ohserved in Fig. 6. According to [ 121, the component at 120 Hz is directly related to the magneto motive forcc (m.m.f.) frequency, which is twice the line frequency. The amplitudes of the m.m.f. fundamental frequency arc an imponant indication in electrical fault detection using power spectrum analysis. This m.m.f. frequency component is a principal frequency involved in the quadratic interactions in this experiment.

II

I W

rm

Rg.3. The power spectrum of no-fault cilbe.

2 -

0.5

'I
Fig. 4. The bicoherencr spectrum of no-fault care.

f c = fd - f a

Fig. 5. The bicohercnce spzctrum of IOR~unbalnnced case.

asymmetric fault cases. In Fig. 3, the rotational frequency is exhibited at 30 Hz, and its harmonics are shown at the multiples of this rotational frequency. The peak laheled as fd is located at ahout 1,050 Hz.and is believed to be contrihuted by the machine hearings. The shaft rotational frequency mcasured by the tachometer was ahout 1,790 rpm, which corresponds to approximately 30 Hz, 1790/60 = 29.83 Hz. The small difference of these two frequencies is due to the frequency resolution of the data processing. The hicoherence spectrum in Fig. 4 manifests the degree of quadratic nonlinearity of a signal ovcr hifrequecies, f l and 12. Most quadratic phase coupling occurs at the low frequencies and is associated with the harmonics of the shaft rotational frequency. Some other quadratic interactions involving hoth low and high frequencies are apparent, hut the small values of bicoherence indicate that the interactions are quite small. The hicoherence spectra of the asymmetrical faults for the 100- and 20C2 case are presented in Figs. 5 and 6. The prominent peaks are now observed at 30 Hz and its close harmonics and other peaks are also present at multiples of 30

'1

fb=fc.fa

fc=fd.fa

Fig. 6 . The hicoherence spectrum of2O<hnhalanced case.

Bicoherence can explain a possihle quadratic phase coupling relationship between fd and C c in Fig. 5 as follows. The power at fd could be delivered to the power at fc by difference frequency interaction fc = fd - fa and it is arrowed in Fig. 5 hy the symmetric property of the hicoherence, which S,(930,120) 1' . This phenomenon can is I S_,(1050.-120) be explained by the fact that quadratic interactions involve the multiplication of two frequency components as follows.

r$

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~cos(zq +e,,)ncos(2@;, ~

+e.)
- / ) + (8,-

An =-(cos(?n(L, 2

+ J;)+ cq, + q,JJ + C O S ( ? X ( / ,

AD

e,,!,,,,

=--cos(2~(1 2

At3

17n)+(e,+ q,))+--cos(zx(Y~o)+(~,, -4, J) (4) 2

where A and B are the amplitudes of the signal components at fd and Pa and 6,)and 6, are the random phases oithe signal component at fd and fa, respectively. Equation (4) already indicates the generation of two new sum and difference frequencies which satisfy the frequency selection rule f 3 = ,f, + f,. Note that the phases of the sum and difference frequency tcrms are not arbitrary, hut rather equal to the sum and difference phases of the fd and fa components respectively. This is the phasc coupling that we have referred to throughout this paper. I n Fig. 5, the large peak labeled fc = Id - fa = 1050 - 120 = 930 Hz, indicates that thc difference frequency interaction dominates. The ahsencc of a strong peak corresponding to the sum frequency at (id + la) indicates that this intcraction is quite weak. In Fig. 6, the dominant interactions arc fc=fd - fa and ih = fc -la = 930 - 120 = XI0 Hz. As the unbalance rrsisrance increases from 10 to 20 R. some portion of the power is believed to move from fd to fc hy the quadratic interaction, fc = fd - fa. The power at fc is believed to he further shifted to fh, 810 Hz, hy thc interaction tb = fc - fa. These quadratic phase coupling interactions are arrowed at (fc,fa) and ( f i b ) in Fig. 6 hy the symmetric propcrty of the hispectrum, which can he expressed as ~S,,,(930.-120)~~S,,,(810.12OJ~ and I sZ,(ioso.-i20)r$ S,,,~~~O.I?O)I The hispectra of the three cases are shown in Figs. 7, 8, and 9. As explained in Sec. 11, it is very hard to distinguish among the three cases k c a u s c the hispectra are dominated hy interactions hetween the large-amplitude low-frequency components. As a result the interactions hetween low and high frequencies are often overlooked.

Fig. 7. The hispectrum of no-fsullc89

Computational complexity presents a tremendous challenge in higher order spectral analysis. I n order to reduce complexity. one possihlc approach is to reduce the frequency resolution of the hicoherence so that a hand of interactions merge into a few peaks. In other words. this reduction in the frequency resolution is similar to averaging, or smoothing, over adjacent frequency bands so that a few merged peaks can represent a hand of interactions. This will lead to the quadratic phasc coupling interactions hetween hands of frequencies rather than individual frequencies. For this experiment, the criterion for g o o d resolution selection is that a few points in the hicoherence plot can provide unique features for each faulty condition in order to reduce the computational complexity. The values of the hicoherence at (fh,fa) and (fc,fa) were evaluated because those values are the hallmarks of the quadratic nonlinearity in this experiment. The smoothed values of hicoherence were averaged over the 50 measurements taken for each case. The means and standard dsvialions are tabulated in Table I, and the means are plotted in Fig. 10. It is clearly seen that there are significant differences in hicoherence values hetween the nofault case and the two other faulty cases. In addition, the standllrd deviations of the lOn- and 20Q- fault case are ahout 4% and 3% of each mean, respectively. Clearly, in Fig. IO, the hicoherence increases as the stator current becomes more

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Table I. Mcnn and slandard drvialion values of the hicuhcrence in exprrimcnrs h r lhree dilfercnl machinc conditions.

the

REFERENCES
F. Filipptti, G. Frmorschini. and C. Tassoni. "Neuml Networks Aided On-line Diagnostics in Induction Molor Rotor Faults." I Imlrraq ~ r p p l i ~ ~ ~vol. ~ r i31. o ~pp. ~ , 873-819. ~. JulyIAug. IO M. Chow. P. M. Mangum. and S . 0. Yw, "A Neuml Network nch to Rcol-lime Condition Monitonng of induction Molors." lrwj,~, on Indurrrirrl E k r r o r i i ~ svol. . 3X. pp. 448-453.Dec. IW l . 1. Lasun. A.F. Stronach. and I. l'cnmm, "A Furry Logic Approach la lhc Interpretation of Higher Order Spectra Applied 10 Faull Diagnosis in Eleclricnl Machines." Fu:zy In/i?rmoIhri P I I I ( I S S ~Sociels. II~ pp. 158-162,2000. Tommy W. S . Chaw and Hong-Zhou Tan. "HOS-Based Nonparametric and Paramrtric Methodologies for Machine Fault Dstrction." IEEE Trmi. OH hidusrriol Eleulmnicr, vol. 41, pp. 1051-1059. 2000. W. I. Wmg, "Wavclctr for Detecting Mcchnnical Faults with High Sensitivity." Mrdirmicd S,vsrems rind Signal Prmesiing, IS. pp. 685696. 20U1.

Smdard deviation
0.7 06
0.5

0.0077

0.0224

~ 1 x 7

"
No-fault case

100 case

20Q ca5e

Fig. 10. The mean olthr bicuherence for the t h m cases.

unbalanced, therehy making the three cases easily distinguishable. The results attest to the statistical robustness of this fault detection technique based on hicoherence spectra.

V. CONCLUSION
In this paper we demonstrated that the bicoherence is a sensitive indicator of phase coupling associated with quadratic nonlinearitics and. unlike the more commonly used bispectrurn, it is not dependent on the amplitude of the interacting spectral components. The proposed hicoherence fault detection scheme successfully discriminated the degree o f machine fault with good computational efficiency. It should hc: also emphasized that if higher-order nonlinearities are prescnt, then they should he detected using the appropriate highcr-order spectra. For rxamplc, third-order, or cubic, nonlineanties must he detected using the trispectrum and its normalized version, the tricoherence.

H. Zheng. 7. Li. md X. Chen, '%ear Fault Diagnosis Boscd on Continuous Wavelet Tmnslorm." M ~ I ! l r a n ~S ~w dl m r r rmd Sigrud I'rrru.~.~big. 16. pp. 447457. 2002. T. W. S Chow and Gau Fei. "Three Phnsc Induction Machines Asyrnmrtrical Faults Idcnlificatian Using HisprctNm," IEEE Trmr. on Energy C ~ m w r . s i ~ vol. ~ ~ 10. r , pp. 688-693. 1995. Neil Anhur and Jim Penman. "Induction Machine Condition Monitoring with Higher Order Spccw. " IEEE Truns. O H lrrdusrrid ElerImniCr. vol.47.pp. 1031-IMI.2000. A. C. McCormick and A. K. Nandi. "Bispcctnl md Triaprctml Fealure for Machine Condition Diagnosis." It%' Pro<.. -Vis. ltw~gcSigwl I'ro~ess.Vol. 146. 1W. 1101 . . Y. C. Kim and E. J. Powers. "Dieitul Bispectml Analysis and ils Applications to Nonlinear Wave Lnteractions," IEEE Trmtr. ( d l Plusr,ur Sc.icncr. PS-7. pp. 120-131. 1979. [Ill Houalem Boashosh. Edward J. Powers, and Abdrlhnk M. 7auhir. IIighrr-OrderSlorislilol Signol Proc<.r.sing. Longman Australia, 1995 1121 John S. Mitchell. lnrroducrion Io Machinery Ancilwi.~ and MoniIo"q, Tulsa. Oklahoma: PennWcll Publishing Company.1993

ACKNOWLEDGMENT This research was supported in part by the Office of Naval Research through the Electric Ship Research and Development Consortium. The authors wish to thank Professor E. L. Hixson for providing the accelerotneler and associated electronic equipment

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