Innovative application of artificial neural networks for effective rotational shaft crack localization

Abstract

Rotational shafts are pivotal components in industrial settings and are responsible for transmitting torque and rotational motion. Despite their significance, these shafts are susceptible to faults, particularly cracks, which can adversely affect the system's performance and safety. Hence, efficient crack detection and diagnosis ensure safety, reliability, and costeffectiveness. This research aims to develop an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model that can effectively identify cracks occurring at different depths and locations in rotating shafts, which operate at varying rotational speeds. Vibration signals were obtained and subjected to preprocessing using a bandpass filter to isolate the shaft signals from other components. Subsequently, time-domain statistical features were extracted from the filtered signals. An optimal feature selection methodology was employed to rank the extracted features, and the highest-ranking features were chosen for training the ANN model. The findings of this research indicate that the developed model achieved a classification accuracy of 94.4%.