A dual sensor signal fusion approach for detection of faults in rotating machines

The growing industrial sector utilizes machinery that needs to be monitored continuously by proficient experts and robust software to ensure a proper maintenance strategy. Condition monitoring using vibration signal analysis is one of the chief methods used in predictive maintenance strategy for rotating machinery. Generally, sound signal analysis is considered as secondary as it involves noise. In this paper, the signals for various rotating machinery faults are studied by simulating them in a machine fault simulator at various speeds and the best features are fused to obtain more efficiency in the fault diagnosis of rotating machinery. The vibration signal data obtained from accelerometers and sound signal data from a microphone is extracted for features using wavelet transform. The best features from vibration and sound signals are selected using the decision tree algorithm and are fused. Further, the features are classified using an artificial neural network and the corresponding efficiency at various motor speeds is found. The results of this paper imply that the signal fusion of vibration and sound by the decision tree algorithm is effective in machine fault diagnosis methodologies.