Improved spectral kurtosis with adaptive redundant multiwavelet packet and its applications for rotating machinery fault detection

Rotating machinery fault detection is significant to avoid serious accidents and huge economic losses effectively. However, due to the vibration signal with the character of non-stationarity and nonlinearity, the detection and extraction of the fault feature turn into a challenging task. Therefore, a novel method called improved spectral kurtosis (ISK) with adaptive redundant multiwavelet packet (ARMP) is proposed for this task. Spectral kurtosis (SK) has been proved to be a powerful tool to detect and characterize the non-stationary signal. To improve the SK in filter limitation and enhance the resolution of spectral analysis as well as match fault feature optimally, the ARMP is introduced into the SK. Moreover, since kurtosis does not reflect the actual trend of periodic impulses, the SK is improved by incorporating an evaluation index called envelope spectrum entropy as supplement. The proposed method is applied to the rolling element bearing and gear fault detection to validate its reliability and effectiveness. Compared with the conventional frequency spectrum, envelope spectrum, original SK and some single wavelet methods, the results indicate that it could improve the accuracy of frequency-band selection and enhance the ability of rotating machinery fault detection.