Rolling bearing fault diagnosis based on variational mode decomposition and weighted multidimensional feature entropy fusion

Abstract

Since bearing fault signal in complex running status is usually characterized as nonlinear and non-stationary, it is difficult to extract accurate affluent features and achieve effective fault identification via conventional signal processing tools. In this article, a rolling bearing fault diagnosis technique based on variational mode decomposition and weighted multidimensional feature entropy fusion is proposed to address this issue, which is mainly composed of three procedures. First, the original signal undergoes the variational model decomposition. Next, the signal features are extracted by weighted multidimensional feature entropy as the input of the diagnosis model. Finally, the classification is performed by a convolutional neural network. The method is applied in simulation and experimental analysis. The experimental results show that the proposed method, which demonstrates strong immunity to noise and robustness, can more effectively and adaptively extract the fault features of rolling bearings and achieve the goal of identifying the rolling bearing fault category and damage degree under variable operating conditions. Meanwhile, this approach exhibits superior accuracy and identification performance to some similar entropy-based hybrid approaches referred to in this article, with a promising prospect in industrial application.