Envelope demodulation based on variational mode decomposition for gear fault diagnosis

Abstract

A new time–frequency analysis method, based on variational mode decomposition, was investigated. When a gear fault occurs, its vibration signal is nonstationary, nonlinear, and exhibits complex modulation performance. According to the modulation characteristics of the gear vibration signal arising from faults therein, a gear fault diagnosis method based on variational mode decomposition and envelope analysis was proposed. The variational mode decomposition method can decompose a complex signal into several stable components. The obtained components were analyzed by envelope demodulation. According to the envelope spectrum, gear faults can be diagnosed. In essence, the variational mode decomposition method can decompose a multi-component signal into a number of single component amplitude modulation–frequency modulation signals. The method is suited to the handling of multi-component amplitude modulation–frequency modulation signals. The simulated signal and the actual gear fault vibration signals were analyzed. The results showed that the method can be effectively applied to gear fault diagnosis.

Keywords

Variational mode decomposition modulation gear fault diagnosis envelope demodulation

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