Adaptive model for vibration monitoring of rotating machinery subject to random deterioration

Due to the non‐stationarity of vibration signals resulting from either varying operating conditions or natural deterioration of machinery, both the frequency components and their magnitudes vary with time. However, little research has been done on the parameter estimation of time‐varying multivariate time series models based on adaptive filtering theory for condition‐based maintenance purposes. This paper proposes a state‐space model of non‐stationary multivariate vibration signals for the online estimation of the state of rotating machinery using a modified extended Kalman filtering algorithm and spectral analysis in the time‐frequency domain. Adaptability and spectral resolution capability of the model have been tested by using simulated vibration signal with abrupt changes and time‐varying spectral content. The implementation of this model to detect machinery deterioration under varying operating conditions for condition‐based maintenance purposes has been conducted by using real gearbox vibration monitoring signals. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model is able to quickly detect the actual state of the rotating machinery even under highly non‐stationary conditions with abrupt changes and yield accurate spectral information for an early warning of incipient fault in rotating machinery diagnosis. This is achieved through combination with a change detection statistic in bi‐spectral domain.