Blind Application of Developed Smart Vibration-Based Machine Learning (SVML) Model for Machine Faults Diagnosis to Different Machine Conditions

Purpose: The development and application of intelligent models to perform vibration-based condition monitoring in industry seems to be receiving attention in recent years. A number of such research studies using the artificial intelligence, machine learning, pattern recognition, etc., are available in the literature on this topic. These studies essentially used the machine vibration responses with known machine faults to develop smart fault diagnosis models. These models are yet to be tested for all kinds of machine faults and/or different operating conditions. Therefore, the purpose is to develop a generic machine faults diagnosis model that can be applied blindly to any identical machines with high confidence level in accuracy of the predictions. Methods: In this paper, a supervised smart fault diagnosis model is developed. This model is developed using the available measured vibration responses for the different rotor faults simulated on an experimental rotating rig operating at a constant speed. The developed smart vibration-based machine learning (SVML) model is then blindly tested to identify the healthy and faulty conditions of the rig when operating at different speeds. Results and conclusions: Several scenarios are proposed and examined during the development of the SVML model. It is observed that scenario of the vibration measurements simultaneously from all bearings from a machine is capable to fully map the machine dynamics in the VML model. Therefore, this developed when applied blindly to the sets of data at a different machine speed, the results are observed to be encouraging. The results clearly show a possibility for a centralised vibration-based condition monitoring (CVCM) model for identical machines operating at different rotating speeds.