Analysis and processing of shaft angular velocity signals in rotating machinery for diagnostic applications

The paper presents the application of some modern signal processing methods to the analysis of angular velocity signals in a rotating machine for diagnostic purposes. The signal processing techniques considered in this paper include: classical non-parametric spectral analysis; principal component analysis; joint time-frequency analysis; the discrete wavelet transform; and change detection algorithm based on residual generation. These algorithms are employed to process shaft angular velocity data measured from an internal combustion engine, with the intent of detecting engine misfire. The results of these analyses show that these algorithms have potential for on-board diagnostic application in passenger and commercial vehicles, and more generally for failure detection of other classes of rotating machines.