Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723

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Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ymssp

Acceleration signal with DTCWPT and novel optimize SNR index

for diagnosis of misaligned cardan shaft in high-speed train
Yongxu Hu a, Bing Zhang a,⇑, Andy Chit Tan b
a
State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, Sichuan, China
b
LKC Faculty of Engineering and Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Bandar Sungai Long, Cheras, Kajang 43000, Selangor, Malaysia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The cardan shaft transmits rotating motion from motor to gearbox where the axes of rota-
Received 13 August 2019 tion of motor and gearbox are not in the same plane. The cardan shaft can be misaligned
Received in revised form 4 December 2019 due to offset at the cross-shaft. The offset causes severe unbalance force on the shaft which
Accepted 6 February 2020
eventually leads to catastrophic failure of the whole train. Therefore, it is essential to detect
Available online 18 February 2020
symptom of cardan shaft failure in advance. General diagnostic methods for detecting car-
dan shaft misalignment are through analysis of vibration signals from sensors located on
Keywords:
the rotating system. Unfortunately, the signals are usually corrupted by other mechanical
Misalignment
Cardan shaft
interferences and noise which make vibration analysis unreliable. Hence, it is necessary to
Acceleration signal eliminate mechanical interferences in the signal and result in improving the detection of
Complex wavelet shaft misalignment. This study aims to diagnose cardan shaft misalignment by using accel-
SNR index eration signal and dual tree complex wavelet packet transformation (DTCWPT) method to
High-speed train extract the relevant features. The acceleration response of misaligned cardan shaft is ana-
lyzed using the multibody dynamics model of Chinese high-speed rail (CRH) built in soft-
ware. Both DTCWPT and Hilbert transform (HT) methods are applied to decompose the
acceleration signal and an envelope of the signal is created. A novel index system is pro-
posed to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) index to improve the detection of shaft
misalignment. The amplitude of Fourier transform (AFT) coefficient of acceleration signal
is then used to assess the degree of shaft misalignment. The results from simulation study
and experimental tasks confirmed the capability of the proposed technique in detecting
cardan shaft misalignment. This paper presents a new approach to accurately and quanti-
tatively diagnose cardan shaft misalignment.
Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

The cardan shaft transmits rotating motion from motor to gearbox and its failure not only stops the motion of the train
but also can result in accident with severe catastrophic consequences. Current studies on shaft failure mainly focus on two
aspects, failure mechanism of shaft due structure of materials [1] and dynamic and stress analysis of shaft. F. Freudenstein
[2] conducted dynamic analysis of universal joint with manufacturing tolerances, a series of equations with respect to inter-
nal force and torque reactions of cardan joint were derived. The analysis indicated angular speed fluctuation of universal

⇑ Corresponding author at: Post Box 302, Jiulidi Campus, Southwest Jiaotong University, No. 111, North 1st Section of Second Ring Road, Jinniu District,
Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, China.
E-mail address: zhbyy05@163.com (B. Zhang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymssp.2020.106723
0888-3270/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723

Nomenclature

x Rotating angular velocity of drive shaft

!
x Vector of rotating angular velocity
c Rotating angle of drive shaft
h1 , h2 Offset at cross-shaft of drive side
l1 , l2 Offset at cross-shaft of driven side
!
lw Vector of line w
di Differential of variable factor i
xH Hilbert transform of signal x

x Up sample of signal x
q Material density
F ji
P Force acting at point i in direction j
F ji Resultant force of F ji
C ji Acceleration coefficient of force
AFTji Signal AFT of object j in direction i
* Vector convolution
 Vector cross product
 Vector dot product
CRH China High-Speed Rail

joint resulted in additional accelerations which induced significant forces in radical directions and torque acting on the out-
put universal joint. To understand shaft failure, F.Schemelz et al. [3] have comprehensively introduced the basic theory of
shaft driven by cardan joint and its application. Shaft failures such as spline shaft failure, crank shaft failure and hydraulic
turbine shaft failure have been widely studied [4,5]. However, detection method study of cardan shaft failure remains rel-
atively sparse. Bayrakceken et al. [6] carried out a fracture analysis of universal joint yoke and drive shaft of an automobile
power transmission system. The study pointed out shaft failures occurred as a result of fatigue process due to torsional
moment. The fatigue cracks began at location of joint yoke which has the highest stress points. Yu [7] analyzed the cause
of fracture of a diesel engine locomotive cardan shaft. Multiple origins of fatigue fracture due to heat treatment were the
main cause of cardan shaft failure. Hu et al. [8] analyzed the cause of failure of gearbox in CRH train by applying analytical
dynamics. Their study show that gearbox failure was due to rotation of misaligned cardan shaft which result in serve unbal-
ance force acting on the gearbox.
Many studies have investigated the dynamic characteristics of universal joint and misalignment in the transmission sys-
tem. Patel [9–10] analyzed the influence of misalignment and its type on the forcing characteristics of flexible coupling and
followed by experimental investigation. The study indicated full spectra are efficient to diagnose misalignment through
unique vibration features exhibited in the full spectrum response. Jo et al. [11] proposed models by considering rolling-
sliding friction to estimate general axial force of tripod-type constant velocity joint. The results indicate axial force increases
with articulation angle. Masarati [12] presented compact dynamic equations of ideal constant velocity universal joint to
reduce the model size of multi-body dynamics simulation. By introducing Lagrangian multiplier, equation numbers are
reduced and the maximum sampling rate of model in real-time simulation is improved. Lu [13] analyzed the dynamic
response of universal joint with clearance. Due to the present of clearance between the cross-shaft neck and sleeve bearing,
shock was induced, and the transmission error is enlarged. Biancolini [14] reported an improved method for evaluating
mechanical efficiency and fatigue life of single and double cardan homokinetic joints. The study revealed that high rotational
velocity tended to increase the alternate stress more than the increase of mean stress caused by high torque and articulation
angle. In order to validate whether the axial force was small enough to be neglected in dynamic analysis, Fischer [15] studied
the axial force on cardan joint. In their work strain gage was used to derive the axial force on cardan joint under the effect of
different torque, rotational speed and angle of cardan joint. The results revealed that significant axial force was generated in
the dynamically loaded cardan joint and it was not reasonable to neglect the axial force. Kato [16] investigated the cause of
lateral excitation of a rotating shaft driven by an universal joint and explained that lateral excitations were independent of
joint angle. Mazzei et al. [17] analyzed the dynamic stability of drive/driven system of shaft connected by universal joints to
explore the influence of flexibility and inertia of shaft on parametric resonances. The results show that when the rotational
speed reached half of the natural frequency of the system, the forced vibration caused by the secondary moment will result
in shaft resonance. DeSmidt et al. [18] studied the interaction between lateral and torsional dynamic of shaft and disk system
driven by universal joint. The study determined the stable regions of the system with different articulation angle. From the
review of current literatures on shaft driven by universal joint, kinematic analysis of cardan shaft installed on train with
misalignment has not been fully studied yet.
On dynamic analysis of shaft unbalance, many detecting methods and algorithms involving wavelet and empirical mode
decomposition [19–21] have been proposed. Ding et al. [22–23] applied wavelet method and empirical model decomposition
 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723 3

on vibration signal to detect shaft unbalance. The results show that by applying multiple decomposition algorithms, the
noise in signal can be separated and the unbalance feature can be extracted. Verma A K et al. [24–25] depicted an approach
to distinguish between vibration and electric current samples of a normal motor from that of a misaligned one. The result
showed that the approach of applying both vibration signal and current signal was effective to predict the misalignment
fault. Algule [26] used vibration signal to validate the relationship between centrifugal forces and rotating speed of an unbal-
ance rotor. Gama et al. [27] applied piezoelectric strain sensors to diagnosis shaft misalignment using dynamic strain. The
preliminary results indicated that the amplitude of dynamic strain remains practically constant with rotational speed. This
method was suitable for low speed conditions.
Quantitative diagnostic of cardan shaft misalignment in transmission system is essential for safe operation of train. In
operation, the cardan shaft is installed underneath the train and is exposed. When the shaft is fractured, one side of the bro-
ken shaft will drop to the ground resulting in train derailment with significant catastrophic consequences. Misalignment of
cardan shaft has been considered as the main cause of many train accidents. For detection of shaft failure, vibration sensors
have been installed on gearbox and motor to detect shaft misalignment. Unfortunately, vibration detection is only effective
when the size of defect is large enough to generate vibration greater than the background noise for it to be detected, as vibra-
tion is a function of mass and acceleration. Assuming the mass is constant, hence, acceleration is responsible for providing
unbalance force and understanding of it is essential for early detection of shaft failure. Therefore, this study aims to detect
cardan shaft misalignment by measuring acceleration signal of the shaft. First, theoretical analysis of cardan shaft with
misalignment is discussed and analyzed. Then the kinetics and dynamics of misaligned cardan shaft are derived. Basing
on the built dynamic model of train, the acceleration response of misaligned cardan shaft is calculated, and theoretical mis-
aligned features in acceleration signal are extracted. The dual tree complex wavelet packet transformation (DTCWPT) is uti-
lized to extract specific feature which corresponding to misalignment using the acceleration signal. In addition, Hilbert
transform (HT) method is incorporated to calculate the envelope of the signal. A novel waveform similarity (WS) index
and time duration (TD) index are proposed to optimize the performance of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) index to better rec-
ognize shaft misalignment. Finally, a diagnostic method based on amplitude of Fourier Transform (AFT) coefficient with
deduced formula is proposed to assess the degree of shaft misalignment. An experimental test with misaligned cardan shaft
is used to verify the validity of the method and rail measured signals are applied to provide classification accuracy of the
method. The results confirm the practicality and effectiveness of the proposed method in diagnosis of cardan shaft
misalignment.

2. Dynamic analysis of misaligned cardan shaft

2.1. Kinematic analysis

A typical constant velocity cardan shaft system consists drive shaft and driven shaft which are connected by a cardan
shaft. The length of cardan shaft is variable depending on the motion of the shaft and can adapt different relative angles
between the drive and driven shafts. The universal joint of cardan shaft contains cross-shaft and sleeve bearing. The sleeve
bearing rotates around the cross-shaft neck through needles. The structure of a universal joint used in cardan shaft and detail
structure in sleeve bearing are shown in Fig. 1, respectively
Two typical failures of the cardan shaft are abnormal wear of wear pad in sleeve bearing as shown in Fig. 2(a) and radial
runout of cardan shaft as shown in Fig. 2(b). Due to the abnormal wear of sleeve bearing, it will result in excessive clearance
which leads to shaft misalignment.
An illustration of cardan shaft with misalignment in X-Y-Z axes is shown in Fig. 3. According to the installation of cardan
shaft in CRH train, the drive shaft and driven shaft are set parallel with each other but in different planes.
As shown in Fig. 3, cardan shaft misalignment is due to the offsets on cross-shaft. The offsets are named h1 and h2 at the
drive shaft end, l1 and l2 at the driven shaft end. The offset h1 is defined as the shift distance at cross-shaft connected with the
drive shaft relative to the drive shaft joint fork. The offset h2 and l2 is defined as the shift distance at cross-shaft connected
with the connect shaft relative to center of the cross-shaft. The offset l1 is defined as the shift distance at cross-shaft con-
nected with the driven shaft relative to the driven shaft joint fork. With the given misaligned situation, when the drive shaft

Fig. 1. Structure of the universal joint.

4 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723

Fig. 2. (a). Abnormal wear on sleeve bearing pad. (b). Radial runout of cardan shaft.

Fig. 3. Schematic of cardan shaft with misalignment in X-Y-Z axes.

rotates, the axis of misaligned cardan shaft is no longer static but rotating as well and the length of connecting shaft also
changed periodically. The symbol O in the figure refers to the intersection of drive shaft axle and cross-shaft; symbol A refers
to the center of the cross-shaft at drive side; and symbol B refers to the intersection point of cross-shaft at the drive side and
connect shaft. The symbol D refers to the center of cross-shaft at driven side; symbol C refers to the intersection point of
cross-shaft at the driven side and connect shaft; and symbol E refers to the intersection of driven shaft axle and cross-
shaft. To derive the kinematic equations of cardan shaft, an absolute coordinate system is built. The axes are marked X ,Y,
and Z in Fig. 3. The origin of the coordinate is set at O, the X-axis is along with the drive shaft axis, the Y-axis is parallel with
the direction at initial direction of line AO and Z-axis is perpendicular with the directions of X-axis and Y-axis. The coordi-
nate of point E indicating the position of driven shaft is relative to drive shaft and is fixed in the model, which is
ð XE YE ZE Þ. Line AB is perpendicular to line AO and line BC. The existence of offsets h2 and l2 forced line AB to rotate
around line AO with a certain angle g. The angle is related to distance of the offset and coordinate of point E. The expression
of angle g is:
 qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
g ¼ arccos ðl2  h2 Þ= X2E þ ðYE sinðcÞ  ZE cosðcÞÞ2  p=2 ð1Þ

! !
A relative rectangular coordinate at G is constructed as shown in Fig. 4. Defining unit vector of l AB as e AB , the choice of
origin of the relative coordinate is set at a random point on line OE. Points G and F are intersections of lines AD and OE in
Q Q
plane , where plane is parallel with plane OAB and crosses at point G. In relative coordinate system, x-axis is parallel
with X-axis in absolute coordinate system, y-axis is along with line GF, and z-axis is perpendicular to x-axis and y-axis.
The unit vectors of x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis are i’, j’, and k’, respectively.
When the cardan shaft rotates with a certain misalignment, the rotating motion contains two parts, one is the relative
Q
motion and the other is transport motion. Assuming point Q is the intersection of plane and line BC, the kinematic model
relating to point Q is shown in Fig. 4. The motion of point Q also contains two motions, one is the transport motion rotating
around the x-axis and the other is the relative motion rotating around the y-axis. With an angular speed of drive shaft x; the
angle between line AB and plane YOZ is /, and the velocity of point Q is expressed as:
 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723 5

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of motion modes and acceleration components.

 0 0 0  
di dj dk dxQ 0 dyQ 0 dzQ 0
vQ ¼ v transport þ v relative ¼ xQ þ yQ þ zQ þ i þ j þ k
dt dt dt dt dt dt
  !
! ! !
¼ x  l GQ þ ðd/=dt Þ  e GF  l FQ ð2Þ

The acceleration of point Q contains 4 parts, namely, normal transport acceleration, tangential relative acceleration, nor-
mal relative acceleration and Coriolis acceleration.

aQ ¼ antransport þ anrelative þ asrelative þ aCoriolis ð3Þ

Expression of acceleration of point Q, which is the derivative of vQ is as below:

! !    !
2 ! !
! d l GQ d / ! d/ d e GF d/ ! d l FQ
aQ ¼ x  þ  e GF þ   l FQ þ  e GF  þ 2x  v relative ð4Þ
dt dt 2 dt dt dt dt

The articulation angle is defined as the angle between the cardan shaft and drive shaft. As the articulation angle influ-
ences the angular speed and angular acceleration of cardan shaft [17], a numerical simulation is conducted to illustrate
the relationship between the degree of articulation angle and the amplitude of the four acceleration components. The param-
eters used in simulation are listed in Table 1.
The results in Fig. 5 show that transport acceleration (Fig. 5(a)) is almost constant with a small fluctuation from 168.5 m/
s2 to 169 m/s2. The tangential relative acceleration increases from 0 m/s2 to 14 m/s2; normal relative acceleration and Cori-
olis acceleration increase from 0 m/s2 to 1.5 m/s2. The mean values of the four accelerations with different articulation angles
are shown in Table 2.
The values in Table 2 reveal that the amplitude of transport acceleration is very much higher than other acceleration com-
ponents. The relative acceleration and Coriolis acceleration are zero when the articulation angle is zero and increase with
increasing articulation angle. Generally, transport acceleration accounts for more than 90 percent of the total acceleration
amplitude at point Q and it is almost unaffected by the change of articulation angle, while the amplitudes of other acceler-
ations change with variation of articulation angle. The reason for amplitude difference is because the length between point G
and point Q is much larger than the distance between point F and point Q; the angular speed in transport motion is also very
much larger than the angular speed of other motions.

2.2. Dynamic analysis

The cardan shaft installed in CRH train consists of two parts which allows for relative movement as shown in Fig. 6. One of
the parts is steel spline shaft and the other part is steel hollow shaft. The parameters of the cardan shaft in CHR train are
listed in Table 3.

Table 1
Basic parameters used in simulation.

Length of offset Rotation speed k

1 mm 600 RPM 0.5
6 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723

Fig. 5. Accelerations under different articulation angles and rotating angles: (a) transport acceleration (b) tangential relative acceleration (c) normal
relative acceleration and (d) Coriolis acceleration.

Table 2
Mean acceleration amplitude.

Articulation angle antransport (m/s2) attransport (m/s2) anrelative (m/s2) aCoriolis (m/s2)

0 168.9 0 0 0
2 168.9 2.6 0.1 0.1
4 168.8 5.2 0.3 0.4
6 168.7 7.7 0.7 0.8

Fig. 6. Structure of CHR train cardan shaft.

The diagram describing dynamics of misaligned cardan shaft in rotation is shown in Fig. 7. The forces generated including
axial force and radial force. According to D’ Alembert principle [28], the force is equal to mass times acceleration. The cardan
shaft is approximately defined as a cylinder and the mass is distributed over an infinite number of circles whose center is the
axis of the shaft. Assuming a mass element P on cardan shaft, the element P is on a plane which crosses point Q and per-
pendicular to line BC. The angle between QP and AB ish, and the distance between points P and Q is r. Assuming the density
of the element material is q, height of the element is rdh, length of the element is Ldk and width of the element is dr. The
mass of the element P is:
 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723 7

Table 3
Parameters of cardan shaft in CHR train.

Mass Length Diameter

Spline shaft 20Kg 454 mm 130 mm (Inner)/144 mm (External)
Hollow shaft 75Kg 1529 mm 108 mm

Fig. 7. Dynamic model of misaligned cardan shaft.

mP ¼ qrLdhdrdk ð5Þ
! !
Defining unit vector of l BC as e BC ,The axial force and radial force due to acceleration at point Q is:
 
F axial
P ¼  mP aP  ~
eBC  ~
eBC ð6Þ
 
F radial
P ¼  mP aP þ F axial
P ð7Þ

Integrating over all the mass elements in the cardan shaft, the results are resultant axial force and resultant radial force
acting at points B and C, respectively.
8
>
> P radical L1R=L3 RR1 2Rp R1 RR3 2Rp
>
> FB ¼ ð1  kÞF radical dhdrdk þ ð1  kÞF radical dhdrdk
< 0 0 0
P
1L =L R 0
P
2 3 2
ð8Þ
>
> P radical L1R=L3 RR1 2Rp radical R1 R3 2Rp
R
>
> ¼ kF P dhdrdk þ kF radical
: FC P dhdrdk
0 0 0 1L2 =L3 R2 0

8
>
> P axial L1R=L3 RR1 2Rp axial
>
> FB ¼ F P dhdrdk
<
0 0 0
ð9Þ
>
> P axial R1 R3 2Rp
R
> F axial
: FC ¼
> P dhdrdk
1L2 =L3 R2 0

The length of cardan shaft is given by:

qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
X 2E þ Y 2E þ Z 2E þ ðh1  l1 Þ  2ðY E cosðcÞ þ Z E sinðcÞÞðh1  l1 Þ  ðh2  l2 Þ
2 2
dBC ¼ ð10Þ

Eq. (10) reveals that during rotation of misaligned cardan shaft, the offset at the cross-shaft leads to periodic variation of
shaft length. The variation frequency is related to the rotating speed of drive shaft. The relatively motion of the two parts
result in frictional force acting at point B and point C. The frictional force of the spline shaft and the hollow shaft relates
to torsion load on the shaft, articulation angle and rotating angle [3].

F frictional ¼ C frictional T 0 =2=R1 =ac ð11Þ

 
T 0 ¼ T 1  sin ðbÞsin ðcÞ =cosðbÞ
2 2
ð12Þ
8 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723

where C frictional is friction coefficient, ac is contact angle which is 20 degree, T is torsion load carried by drive shaft and T0 is
torsion load in cardan shaft. The total force acting at points B and C due to rotation of misalignment is the sum of inertial
radial force, inertial axial force and frictional force.
X X
F BðC Þ ¼ F radial
B ðC Þ þ F axial
B ðC Þ þ F
frictional
ð13Þ

3. Dynamic response of misaligned cardan shaft

In order to diagnose cardan shaft misalignment applying acceleration signal, a dynamic model of CRH train is built in soft-
ware to obtain the acceleration response at the gearbox and motor. The dynamic model is shown in Fig. 8.
As Fig. 8 shows, the model consists of a car body, two bogie frames, four wheelsets, two motors, two cardan shafts and
rail. The model has 58 degrees of freedom and 23 rigid bodies. The freedom degrees of the dynamic model are shown in
Table 4.
The symbols X ,Y, Z refer to movement of rigid body along the X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis, namely, longitudinal motion,
lateral motion, and vertical motion, respectively. The symbols u, h, and w refer to rotation of rigid body around the X-
axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis, namely, roll motion, nod motion and shake motion, respectively. The forces deduced through Eq.
(13) are applied at the centers of the two cross-shafts, where the centers are illustrated by the red arrows shown in
Fig. 8. The dynamic model of CRH train subjected to unbalance force can be described by the differential equation as below:
X
€ þ C u_ þ Ku ¼
Mu F ð14Þ

Parameter u represents a vector including generalized coordinates listed in table 4, M represents the mass matrix of sys-
P
tem, C represents the damping matrix of system and K represents the stiffness matrix of system. F is the generalized force
acting on the dynamic system. Numerical solution of equation (14) is obtained through Runge-Kutta integral method, as
such the accelerations of each generalized coordinate is calculated. By transformation of space coordinates, three accelera-
tions of longitudinal, lateral and vertical motion and three rotary accelerations of roll, nod and shake motions of gearbox and
motor are obtained. To illustrate the response of misalignment, simulation analyses are carried out under misaligned con-
dition and aligned condition. The interaction force between the wheel and rail is applied in simulation, the sampling fre-
quency is set at 10000 Hz and the results are shown in Fig. 9. The figures in each row are the results from either linear
acceleration or rotating acceleration.
The results shown in Fig. 9 indicate that misalignment of cardan shaft leads to sinusoidal response in acceleration signal
comparing with the signal under aligned condition of cardan shaft and the responses involve response of interaction
between wheel and rail. The acceleration response on motor shows that both nod acceleration and shake acceleration are
close to 14 m/s2 and are greater than the acceleration in other directions. The result of acceleration on gearbox show that

Fig. 8. Dynamic model of half CRH train: (a) left view (b) front view and (c) top view.
 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723 9

Table 4
Freedom degrees of the dynamic model.

Part Name Vertical Lateral Longitudinal Nod Shake Roll

Wheelset Xw Yw Zw bw ww /w
Bogie frame Xt Yt Zt bt wt /t
Car body Xc Yc Zc bc wc /c
Gearbox NA NA NA bg NA NA
Gear shaft NA NA NA NA NA /sg
Cardan joint(output) NA NA NA bocj NA NA
Cardan shaft(hollow shaft) NA NA NA NA wocs NA
Cardan shaft (spline shaft) X ics NA NA NA NA NA
Cardan joint(input) NA NA NA NA wics NA
Motor rotor NA NA NA bOh NA NA
Motor stator NA NA NA NA NA /ms

Fig. 9. Acceleration signals: (a.1), (a.2) and (a.3) are respectively, linear longitudinal, lateral and vertical accelerations of motor; (b.1), (b.2) and (b.3) are
respectively, roll, nod and shake accelerations of motor; (c.1), (c.2) and (c.3) are respectively, linear longitudinal, lateral and vertical accelerations of
gearbox; and (d.1), (d.2) and (d.3) are respectively, roll, nod and shake accelerations of gearbox.
10 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723

nod acceleration reaches 20 m/s2 which is greater than the accelerations in other directions. The signals are of sinusoidal
waveforms with certain amplitude modulation. The longitudinal acceleration signal and nod acceleration signal on gearbox
appear to be oscillatory waveform as shown in Fig. 9 (c.1) and (d.2), with two locally enlarged displays. The oscillatory wave-
form in acceleration signal is due to the change in direction of frictional force. As frictional force is due to relative motion of
the two moving parts of cardan shaft, the direction of relative motion changes instantly when the shaft changes from elon-
gation to shortening or vice versa. At the same time the direction change of frictional force also introduces shock acting on
the cross-shafts and causes resonance in the transmission system [29]. According to recent research, rotation of generic
unbalance or misaligned rotors did not produce oscillatory waveform in vibration signal [26]. Therefore, the ability to rec-
ognize oscillatory waveform in longitudinal and roll acceleration signals of rotating cardan shaft is essential to recognize
shaft misalignment.

4. Quantitative diagnosis of cardan shaft misalignment

4.1. Oscillation waveform extraction with DTCWPT and envelope by HT methods

Wavelet transform(WT) is designed as a resonance-based signal processing method to trace oscillation motion in signal
[30]. Extracting oscillatory feature in signal has been widely recognized as a method to detect bearing failure [28–31]. This is
because in high frequency band, there will be less interference noise from other machine vibration components. Among the
methods, wavelet and HT are widely used [32–34]. Considering the superiority of wavelet transform in multiband analysis,
the method is applied to extract oscillatory waveform from vibration signal of rotating cardan shaft. Discrete wavelet packet
transform has been used to improve the resolution of decomposed signals. Briefly, Wavelet packet transformation is exe-
cuted as following:
(
xj2i1 ðnÞ ¼ Rk2Z hðkÞxij1 ð2n  kÞ
ð15Þ
j ðnÞ ¼ Rk2Z gðkÞxj1 ð2n  kÞ
x2i i

In which, i = 1, 2, 3, . . ., 2j1 are the wavelet packets number corresponding to wavelet decomposition level j and
x10 ðnÞ
¼ f ðnÞ is the original signal. Filter hðkÞ is a low pass filter for approximate signals and g ðkÞ is a high pass filter for rapid
change components in signal. The relation between hðkÞ and g ðkÞ is:
g ðkÞ ¼ ð1Þn hðN  kÞ ð16Þ
where N is the length of the sequence. Up-sampling of single scale wavelet coefficient signal is:
8 i
< x ð2nÞ ¼ x ðnÞ
i
j j1
ð17Þ
: i
xj ð2n  1Þ ¼ 0

When the wavelet packets number i is an odd number, reconstruction of the coefficient is:
 ~i
xij ðnÞ ¼ Rk2Z h ðkÞxj1 ðn  kÞ ð18Þ

When the wavelet packets number i is an even number, reconstruction of the coefficient is:
 ~i
xij ðnÞ ¼ Rk2Z g ðkÞxj1 ðn  kÞ ð19Þ
 
The filters h ðkÞ and g ðkÞ are the reconstruction filters and the relations with decomposition filter hðkÞ and g ðkÞ are:

h ðkÞ ¼ hðn  kÞ ð20Þ

g ðkÞ ¼ g ðn  kÞ ð21Þ
Traditional discrete wavelet transform (DWT) applied down-sampling method to realize fast algorithm to decompose the
signal into approximate signal and detail signal, which lack information on shift invariance [35]. To overcome the downsides
of DWT, dual tree complex wavelet transformation (DTCWPT) is proposed [36]. DTCWPT algorithm adopts two (dual) chan-
nels of DWT, namely tree A and tree B with one tree as real part and the other as imaginary part of the decomposed signal.
The group delay of filters in the two trees has half sampling period delay. The base functions corresponding to filters satisfy
the Hilbert transform pair relationship. Through the construction methods of filters, the shift invariance is highly improved.
In order to improve the resolution of decomposition signals, wavelet packet transformation is introduced. The decomposi-
tion and reconstruction process of wavelet packet is explained with the aid of Fig. 10.
The upward and downward arrows in Fig. 10 mean up-sampling and down-sampling of signal; the horizontal arrows
indicate that the signal is either filtered or up-sampling or down-sampling. f(n) means original signal and x1 to x8 indicate
 
eight sub-signals decomposed from the original signal. Letters such as h, g, h and g are decomposing filter or reconstructing
 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723 11

filter (with bar on top). With DTCWPT method, 8 groups of wavelet coefficients are calculated by three-level decomposition
from longitudinal acceleration and roll acceleration. It is found that the first group of wavelet coefficients reflects the accel-
eration response information which are in low frequency band and is not relevant with resonance oscillation, second to eight
groups of wavelet coefficient are relevant with resonance oscillation. The acceleration signal and summation of reconstruc-
tions of wavelet coefficients from second to the eight groups are shown in Fig. 11.
As shown in Fig. 11, oscillations in acceleration signals are marked with blue rectangles. The reconstruction results indi-
cate periodical oscillation of waveform in the original acceleration is extracted. Within 0.1 s, the occurrence frequency of
oscillation is twice the fluctuate frequency of the approximate waveform in the signal. This is because in a rotating cycle
the cardan shaft has length variation twice, one is the shaft changes from elongation to shortening and the other is the shaft
changes from shortening to elongation. So, the occurrence frequency of the oscillation in the signal is twice of the shaft rotat-
ing frequency. Reconstructing wavelet coefficients of the first group and the reconstruction is the approximate signal of
acceleration signal. Taking the fast Fourier transform of the two signals with a time period of 1 s and contains 10,000 data
points, the spectrum of approximate reconstruction of longitudinal acceleration and the spectrum of periodic oscillations are
shown in Fig. 12.
As shown in Fig. 12, the fundamental frequency of the approximate signal is 44 Hz, which is the same with the simulated
rotating frequency of cardan shaft. Fundamental frequency of periodic oscillation is 88 Hz which indicates the occurrence
frequency of the oscillation is twice the rotating frequency of cardan shaft. Hilbert transformation (HT) is used to calculate
analytic signal from a real signal. The definition of HT filter in frequency domain is:

j f > 0
H ðf Þ ¼ ð22Þ
j f <0
HT of a real signal is obtained through HT filter and Fourier Transform (FT):

xH ðtÞ ¼ F 1 ðHðf ÞX ðf ÞÞ ð23Þ

1
In which F is the inverse transform of FT; X ðf Þ is FT of signal xðtÞ and xH ðt Þ is HT of xðt Þ. Analytic signal qðtÞ includes real
and imaginary parts, with the real part same as the original signal and the imaginary part is the result of HT.

qðt Þ ¼ xðt Þ þ xH ðt Þ ð24Þ

Generally, the expression of oscillation signal in mechanical vibration is due to resonance and can be defined as [29]:
 
xðt Þ ¼ Ae1xn t cos xd t þ u0 ð25Þ
where xn is the undamped natural frequency and xd is the damp natural frequency of the system; A is the amplitude of the
signal and u0 is the initial phase. HT of the oscillation is:
 
1 1  
xH ðt Þ ¼ A  F1  ðjðx þ xd Þ  jðx  xd ÞÞ ¼ Ae1xn t sin xd t þ u0 ð26Þ
1xn þ jx 2

Fig. 10. Decomposition and reconstruction process of wavelet packet [23].

12 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723

Fig. 11. Decomposition of acceleration signal by DTCWPT: (a) longitudinal acceleration, (b) reconstruction of wavelet coefficients of longitudinal
acceleration, (c) roll acceleration, and (d) reconstruction of wavelet coefficients of roll acceleration.

Fig. 12. Spectrum of approximate signal and periodic oscillation.

The norm of the analytic oscillatory signal eliminates oscillatory sinusoidal wave and reserves the low frequency expo-
nential signal. The enveloped signal of xðt Þ is:

qN ðt Þ ¼ jqðtÞj ¼ Ae1xn t ð27Þ

When xðt Þ is a periodic signal and the period is Tq, the norm of the enveloped signal can be also expressed as:

X
1
 
qN ðt Þ ¼ Ae1xn ðtkT q Þ u t  kT q ð28Þ
k¼0

where Tq represents repeated period of the exponential signal, k represents the number of repeated occurrences of the expo-
nential signal and uðt Þ is a step function. Therefore, signal qN ðt Þ is an exponential signal repeating itself at frequency fq which
is the occurrence frequency of the resonant oscillation. By using HT, the oscillation extracted from acceleration signal is
enveloped and low frequency periodical damped exponential signal is obtained. The spectrum of the periodical damped
exponential signal concentrates in low frequency so that the distribution of spectrum density can be less affected by fre-
quency resolution. The envelope result of longitudinal acceleration is shown in Fig. 13. To illustrate advantage of DTCWPT
method, envelope of the signal through resonant demodulation method which applies elliptic Infinite Impulse Response (IIR)
bandpass filter and HT method is shown in Fig. 13 as well. The bandwidth of the band pass filter is the same as the band-
width of the wavelet coefficients in the third group and transitional band of the filter is set 10 Hz, stopband attenuation of
the filter is set 60 dB.
As shown in Fig. 13, the waveforms of oscillations extracted by the two methods are similar, but variation range of oscil-
lation extracted by DTCWPT method is wider than that of oscillation extracted by resonant demodulation. Hence, the max-
imum value of envelope of DTCWPT method is larger than the maximum value of resonant demodulation. Normally, the
maximum value of oscillation is effective to recognize shaft misalignment; therefore DTCWPT method is a superior method
comparing with resonant demodulation. DTCWPT method has a greater maximum value because the amplitude of the filter
of DTCWPT method is higher than the amplitude of bandpass filter of resonant demodulation method. Also, the time domain
 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723 13

Fig. 13. Envelope of oscillation.

width of DTCWPT filter is narrower than the filter of resonant demodulation method. As a result, the variation range of signal
filtered by DTCWPT method is wider than the range of signal filtered by bandpass filter.

4.2. SNR index optimization

In many researches, indexes based on AFT, such as spectral signal-to-ratio (SNR) index [37] is used to determine whether
there are components of certain frequencies in the signal. However, individually applying of spectral SNR index and envelope
of signal cannot totally determine whether the cardan shaft is misaligned or not when analyzing acceleration signal. The
assembly error of driven shaft and wear of spline shaft also lead to shaft unbalance and result in vibration of gearbox.
The vibration due to shaft improperly assembly or wear modulates meshing vibration of gears in gearbox. The modulation
frequency is the same with the rotating frequency of cardan shaft. In this situation, the envelope of acceleration signal also
contained sinusoidal harmonics of cardan shaft rotating frequency. As a result, AFT at cardan shaft rotating frequency alone
is not enough to determine the misalignment fault of cardan shaft.
The envelope waveform of periodic oscillation signal as described in Eq. (28) is a periodic exponential function and the
envelope waveform of modulated meshing vibration signal is sinusoidal harmonic function. Hence, cardan shaft misalign-
ment can be determined by comparing the similarity between signal envelope waveform and waveform of exponential func-
tion. The Discrete Fourier Transform(DFT) of signal qN ðnÞ is given by:

X
N
2pnk
Q N ðkÞ ¼ qN ðnÞej N ð29Þ
n¼1

The spectrum of periodic signal is obtained by sampling the signal in a single period. As such a periodic sequence of cer-
tain frequency can be extracted from the original signal through sampling of the Fourier Transform coefficients. Considering
the actual signal is time discrete, the extracted periodic sequence is named qe ðnÞ. To determine whether the waveform of
constructed sequence is the same as the target waveform, the sequence is compared with a constructed exponential
sequence. The constructed periodic sequence is given by:

^ c ea^n uðnÞ
qc ðnÞ ¼ A ð30Þ

where parameters A ^ c and a

^ are respectively, amplitude and damp coefficient of the construct sequence estimated from the
extract sequence. Considering the integral of the constructed exponential sequence as:

Z1
A ^ c =a
^ c ea^t dt ¼ A ^ ð31Þ
0

Assuming the extract sequence is a periodic exponential sequence, therefore the maximum value in the sequence is esti-
mated to be parameter A ^ c =a
^ c and integration of the sequence in repeating period is estimated to be A ^. To compare the sim-
ilarity of the extracted and the constructed sequences, correlation coefficient between the sequences is calculated. The
coefficient is close to 1 if the extracted sequence is similar to the constructed sequence. As the correlation coefficient relates
to different initial phase of the sequences, the coefficients corresponding to different initial phase are calculated and the
maximum value is chosen to be WS index. The calculation process of WS index is described as follows.
14 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723

The calculation steps of WS index

(1) Calculate Fourier Transform coefficients of the envelope signal and sample the coefficients at the frequency relating
to target repeated frequency. Using inverse Fourier Transform to get a periodic sequence,
8
< 0 k–mNf q =f s
Q e ðkÞ ¼ Q N ðkÞ ;
: k ¼ mNf q =f s ; k < N=2
Q N ðN  kÞ
qe ðnÞ ¼ F 1 ðQ e ðkÞÞ;
qe ðnÞ ¼ qe ðnÞ þ minðqe ðnÞÞ;
where m is an integer greater than zero, N is length of the original signal and f s is the sampling frequency.
(2) Construct periodic exponential signal using estimated parameters,
^ c ¼ maxðq ðnÞÞ;
A e

^ c = P q ðnÞ;
N
^ ¼ Nf q A
a e
n¼1
^ c ea^ðnknq Þ un  knq ;
qc ðnÞ ¼ A
(3) Calculate the correlation coefficient of different initial phase,
P N P
N P
N
qe ðnÞqc ðnþn0 Þð1=NÞ q e ðn Þ qc ðnþn0 Þ
cðn0 Þ ¼ v
u
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
n¼1
 2 !
n¼1 n¼1
 2 !;
ffi
u P P P P
t
N N N N
2 2
q e ðn Þ  q e ðn Þ =N qc ðnþn0 Þ  qc ðnþn0 Þ =N
n¼1 n¼1 n¼1 n¼1

where n0 represents the initial time of sequence qc ðnÞ.

(4) Take the maximum value in c(n0) as the WS index.
IWS ¼ maxðcðn0 ÞÞ

The classic spectral SNR index is given by:

 !
XN
Q N mNf q =f s
ISNR ¼ 20lg mf q < f s =2 m ¼ 0; 1; 2 . . . ð32Þ
k¼1
NQ N ðkÞ

In order to assess the effectiveness and performance of the proposed WS index, a simulation task is conducted. The sim-
ulate signals are periodic damp exponential sinusoidal with repeating frequency at 50 Hz and a modulated signal.

se ¼ e600ðn200kÞDT sinð1400nDT þ p=6Þ  uðnDT  200kÞ þ 0:2rðnÞ ð33Þ

ss ¼ 10sinð1400nDT Þ  ð0:2 þ 0:2cosð100pnDT Þ þ 0:5sinð400pnDT ÞÞ þ 0:2rðnÞ ð34Þ

In which 0:2rðnÞ means white noise with a standard deviation of 0.2. The simulate signals, extracted periodic signals and
the constructed signals are shown in Fig. 14.
As shown in Fig. 14, the extracted periodic signals at target frequency of both damp exponential and sinusoidal modu-
lated signals are much smoother than simulate signals. This means the extracted signals have less noise compared with sim-
ulate signals. In Fig. 14 (a), the waveform of the constructed signal is very similar to the extracted signal. However, with noise
in the extracted signal, the estimated damping rate a ^ is smaller than the actual damping rate, therefore the waveform of the
constructed signal and extracted waveform will not exactly superimposed. In damping process, the time duration of two
constructed signals damped from 90% of the maximum value to 10% of the maximum value in a single period are 0.01 s

Fig. 14. Constructed, simulated and extracted signals: (a) damp exponential (b) sinusoidal modulated.
 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723 15

and 0.0138 s, respectively. The difference in time is because the damping coefficient is affected by integration of the
sequence. Assuming the two signals as follow:

Se ¼ Ae2p1xn t ð35Þ

Ss ¼ B þ Bsinð2pf m tÞ ð36Þ
The amplitudes of the discussed signals are set A and B, and f m indicates modulate frequency. The integral interval is set
from 0 to 1=f m . The estimated damp coefficients from the two signals are as follows:
 
^e ¼ 2p1xn = 1  e2p1xn =f m
a ð37Þ

^s ¼ 2f m
a ð38Þ
According to calculation, when 1xn is larger than 0:254f m , the estimated damping coefficient of exponential signal is lar-
ger than the coefficient estimated from sinusoidal signal. According to suspension parameter of gearbox, 1xn is much larger
than 0:254f m . Hence, the estimated damp coefficient of shaft misalignment is larger than that of improper assembly or wear,
time duration (TD) can be set as an index to further optimize the SNR index. Referring to the definition of rise time of a sys-
tem applied to the unit step signal [38], time duration of the constructed damp exponential signal is defined as the time span
of the signal damping from 90% of the maximum value to 10% of the maximum value in a single period. To adapt different
rotating period of cardan shaft, the TD index is defined as a ratio of time duration of the constructed signal to rotating period
of cardan shaft. The expression of TD index of the constructed damped exponential signal is:
 
fq 9 þ ea^=f q
ITD ¼ 1  ln ð39Þ
^
a 
1 þ 9e q ^
a =f

The TD index is closer to 1 if the estimated damp coefficient is greater. With the TD index, fault type of transmission sys-
tem can be diagnosed more accurately. The optimize SNR (OSNR) index is the product of classic spectral SNR index, the pro-
posed WS index and TD index. The OSNR index is given by:
OSNR ¼ IWS  ITD  ISNR ð40Þ
Classic SNR index, WS index, TD index, and OSNR index of the simulated signals are calculated and listed in Table 5.
The calculations in the table show that the classic SNR index of a modulated sinusoidal signal is close to the SNR index of
damp exponential signal, but WS index and TD index of modulated sinusoidal signal is much smaller than that of the damp
exponential sinusoidal signal. As a result, the OSNR index which is a multiplication of SNR index, WS index and TD index of
damp exponential sinusoidal signal is much larger than the OSNR index of modulated sinusoidal signal. Generally, by apply-
ing the proposed WS index and TD index, the OSNR index reflects both the amplitude and shape of envelope of high fre-
quency oscillation in the signal which is a better indicator to distinguish whether the vibration is caused by unbalanced
of driven shaft or misaligned cardan shaft.

4.3. Quantitative diagnosis of cardan shaft misalignment

The cardan shaft becomes misaligned due to offset at cross-shaft through wear. By extracting the information from accel-
eration signal and calculating the length of offset is a direct and quantitative method to determine the degree of misalign-
ment. As the relation between offset and generated force is complicated, it is hard to calculate the amounts of offset through
analyzing the acceleration signal directly. The articulation angle of drive and driven shafts in CRH train transmission system
is less than 5 degrees which is relatively small, so that acceleration except transport acceleration can be neglected and the
transport acceleration can be used to assess the amount of offset. By setting the articulation angle to 0 and according to Eq.
(8), Eq. (9), Eq. (11), and Eq. (13) the relationship between force and offset is:
h    
F B ¼ x2 mshaft ðl1  h1 Þ þ ðcosðgÞðl2  h2 ÞÞ
2 2
l2B1 þ h21 þ h2 cosðgÞ2 l2B2

ð41Þ
þ2ððl1  h1 Þh1 þ cosðgÞh2 ðl2  h2 ÞÞlB1 lB2

lB1 ¼ 1=6 þ ð2l2 þ h2 ÞsinðgÞ=ð6X E Þ ð42Þ

Table 5
Calculated index values.

ISNR IWS ITD OSNR

Damped exponential sinusoidal signal 92.64 dB 0.9 dB 0.69 dB 58.3 dB
Modulated sinusoidal signal 95.64 dB 0.4 dB 0.33 dB 12.2 dB
16 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723

lB2 ¼ 1=2 þ ðl2 þ h2 ÞsinðgÞ=ð2X E Þ ð43Þ

h    
F C ¼ x2 mshaft ðl1  h1 Þ þ ðcosðgÞðl2  h2 ÞÞ l2C1 þ h1 þ h2 cosðgÞ2 l2C2
2 2 2

ð44Þ
þ2ððl1  h1 Þh1 þ cosðgÞh2 ðl2  h2 ÞÞlC1 lC2

lC1 ¼ 1=3  ð2l2 þ h2 ÞsinðgÞ=ð6X E Þ ð45Þ

lC2 ¼ 1=2  ðl2 þ h2 ÞsinðgÞ=ð2X E Þ ð46Þ

where mshaft is the mass of cardan shaft and according to Eq. (2), the angle g is very small, cosðgÞ  1, sinðgÞ  0, as such the
relation is further simplified as follows:
 2
2 2 6F B
ðl1 þ 2h1 Þ þ ðl2 þ 2h2 Þ ¼ ð47Þ
x2 mshaft
 2
2 2 6F C
ð2l1 þ h1 Þ þ ð2l2 þ h2 Þ ¼ ð48Þ
x2 mshaft
Two parameters H and X are used to calculate the length of offset using trigonometric functions and the expressions of
the relations are:
4F B 2F C
h1 ¼ sinðHÞ  sinðXÞ ð49Þ
mshaft x2 mshaft x2

2F B 4F C
l1 ¼  sinðHÞ þ sinðXÞ ð50Þ
mshaft x2 mshaft x2

4F B 2F C
h2 ¼ cosðHÞ  cosðXÞ ð51Þ
mshaft x2 mshaft x2

2F B 4F C
l2 ¼  cosðHÞ þ cosðXÞ ð52Þ
mshaft x2 mshaft x2
As the maximum value of the offset length decides the safety status of cardan shaft, the maximum value of offset lengths
is set as the status parameter s reflecting status of the cardan shaft.
s ¼ maxð jh1 ðH; X; F B ; F C Þj jh2 ðH; X; F B ; F C Þj jl1 ðH; X; F B ; F C Þj jl2 ðH; X; F B ; F C Þj Þ ð53Þ
The parameter s varies with variation of H and X. To measure the error between actual maximum value of offset lengths
and the assessed maximum value, an assessment error function is constructed as below:
jsðH0 ; X0 ; F B ; F C Þ  sðH; X; F B ; F C Þj
e¼ ð54Þ
sðH; X; F B ; F C Þ
According to numerical analysis, when H = 5.1 and X = 6, the mean assessment error between parameter s and the max-
imum value of offset lengths is the least with 14.16%, when H = 1.5 and X = 4.8, the mean assessment error between param-
eter s and the maximum value of offset lengths is the greatest which is 31.41%. The vertical and nod accelerations of motor
and nod acceleration of gearbox can be evaluated by the amplitude of radial force to a certain extent [29]. As the waveform of
acceleration signal due to rotation of misaligned cardan shaft is similar to sinusoidal waveform, AFT of acceleration signal at
certain shaft rotating frequency can represent the force. The coefficients Cvertical and Cnod correspond to proportion of force
and acceleration are listed in Table 6.
Hence, the force can be obtained through the acceleration measured on motor and gearbox, the relationships between the
force acting at points B and C are:

Table 6
Coefficients of force and acceleration at shaft
speed.

Speed Cmotor
vertical Cmotor
nod Cgearbox
nod

160 km/h 2740.4 337.7 237.8

200 km/h 2370.5 347.4 191.8
250 km/h 2240.3 275.4 174.5
 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723 17

!
1 dm
F B ¼ AFT motor ðf r Þ= þ ð55Þ
C motor
vertical C motor
nod

F C ¼ C gearbox
nod AFT gearbox
nod ðf r Þ=dg ð56Þ

where dm is the distance from centroid of motor to the measuring point on motor, the value is 550 mm; dg is the distance
from the axis of the wheel pair to the measuring point on gearbox, the value is 349 mm; and fr is the rotating frequency of
drive shaft. When H = 5.1 and X = 6, the assessed length of offset corresponding to AFTs of acceleration signal can be derived
as follows:
gearbox
AFTmotor ðf r ÞC motor motor
v ertical C nod  þ 0:56 C nod AFTgearbox ðf r Þ=dg
h1 ¼ 3:7  ð57Þ
mshaft x dm C v ertical þ C motor
2 motor
nod
mshaft x2

gearbox
AFTmotor ðf r ÞC motor motor
v ertical C nod   1:1 C nod AFTgearbox ðf r Þ=dg
l1 ¼ 1:85  ð58Þ
mshaft x2 dm C v ertical þ C motor
motor
nod
mshaft x2

gearbox
AFTmotor ðf r ÞC motor motor
v ertical C nod   1:91 C nod AFTgearbox ðf r Þ=dg
h2 ¼ 1:51  ð59Þ
mshaft x2 dm C v ertical þ C motor
motor
nod
mshaft x2

gearbox
AFTmotor ðf r ÞC motor motor
v ertical C nod  þ 3:84 C nod AFTgearbox ðf r Þ=dg
l2 ¼ 0:76  ð60Þ
mshaft x2 dm C v ertical þ C motor
motor
nod
mshaft x2

According to structure of the sleeve bearing installed on cross-shaft, if the status parameter calculated by Eq. (53) exceeds
the thickness of wear pad which is 2.5 mm, the cardan shaft needs to be replaced immediately.

5. Experimental study

Measurement of force and acceleration due to misalignment of cardan shaft are discussed in this section. For this purpose,
specially designed universal joints mimicking misalignment of cardan shaft are manufactured and equipped in the experi-
mental set-up shown in Fig. 15. Force sensors are equipped under the bearing pedestals by bolts and acceleration sensor is
installed on the platform by glue. The measurement is carried out for two configurations, namely, without shaft misalign-
ment and with shaft misalignment. As shown in the figure, the set-up consists of a manufactured cardan shaft, a drive shaft
driven by AC motor, a driven shaft driving the gearbox and a magnetic damper simulating the load and other components
supporting the system. An IMC device controlled by a laptop is used to collect force and acceleration signals. The actual dis-
tance between the centers of universal joints of cardan shaft in CRH train is 1724.9 mm and the height between the two
centers is 132.7 mm, hence the articulation angle of cardan shaft is 4.4 degrees. To mimic the transmission system of
CRH train, the distance between centers of universal joints is designed at 676 mm and the height is designed at 52 mm,

1. Magnetic damper, 2. Acceleration sensor, 3. Driven shaft, 4. Cardan shaft,

5. Drive shaft, 6. AC motor, 7. Force sensor, and 8. Signal acquisition unit.
Fig. 15. Experimental set-up.
18 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723

Fig. 16. Schematic of experimental universal joint.

as such the articulation angle of the designed cardan shaft works out to be 4.4 degrees, which is the same articulation angle
of cardan shaft experienced in CRH train.
To simulate cardan shaft misalignment, the depth of step hole is adjustable in movable plates with different designs as
shown in Fig. 16.
The depth of step hole of mounting cross-shaft in the upper plate is designed shallower than the step hole in the lower
plate (see Fig. 16). In this way, the center of cross-shaft is shifted down with a certain distance and the structure of manu-
factured cardan shaft is like the actual misaligned cardan shaft. The simulated offsets in the experiment are listed in Table 7.
Considering the influence of rotational speed on the generated inertial force and the effect of the index, three different rota-
tional speeds are applied in experiment, where the operating speed and other basic parameters of the experimental cardan
shaft are listed in Table 8.
The procedure for collecting data contains following steps:

1. Install the misaligned cardan shaft on test bed and set the motor rotating speed. Set the sampling frequency for signal
acquisition at 1000 Hz.
2. Start the signal acquisition device to start collecting force and acceleration data.
3. Set the motor running at a predetermined speed and allow the experiment system to run for 5 min.
4. Turn off the motor and signal acquisition device and reset the rotating speed. Repeat steps 2 to 3.
5. Replace the misaligned cardan shaft with an aligned shaft, and repeat steps 1 to 4.

The collected force data under three rotational speeds are shown in Fig. 17.
As shown in Fig. 17, the misaligned force increases with increasing rotational speed and the waveform changes as well. At
a low rotation speed of 285RPM (red curve), the waveform of force also contains harmonics of four times rotational fre-
quency and is close to the natural frequency of the test system. Furthermore, mechanical rubbing also excites the vibration
frequency. Hence, the harmonic at four times the rotational speed is enlarged, and the harmonics are obvious in the wave-
form. As the rotational speed increases, frictional force decreases, and the waveform of force is closer to sinusoidal waveform
(blue curve) with increasing amplitudes. The RMS values of forces at the three different speeds are 46 N, 98 N and 174 N,
respectively, the values increase with the square of the angular velocity. Comparing the force signal under second rotational
speed of 450RPM with the force from simulation through deduced dynamic formulae of Eqs. (8)–(13), the results are shown
in Fig. 18.
As shown in Fig. 18, the waveforms of experimental force with misalignment are relatively stable and have similar sinu-
soidal waveform. While the waveform of experimental force without misalignment show some sinusoidal fluctuations (red
curve). The waveform frequency of experimental force with misalignment is similar with the waveform of simulate force.
The simulate force varies from 156 N to 156 N and the experimental force with misalignment varies from 172 N to
188 N. The amplitudes of the two forces are relatively close. The results verified the validity of the dynamic model. The accel-
eration signal along the longitudinal direction is recorded for use in DTCWPT method. Eight groups of wavelet coefficients
are obtained through 3-level DTCWPT decomposition of acceleration signal. Based on the amplitude of the coefficients, the
oscillations are extracted from signals through reconstruction of wavelet coefficients. Fig. 19 shows both the acceleration
signals of misaligned shaft and aligned shaft; and the extracted oscillations.
Comparing the waveform of two acceleration signals shown in Fig. 19(a) and (b), the waveform difference of two signals
is not obvious. Root mean square (RMS) values of the two signals are 4.9 m/s2 and 4.2 m/s2, respectively. Hence, the ampli-
tude difference and waveform difference of two acceleration signals are not very prominent. Comparing the waveform of the
extracted oscillations shown in Fig. 19 (c) and (d), sawtooth waveform in Fig. 19 (c) is more obvious. An enlarged figure
shown in Fig. 19(c) indicates the sawtooth waveform is similar to sinusoidal exponential damped wave. Therefore, the

Table 7
Offsets in the experiment.

Offset h1 h2 l1 l2
Length 0.5 mm 0.5 mm 3.5 mm 3.5 mm
 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723 19

Table 8
Basic parameters of experimental cardan shaft.

Mass Length of shaft Radius Rotational speed

12Kg 650 mm 30 mm 294, 450, 546(RPM)

Fig. 17. The collected force signals under different rotational speed.

Fig. 18. Comparison of experimental and simulate force.

Fig. 19. Acceleration signal and extracted oscillations: (a) acceleration signal with misalignment, (b) acceleration signal without misalignment, (c)
extracted oscillation of misalignment and (d) extracted oscillation without misalignment.
20 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723

Fig. 20. AFT of envelope oscillation.

extracted oscillation clearly reflects the acceleration response of the frictional force due to cardan shaft misalignment. Fig. 20
shows the AFT of the envelope oscillations extracted from signals with and without misalignment.
The symbol X refers to frequency of oscillation in the experiment, which is 15 Hz and AFT at one to three times of X fre-
quency are marked in the figure. Due to the assembly clearance of the set-up system, the vibration from other sources, such
as gear mesh, bearing rotations and other interferences appear in the acceleration signal. This phenomenon is close to real
life application. Similar with the real-life situation, the interference due shaft rotation at frequency 7.5 Hz is also present, it is
marked in Fig. 20 with ‘‘1Y”. Consequently, the AFT at shaft rotating frequency and its harmonics are obvious in both spec-
trum of the two signals. At frequency X and its harmonics, the AFT of signal related to misaligned shaft is relatively larger
than the AFT of aligned shaft. This indicates the intensity of resonance oscillation at frequency X of misaligned shaft is
greater than the signal of normal aligned shaft. The extracted periodic acceleration signals and constructed signals for both
misaligned and aligned conditions are shown in Fig. 21 (please note the acceleration value of aligned condition is about 3 times
lower than misaligned condition).
The estimated damping rates for both aligned and misaligned conditions are relatively small and the waveforms show
periodic characteristic. This is because interferences in signal enlarge integration of the sequence in repeating period and
the estimated damp coefficient tends to be smaller than the actual value. As such, the constructed signal and extracted signal
shown in Fig. 21 do not completely coincide. As marked in the figure, due to damping in the system, the construct damped
signal decreases exponentially. The waveform of extracted signal in misaligned condition shows decreasing waveform which
is similar with the constructed signal, while the waveform of extracted signal in aligned condition show unstable character-
istic with fluctuation as shown in Fig. 21(b). To verify the validity of the proposed method in detecting cardan shaft misalign-
ment, the OSNR index, RMS value and amplitude of spectrum at character frequency of misaligned cardan shaft and SNR
index of the acceleration signal at three rotational speeds are compared. The results of the values under constant speed con-
dition are calculated for every 1 s and shown in Fig. 22.
As shown in Fig. 22(a), the OSNR index clearly shows the separation between misaligned cardan shaft and aligned cardan
shaft (green line) at the three rotational speeds, although with some fluctuation in the index values of misaligned cardan
shaft in the range. As the RMS values and amplitude of spectrum are related to the rotation speed, for comparison, the
RMS values and spectrum amplitude are compared at a rotation speed of 450RPM. As shown in the Fig. 22(b) and (c), the
RMS values and amplitude of acceleration signals under aligned and misaligned conditions cannot be easily differentiated
with the existence of misalignment of shaft. The curve of spectrum amplitude is almost undistinguishable and may result
in cardan shaft failure at sometimes in the future. In addition, the traditional SNR index of acceleration signal also failed
to distinguish the misaligned condition of cardan shaft as shown in Fig. 22(d), with some exception when the shaft operates
at high speeds. The results show that with the incorporation of SNR index on acceleration signals, the new technique can be
used to effectively diagnose cardan shaft misalignment. The acceleration signal of gearbox detected misalignment of cardan
shaft during maintenance using the proposed technique. The signal and another acceleration signal of aligned cardan shaft

Fig. 21. Constructed and extracted signals: (a) misaligned condition, (b) aligned condition.
 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723 21

Fig. 22. Variation in misalignment detection: (a) OSNR index, (b) RMS value (c) spectrum value and (d) SNR index.

Fig. 23. OSNR index curve of rail measured gearbox acceleration signal.

Fig. 24. AFT curves of acceleration of misaligned cardan shaft.

22 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723

Table 9
Obtained offsets and assessment error.

h1 l1 h2 l2
The Assessed offset length(mm) 1.64 0.13 0.59 0.14
The measured offset length(mm) 1.55 0.1 0.46 0.23
Assessment accuracy(%) 94% 70% 78% 61%

installed in train are used for comparison. The train accelerated from stationary to a maximum speed of 200 km/h. The
curves of OSNR index of aligned and misaligned cardan shaft are shown in Fig. 23.
As shown in Fig. 23, the curves show some fluctuation and the results indicate the index curve of gearbox acceleration
completely classified the status of cardan shaft in entre time period. The curves of AFT of cardan shaft at the rotating fre-
quency of gearbox and motor at a speed of 200 km/h are shown in Fig. 24.
As shown in Fig. 24, AFT values of acceleration at a train speed of 200 km/h is stable, the mean value of AFT of gearbox
acceleration is 2.15 and the mean value of AFT of motor acceleration is 1.23. Based on Eqs. (57)–(60), the errors of assessed
offset lengths and the actual offset lengths are listed in Table 9.
The results show that the assessment accuracy of h1 whose length is the largest among all offset lengths has the highest
value, while the assessment accuracies of the other offsets are relatively limited. Since the maximum length of offsets reflects
status of cardan shaft, the assessing method is accurate enough to obtain shaft misalignment.

6. Conclusion

Despite the importance of cardan shaft in CRH trains, diagnosis of shaft misalignment is still limited. Acceleration signals
used to diagnose shaft misalignment are usually corrupted by other interferences and noise which lead to shaft failure unde-
tected at early stage. A new approach of acceleration signal with DTCWPT and optimize SNR (OSNR) index is presented in
this paper to overcome misdiagnose of cardan shaft misalignment at early stage. This work is validated a through kinematic
and dynamic analysis of rotating shaft and experimental tests to mimic the operation of misaligned cardan shaft. It is shown
that acceleration force due to misaligned cardan shaft lead to resonance oscillation in the acceleration response through sim-
ulations and confirmed experimentally.
DTCWPT method and HT are used to extract the envelope resonance oscillation in acceleration signal and follow by an
OSNR index, to calculate the intensity of the enveloped oscillation. An innovative design of cardan shaft which can artificially
create misalignment of the shaft is introduced in the experimental tests to verify the validity of dynamic analysis and the
applicability of the proposed OSNR index. From the analyzed results and experimental tests, the following conclusions
can be derived:

1) Various acceleration components are generated due to misaligned rotating cardan shaft and the transport acceleration
is found to be the dominant component. The amplitude of transport acceleration has minimal fluctuation comparing
with the other acceleration components for the range articulation angles.
2) The degree of misalignment is determined by the length change of cardan shaft due to the offset at the cross-shaft.
This results in sinusoidal acceleration response in the radial direction.
3) The frictional force due to length variation of misaligned cardan shaft lead to resonance oscillation in the acceleration
response. The oscillation due to friction force is relatively weak. The occurrence frequency of oscillation appears to be
twice of the shaft rotating frequency.
4) The proposed OSNR index can be used to assess the intensity of resonance oscillation which is effective in identifying
cardan shaft misalignment.

In conclusion, the acceleration signal with DTCWPT to extract the resonance oscillation; and WS index and OSNR index of
the enveloped oscillation can be effectively used to detect cardan shaft misalignment.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Yongxu Hu: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing - original draft, Formal analysis. Bing Zhang: Validation, Investi-
gation, Resources, Supervision. Andy Chit Tan: Writing - review & editing, Validation.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
 Y. Hu et al. / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 140 (2020) 106723 23

Acknowledgement

The authors acknowledge the support of the National Key Research and Development Program of China
(2016YFB1200401-102) to conduct this research and their financial contribution has led to this comprehensive study.

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