Académique Documents
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________________________________
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Director of Thesis
________________________________
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Second Reader
_______________________
Dean of the Graduate School
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ii
ABSTRACT
The state of the art in vibration-based damage detection and health and usage
monitoring is reviewed. The damage detection concepts and the signal analysis
techniques are examined, explained, and compared. Latest advances in signal processing
methodologies that are of relevance to vibration based damage detection (e.g., Wavelet
Transform and Wigner-Ville distribution) are highlighted. These vibration signalprocessing methods play an important role in early identification of incipient damage that
can later develop in a potential threat to the system functionality. A brief mathematical
description of the techniques for vibration-based damage detection/health monitoring in
rotating mechanical systems is given.
Technologies for vibration reduction of rotating machinery as well as current
Health and Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) programs installed on the civil and
military helicopters are reviewed. The current procedures for Rotor Track and Balance
(RT&B) of the helicopters are explained and vibration data from the sensors mounted in
the cockpit showing the reduction in vertical vibrations are presented. HUMS
instrumentation and technologies are briefly examined.
To illustrate these issues on a tractable example, the damage detection of a
cracked specimen was investigated. The non-linear equations of motions were set up and
damage was simulated as a change in the stiffness of the specimen. The relative crack
size considered in this study was r = 0 (pristine case) r = 0.1 (small crack), r = 0.4
(medium crack), and r = 0.6 (large crack). Using MATLAB-SIMULINK software, the
iii
time-domain nonlinear vibration signal was generated. Two signal analysis methods were
used to process the time-domain signal: Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT) and
Wigner-Ville Distribution (WVD). To compare the effectiveness of the two methods
investigated, the Fisher criterion was calculated for pairs of classes representing the
frequency of the main harmonic for the pristine case and the frequency of the main
harmonic for various damage cases. The results showed that both WVD and STFT
methods predict the presence of the damage. The STFT method gives a better indication
of the higher harmonics of the main frequency due to the crack growth. On the other
hand, WVD method gives stronger sensitivity to the crack presence based on the changes
in the main frequency.
The presented work shows that structural damage can be detected from vibration
analysis. This methodology forms the foundation of vibration-based Structural Health
Monitoring.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................II
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................. III
LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................IX
LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... X
1
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................. 1
1.1
1.2
DETECTION ................................................................................................................................. 5
3
3.1
3.2
3.2.1
3.2.2
3.2.2.1
RMS ...................................................................................................... 12
3.2.2.2
Kurtosis ................................................................................................. 13
3.2.2.3
Crest Factor........................................................................................... 13
3.2.2.4
Enveloping ............................................................................................ 14
3.2.2.5
FM0....................................................................................................... 14
v
3.2.2.6
NA4....................................................................................................... 14
3.2.2.7
FM4....................................................................................................... 15
3.2.2.8
NB4 ....................................................................................................... 15
3.3
3.4
3.4.1
3.5
3.5.1
3.5.2
3.5.3
3.6
3.7
3.7.1
3.8
3.8.1
3.8.2
3.8.3
Predict-DLI ............................................................................................... 40
BALANCE (RT&B)..................................................................................................................... 41
4.1
4.1.1
4.1.2
4.1.3
4.1.4
4.1.5
4.2
4.3
5.1
5.2
5.3
6.1
WHAT IS HUMS?............................................................................................... 66
6.1.1
6.1.2
6.2
6.2.1
6.2.2
6.3
6.4
6.4.1
6.4.2
vii
7.1
7.2
7.3
NUMERICAL SIMULATION................................................................................... 93
7.3.1
7.3.1.1
Simulation Flowchart............................................................................ 93
7.3.1.2
7.3.1.3
RESULTS ............................................................................................................ 98
7.4
7.4.1
7.4.2
7.4.3
7.4.4
7.5
7.6
viii
LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1
Table 5.1
List of the fault types created in the test gearbox (Essaway et al., 1998)...... 64
Table 5.2
Table 5.3
Table 6.1
Shaft frequencies and mesh frequencies for the main components of the
mechanical drive shaft of AH-64A helicopter............................................... 82
Table 7.1
Table 7.2
Fisher criterion calculated for STFT and WVD methods and the feature
comparison. Each of the the damaged cases were compared with the pristine
case .............................................................................................................. 102
ix
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 3.1 Processing flow chart for feature extraction methods for vibration analysis
(Lebold et al. 2000)....................................................................................... 10
Figure 3.2 Short-Time Fourier Transform (Qian and Cheng, 1996)............................... 18
Figure 3.3 STFT(t,w) as a subset of the entire two-dimensional functions (Qian and
Cheng, 1996).................................................................................................. 19
Figure 3.4 WVD representing the energy distribution of linear chirp with Gaussian
envelope (Qian and Chen, 1996) ................................................................... 24
Figure 3.5 WVD cross-term at midway between the two auto-terms. It oscilates in both
time and frequency directions (Qian and Cheng, 1996) ................................ 26
Figure 3.6 Comparison of elementary functions for STFT (a) and WT (b). For STFT all
elementary functions have the same envelope, whereas the WT elementary
functions have different envelopes (Qian and Cheng, 1996). ....................... 28
Figure 3.7 Comparisons of STFT and WT (a) For STFT time and frequency resolutions
are uniform for the entire time-frequency domain; (b) For WT there is good
time resolution for high frequencies, and good frequency resolution for low
frequencies (Qiang and Cheng, 1996) .......................................................... 29
Figure 3.8 Elementary illustration of Fisher Criterion showing how the projected
distributions vary with the projection angle a: (a) unfavorable projection
angle a = 5o yields overlapping of Class 1 and Class 2 projected distribution;
(b) a more favorable angle a = 35o yields better separation, but the variance
S1 and S2 are still large; (c) optimal projection angle a = 72o yields clearly
separated sharp distributions with small variances........................................ 32
Figure 3.9 A schematic illustration of the two classes C1 and C2 their mean values and
the projection of the means onto the two axes (Bishop, 1995)...................... 32
Figure 3.10 Two classes of randomly uniform distributed data points............................. 35
Figure 3.11 Mobius iLearn Interactive.............................................................................. 37
Figure 3.12 Vibration
analysis
software
for
analysis,
training
and
preventive
xi
Figure 4.11 a) Polar plot for the vibration data between two RT&B flights b) Plot of the
amplitude values for the same flights for all test states. ................................ 54
Figure 4.12 Plot of vibration amplitudes showing an increased vibration level for the
three flights .................................................................................................... 55
Figure 4.13 RT&B flights showing how the vibration amplitudes reduces after making
recommended adjustments............................................................................. 56
Figure 5.1 A comparison of the DWT algorithm and the DWPT algorithm. Ai is
approximation at level i (low frequency) and Di is detail at level i (high
frequency). (Samuel et al., 1998)................................................................... 58
Figure 5.2 Mean square wavelet maps for day one and day nine. On day nine a
significant increase in the amplitude of neighboring frequency bands is
observed as the fault developed (Samuel et al., 1998) .................................. 59
Figure 5.3 Average normalized power index (Samuel et al., 1998) ............................... 59
Figure 5.4 a) Directional spectrogram: 10% crack with 5 % noise; b) Directional
harmonic wavelet map: 10% crack with 5% noise (Kim and Ewins, 1999) . 60
Figure 5.5 Accelerometer data for an undamaged gear. (Polyshchuck et al., 2000) ...... 61
Figure 5.6 Accelerometer data for damaged gear (Polyshchuck et al., 2000) ................ 61
Figure 5.7 Hybrid system, fault detection performance. 60-point discrete Fourier
transform (DFT) was performed for fault detection, 128-point and 256-point
DFT for fault identification. .......................................................................... 62
Figure 5.8 All analog system performance. For fault detection in the case of all analog
neural network. 60-point DFT was performed (Monsena et al., 1995) ......... 63
Figure 6.1 HUMS installation on Bell 412 helicopter .................................................... 70
xii
xiii
xiv
INTRODUCTION
frequency. The comparison of the outcome of the two methods is based on a statistical
method, the Fisher criterion.
Chapter 8 presents the conclusion of the study and the future work that is needs to
be done to fully understand the mechanism of damage detection and health monitoring of
mechanical systems, using vibration signal and joint time-frequency signal processing
methods.
activity for most engineering systems. Helicopters are continuously subjected to periodic
loads and vibrational environments that initiate and propagate fatigue damage in many
components. Current helicopter maintenance practice requires a large number of parts to
be monitored and replaced at fixed intervals. This constitutes an expensive procedure that
adds considerably to the helicopter Operational and Support (O&S) costs.
Health and Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) have been developed in recent
years to detect incipient damage in helicopter components, predict remaining life, and
create the premises for moving over from scheduled based maintenance to condition
based maintenance. Of prime importance in such a HUMS system is the capability to
evaluate the damage or undamaged state of a critical component using only the vibration
data signals recorded during flight and ground operation. With such capability, the need
for frequent disassembly and bench checking of certain critical components can be
reduced and ultimately eliminated, with important ancillary savings in the O&S costs.
However, to achieve such capability, advance vibration signal processing algorithms are
necessary that can distinguish the damage related features from the background and
system noise perturbations. Enhancements such as signal averaging, cepstrum and
Forester in 1990 demonstrates that time-frequency techniques, such as WignerVille distribution can describe how the spectral content of the signal is changing with
time and provided a framework for developing robust detection and classification
schemes for helicopter gearbox faults.
DETECTION/HEALTH
MONITORING
IN
X (w ) e
jtw
dw
(3.1)
1
X (w ) =
2p
x(t ) e
- jw t
dt
(3.2)
in the fact that that ideally these features are more stable and well behaved then the raw
signature data and also provide a reduced data set for pattern recognition.
Before any feature can be calculated on the raw vibration data, the data must be
conditioned or preprocessed. Signal conditioning may involve the signal correction,
based on the data acquisition unit, mean value removal, time synchronous averaging, and
filtering.
Raw signal
Signal
Conditioning
DC Offset
Removal
Time Synchronous
Averaging
Tachometer
Rms
Kurtosis
Crest Factor
Enveloping
FM0
Remove
fundamental
shaft and mesh
frequencies and
harmonics
Band-pass around
fundamental mesh
frequency
including
sidebands
NA4
FM4
M6A
M8A
Figure 3.1
3.2.1
NB4
Remove 1st
order sidebands
Difference
Signal
Band-pass Mesh
Signal
Processing flow chart for feature extraction methods for vibration analysis (Lebold et al.
2000)
SIGNAL PREPROCESSING
Lebold et al. (2000) grouped the processing features for gearbox diagnostics and
prognostics into five processing groups. The five processing groups are:
10
11
using a high pass filter with the cut-off frequency lie somewhere between DC and the
fundamental mesh frequency.
Difference Signal (DIF): the difference signal is calculated by removing the regular
meshing components from the time synchronous averaged signal. The regular meshing
components consist of the shaft frequency and its harmonics, the meshing frequency and
its harmonics. Because the difference signal processing section comes after the residual
signal section in which the mesh and shaft components along with their components have
been removed, only the sidebands of the meshing frequency and its harmonics need to be
removed.
Band-Pass Mesh Signal (BPM): in this section the time synchronous averaged signal
is band pass filtered around the primary gear mesh frequency. Hilbert transform is then
applied to obtain the real and imaginary part of the signal, which represents the band-pass
signal and the Hilbert transform of the signal respectively. The envelope of the signal will
represent the amplitude modulation present in the signal due to the sidebands.
3.2.2
SIGNAL FEATURES
3.2.2.1 RMS
The root mean square (RMS) value of a vibration signal is a measure of the power
content in the vibration signature. This feature gives good results in tracking the overall
noise level in the signal but will not give any information about the component that is
going to fail.
To calculate the RMS value the following formula is used:
12
RMS =
2
k
k =1
(3.3)
3.2.2.2 Kurtosis
Is also known as the fourth moment of a distribution and measures the relative
peakedness or flatness of a distribution as compared to a normal distribution. It also
provides a measure of the size of the tail of a distribution and can be used as an indicator
of major peaks in the data set.
The equation to calculate the kurtosis is given by:
N
k=
[ x( n) - m ]
n =1
N (s 2 )2
(3.4)
where x(n) is the time series, m is the mean value of the data, s2 is the variance of the data
and N is the total number of data points.
3.2.2.3 Crest Factor
To observe the changes in the early stages of gear and bearing damage crest factor is
a useful feature. It is defined as the ratio of the peak level of the input signal to the RMS
value of the signal. If any peaks appears in the time domain signal will result in an
increase of the crest factor. Usual values of crest factor are between 2 and 6. Any values
above 6 are associated with possible machinery problems. The best results using this
feature are obtained in the case of impulsive vibration sources such as tooth breakage on
gears or bearing defects.
The equation for the crest factor is given below:
Crest Factor =
13
Peak Level
RMS
(3.5)
where Peak Level is the peak level of the raw time signal, and RMS is the root mean
square of the raw data.
3.2.2.4 Enveloping
Enveloping is used to monitor the high-frequency response of the mechanical
systems to periodic impacts such as gear or bearing faults. The envelope or high
frequency technique focuses on the structure resonance to determine the health of a gear
or a bearing. The technique consists of processing structure resonance energy with an
envelope detector (Lebold et al. 2000).
3.2.2.5 FM0
FM0 is defined as the peak-to-peak level of the time synchronous averaged signal
divided by the sum of the amplitude at the gear-mesh frequency and its corresponding
harmonics. It is a simple method used to detect major changes in the meshing pattern.
FM 0 =
App
n
A( f )
(3.6)
i =1
where App is the peak-to-peak amplitude and A(fi) is the amplitude of the gear-mesh
fundamental and its harmonics.
3.2.2.6 NA4
NA4 is calculating by dividing the fourth statistical moment of the residual signal
by the time-averaged variance of the residual signal, raised to the second power. It is used
to detect the initiation of damage and to react to the growth of the damage. The equation
is
14
NA4 =
N ( ri - r )
i =1
1 m N
2
( rij - rj )
m j =1 i =1
(3.7)
where r is the residual signal, r is the mean value of the residual signal, N is the total
number of data points, and m is the current time record.
3.2.2.7 FM4
FM4 was developed to detect changes in the vibration pattern resulting from
damage on a limited number of gear teeth (Zakrajsek et al. 1993). The equation to
calculate FM4 is
FM 4 =
1
N
(d
- d )4
i =1
2
(di - d )
i =1
(3.8)
where d is the difference signal, d is the mean value of difference signal, and N is the
total number of data points.
3.2.2.8 NB4
NB4 is similar to FM4 except that instead of using the residual signal, NB4 uses
the envelope of a band-pass segment of the time synchronous averaged signal. It is
calculated by dividing the fourth statistical moment of the envelope signal to the current
run time averaged variance of the envelope signal raised to the second power, as shown
in Equation (3.9)
15
NB 4 =
N ( Ei - E )
i =1
1 m N
2
( Eij - E j )
m j =1 i =1
(3.9)
where E is the envelope of the band-passed signal, E is the mean value of the envelope
signal, N is the total number of data points, and m is the current time record.
x(t )g
(t - t )e- jw t dt
(3.10)
by moving the window function g(t) and repeating the steps mentioned above, it is
possible to obtain information about how the signals frequency content evolves over
time. This can be clearly seen in Figure 3.2.
x(t)
g(t)
FT
FT
frequency
FT
time
STFT
time
Figure 3.2
To get from the frequency domain to the time domain, the inverse Fourier transform can
be applied with respect to Equation (3.10). This will yield (Qian and Cheng, 1996):
1
2p
STFT (t ,w )e
j mw
dw =
1
2p
x(t )g (t - t )e
j ( m -t )w
= x(t )g (t - t )d ( m - t )dt =
(3.11)
= x( m )g ( m - t )
where
1 for m = t
d (m - t ) =
0 otherwise
(3.12)
1
x(t ) =
STFT (t , w )e jtw dw
2pg (0) -
18
(3.13)
Equation (3.13) implies that if STFT (t,w) is given for all t and w, the signal x(t) can be
completely recover.
Another way to look at the short time Fourier transform (STFT) is to view STFT
as a mapping from time domain to time-frequency domain as shown in Figure 3.3.
Figure 3.3
STFT(t,w) as a subset of the entire two-dimensional functions (Qian and Cheng, 1996)
For any time domain function x(t) and window function g(t), such mapping
always exists. It is true in this direction but the inverse may not be true. Given a window
function g(t) and an arbitrary two-dimensional function B(t,w), there may be no signal
x(t) whose STFT is equal to B(t,w). In this case, B(t,w) is not a valid short time Fourier
transform for the signal x(t) (Qian and Cheng , 1996).
For digital signal processing applications, the STFT is discrete in both time and
frequency. A general formula for its implementation is:
L -1
(3.14)
i =0
where
STFT [k , n] STFT (t , w )
t = k Dt ,w = 2p n /( LDt )
19
, WL = e
2p
L
(3.15)
where Dt denotes the sampling interval in the time domain, and g[k] = g(kDt) is the Lpoint window function.
xt (t ) = x(t )g (t - t )
(3.16)
X t (w ) =
1
2p
- jwt
xt (t )dt =
1
2p
- jwt
x(t )g (t - t )dt
(3.17)
PSP (t , w ) = X t (w ) =
1
2p
- jwt
x(t )g (t - t )dt
(3.18)
(3.19)
Equation (3.19) shows that if the energy of the window is one, then the energy of the
spectrogram is equal to the energy of the signal.
b) Time-frequency marginal conditions
20
The time marginal condition is obtained by integrating over the frequency domain. After
computations we get (Cohen, 1995)
X (w )
t
dw = x(t ) g (t - t ) dt
(3.20)
Similarly, the frequency marginal condition is obtained by integrating over the time
domain:
x (t )
t
(3.21)
21
Some success has been achieved by researchers who used the WVD of vibration
signals to detect gear-tooth faults. The joint time-frequency distribution of the faulty gear
shows the vibration energy dispersion at time when damaged gear teeth are in mesh. Such
energy change can also be detected by classical Fourier transform but only at an
advanced stage of gear-tooth damage (Polyshchuk et al., 1999)
Besides the advantages of the Wigner-Ville distribution, such as simplicity and
effectiveness, excellent accuracy, and invariant to the window effects, the Wigner-Ville
distribution also has drawbacks such as the so called cross-term or interference terms.
This issue will be addressed later in this chapter.
3.5.1 DESCRIPTION OF THE WIGNER-VILLE DISTRIBUTION
The power spectrum of a signal, which is the square of the Fourier transform
characterizes the signals distribution in the frequency domain. According to the WienerKhinchin theorem, the power spectrum can be considered as the Fourier transform of the
auto-correlation function R(t):
2
PS (t , w ) = X (w ) =
R(t )e
- jw t
dt
(3.22)
where:
R(t ) =
x(t ) x (t - t )dt
*
(3.23)
The Fourier transform of the time-dependent auto-correlation function R(t,t) with respect
to the variable t is a function of time and frequency:
PS R (t , w ) =
R(t ,t )e
22
- jwt
dt
(3.24)
1
2p
A ( v, t ) A ( v, t ) e
jvt
dv
(3.25)
where Ax(v,t) represents the ambiguity function of signal x(t) and Ag(v,t) represents the
ambiguity function in the window function g(t) (Qian and Chen, 1996).
In the WVD, the time-dependent auto-correlation function is given by
t t
R (t , t ) = x t + x* t -
2 2
(3.26)
where x(t) is the analytic signal and x*(t) is the complex conjugate of the analytic signal
x(t).
Substituting the above auto-correlation function into Equation. (3.22) yields
WVDxx (t , w ) =
x t + 2 x
t - jw t
t - e dt
2
(3.27)
x 2 x
t - jw t
- e dt
2
(3.28)
-a 2
t + jbt2
4
a 4
x(t ) = e
p
(3.29)
WVDx (t , w ) = 2e
23
- a t 2 + (w - 2 b t ) 2
a
(3.30)
Figure 3.4
WVD representing the energy distribution of linear chirp with Gaussian envelope (Qian
and Chen, 1996)
If the time is shifted by t0 then the WVD is shifted accordingly. For a signal x(t)
the WVD of the time frequency shifted signal is
WVDx0 (t , w ) WVDx (t - t0 , w - w 0 )
(3.31)
Lets consider the WVD of the signal x(t) as being WVDx(t,w). For the frequencymodulated signal x0(t)=x(t)exp{jw t} the WVD is a frequency-shifted WVD of x(t) i.e.,
WVDx0 (t , w ) = WVDx (t , w - w 0 )
(3.32)
24
1
2p
(3.33)
WVD (t ,w )dt =
x
X (w )
(3.34)
As a consequence, using Parsevals relation, it can be shown that the energy contained in
the Wigner-Ville distribution, WVD(t,w), is equal to the energy possessed by the original
signal s(t).
3.5.3 THE WIGNER-VILLE DISTRIBUTION OF THE SUM OF TWO SIGNALS
Considering a signal x(t) as a sum of two signals x1(t) and x2(t)
x(t) = x1(t) + x2(t)
(3.35)
Using Equation (3.27) to derive the WVD for the sum of the two signals yields
t t
WVD(t , w ) = x* t - x t - e - jtw dt =
2 2
= WVD1 (t , w ) + WVD2 (t , w ) + WVD12 (t , w ) + WVD21 (t , w )
(3.36)
t t
WVD12 (t , w ) = x1* t - x2 t + e - jtw dt
2 2
(3.37)
where
(3.38)
The WVD of the sum of the two signals is not simply the sum of the WVD of each signal
(auto-term) but has the additional term 2Re{WVD12(t,w)}, term called the interference
term or the cross-term. Because the cross-term usually oscillates and its magnitude is
25
twice as large as that of the auto-terms, it often reduces the useful patterns of the timedependent spectrum.
Some time, the cross-terms are referred to as undesirable effects of the WignerVille distribution. The cross-term in fact reflects the correlation of the corresponding pair
of auto-terms. Its location and rate of oscillation are determined by time and frequency
centers of the auto-terms. If the position of the auto-terms is known, then the position of
the corresponding cross-terms is precisely identified.
Figure 3.5
WVD cross-term at midway between the two auto-terms. It oscilates in both time and
frequency directions (Qian and Cheng, 1996)
26
transform uses a set of elementary functions that can be independently dilated and shifted
as a function of time, called wavelets.
By scaling the time variable t of a given elementary function y(t), a representation
of the signal in the frequency domain is achieved. If the center frequency or the mean
frequency of the elementary function y(t) at time zero is w0, and if the time is dilated by
b and the frequency shifted by a, then the center of the dilated and shifted elementary
t -b
function y
will be at time b and frequency w0/a. When the dilated and shifted
a
t -b
elementary function y
is used, the resulting presentation is called the continuous a
W ( a, b) =
1
a
x(t )y
t -b
dt ,
a
a0
(3.39)
where y(t) is also called the mother function. The parameter a represents the scale index
and parameters b represents the time shifting. The quantity W(a,b) reflects the signals
behavior in the vicinity of (b, w0/a).
Figure 3.6 shows a comparison of the elementary functions for short time Fourier
transform and wavelet transform. Once an elementary function for the short time Fourier
transform is chosen, both the time and frequency resolution are fixed. For the wavelet
transform, the time resolution and the frequency resolution of the elementary function are
functions of the scaling factor.
27
(a)
Figure 3.6
(b)
Comparison of elementary functions for STFT (a) and WT (b). For STFT all elementary
functions have the same envelope, whereas the WT elementary functions have different
envelopes (Qian and Cheng, 1996).
In order to understand better the difference between the short time Fourier
transform and the wavelet transform, an example is considered. Suppose that we have a
signal that contains two pulses in the time domain, d(t-t1) and d(t-t2), and two pulses in
the frequency domain, e jw1t and e jw 2t , i.e.,
x(t ) = d (t - t1 ) + d (t - t2 ) + e jw1t + e jw 2t
(3.40)
(3.41)
Figure 3.7 shows the comparison between short time Fourier transform (STFT) and the
wavelet transform (WT) for the signal described by Equation (3.40). A major difference
between the two methods can be observed. Time and frequency resolutions are constant
in both time and frequency domains in the case of STFT, while they vary in the case of
WT.
28
w2
w2
w1
w1
t1
t2
t1
(a)
Figure 3.7
t2
(b)
Comparisons of STFT and WT (a) For STFT time and frequency resolutions are uniform
for the entire time-frequency domain; (b) For WT there is good time resolution for high
frequencies, and good frequency resolution for low frequencies (Qiang and Cheng,
1996)
At high frequencies, the time resolution of the WT is better than the frequency resolution;
at low frequencies the frequency resolution is better than the time resolution. For STFT,
the time and frequency resolutions are the same for the entire time-frequency domain.
The time-frequency representation of the WT is called scalogram and is the
squared modulus of the wavelet transform.
From the wavelet transform, the original signal can be recovered by using
x(t ) =
1
Cy
t -b
W (a, b)y
(3.42)
Y (w )
29
dw
(3.43)
Class 1
Class 2
line class1
line class 2
center
mean class 1
mean class 2
Class 1
1.8
Class 2
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
-4
-2
0
-2
S1 = 0.98, S2 = 1.03
(a)
-2
8
y
6
Class 1
Class 2
line class1
line class 2
center
mean class 1
mean class 2
Class 1
1.8
Class 2
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
-4
-2
0
-2
S1 = 0.80, S2 = 0.81
(b)
-2
Class 1
Class 2
line class1
line class 2
center
mean class 1
mean class 2
Class 1
1.8
Class 2
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
-4
-2
0
-2
-2
S1 = 0.23, S2 = 0.23
(c)
31
Figure 3.8
Elementary illustration of Fisher Criterion showing how the projected distributions vary
o
with the projection angle a: (a) unfavorable projection angle a = 5 yields overlapping of
o
Class 1 and Class 2 projected distribution; (b) a more favorable angle a = 35 yields
better separation, but the variance S1 and S2 are still large; (c) optimal projection angle a
o
= 72 yields clearly separated sharp distributions with small variances
We can see from the above figure that as the angle a changes (increases) the means
of the two classes separates, the distribution of the data in the two sets becomes more
sharply which means that the standard deviation of the two means and thus the variance
is smaller.
The mathematical expression for the Fisher criterion for two classes C1 with N1
points and C2 with N2 is derived. A linear projection of the data onto a one-dimensional
space is considered so that an input vector x is projected onto a scalar value y as given by
y = w Tx
(3.44)
where w is the projection vector of unit length with adjustable weight parameters as
shown in Figure 3.8.
x2
C1
m1
C2
y
m2
w
m2
m1
x1
Figure 3.9
A schematic illustration of the two classes C1 and C2 their mean values and the
projection of the means onto the two axes (Bishop, 1995)
1
1
x( n ) , m 2 =
N1 nC1
N2
32
nC2
( n)
(3.45)
where m1 is the mean vector for class C1 and m2 is the mean vector for class C2. The
projected means for the two classes are given by
m1 = wTm1 , m2 = wTm2
(3.46)
Figure 3.8 shows that the two classes C1 and C2 are well separated in the original
two-dimensional space (x1, x2). The projection onto the x1-axis of the two classes gives a
much larger separation for the two projected means m1 and m2 than does projection onto
x2-axis. On the other hand the separation of data projected onto x2-axis is much better
than onto x1-axis due to the different within-class spread of the two classes along the two
axis. The solution proposed by Fisher is to maximize a function, which represents the
differences between the projected class means, normalized by a measure of the withinclass scatter along the direction w (Bishop, 1995).
The within-class covariance of the two classes is given by
s12 =
(y
nC1
( n)
- m1
, s 22 =
(y
nC2
( n)
- m2
(3.47)
( m - m1 )
F (w ) = 2
s12 + s22
(3.48)
Using Equations (3.45), (3.46), and (3.47) Fisher criterion can be rewritten in the form
F (w ) =
w TSB w
w TS W w
33
(3.49)
(m2 - m1 ) 2 = w T (m 2 - m1 ) w T (m 2 - m1 ) = w TS B w
(3.50)
(3.51)
s12 + s22 = w TS W w
(3.52)
SW =
(x
(n)
)(
- m1 x(n) - m1
nC1
) + (x
T
(n)
)(
- m 2 x(n) - m 2
nC2
(3.53)
The maximum value for F(w) is calculated by differentiating Equation (3.49) with
respect to w, which leads to the following equation
(w S w)S
T
w = w TS W w S B w
(3.54)
From Equation (3.54) the optimum vector w that will give the maximum value for
the Fisher criterion is given by
w opt = S -1W ( m 2 - m1 )
(3.55)
Class 1
Class 2
mean class 1
mean class 2
0
-2
-2
Figure 3.10
Using Equation (3.45) the mean vectors for the two classes were calculated
0.984
2.269
m1 =
, m2 =
1.55
6.812
(3.56)
The within-covariance for the two classes were calculated using Equation (3.55)
and the values are
2.28
192.964
213.344 -9.897
S W1 =
and S W2 =
179.283
-9.897 179.851
2.28
(3.57)
-7.617 359.135
35
(3.58)
Using Equations (3.55), (3.56), and (3.58) the optimum projection vector w is
found to be
0.003438
w opt =
0.015
(3.59)
The direction of the vector wopt is given by the angle a, which can be calculated, and the
value is
a = 76.858 @ 77 deg
(3.60)
37
iLearn Hands-On is a set of vibration measurements taken from a fault test rig.
Over two hundred tests covering dozens of fault conditions are analyzed. Analysis
can be done on the screen or downloaded into the end users data collector.
iLearn Case Histories is a library of spectra and waveforms taken from real
machines. Digital recordings enhance the vibration analysis experience. Analysis
can be done on the screen or downloaded into the end users data collector.
iLearn Signals is a virtual signal generator and spectrum analyzer. This software
program will generate simple signals to teach waveforms and spectra. Advanced
capabilities delve into signal processing.
iLearn Machine Faults allows the end user to model a machine to understand
frequencies. The ease of drag and drop technology enable the end user to create a
virtual machine and view simulated frequencies, waveforms and spectrum.
38
(a)
(b)
Figure 3.12 Vibration analysis software for analysis, training and preventive maintenance: (a)
ExpertALERT from Predict-DLI; (b) SpectraScope CAF from Spectral Visualization and
Development, SVD Inc.
Introduction to Machinery Signals the end user is taught the basics of data
acquisition, such as when and how to take measurements, aliasing and the alias
foldover effect, and identifying time and stationary signals. Deterministic stationary
signals and the processes that generate them are covered as well.
Introduction to DSP (Data Signal Processing): Time and Frequency Domain are
two separate courses that are offered by SVD Inc. Data acquisition issues such as
single channel and multi-channel analysis are taught along with unit of measurement.
The concepts of mean, average and correlation, and how they relate to stationary
signals are presented. The basic types of spectral plots and spectral analysis and their
units of measurement are covered in frequency domain along with spectral estimators,
parametric and non-parametric.
39
3.8.3 PREDICT-DLI
Predict DLI provides onsite training at their Cleveland or Seattle training center or
customized training classes for companies interested in setting up their own onsite
training classes. Predict DLI offers training in vibration analysis, lubricant analysis,
thermography with digital imagery and visual inspections with digital imagery. The
vibration curriculum currently consists of three courses described below:
Vibration Analysis I and Machine Balancing is a beginners course for end users
who have little or no experience in vibration data analysis. The course emphasizes
vibration sources and measurement techniques as well as fundamental machine fault
recognition. This course is designed for a practical focus on vibration analysis to
detect major problems.
Vibration Analysis II and Laser Alignment this course is a follow-up to the basic
course described up above. Here emphasis is placed on single channel analysis of
vibration spectra. Problems found in gearboxes and belt driven machines are used for
examples. Alignment tools and techniques are covered to include laser pre-alignment
checks.
Expert ALERT for Voyager is designed for individuals who have purchased
vibration analysis equipment from Predict DLI. Software commands and functions
are discussed as well as analyzing, fine tuning data and manipulation of various
plotting and display functions. Emphasis is placed on setting up the database and
data collection communications and software interface.
40
before an aircraft can be airborne and perform its mission is Rotor Track and Balance
(RT&B). The main reason for doing RT&B is to smooth the helicopter hover and in flight
vibrations. A low level of vibration is desired mainly because of the following reasons:
Increase components life: less vibrations induced from the rotor through the main
frame to the main components of the helicopter, will reduce the chances of
incipient damage to occur and hence will extend the life of components.
Increase maneuverability: a low level of vibration due to a good RT&B will make
the helicopter more maneuverable and will give pilots quicker time to react to the
environment in which they are flying.
Increase comfort of the pilots: a less shaking environment for the pilots will
make them more accurate in making decision and will have a reduced impact on
their health.
All the above advantages of a smooth aircraft, will also translate in long-time cost
savings for helicopters operators, increase readiness of the helicopters, and decreased
probability of catastrophic event.
41
Flight Plan
GNDTRK
INITIAL
FLIGHT
TAIL
Test States
FPG 100
FPG 100
Hover
FPG 100
Hover
60 Kts
80 Kts
100 Kts
120 Kts
140 Kts
FPGTL
Test Condition
100 % NR, Flat Pitch
100 % NR, Flat Pitch
Hover
100 % NR, Flat Pitch
Hover
60 Kts Level Flight
80 Kts Level Flight
100 Kts Level Flight
120 Kts Level Flight
140 Kts Level Flight
Tail Balance Flat Pitch, 100 % NR
42
FLIGHT
FLIGHT is a flight plan primarily designed to reduce the in-flight vertical
vibration using tabs only. It is to be used after the GNDTRK and INITIAL flight plans,
when smoothing an aircraft after a component change or for tuning up an aircraft.TAIL
TAIL is a flight plan designed to balance the tail rotor. It uses the optical RPM
sensor and one accelerometer. It should be performed after any rework/replacement of
tail rotor.
performs on the ground with the blades having a flat pitch at 100 % nominal rotation
(NR) of the main rotor. When the rotor has reached 100 % NR, data is collected from the
two accelerometers placed in the cockpit for measuring the vertical and lateral vibration.
If the vibration level is within the limits, then the next task will be performed. If not, a set
of adjustments will be generated to reduce vibration at FPG 100. After making the
recommended adjustments the rest is repeated.
The next task is hover, when the helicopter takes off from the ground and hovers
above the ground. Data is collected and, if needed adjustments, are made and then the test
is repeated.
After hover, the next task is flight. During this task the aircraft is performing a
forward flight at different air speeds varying from 60 Kts (Knots) to 140 Kts. Data is
collected during the flight and, if the vibration levels are above the allowable values, the
AVA software is used to generate a set of adjustments that will bring the vibration level
into the acceptable vibration domain.
A schematic of the RT&B test plan is presented in the following Figure 4.1:
43
FPG 100
Vibration
amplitudes
Adjustments
Figure 4.1
Vibration
amplitudes
Hover
Adjustments
Flight
FPG 100
Hover
60-140Kts
Vibration
amplitudes
Adjustments
Pitch link adjustments: brings the blade in track by moving the entire blade up or
down by a specified amount. Pitch link adjustments will affect all the test states.
Trim tab adjustments: consists of bending thin aluminum tabs (pockets) located
on the trailing edge of the blade. The tabs are adjusted up or down with a
specified angle. This will make the blade to go up or down at certain air speeds.
Certain trim tab adjustments are targeting particular air speeds.
Hub weight adjustments: addresses changes in weights locate at the root of the
blade by adding or subtracting a specified amount. It will change the balance of
the blades. It is desired that the blades that are in pairs be balanced in the same
way.
44
4.1.1
prior to flight and data acquisition. Detailed installation procedure is given for those parts
that are of importance for the safety of the flight.
A typical RT&B setup configuration, illustrated in Figure 4.2, consists of the
following: Data Acquisition Unit (DAU); Universal Tracking Device; Magnetic rpm
sensor; Vertical and lateral accelerometer: Crew Chief Laptop
Universal Tracking
Device (UTD)
Magnetic RPM
Sensor
Accelerometers
Figure 4.2
45
correction that is performed is the main rotor pitch link adjustment. The main rotor pitch
link assembly is presented in Figure 4.3.
Figure 4.3
46
The standard procedure for pitch link adjustment is as follows: first the barrel and
upper rod end needs to be marked with a single vertical line. Next, the upper and lower
jam is loosed. Turn the barrel the amount specified in the smoothing solution provided by
the RT&B algorithm. Last, tighten and secure the jam nuts.
4.1.3 BALANCE MAIN ROTOR ON THE GROUND
The procedure to balance the main rotor on the ground is as follows:
Preparation: first, flat track the main rotor on the ground as described in the
previous section
Equipment installation
47
that are mare are the trim tab adjustments. To perform these adjustments a special tool,
presented in Figure 4.4, is used:
Figure 4.4
Tab adjustment tool used to bed the tab of the helicopter blades for RT&B (AVA
Technical Manual)
An example to illustrate the trim tab maneuver is presented next. Suppose that the
recommended adjustments are 1 degree up at pocket 4/10. The tab adjustment tool should
be positioned as indicated in Figure 4.5 along the tab of the blade. The bend should start
at pocket 4 and continue bending up 1 degree through pocket 10.
Figure 4.5
48
Equipment installation: install the vibration measuring equipment and the optical
rpm sensor.
Perform tail measurements: operate aircraft at 100% NR flat pitch; acquire tail
rotor vibration data and process the data. If the results are less than the values
specified for the amplitudes of vibration, no corrections are required. If not
perform the suggested corrections.
49
recommended adjustments that will best reduce the vibration level (if high), using a
reduced number of RT&B flights. This process is presented in Figure 4.6:
Recommended
Adjustments
Raw data
Ground Station
SOD data
Crew chiefs
laptop
Data
desensitizing
Raw data
SOD data
USC-VMEP
server
Crew chiefs
laptop
Figure 4.6
The synchronous order domain data from the crew chef laptop is transferred to the
VMEP server located at the University of South Carolina, Department of Mechanical
Engineering. During the transfer process data is being desensitize by removing all the
sensitive information. From the VMEP server, each user can download the data of
particular interest, and perform specific analysis on local computers. In this way the
integrity of the data is kept intact and the possibility to alter the data is minimized. For
security reasons the users have been divided into categories and each one of the
categories have specific privileges on the data. The VMEP directory structure for the
VMU data, and the locally stored structure are presented in Figure 4.7.
50
VMEP Server
VMU Data Directory
Locally stored
VMU data
Figure 4.7
VMU Data storage and directory configuration: on the VMEP server and on the local
computer
FLIGHT: general information about the flight that was performed: aircraft type,
flight date and time, mode name
51
(FPG100) as explained in Table 4.1. Notice that the state of the test is also the
name of the file
FPG100_TRK: track data for the four blades. Also includes general identification
data about the flight
a)
b)
c)
Figure 4.8
A complete RT&B flight is assumed to contain data for all the flight tests, starting
with FPG100 and continue up to 140 Kts air speed, as shown in Figure 4.8c. Based on
this assumption, the RT&B flights were identified and stored separately for further
analysis.
The historical trend for vibration over a period of time is expected to behave as
presented in Figure 4.9. For a smooth helicopter the vibration level is low. As the flight
hours for that particular helicopter increases, the vibration level gradually increases above
the desired level low-vibration. When the vibration level reaches the level of allowable
maximum vibration, it is time for a new RT&B. After the new RT&B is performed, the
vibration level dramatically decreases below the desired level. This process is shown in
Figure 4.9.
52
RT&B
Figure 4.9
RT&B
In our analysis of the vibration data, we tried to see the trend described above. We
looked at the vibration data acquired for one particular aircraft, and for one particular test
state (FPG100) over several months. The results presented in Figure 4.10 represent the
vibration amplitudes versus time. The time is represented by the date in (yy/mm/dd)
format.
RT&B, Vert, 1/rev, FPG 100, AH64_E1
0.45
0.4
0.35
Amplitude [ips]
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
010502
010502
010601
010816
010816
011009
Date
Figure 4.10 Historical trends for vertical vibration for one aircraft and one particular test state,
showing an increased vibration over a couple of months
53
Figure 4.10 shows that the experimental data collected over a period of time is in
concordance with the theoretical behavior of the vibration level between RT&B flights.
The vibration level is low in the first month, May 02, 2001 (015002) and gradually
increases as time increases eventually crosses the desired level for vibration, which is 0.3
ips (inch per second). We conclude that it might be it time for a new RT&B of the
helicopter to bring down the vibration level below the desired level.
Of interest in the analysis of the vibration data is the polar plot. A polar plot is a
graphical representation of the amplitudes of vibration with respect to a certain phase
angle. Knowing the exact position of the magnetic sensor mounted on the main rotor with
respect to the blades, the location and the blade where the high vibration occurred can be
determined.
Polar plot, Vert, 1/rev, Tail, AH64_D1
0.6
011005_155459
0.4
011004_141920
011005_155459
011004_141920
0.7
0.6
-0.4
0.5
0.4
0.6
100K
140K
-0.2
Amplitude [ips]
-0.6
0.2
120K
Hover
140K
100K
0
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
-0.4
120K
0
Hover
FPG 100
-0.6
Hover
60K
80K
100K
120K
140K
Test state
(a)
(b)
Figure 4.11 a) Polar plot for the vibration data between two RT&B flights b) Plot of the amplitude
values for the same flights for all test states.
When looking at a polar plot, there are two things of interest: how spread out the
points are, and how far away from the origin. If we look at the Figure 4.11a we can see
that for the first flight (triangles) the points are scattered and out of the circle that delimit
54
the 0.3 ips vertical vibration level. The VMEP neural network algorithm generates
adjustments that will try to bring the vibration amplitudes towards the origin. After the
recommended adjustments were made, in the next flight (diamonds) we can see how the
points had moved towards the center indicating a low vibration level. The same
information is given in Figure 4.11b where, for the first flight the vibration levels at
hover, 100 kts, 120 kts, and 140 kts are all above the desired level of 0.3 ips. After
making two adjustments, the vibration level decrease dramatically and the result is a
smooth helicopter.
In the analysis performed, we were also interested to see how the RT&B
adjustments will affect the vibration level at different test states. The goal of the RT&B
VMEP algorithm is to bring down the vibration level to a desired limit by using fewer
adjustments and thus less RT&B flights. A reduced number of RT&B flights will
translate into an increase mission capabilities of the helicopter and in cost savings.
RT&B, Vert, 1/rev, AH64_D1
011002_152713
011004_113937
011004_141920
1.6
1.4
Amplitude [ips]
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
FPG 100
Hover
60K
80K
100K
120K
140K
Test state
Figure 4.12 Plot of vibration amplitudes showing an increased vibration level for the three flights
55
In Figure 4.12 we can see that the two flights performed on October 2, 2001 and
on October 4, 2001 have a significant increase in the vibration level, especially at high
speeds (80 Kts to 140 Kts). These are strong indicators that a new rotor track and balance
is needed.
RT&B, Vert, 1/rev, AH64_D1
011005_110733
011005_145818
011005_115451
011005_155459
011005_140905
1
0.9
0.8
Amplitude [ips]
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
FPG 100
Hover
60K
80K
100K
120K
140K
Test state
Figure 4.13 RT&B flights showing how the vibration amplitudes reduces after making recommended
adjustments
After the first set of adjustments the vibration level for 60 Kts, and 80 Kts is below the
desired level for vertical vibration of 0.3 ips. However is still above the desired level for
hover, 100 Kts, and 140 Kts (triangles) as it can be seen in Figure 4.13. The next set of
adjustments brought most test states below the desired level, with the exception of (120
Kts and 140 Kts) (doted line). The final adjustments that were made brought the vibration
amplitudes for all test states to a very low level (blue circle line).
In conclusion, with the VMEP neural network algorithm, it took only three RT&B
flights to bring the vibration level down to a desired low level for vibration.
56
VIBRATION-BASED
DAMAGE
DETECTION/HEALTH
FOR
HELICOPTER HEALTH
MONITORING
The wavelet transform is a signal-processing tool, which allows both the time
domain and frequency domain properties of a signal to be viewed simultaneously.
Performing a wavelet transform consist of convolving the signal with time shifted and
dilated. The result of wavelet transform will be a set of coefficients, which are function of
time and frequency, also called scale. These coefficients can be used to form a unique
mean square wavelet map, a time-frequency representation of the signal.
Mallat (1988) discovered a recursive algorithm to compute the DWT consisting in
basic wavelet function to form sets of filters, each one consisting of lowpass and highpass
filter. The signal is pass through the first set of filters and the result will be two signal
each with half of number of coefficients as the original signal. The signal formed using
the lowpass filter and thus containing the low frequency information is known an the
approximation, and the second signal formed using the high pass filter and thus
containing the high frequency information is known as the detail. For the second
recursion the approximation is passed through the next set of filters and so on until an
approximation and detail each consisting of one coefficient are formed.
57
Signal
A1
A2
A2
D1
A2
D2
Figure 5.1
Signal
A1
AA2
D1
DA2
AD2
DD2
Samuel et al. (1998) collected and analyzed data from an OH-58A main rotor
transmission. The test was run at 6060 rpm (100% of the maximum speed), which
resulted in a mesh frequency of 573 Hz, for nine days, eight hours per day at a 117%
design torque as part of an accelerated fatigue test. The results were represented in mean
square DHWPT maps Figure 5.2
58
Figure 5.2
Mean square wavelet maps for day one and day nine. On day nine a significant
increase in the amplitude of neighboring frequency bands is observed as the fault
developed (Samuel et al., 1998)
The mean square wavelet maps clearly shown the presence of the fault in day nine. Using
the normalized power computed for the mash frequency and its accompanying frequency
bands the evolution of the fault from day one to day nine is presented in Figure 5.3.
Figure 5.3
Kim and Ewins (1999) applied the directional harmonic wavelet transform
(DHWT) to investigate the transient vibration response using a numerical simulation of a
rotor system during the run-up period with a speed ramp rate of 100[rpm/sec] for the case
59
of a rotor with 10% crack (transverse) depth relative to its diameter. To validate the
advantages of DHWT, short-time Fourier transform (STFT) has been applied to the same
set of data (noise contaminated signal) and the results are presented as follows:
Figure 5.4
The results presented in Figure 5-4 reveal the advantage of DHWT over the STFT,
because the results from DHWT are insensitive to the random noise while the STFT
provides noise-contaminated results (Kim and Ewins, 1998).
60
Figure 5.5
Figure 5.6
Those results proved that the use of WVD could be a good tool in fault detection and
failure prevention.
61
AND
Figure 5.7
Hybrid system, fault detection performance. 60-point discrete Fourier transform (DFT)
was performed for fault detection, 128-point and 256-point DFT for fault identification.
62
Figure 5.8
All analog system performance. For fault detection in the case of all analog neural
network. 60-point DFT was performed (Monsena et al., 1995)
The results indicate that a system employing 60-point DFT was capable of solving the
fault detection problem. For the fault classification and identification problem, a 256point DFT was required for perfect system performances. The performance results by
using the all analog neural network suggest that it is possible to achieve 100% fault
detection with 0% false alarm rate.
Essaway et al. (1998) presented an automated predictive diagnosis (IPD)
technique for monitoring the health of helicopter gearboxes. This technique is based on
neuro-fuzzy algorithms for pattern clustering, pattern classification, and sensor fusion
(Cho, 1997). The vibration data used was obtained from an aft main power transmission
of a CH-46E helicopter. Frequency domain and wavelet analysis techniques were used to
analyze the data and prepare them for the neural network inputs. To train the neural
network, a non-supervised learning algorithm known as Self Organizing Maps (SOM)
was used. A feedforward backpropagation neural network was used to classify the
different faults. In the preprocess part of the vibration data, both auto power spectral
63
density (APSD) and wavelet coefficients were used [12]. A list of the fault types is
presented in Table 1.
Table 5.1
List of the fault types created in the test gearbox (Essaway et al., 1998)
Fault #
Fault 2
Fault type
Planetary bearing corrosion
Fault #
Fault 6
Fault 3
Fault 7
Fault 4
Fault 8
Fault type
Helical idler gear crack
propagation
Collector gear crack
propagation
Quill shaft crack propagation
Fault 9
No defect
Fault 5
The results obtained using the first feature extraction method (129 points APSD) and
second extraction method (wavelet transform) are promising and they are presented in
Table5.2 and Table 5.3.
Table 5.2
Neural Network Classification results using APSD features at 100% load (Essaway et
al., 1998)
Fault
Fault 2
Load
100%
Fault 3
100%
Fault 4
100%
Fault 5
100%
Fault 6
100%
Fault 7
100%
Fault 8
100%
Fault 9
100%
Train
Test
Train
Test
Train
Test
Train
Test
Train
Test
Train
Test
Train
Test
Train
Test
Acc1
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
Acc2
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
Acc3
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
64
Acc4
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
Acc5
100%
100%
93.3%
90.9%
86.7%
81.8%
70%
72.7%
80%
27.3%
100%
100%
96.7%
81.8%
90%
63.6%
Acc6
100%
100%
90%
100%
100%
100%
93.3%
100%
76.6%
90.9%
93.3%
90.9%
83.3%
63.6%
93.3%
100%
Acc7
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
Acc8
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
90.9%
96.7%
100%
100%
100%
100%
90.9%
100%
100%
100%
81.8%
Table 5.3
Neural network classification results using wavelet features (Essaway et al., 1998)
Accelerometer#
Acc 1
Acc 7 (14x14 SOM)
Acc 7 (9x9 SOM)
Fault2
100%
100%
100%
Fault3
100%
88.89%
88.89%
Fault4
66.67%
88.89%
44.44%
Fault5
100%
100%
100%
Fault6
100%
100%
100%
Fault7
100%
100%
100%
Fault8
100%
100%
100%
Fault9
88.89%
100%
100%
From the above results it can be seen that the neuro-fuzzy technique using both APSD
and wavelet transform, even though classification results was not perfect for all sensors,
produced 100% classification for all cases.
65
HELICOPTER
HEALTH
AND
USAGE
MONITORING
SYSTEMS (HUMS)
6.1 WHAT IS HUMS?
In the past 10 years, the movement for Health and Usage Monitoring Systems
(HUMS) has become a hot topic in the helicopter community. This movement started in
the United Kingdom with systems being fitted to helicopters operating in hostile
environment of the North Sea. The driving force for behind the introduction of such
systems has been the need for improved helicopter safety and reliability. The HUMS are
providing valuable information about the health of the helicopters engines, drive train
and rotor systems. According to the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), 63
airworthiness related arisings were detected on the North Sea helicopters, where an
arising is defined as an event, which has led to significant maintenance actions. The
installed HUMS detected 70% of these arisings (Larder, 1999).
Some of the HUMS characteristics and benefits as described in literature, are
listed below (Larder et al., 2000):
Health: focus on giving early indications of potential problems for maintenanceplanning purposes
Usage: manage the usage of the aircraft and controls life-expired component
replacement
66
Integrated: HUMS will be an integral part of the aircraft maintenance and logistic
system, and the HUMS outputs will be fully integrated into the aircraft
maintenance policy
Due to some time and resources related restriction, civil operators have not been able
to gather cost related data to prove the benefits of HUMS. However there is no doubt that
HUMS is providing worthwhile maintenance benefits. A few of these benefits as
described by Larder (2000) are:
-
Simplified rotor track and balance procedures and reduced RT&B flights;
Reduced airframe vibration levels, resulting in fewer avionics faults and other
faults, and hence less maintenance and downtime;
68
commercial/military dual use mechanical diagnostic system on the H-53 and H60 helicopters (Hess et al 2001).
AT) rotor track and balance system, including rotor fault diagnostic; monitoring and
capturing of aircraft limit exceedances; electronic log book data, including power
assurance; power assurance check.
The potential benefits of the 412 Bell Hums can be listed as follows: reduced nonrevenue maintenance flights; insurance savings; log book accuracy; reduced false
removals; reduced helicopter maintenance; reduced mission aborts.
The configuration of the 412 Bell helicopter HUM system is presented in Figure
6.1. The system architecture can be divided into to parts: on-board equipment and
ground-based equipment.
Figure 6.1
The vibration data acquired from the accelerometers, and data from the Air Data
Computer are stored in the HUMS Processor Unit. Pilots have the possibility at any time
70
to monitor the functionality of the helicopter using the HUMS Display Panel. Optional
the data can be stored on a solid state Cockpit Voice and Flight Data Recorder.
After landing the helicopter, data can be transferred from the HUMS Display
Panel through a PC card to the HUMS Ground Station, or from the Processor Unit to the
HUMS Ground Station through the HUMS Data Retrieval Unit. From here, the data is
then processed and analyzed.
The number of sensors and data sources on the Bell 412 helicopter HUMS are:
accelerometers up to 30 per aircraft; tachometers up to 5 per aircraft; chip detectors; air
data recorder; engine, gearboxes and rotors vibration.
A typical installation diagram for Bell 412 HUMS showing the location of the
sensors, and the data collecting and display hardware is presented in Figure 6.2.
Figure 6.2
71
72
(a)
Figure 6.3
(b)
IMD HUMS hardware configuration; (a) Main CH-53E IMD HUMS display; (b) Location
of the IMD HUMS on the Army UH-60A (Hess et al. 2001)
The IMD HUMS is composed of two major elements: the on-board acquisition
and process system (OBS) and the ground station (GS).
The On-Board System is responsible for collecting, processing, analyzing, and
storing data obtained from sensors located throughout the aircraft. The principal element
of the OBS is the Main Processing Unit (MPU), which analyzes the input data for
exceedances and events, calculates various flight regimes, performs various diagnostic
algorithms, and stores the data to an onboard data cartridge. The Remote Data Collector
(RDC) is another element of the OBS system. It is used for the aircraft that do not support
modern avionics bus communication to collect the data from the sensors.
The Ground Station (GS) is the primary user interface with the HUMS system. It
is responsible for logging and maintaining all flight and maintenance data, generating
maintenance-due lists based on flight data, performing aircraft configuration and pars
tracking, generating engineering and managements reports, and archiving data (Hess et
al., 2001).
73
The IMD HUMS program is currently in progress on the Navy CH-53E, and the
Navy SH-60B. The CH-53E IMD HUMS was transitioned from development test into
operational test phase. It completed a 97 hours development test program in 2000 with
emphasize on functional evaluation and demonstration of IMD HUMS. The SH-60B
IMD HUMS transition from the development test phase to the operational test phase was
scheduled to occur in the 3rd and 4th quarter of 2001.
Other IMD HUMS programs will target the Army UH-60A and HH-60L, the
Marines AH-1Z and the UH-1Y.
Rotor smoothing also known as Rotor Track and Balance (RT&B), which, is a
function that minimizes the fundamental harmonic of main rotor and tail rotor
vibration. Adjustments for weight, trim tab and/or pitch link length are provided.
74
Figure 6.4
Vibration
Management Unit
(VMU)
Engine Vibration
Health Monitoring
VMEP functions
The goals and objectives of the VMEP program are as follows: to reduce rotor
track and balance maintenance test flights; mitigate Apache Readiness Improvement
Program (ARIP) problems; reduce aircraft operation costs; increase aircraft availability;
increase aircraft safety.
To achieve the above stated goals and objectives, the methods and approach used
in the VMEP program are: to measure and record in-flight vibrations, process vibration
75
data, apply signal analysis methods and identify hot-spots, fine-tune track and balance
to reduce vibrations, and identify incipient failures and anticipate maintenance actions
The design and impact of the VMEP system on the aircraft must be minimal. The
requirements are to provide a system with open architecture, using Commercial off-TheShelf (COTS) hardware components and COTS software components. The key features
of the VMEP program are:
Data can be transferred to WEB-GBS for long term trends and aircraft
comparison
integrated and qualified with the Army airframe. The VMU is a stand-alone system that
does not depend on, or adversely interact with, any other system on the aircraft. On the
helicopter airframe there are 18 accelerometers mounted, three tachometers and a blade
tracker.
The VMU is a lightweight acquisition and processing unit, open architecture
hardware and software, which provides a low cost, easily upgradeable system for onboard diagnostic such as rotor track and balance, drive train vibration monitoring, turbine
engine diagnostics, and gear box monitoring. The total weight of the VMU is 4 lbs and 5
oz. Figure 6.5 shows a picture of the VMU.
Figure 6.5
The VMEP on-Board configuration and location of the sensors and tachometers is
presented in Figure 6.6
77
Figure 6.6
Figure 6.7
78
Figure 6.8
PC-GBS Screens
Figure 6.8 shows a few screens from the PC-GBS. The user-friendly interface
requires the user a minimum training to operate the software and perform the basic
functions without any prior expertise in rotor track and balance and vibration analysis.
79
Raw data
Raw data
Raw data
Data Desensitizing
Ground station
Figure 6.9
Vibration data flow diagram showing downloading of data from the VMU to the ground
station and further to the USC teradata computer
From the PC-GBS the data will be transferred to USC for cost benefit analysis.
Before transfer, the data is being desensitized to eliminate sensitive operations-related
components. After the desensitizing process is complete, the vibration data is transferred
80
to the USC teradata computer. From the secured server the data can be utilized by various
end users to perform specific analysis. It is important to mention that the raw data from
the VMU stored on the USC teradata computer is protected against any kind of
accidentally pollution of the data, i.e. deleting data or adding data, by hierarchiezd access
levels of the users.
81
Based on the information furnished by the mechanical drive schematic, the shaft
frequencies and the mesh frequencies of the components can be calculated. A list of the
components and their frequencies for the AH-64A mechanical drive system is presented
in Table 6.1.
Table 6.1
Shaft frequencies and mesh frequencies for the main components of the mechanical
drive shaft of AH-64A helicopter
Gearbox
Tail Gearbox
Intermediate Gearbox
#1 & #2 Nose Gearbox
#1 & #2 Engine
Hydraulic Pump
AC Generator
Aft & Fwd Hanger Bearing
Component
shaft1
gear1
tail rotor drive shaft
gear
shaft
gear
shaft
gear
shaft
hydr. pump shaft
gear
AC gen shaft
gear
tail rotor drive shaft
APU
Main transmission
APU shaft
gear
shaft2
gear
rpm/
Mesh Frequency Shaft Freq
nr. of teeth
Hz
Hz
3636
1333.2
60.6
22
4815.25
2969.4
80.3
37
20952
10825.2
349.2
31
9841
10661.1
164.0
65
20952
349.2
12635
6738.7
210.6
32
12251
6738.1
204.2
33
4815.25
0.0
80.3
8251
49
4757
82
6738.3
137.5
6501.2
79.3
Having this information, the spectral analysis of the vibration data recorded by
particular sensors is possible. In the frequency spectra, each component can be easily
identified using its characteristic frequency. Changes in the frequency spectra at certain
frequencies can be an indication of a wear process, or of the initiation of a failure process.
Monitoring changes in the frequency spectra can give indication about the life and health
of the components being monitored.
Diagnostics algorithms that are embedded into the VMEP software generate
Condition Indicators (CI) based on known information about rotational speed,
mechanical construction, as well as on information on the structural vibration or acoustic
82
resonance of the system. A condition indicator uses a set of measured data as input and
produces a single real number as output. This single number can be thresholded, trended,
or analyzed, to provide an indication a fault presence, the location and the type of the
fault.
83
the feature extraction as being: aircraft ID, state status, and the sensor. Base on these
variables the following two cases were analyzed:
0.6
E1_988820742 FL_010502_122600
E1_988855674 Fl_010502_220812
E1_997985420 Fl_010816_141038
E1_997986362 Fl_010816_143003
E1_991416342 Fl_010601_132610
80.3 Hz
TRDS
0.5
Amplitude [g's]
0.4
0.3
164 Hz
Input DS
408 Hz
2 nd overtone of
AC Generator
0.2
591 Hz
7th overtone of
TRDS
490 Hz
3rd overtone of
Input DS
0.1
0
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
Frequency [Hz]
Figure 6.11 Frequency spectrum for the tail gearbox sensor for the same aircraft, same test state
(FLIGHT), and the same sensor.
Both, Figure 6.11 and Figure 6.12 shows that the amplitude of vibration for the
components is changing over time. After sufficient data has been collected a baseline for
the allowable amplitudes of the vibrations can be establish and each frequency can be
84
compared to the baseline. If damage will occur in any of the components being
monitored, the frequency spectrum will change and looking at the frequency at which the
change is present, the component can be identified and appropriate maintenance action
can be taken.
Intermediate Gear Box
E1_988820742
E1_988855674
E1_991416342
E1_997985420
E1_997986362
80.3 Hz
TRDS
2.5
Amplitude [g's]
1.5
164 Hz
Input DS
325 Hz
EDS
975 Hz
3 rd overtone of
EDS
408 Hz
2 nd overtone of AC
Generator
0.5
0
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
Frequency [Hz]
Figure 6.12 Frequency spectrum for the intermediate gearbox sensor for the same aircraft, same
test state (FLIGHT), and the same sensor.
#1Nose Gearbox
S1_989075061
B1_1001517808
H1_1003954857
L1_1004623237
700 Hz
2 nd overtone of
Engine Drive
Sh ft
2.5
Amplitude [g's]
2
656 Hz
4 th overtone of
Input Drive Shaft
1.5
350 Hz
EDS
1
534 Hz
3 rd overtone of
Fuel Boost Pump
164 Hz
Input DS
0.5
0
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
550
600
650
700
750
800
850
900
950
1000
Frequency [Hz]
Figure 6.13 Frequency spectrum for the #1 nose gearbox sensor for the same sensor, same test
state (FLIGHT) but different aircraft.
Intermediate Gearbox
S1_989075061
4
D1_1002050757
F1_1005231900
J1_1003879568
P1_1003506805
S1_989075061
80.3 Hz
TRDS
3.5
Amplitude [g's]
3
2.5
2
803 Hz
10 th overtone of
TR Driveshaft
1.5
241 Hz
3 rd overtone of
TR Driveshaft
1
23.5 Hz
TR 1/rev
0.5
883 Hz
11 th overtone of
TR Driveshaft
405 Hz
5 th overtone of
TR Driveshaft
0
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
550
600
650
700
750
800
850
900
950
1000
Frequency [Hz]
Figure 6.14 Frequency spectrum for the intermediate gearbox sensor for the same sensor, same
test state (FLIGHT) but different aircraft
86
87
where X =
(7.1)
x
, x is displacement, m and c are the object mass and damping coefficient
m
wS =
kS
k
c
c
, wC = C , z S =
, zC =
.
m
m
2 kS m
2 kC m
(7.2)
At compression, the crack is closed and the material behaves like a continuum;
hence, the compression stiffness is the same as that of the material without crack,
kC = k
At stretching, the crack is opened and the material is discontinuous, therefore the stiffness
decreases with the quantity:
88
Dk = k - k S
Stretching
Crack opening
Compression
Crack closing
Figure 7.1
Stretching and compression of the cracked object. In stretching crack is opening and in
compression crack is closing
Figure 7.2
89
For the axial loading case considered in the present work, the stiffness change due
to the crack is related to the width of the object (cross section area) hence the linear
approximation holds. For bending, the linear approximation is not true anymore, the
stiffness change being proportional to the width of the object raised to the power of three
(moment of inertia).
The variables w f and j are the constant excitation frequency and random initial
phase (Gelman et al. 2000). The random initial phase is uniformly distributed in the
interval [0; 2p ] . The frequency of the cracked object depends on the crack size a
w s2
a
= 1- = 1- r
2
wc
h
(7.3)
a
h
(7.4)
T=
2p T1 T2 1 2p
= + =
w
2 2 2 ws
1 2p
+
2 wc
p
p
+
=
ws wc
(7.5)
Hence,
w =2
w S wC
,
w S + wC
(7.6)
2 1- r
1+ 1- r
90
(7.7)
k
, and r is the
m
The relation between the frequency and the relative crack size is shown in Figure
7.3. As the crack size increases the frequency of the structure decreases, as a consequence
of the change in stiffness.
Frequency [Hz]
25
20
15
10
5
0
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
Figure 7.3
91
0.8
Figure 7.4
The stiffness and the nonlinearities also change with the crack size. In our
investigation, we tracked the main frequency changes for increasing relative crack size (r
= 0, 0.1, 0.4, 0.6). For each relative crack size, the nonlinear time-response signal was
generated using numerical solution of Equation (7.1). The, the power spectral density
(PSD) of the signal was computed using two methods: (a) short time Fourier transform
(STFT); and (b) Wigner-Ville distribution.
92
After computing the power spectral density (PSD), the peaks in the frequency
spectrum were observed. Changes in amplitude magnitude, shifting of the main
frequency, and apparition of higher harmonics in the frequency spectrum were
investigated.
frequency domain analysis and finally the application of statistical methods to interpret
the results. These steps are presented in Figure 7.5
(jn)
Monte Carlo
n = 1, .., 1000
Input
Variables
Time
Domain
Simulation
Frequency
Domain
Analysis
2
Statistical (m,s )r
Analysis
Fisher
Criterion
(m,s2)pristine
Damage Level
r = 0, ,1
Figure 7.5
Figure 7.5 also shows that a Monte Carlo loop was applied to the simulated data.
For each crack size the simulation was run 1000 times, each time with a different
randomly selected initial phase, j. The phase selected in each of the iteration was
randomly selected in the interval [0:2p] by a random white nose generator. In this way a
large data set with built-in statistical variation was generated.
The frequency domain analysis consisted of two methods: the first method was
the short time Fourier transform (STFT), the second method was the Wigner-Ville
distribution (WVD).
Statistical analysis was used to compare the results by obtained by using the two
methods, STFT and WVD. The statistical method used for classification was Fishers
linear discriminant criterion.
94
MATLAB
Variable
delta_C/C ratio
h_compress
h_stretch
Self frequency
Initial frequency
Final frequency
Sampling interval
Start time
Target time
Number point
FFT
Description of variable
Default
Values
0
1
1
20
20
20
0.002
0
2
256
The simulation program was based on Equation (7.1). A screen capture of the
SIMULINK environment showing the block diagram of the simulation program is
presented in Figure 7.6
Figure 7.6
95
Figure 7.6 shows that the simulation starts with the generation of time domain
signal. The signal generated is a constant amplitude sine wave. The frequency of the
signal changes as the crack progresses. The signal is then split in two; one branch goes to
the workspace and is saved as the time domain data for the undamaged case, and the
other branch enters the block diagram where the crack is present, hence the time domain
data for the damage case is generated.
The natural frequency of the object without crack is fn = 20 Hz (wn=40p rad/s) and
the damping coefficients for stretching and compression are zsws =zc wc = 10 rad/s. The
relative crack size values investigated here are r = 0; 0.1; 0.4; 0.6
The time domain data for two cases, pristine (r = 0), and damaged (r = 0.6) is
presented in Figure 7.7
(a)
Figure 7.7
(b)
Time domain data: (a) pristine case (r=0) and (b) damaged case (r=0.6)
For the frequency domain analysis, the transitory part of the time domain signal
was not taken into consideration. After the transitory part, the data was stored, and further
applied to it frequency domain analysis technique.
96
Figure 7.8
Graphical User Interface (GUI) for the MATLAB program (Gelman et al. 2001)
97
7.4 RESULTS
In the present work the simulation was carried out for relative crack size, r, starting
from zero (pristine case) and up to 0.6. In the next sections the results will be presented
for four cases: pristine case (r = 0), small crack (r = 0.1), medium crack (r = 0.4), and
large crack (r = 0.6).
7.4.1 CASE 1: PRISTINE STRUCTURE (r = 0)
The main frequency of the undamaged object is the same as the natural frequency
of the pristine object, fpristine = 20 Hz. The experimental results, Figure 7.9, show that
both, Wigner-Ville distribution (WVD) and short time Fourier transform (STFT) predict
the main frequency of the pristine object at 20 Hz.
No other effects (interference or harmonics) are present in the frequency
spectrum, which is in concordance with the predictions of linear analysis.
(a)
Figure 7.9
(b)
98
(a)
(b)
Figure 7.10 WVD and STFT comparison for small damage case, r = 0.1
99
(a)
(b)
100
(a)
(b)
Figure 7.12 WVD and STFT comparison for the damaged case, r = 0.6
101
Fisher criterion calculated for STFT and WVD methods and the feature comparison.
Each of the the damaged cases were compared with the pristine case
Method
STFT
WVD
Pristine vs.
0.1 relative crack
0.001
0.666
Pristine vs.
0.6 relative crack
4.119
43.367
The results of Table 7.2 are plotted in Figure 7.13. It can be noticed that the damage
detection capabilities of WVD algorithm are definitely better than those of STFT
102
STFT
50
WVD
45
Fisher criterion
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0 - 0.1
0 - 0.4
0 -0.6
Figure 7.13 Damage detection effectiveness of the two methods, STFT and WVD, based on the
Fisher criterion
7.6 DISCUSSION
Damage detection and failure prevention of mechanical systems is of critical
importance. In the present chapter damage detection of a cracked component was
investigated using two signal-processing techniques: short time Fourier transform (STFT)
and Wigner-Ville distribution (WVD).
The non-stationary time domain signal was simulated using MATLABSIMULINK. The damage was simulated as a change in stiffness of the component of
interest. Solving the equations of motion for a one degree of freedom oscillator generated
the time domain signal. The solution was obtained for four crack sizes: r = 0 (pristine), r
= 0.1 (small damage), r = 0.4 (medium damage), and r = 0.6 (large damage).
After the time domain signal was obtained, frequency domain analysis techniques
were used to investigate the change in frequency as a result of the crack growth. The
feature of interest was the amplitude of the main frequency as well as shifting of the other
frequencies in the frequency domain.
103
The results of this investigation showed that, as the crack progresses, the
frequency spectra changes. According to the non-linear analysis, when damage is present,
the frequency spectra will change and higher harmonics and subharmonics of the main
frequency will appear. Our results clearly indicate the changes due to the presence of the
crack. The appearance of higher harmonics as the crack grows is well indicated by the
STFT. The 1st and 2nd harmonic of the main frequency (f2 @ 35 Hz, f3 @ 53 Hz) could be
easily identified on the power spectra for r = 0.4 and r = 0.6 (Figure 7.12b).
While the STFT method can detect well the higher harmonics of the main
frequency, the WVD method is less sensitive to this feature. In WVD power spectrum,
the 1st higher harmonic of the main frequency appears only for large crack size (relative
crack size r = 0.6). It is interesting to notice that subharmonics generated by the
interference terms (cross-terms), are present in the frequency spectra of the WVD but do
not appear in the STFT. As the crack grows, the cross-terms are more visible and their
amplitudes are larger. This phenomenon led us to the idea of using the cross-terms as an
indicator of crack propagation. This idea is not investigate any further in the present
study, but can be the goal of future research area.
To classify the outcome of the two methods, a statistical tool was needed. The
Fisher linear discriminant method (Fisher criterion) was applied to classify the outcome
of the two damage detection techniques. The spectral features used in this classification
were chosen to be the change in amplitude of the main frequency for the pristine cases (r
= 0) and for the damaged case (r = 0.1), (r = 0.4), (r = 0.6). The main frequencies for the
damaged cases where compared one by one with the main frequency for the pristine case,
and the Fisher criterion was calculated for each case. This method was applied to the data
104
obtained using STFT and WVD. The results were plotted on the same graph and
presented in Figure 7.13.
Figure 7.13 shows that, for small cracks the detection of damage in the structure is
done poorly by both methods (STFT and WVD). As the crack size increases, the
detection of the damage becomes better, as indicated by the increase in the Fisher
criterion values. As expected, the best damage detection is achieved when the crack size
is large as shown for r = 0.6 in Figure 7.13. For small and medium crack sizes (r = 0.1
and r = 0.4) the two methods are comparable. For medium crack size (r = 0.4), the Fisher
criterion for STFT and WVD being FSTFT 0.4 = 1.5 and FWVD 0.4 = 3.3. For larger crack size
(r = 0.6), the WVD prediction is much better than the STFT, FSTFT 0.6 = 4.2 and FWVD 0.6 =
43.4. These results show that the overall the damage detection sensitivity using the WVD
method is much better than when using the STFT method.
In conclusion, both WVD and STFT methods predict the presence of the damage.
The STFT method gives a better indication of the higher harmonics of the main
frequency due to the crack growth On the other hand, WVD method gives stronger
sensitivity to the crack presence based on the changes in the main frequency. This latter
observation has also been substantiated by statistical analysis using Fisher criterion.
The method to be used for damage detection is entirely up to the person who is
performing the signal analysis. Its choice must be based on the application type, and on
the experience of the operator one method or the other can be used. The short time
Fourier transform method is a relative known method and is widely use in machinery
damage detection and health monitoring. Wigner-Ville distribution is a relative new
method and the full advantages it can offer are yet to be discovered. The present work is
105
only a small step taken on the long road, and further research needs to be conducted to
fully clarify these aspects.
106
CONCLUSIONS
This thesis has presented vibration-based methods used for damage detection and
health monitoring of mechanical systems. The review of the state of the art revealed that,
in the past years, damage detection and health and usage monitoring have been proactive
topics in the researchers community. Extensive work has been recently done to study
linear and non-linear vibration phenomena, using various signal processing techniques.
Although the traditional methods, i.e. fast Fourier transform and short time Fourier
transform are still used, the focus of recent research is shifting towards more advanced
methods and signal processing techniques such as wavelet transform and Wigner-Ville
distribution.
Studying the vibration response of rotating machinery with emphasis on the
vibration of helicopters was the focus of the present work. An understanding of the rotor
track and balance, the adjustments necessary to smooth the helicopter main and tail
rotors, and the procedures needed to be followed to achieve this goal have been
presented. Using VMEP neural network based algorithm for rotor smoothing, the
vibration levels of the helicopter are reduced by performing fewer adjustments and hence
less number of maintenance test flights. Maintaining a low vibration level increases the
operational time of helicopters, increases the life time of components, and reduces the
probability of an catastrophic event to take place.
107
The health and usage monitoring aspect has also been presented in this thesis.
Numerous programs are under development or undergoing, to equip military and
commercial helicopters with health and monitoring systems (HUMS) capable to provide
information about the health and the remaining useful life of major components. A brief
description of the programs that are currently in progress was given, with emphasis on
the Vibration Monitoring Enhancement Program (VMEP), program developed by the US
Army and South Carolina National Guard. The main contractor is Intelligent Automation
Corporation (IAC), and University of South Carolina is responsible with the cost benefit
analysis of the VMEP project. A description of the purpose of the project as well as the
software and hardware configuration was given. The vibration data collection, the
transfer of the data from the helicopter to the ground based station and further to the USC
data repository, and the vibration data processing were described.
A simulation for a cracked component was designed and carried out using
MATLAB-SIMULINK. The forced oscillation method to generate the time response of
the structure for axial loading was used. The crack was simulated as a change in stiffness.
The signal processing techniques used for damage detection were short time Fourier
transform and Wigner-Ville distribution. The reason for using joint time-frequency
methods was the non-linearity of the structure response. The crack presence in the
structure modifies the effective stiffness and hence the main frequency. The relative
crack size considered in this study was r = 0 (pristine case), r = 0.1 (small crack), r = 0.4
(medium crack), and r = 0.6 (large crack). The natural frequency of the pristine object
was fn = 20 Hz. The results showed that both methods, short time Fourier transform and
Wigner-Ville distribution, predicted the presence and progress of damage. The feature
108
used to predict damage were, the change in the amplitude of the main frequency and
apparition of higher harmonics of the main frequency in the frequency spectrum. The
STFT method gives a better indication of the higher harmonics of the main frequency due
to the crack growth. On the other hand, WVD method gives stronger sensitivity to the
crack presence based on the changes in the main frequency.
To quantify the effectiveness of the outcome of the two methods, the Fisher
criterion was used. The results showed that the Fisher criterion values for the WignerVille distribution method were slightly higher than those for the short time Fourier for
small and medium crack size (FSTFT
0.4
0.4
significant difference between the values for large crack size (FSTFT 0.6 = 4.2 and FWVD 0.6
= 43.4). This is an indication that the Wigner-Ville distribution method predictions are
more accurate than the predictions of the short time Fourier method. The Fisher criterion
was applied to the vibration data representing the changes in the amplitude of the main
frequency.
An interesting outcome of the Wigner-Ville distribution was observed, related to
the cross-terms apparition. For small crack size and medium crack size subharmonics
generated by the cross-terms are present in the frequency spectrum. Apparition of the
cross-terms in the frequency spectrum can be related to the apparition of damage in the
structure.
Further work needs to be done in order to better understand the outcome of the
Wigner-Ville distribution and to relate the apparition of cross-terms and the presence of
damage.
109
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