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Power spectral density-guided variational mode decomposition for the com-

pound fault diagnosis of rolling bearings

Cai Yi, Hao Wang, Le Ran, Lu Zhou, Jianhui Lin

PII: S0263-2241(22)00718-7
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.measurement.2022.111494
Reference: MEASUR 111494

To appear in: Measurement

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Revised Date: 27 May 2022
Accepted Date: 13 June 2022

Please cite this article as: C. Yi, H. Wang, L. Ran, L. Zhou, J. Lin, Power spectral density-guided variational
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 Power spectral density-guided variational mode decomposition for the

compound fault diagnosis of rolling bearings

Cai Yi1, Hao Wang1, Le Ran1, Lu Zhou2, Jianhui Lin1

1. State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610000 China

2. Department of Bridge Engineering, School of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China

Emails: yicai@swjtu.edu.cn (Cai Yi), wh15223389523@163.com (Hao Wang), 1340539115@qq.com (Le Ran),

zhoul540@gmail.com (Lu Zhou), lin13008104673@126.com (Jianhui Lin)

Corresponding author

Dr. Cai Yi

State Key Laboratory of Traction Power,

Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610000 China

Email: yicai@swjtu.edu.cn

Abstract

Compound fault diagnosis with stochastic interfering impulses remains to be a tricky task due to the difficulty of

determining multiple resonant frequency bands. Variational mode decomposition (VMD) can extract instinct mode

functions (IMFs) adaptively and effectively reduce the modal aliasing issue. However, such adaptivity requires a pre-

known number of IMFs, which cannot be automatically determined. This paper develops a novel VMD method for

compound fault diagnosis guided by power spectral density (PSD), which enables the estimation of the IMF amount

and optimization of VMD processes by applying PSD’s representation for energy distribution in the frequency domain.

Several model amount determination methods and empirical wavelet transform (EWT) method are used to compare

with the proposed method. Through comparative experiments of simulation and challenging experimental data sets,
the proposed method has remarkable advantages in terms of fault feature detection capability and result display, and

shows superior robustness.

Keywords: Variational mode decomposition; power spectral density; compound fault diagnosis; wheelset bearing;

square envelope

I. INTRODUCTION

Rolling bearings suffer from various types of faults at inner-race, outer-race, roller, and cage during long-term operation

in harsh and complicated working conditions. These faults normally appear in compound forms and can potentially

cause enormous economic loss and catastrophic accidents[1][2]. Therefore, the rolling bearing is highly desired and

has been extensively investigated for accurate bearing fault identification in terms of types and locations. When faults

on the rolling bearing are interacting periodically with rollers, structural resonances are generated in response to

periodic impulses at certain frequencies. Resonances are dominated by the structural parameters of rolling bearings,

location of faults, and rolling speed. By extracting periodic impulse features of interest from vibration response signals,

bearing faults can be potentially detected, and vibration-based analysis has been one of the most effective and widely

adopted approaches for bearing fault detection. Despite this, the accurate fault diagnosis in complex industrial

equipment remains challenging to realize due to intensive environmental noises and interferences, especially for the

compound fault case, thereby calling for further advancement of existing approaches.

For the diagnosis of compound faults, the key issue is to separate the components contributed by each type of fault

from raw signals, and various signal processing methods have been proposed. The adaptive signal decomposition

method can decompose the signal into multiple components according to the characteristics of the raw signal. It is one

of the effective schemes to solve the problem of multi-component signal separation in bearing compound fault

diagnosis. Driven by this demand, adaptive signal decomposition methods have been rapidly developed and widely

studied. Typical methods include empirical mode decomposition (EMD)[3], local mean decomposition (LMD) [4].

EMD is the earliest one proposed by Huang et al. [3] in 1998, which can iteratively decompose the signal into several

specific defined intrinsic mode functions (IMF). Since then, scholars have carried out a series of research on EMD,

including the mathematical basis of EMD and its application methods in various practical engineering scenarios. Due

to the inherent defects of EMD such as iterative cut-off criterion, mode aliasing, endpoint effect, and so on, its

improvement methods have been developed, including LMD[4], ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD)
[5], synchronous compressed wavelet transform (SWT)[6], empirical wavelet transform (EWT) [7], etc. Compared

with the EMD method, LMD [4] method regards the signal as the sum of multiple product functions (PFS). However,

these two methods are still iterative decomposition methods without considering signal characteristics and structure.

SWT [6] is a method of converting to frequency domain space to realize adaptive decomposition. Although it is similar

to the principle of EMD, it combines wavelet analysis and redistribution method to construct a new sub-signal.

Similarly, EWT [7] uses a new wavelet filter bank to decompose the signal into a series of IMF, which enables the sub-

signal to more accurately separate the signal frequency and fault characteristics. SWT and EWT have been successfully

applied on various occasions, including diagnosing ball bearing faults [8] and extracting weak bearing feature faults of

the wind turbines [9]. However, due to the band allocation criterion in the method principle, the frequency components

related to the fault may be decomposed into different modes [10].

Variational mode decomposition (VMD) is a newer quasi-orthogonal multicomponent adaptive signal decomposition

method compared with aforementioned methods [11]. This method searches for the optimal signal input under the

variational model framework and can adaptively update the center frequency, bandwidth, and corresponding sub-

signals and realize the independent component decomposition of the signal in the frequency domain. Compared with

the adaptive decomposition method aforementioned, VMD exhibits higher decomposition accuracy and can effectively

reduce the problem of mode aliasing with a definite theoretical basis. In addition, compared with the frequency domain-

based adaptive decomposition method EWT, VMD requires less prior knowledge of the input signal[11]. Given these

merits, VMD has been widely concerned and studied by scholars in many engineering fields since its proposal in 2014

and has been developed and improved in various aspects. For example, in a wider range of stochastic processes, Ref.

[12] has proved the stability and robustness of VMD. Ref. [13] discusses the multi Teager energy operator contained

in VMD and identifies the resonance band to enhance the weak fault characteristics of bearings. Ref. [14] uses VMD

to extract fault features of the rotor system and verifies the advantages of VMD in extracting multiple feature codes by

comparing it with EMD, EEMD, and EWT.

Although the performance of VMD is better than the traditional decomposition method [15], the success of VMD

largely depends on the preset parameters, including the number of modes and bandwidth control parameters. Most of

the research work focuses on improving its adaptability and parameter optimization. The core problem is the

determination of the number of modes. For example, a prediction test method is to make the decomposition prediction
reach the established prediction accuracy by constantly changing the number, which is an empirical method and is

inefficient and difficult to be universal[16][17]. Jiang et al [18] use the morphological method to determine the number

of modes and uses entropy to measure the linear relationship between the component and the original sequence, but

there may be a nonlinear correlation between them, so this method may be biased. Ma [19] and Huang [20] developed

the method of scale–space and its spectral segmentation to estimate the modal number for VMD. Lian et al [21]

investigated the decomposition effect by repeatedly searching model amount and using the multi-index evaluation

method and then determining the value of the model amount. Xiao et al [22] applied the VMD decomposition method

to image analysis and determined the composition model amount according to the image size. Cui et al [23] determined

the mean value of instantaneous frequency of each mode through Hilbert transformation, and then used the curvature

of the load curve as the index to observe the instantaneous frequency of mode, and then compared the curvature

performance to obtain the optimal model amount. Tang et al [24] used particle swarm optimization algorithm to search

and study the best response parameters of VMD and then determined the decomposition model number. Gu et al [25]

took the minimum average envelope entropy as the fitting value and determined the decomposition model number

through gray wolf algorithm. Jiang et al developed an adaptive and efficient VMD method based on the convergent

tendency phenomenon in Ref [26], and then proposed a new coarse-to-fine decomposing strategy of the VMD to obtain

the optimal mode and applicate it to extract the weak repetitive transients of bearings in Ref [27]. Cui et al [28] proposed

a method called multivariate complex variational mode decomposition by drawing inspiration from the multivariate

variational mode decomposition and the complex-valued signal decomposition. Ni et al [29] proposed a fault

information-guided VMD method for extracting the weak bearing repetitive transient. Li et al [30] developed an

adaptive energy-constrained VMD method based on spectrum segmentation for rolling bearing fault detection which

can not only automatically determine the above three input parameters by using the Fourier spectrum segmentation

algorithm and Gini index, but also make the energy of each mode more concentrated.

The above literatures determine the number of modes of VMD decomposition from the algorithm level, which is

logical and usually has good adaptability in specific engineering scenarios. The main methods are roughly divided into

three categories: based correlation, based spectral analysis, and based intelligent algorithm. However, new problems,

including insufficient model prediction accuracy, slow convergence speed of parameter determination, easy falling into

local optimization, and difficulty to have universality, arise when using the idea of linear correlation or spectral analysis
or various algorithms to realize parameter optimization [18].

To further optimize the parameter adaptive determination process of the VMD method, a method based on the

characteristics of raw signal is proposed to guide VMD decomposition in this paper. The modal components of the

VMD model are obtained based on the decomposition of the raw signal, and its modal number is also determined in

combination with the characteristics of each component under a certain target setting and the close correlation between

each other and the raw signal. Therefore, the characteristics of the raw signal in the frequency domain are preferable

to investigate because VMD is conducted in the frequency domain. In recognition of these concerns, this paper attempts

to determine the specific number of modes in accordance with the energy distribution characteristics of signal in the

frequency domain guided by power spectral density (PSD). By introducing the binary smoothing method, the number

of extreme points of PSD curve can be gradually reduced and the waveform is not distorted. In addition, the fluctuation

of PSD corresponds to the concentration of different frequency components in the signal, which provides a basis for

the determination of the resonance frequency band. To improve the adaptability of this method in compound fault

diagnosis, different from the IMF selection and evaluation strategy used in many Refs. [18-21, 25-31], this method

determines the concise number of decomposition modes by obtaining the extremely smooth PSD curve, to obtain the

result equal to or similar to the number of resonance bands; then the square envelope analysis is carried out for a limited

number of IMF, to avoid missed detection of compound faults. This idea, which is concise and practical, helps promote

the practical application of VMD especially the compound fault diagnosis of rolling bearings. In the simulation and

experimental data set, the proposed method is compared with the above several typical modal number determination

methods, including the comparison of modal number, iteration times, and calculation time. In the case of inconsistent

modal numbers, the inconsistent results are compared and analyzed. Then, using the minima of the extremely concise

PSD curve obtained by the proposed method, the spectrum division boundary of EWT method is determined, and the

performance of VMD and EWT is compared based on this. Through comparative experiments of simulation analysis

and challenging experimental data set (multiple composite faults of wheelset bearing of the high-speed train), the

proposed method not only has superior fault feature extraction and diagnosis ability but also has more advantages in

the degree of result display, mainly in that the fault feature frequency and its harmonics are more remarkable. The

results show that the proposed method can accurately determine the number of modes for the compound fault signal,

and has remarkable advantages in the number of iterations and calculation time. It can effectively diagnose multiple
faults in the most complex compound fault data (three kinds of fault combinations) without missed detection.

The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews and summarizes the VMD method. In Section 3, the

PSD-guided VMD method and the whole process of bearing fault diagnosis are introduced. In Section 4, a group of

simulation signals and three groups of wheelset bearing vibration signals are used to verify the effectiveness of the

proposed method, and its advantages are proven. The conclusions of this paper are summarized in Section 5.

II. PRINCIPLE OF THE VMD METHOD

The primary function of VMD is to decompose the input signal into multiple modes, each of which is narrow-band

and located around a center frequency [11]. The instinct mode function (IMF) 𝑢𝑘(𝑡) represents an amplitude-

modulated–frequency-modulated signal and can be expressed as:

𝑢𝑘(𝑡) = 𝐴𝑘(𝑡) × cos (𝜑𝑘(𝑡)), (1)

where 𝑘 represents the 𝑘th IMF, and 𝐴𝑘(𝑡) and 𝜑𝑘(𝑡) denote the instantaneous amplitude and phase, respectively.

When applying VMD, a noniteratively filtering structure is utilized to obtain the optimal solution of the constrained

variational model, and the decomposition process is transferred into a variational framework. The constrained

variational problem is shown as:

{ ‖ }𝑠.𝑡.∑ 𝑢 (𝑡) = 𝑆(𝑡),

2
min
{𝐼𝑀𝐹𝑘}, {𝜔𝑘}
∑
𝐾 ‖ [( 𝑗
) ]
𝜒𝑡 𝜌(𝑡) + 𝜋𝑡 ∗ 𝑢𝑘(𝑡) 𝑒 ―𝑗𝜔𝑘𝑡
2
𝐾 𝑘
(2)

where 𝐾 is the IMF number and should be defined in advance, 𝑢𝑘 and 𝜔𝑘 denote the 𝑘th mode and its corresponding

2
‖ [(
center frequency, respectively, and 𝑆(𝑡) is the target signal. The term 𝜒𝑡 𝜌(𝑡) + 𝜋𝑡 ∗ 𝑢𝑘(𝑡) 𝑒 ―𝑗𝜔𝑘𝑡
𝑗
) ] ‖ 2
represents the

estimated bandwidth of the 𝑘th IMF. In this sense, solving the constrained variational problem turns into a process of

minimizing the sum of all IMFs’ bandwidths by determining 𝐾 IMFs.

The specific steps of VMD are listed as follows:

(1) Determine the mode number (𝐾) and penalty parameter (𝛼). 𝛼 represents the white noise variance of the signal. Its

initial value comes from Bayesian prior information, and its function is to balance the reconstruction error of the signal

and the bandwidth of modes. In terms of Hilbert transform, the analytical signal is calculated to obtain the single-side

( 𝑗
)
spectrum corresponding to each modal function 𝑢𝑘(𝑡): 𝜎(𝑡) + 𝜋𝑡 ∗ 𝑢𝑘(𝑡), where 𝜎(𝑡) is the Dirichlet function, and

∗ is the convolution symbol.

 ( 𝑗
)
(2) Add 𝑒 ―𝑗𝜔𝑘𝑡 to the analytic signal 𝜎(𝑡) + 𝜋𝑡 ∗ 𝑢𝑘(𝑡) to shift the center frequency to 𝜔𝑘. Calculate the estimated

2
‖ [( 𝑗
)
bandwidth of 𝑢𝑘(𝑡) through 𝜒𝑡 𝜌(𝑡) + 𝜋𝑡 ∗ 𝑢𝑘(𝑡) 𝑒 ―𝑗𝜔𝑘𝑡 . ] ‖ 2

(3) Solve the constrained variational problem given in Eq. (2) 𝑢𝑘(𝑡) to select the optimal 𝑢𝑘(𝑡). An augmented

Lagrange function is introduced, and the new constrained problem becomes Eq. (3).
2
‖ [( 𝑗
)
𝐿({𝑢𝑘}, {𝜔𝑘},𝜆) = 𝛼∑𝐾 𝜒𝑡 𝜌(𝑡) + 𝜋𝑡 ∗ 𝑢𝑘(𝑡) 𝑒 ―𝑗𝜔𝑘𝑡 ] ‖ + ‖𝑆(𝑡) ― ∑ 𝑢 (𝑡)‖ + 〈𝜆(𝑡),𝑆(𝑡) ― ∑ 𝑢 (𝑡)〉,
2
𝐾 𝑘
2
2 𝐾 𝑘
(3)

where 𝜆(𝑡) represents the Lagrangian multiplier.

(4) Use the alternate direction method of multipliers to solve Eq. (3) and transfer the decomposed modes and center

frequencies into the Fourier domain, which can be expressed as:

𝑛
𝜆 (𝜔)
𝑢𝑛𝑘 + 1(𝜔) ― ∑𝑖 < 𝑘𝑢𝑛𝑘(𝜔) + 2
𝑢𝑛𝑘 + 1(𝜔)←𝑆(𝜔) ― ∑𝑖 < 𝑘 2 , and (4)
1 + 2𝛼(𝜔 ― 𝜔𝑛𝑘)

∞ 2
∫0 𝜔|𝑢𝑛𝑘 + 1(𝜔)| 𝑑𝜔
𝜔𝑛𝑘 + 1← ∞ 𝑛 + 1 2 , (5)
∫0 |𝑢𝑘 (𝜔)| 𝑑𝜔

respectively. The updating of modes and center frequencies continues until Eq. (6) is satisfied.

‖𝑢𝑛𝑘 + 1 ― 𝑢𝑛𝑘‖22
∑ < 𝜀. (6)
𝐾 ‖𝑢𝑛𝑘‖22

For details, refer to Ref. [11].

The VMD algorithm mathematically comprises three parts, i.e., Wiener filter, Hilbert transform, and frequency

mixing, which enable signal denoising, single-sideband spectrum signal construction, and spectrum shifting,

respectively. These properties make the VMD distinguishably different from EMD.

III. PSD-GUIDED VMD

A. Procedures of PSD-guided VMD

According to the findings of Dragomiretskiy [11] mentioned in the above section, two key parameters (i.e., 𝐾 and 𝛼)

need to be determined in advance before the VMD algorithm is implemented. If the preset 𝐾 value deviates remarkably

from the amount of IMF of the actual data, the decomposition result of the raw signal becomes seriously affected. If

the 𝐾 value of the preset value is extremely large, the raw signal becomes over-divided, and the same mode appears
repeatedly. By contrast, too small 𝐾 value causes most frequency components to appear in adjacent IMF, resulting in

identification difficulties [32]. 𝛼 has a negative relationship with the bandwidth of each mode. A small 𝛼 indicates a

large bandwidth of the modal component and vice versa. A large 𝛼 can make the mode energy of the harmonic

component of the narrow-band spectrum concentrated. Thus, the harmonic component is remarkable. A small 𝛼 can

make the mode of broadband spectrum contain increased harmonic components, indicating an important direction for

the preset of 𝛼 [29][30]. Given that real data are often heterogeneous and accompanied with remarkable uncertainties,

the accurate quantification of 𝐾 and 𝛼 is tricky, hindering the practical application of VMD. In this regard, PSD is

introduced to guide the VMD to determine 𝐾 and 𝛼 for faulty bearing signals in practical scenarios upon consideration

of the following aspects. The vibration signal of the faulty bearing is a series of amplitude-modulated pulse responses,

and the corresponding spectrum comprises a series of harmonic responses located at the fault and resonance frequencies

[33] with the largest harmonics. Resonant frequency bands are investigated most for bearing fault diagnosis. Besides,

the information on how the energy of a signal is distributed in the frequency domain can be revealed through PSD.

PSD is an effective method to describe the characteristics of signals from the perspective of frequency, which agrees

with the basic perspective of VMD. Moreover, with preprocessing to get a preliminary knowledge of the signal, the

amount of the resonant frequency bands can be fed into VMD as 𝐾, which indicates the number of IMFs and may

detect multiple bearing faults. Additionally, the bandwidth of the resonant frequency bands can be used for α

adjustment respective to each IMF. Procedures of the PSD-guided VMD approach are detailed as follows (Fig.1).

Step 1. The presence of bearing fault excites the resonant frequencies of a structure, and the location of the frequency

band for the resonance frequency should have higher energy than others. Different from environmental interferences

and noises, the features of interest caused by faults are primarily distributed within certain resonant frequency bands.

PSD is a powerful and reliable tool to determine the energy distribution in a frequency spectrum because it integrates

the autocorrelation component in the calculation process and can filter out the white noise to some extent [34]. In

comparison with the original frequency spectrum of bearing vibration responses, PSD can remarkably highlight fault-

related features [35]. Therefore, the use of PSD for the detection of bearing faults and the corresponding diagnosis

framework are rational and practicable. The PSD of a signal 𝑥(𝑡) can be obtained by taking the Fourier transform of

the autocorrelation function [36]:

𝑝(𝑓) = ℱ{𝑅𝑥𝑥(𝑡)}, (7)

where ℱ denotes the Fourier transform operator. The autocorrelation function 𝑅𝑥𝑥(𝜏) of a signal 𝑥(𝑡) is calculated by

averaging the product of the signal 𝑥(𝑡) at time 𝑡 with the same signal shifted by 𝜏 [36]:

𝑅𝑥𝑥(𝜏) = 𝔼[𝑥(𝑡)𝑥(𝑡 + 𝜏)]. (8)

Step 2. Given that bearing fault signatures are always located in a high-frequency band due to the resonance

phenomenon, the bearing vibration signal acquisition requires a high sampling frequency. Therefore, the PSD curve is

not smooth for the bearing vibration signal with strong noise. The main objective of this step is to obtain a smooth

curve for the characterization of the remarkable variation trend of PSD. The average calculation of the binary formula

is introduced to ensure the representativeness of the curve to the real trend. According to the principle of PSD, if 𝑀

denotes the length of 𝑝(𝑓), 𝑀 ―1 = 2𝜂, where 𝜂 ∈ N + . Let 𝑝(1) = [𝑝(1)

1 ⋯ 𝑀 ― 1] and is divided as Γ1 =
𝑝(1)

[
𝑝(1) 𝑝(1)
]
1 ⋯ 𝑚
⋯ ⋯ ⋯ , where 𝐴 is an empirical value of 28, and 𝑚 = (𝑀 ― 1) 𝐴. Calculate the average value of Γ1T and
𝑝(1)
𝐴 ⋯ (1)
𝑝𝑀 ― 1

[
𝑝(2) 𝑝(2)
]
1 ⋯ 𝑎
obtain 𝑝(2) = [𝑝(2)
1 ⋯ 𝑝𝐴 ]. Repeat the step above. 𝑝 is divided as Γ2 = ⋯ ⋯
(2) (2) ⋯ , where the value of 𝐵
𝑝(2)
𝐵 ⋯ 𝑝(2)
𝐴

is 23, and 𝑎 = 𝐴 𝐵. Calculate the average value of Γ2T and obtain 𝑝(3) = [𝑝(3)
1 ⋯ 𝐵 ]. Repeat the above step again,
𝑝(3)

[
𝑝(3) 𝑝(3)
]
1 ⋯ 𝑏
(3)
and 𝑝 is divided as Γ3 = ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ , where the value of 𝑁 is 21, and 𝑏 = 𝐵 𝑁. Calculate the average value of
𝑝(3)
𝑁 ⋯ 𝑝(3)
𝐵

Γ3T and obtain 𝑝(4) = [𝑝(4)

1 ⋯ 𝑁 ]. In order to suppress small fluctuations and ensure that the final curve is
𝑝(4)

smoother and undistorted, the cubic B-spline interpolation method is used to smooth the curve 𝑝(4), and smooth curves

𝑃𝑖 are obtained to further determine 𝐾 and 𝛼.

 Fig.1. Flowchart of PSD-guided VMD

Step 3. The smooth curves 𝑃𝑖 are generated from the origin PSD curve through multiple average processing and

represent the overall change trend of PSD. The peaks 𝑅𝑃1,𝑅𝑃2,⋯, 𝑅𝑃𝐾 denote a strong sub-signal of this frequency in

the origin signal. Therefore, 𝐾 is determined as the amount of the peaks, and the bandwidth of each mode (𝐵𝑘) is

obtained. Notably, peaks with minimal fluctuation are ignored by setting the calculation interval in the process of

finding local maxima. Inspired by Refs. [30] and [37], {𝛼𝐾} is set as:

𝛼𝐾 = ( 1

lg
1+e
2𝐵𝑘
𝑓𝑠
)(
― 0.5 1 ― 𝑓𝑠 )
2𝐵𝑘 𝑓𝑠
2, (9)

where 𝑓𝑠 denotes the sampling frequency.

In this way, 𝛼 values are determined in correspondence to the bandwidth of the signal, i.e., small 𝛼 to wide modes
and high 𝛼 to narrow modes.

Step 4. After the meaningful 𝐾 values and a set of {𝛼𝐾} are determined, they are directly introduced into VMD. The

𝛼 adjustment is proportionally related to the bandwidth of each IMF, as denoted in the modified {𝛼𝐾}. Furthermore,

the initialization and update steps of VMD are implemented to obtain the final output.

B. Parameters in PSD-guided VMD

Apart from 𝐾 and {𝛼𝐾}, some other parameters in VMD and PSD-guided VMD, including the initial center frequency

({𝜔1𝑘}), Lagrangian multiplier (𝜏), and tolerance factor of convergence criterion (𝜀) are also preferred to be determined

in advance

By determining {𝜔1𝑘} in advance, the computation speed is expected to be remarkably accelerated with iterations

reduced. {𝜔1𝑘} is initialized as:

∞
| |2
∫0 𝜔 𝑓𝐵𝑘 𝑑 𝜔
𝜔1𝑘 = ∞ 2 , (10)
∫0 |𝑓𝐵𝑘| 𝑑 𝜔

where 𝑓𝐵𝑘 is the magnitude of the frequency band segmented by 𝐵𝑘 (introduced in Step 3) over the entire frequency

range. 𝜏 influences the data fidelity prior related to the additional noise because it enforces the constraint, whereas 𝛼

improves convergence. In the practical bearing system, the vibration signal always has strong noise, and 𝜏 is set as 0.1

to retain the data fidelity. 𝜀 is a stop threshold for the reconstruction error to be controlled at a certain level, and the

value is set as 1𝑒 ―7, which is commonly used.

C. PSD-guided VMD for bearing fault feature extraction

PSD-guided VMD takes the number of clusters with energy concentration in the signal as the total amount of IMF.

Thus, the number of IMF is constrained by the total energy of the signal. In addition, the bearing fault characteristics

are always reflected in the resonance frequency band, and the resonance band of the bearing signal is relatively wide

[30], accounting for most of the signal energy. From this perspective, each IMF generated by PSD-guided VMD is

meaningful and needs further analysis especially for bearing vibration signals with multiple faults. Like the fast

kurtogram [38], the infogram [39][40], the sparsogram [41], another issue is that only one or several resonant frequency

bands that are presumed to be most informative are looked into for envelope analysis with demodulation, and this

finding may cause potential overlooks of subtle faults in a multiple-bearing fault situation.
 In [42], compared with directly observing the bispectral map of spectral coherence for fault frequency determination,

inspecting the squared envelope spectrum, which is obtained from integrating spectral correlation over an informative

spectral frequency band, is more convenient. Therefore, after implementing PSD-guided VMD for the input signal, the

Hilbert transform is utilized to demodulate all IMFs and construct squared envelope on the sub-signal.

IV. CASE STUDY

A set of simulation signal and three sets of vibration signals of wheelset bearing are used to verify the effectiveness

of the proposed adaptive PSD-guided VMD method. In order to highlight the advantages of the proposed method,

several methods for determining the number of modes, listed in the Introduction Section, are used in the experimental

comparisons. In addition, EWT is also a widely concerned signal decomposition method. In this paper, the minimum

point of the obtained smooth curves 𝑃𝑖 is used as the frequency band division basis of EWT, and the performance of

VMD and EWT has been fairly compared.

A. Simulation signal

The simulation signal 𝑦(𝑡) is a superposition of four impulses, and the construction form is as follows:

𝑦(𝑡) = 𝑦1 + 𝑦2 + 𝑦3 + 𝑦4, (11)

where 𝑦1 represents the excitations caused by bearing roller fault, and its fault feature frequency is 𝑓𝑟. 𝑦2 denotes the

excitations generated by the bearing outer-race fault with signal interruption, and its fault feature frequency is 𝑓01. 𝑦3

represents an impulse signal excited by the bearing outer-race fault with 0 dB signal-to-noise ratio white noise, and its

fault feature frequency is 𝑓02. 𝑦4 is a set of sinusoidal interference signals.

In accordance with Eq. (12), the fault impulses of 𝑦1, 𝑦2, and 𝑦3 are constructed.

( 𝑛
― 𝛽𝑂 𝑡 ― 𝑛𝑇𝑂 ― ∑𝑖 )
𝑁
𝑦𝑂(𝑡) = ∑𝑛 𝑂= 1𝐴𝑂𝑒
𝜏
=0 𝑖
( ( 𝑛
cos 2𝜋𝜔𝑂 𝑡 ― 𝑛𝑇𝑂 ― ∑𝑖 𝜏))𝑢(𝑡 ― 𝑛𝑇𝑂 ― ∑𝑛𝑖 = 0𝜏𝑖),
=0 𝑖
（12）

where NO is the number of fault impulses, AO is the amplitude of fault impulse response, βO is the structural damping

coefficients of fault impulse response, ωO represents the resonance frequencies excited by fault impulse response, 𝑇𝑂

( = 𝑓𝑂―1) is the fault period, and τO indicates the influence of random sliding on the rolling element. The sampling

frequency is 10 kHz, and the signal length is 1 s. Detailed parameters are listed in Table 1. 𝑓 denotes the fault feature

frequency, and 𝑓0 represents the rotation frequency.

 Table 1. Detailed parameters of simulation signal

Subsignal 𝐴 𝛽 (𝑁𝑠/𝑚) 𝜔 𝑓(𝐻𝑧) 𝑓0(𝐻𝑧)

𝑦1 5 1000 500 33.67

𝑦2 10 1000 2000 83.26 10.29

𝑦3 1.5 1000 3500 166.6

The wave curves and spectra of sub-signals 𝑦1–𝑦4 are shown in Fig.2. The wave curve, frequency spectrum, and

envelope spectrum of 𝑦(𝑡) are shown in Fig.3. The characteristic frequencies of bearing outer-race faults, represented

by 𝑓01 and 𝑓02, can be extracted from the envelope spectrum of 𝑦(𝑡), but the characteristic frequencies of bearing

roller fault represented by 𝑓𝑟 cannot be extracted.

Amplitude
Amplitude

4 0.05
2
0
-2 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
0 (a) 0.5 1 1.5 (e)
10 0.1
Amplitude

Amplitude

5
0.05
0
-5 0
0
0 (b) 0.5 1 1.5 (f) 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
5
Amplitude

Amplitude

0.05
0

-5 0
0 (g) 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
0 (c) 0.5 1 1.5
0.1
Amplitude
Amplitude

0.2
0 0.05
-0.2
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
(d) t/s (h) frequency/Hz

Fig.2. Components of simulated signal: (a–d) wave curves and (e–h) spectra of 𝑦1, 𝑦2, 𝑦3, and 𝑦4

The PSD curve of the simulated signal is calculated and shown in Fig.4. The red curve denotes the smooth curves

𝑃𝑖, and the red arrow indicates the results of {𝑅𝑃𝑘}. According to Fig.4, the 𝐾 for the simulated signal is 3. Through

PSD-guided VMD, the simulation signal is decomposed into three IMFs. Fig.5 shows the spectra and corresponding

squared envelope spectra of IMF1 to IMF3 obtained by PSD-guided VMD. The squared envelope spectrum of IMF1

shows a clear pattern of 𝑦1 as bearing roller fault feature frequencies. 𝑓𝑟 values, including the 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th
harmonics, are remarkable in the envelope spectrum of Fig.5(d). The characteristic frequencies 𝑓01 in signal 𝑦2 can be

extracted markedly from IMF2 (Fig.5[e]), and 𝑓02 and its 2nd harmonic are also extracted from IMF3 (Fig.5[f]). IMF2

is modulated by bearing roller fault feature frequency because the resonance bands are close to each other, but the

bearing outer-race fault feature frequency and its 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th harmonics are also remarkable. In the envelope

spectrum of Fig.5(f), the bearing outer-race fault feature frequency and its 2nd harmonics are highlighted with little

noise. The proposed method in this paper shows a robust ability of bearing multicomponent fault diagnosis in this case

study of the simulated signal.

10
Amplitude

5
0
-5

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6

(a) t/s
0.1
Amplitude

0.05

0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000
(b)
fo1 frequency/Hz
0.2 2f o1&fo2
Amplitude

3f o1
0.1

0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
(c) frequency/Hz

Fig.3. Simulated signal: (a) wave curve, (b) spectrum, and (c) envelope spectrum of 𝑦(𝑡)

In Fig.5(a), the sinusoidal interferences, which are marked with a dotted red rectangle, are also extracted by PSD-

guided VMD. Notably, the envelope spectrum of the sinusoidal signal is neglected because such interference signals

do not excite bearing resonance, and the energy of such interference in the whole signal is small. In terms of bearing

fault diagnosis, the influence of such interference signals on diagnosis results is effectively eliminated but can be

recognized by PSD-guided VMD. VMD is an approach to search the optimal carrier frequency based on the variational

Wiener filter. If the amount of valid mode is adequate to discriminate the target resonance band, the boundary location

is not vital in the VMD process. The resonant frequency band of the sinusoidal interference signal can be obtained by

decomposing more IMF, but doing this work is of no significance to bearing fault diagnosis but increases the operation

cost sharply.
 16
PSD
14 Pi

12 RP2
RP1
RP3
10

Amplitude
8

-2
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
frequency/Hz

Fig.4. PSD, 𝑃𝑖, and {𝑅𝑃𝑘} of simulated signal

2f bs
0.01
4f bs
Amplitude

Amplitude
500
6f bs
fy4 0.005
8f bs
0 0
0 2000 4000 6000 0 100 200 300 400 500
(a) f/Hz (d) frequency/Hz
1000 fo1
2f o1
Amplitude

Amplitude

0.02
3f o1
500 4f o1
0.01
0 0
0 2000 4000 6000 0 100 200 300 400 500
(b) f/Hz (e) frequency/Hz
0.05
Amplitude

Amplitude

500 fo2 2f o2

0 0
0 2000 4000 6000 0 100 200 300 400 500
(c) f/Hz (f) frequency/Hz

Fig.5. PSD-guided VMD for the simulation signal: (a–c) spectra and (d–f) square envelope spectra of IMF1–3

Other methods of determining the number of VMD modes are used in the simulation experimental comparison.

Table 2 shows the detailed comparison information of a variety of VMD methods, including the Morphological

method- [32], modified scale-space method- [33], particle swarm optimization algorithm- [35], and gray wolf

algorithm- [37] based VMD. It can be seen from Table 2 that the number of 𝐾 determined by the particle swarm

optimization algorithm- and gray wolf algorithm-based VMD all are 3, which is the same as the result of the proposed

method and the number of resonance bands of the simulation signal 𝑦(𝑡). As shown in Fig.5, the decomposition result

of 𝐾 = 3 of the simulated signal shows a superior decomposition effect. When the decomposition mode number is

greater than 3, band aliasing will occur, such as 𝐾 = 4 obtained by Morphological method- and modified scale-space

method-based VMD. In addition, in terms of the number of iterations and the calculation duration to reach convergence,
the proposed method has the least number of iterations and the shortest time, and the advantage of this determination

method of mode amount is remarkable.

Furthermore, the parameter determination effect of the PSD guided VMD method is evaluated by comparing it with

EWT method. As forementioned, EWT is a method that relies on prior knowledge. For the fairness of the comparison

experiment, PSD based spectrum division method is introduced to perform EWT. The key to this method is to take the

minimum points of 𝑃𝑖 smooth curve as the boundaries of frequency spectrum division and the result of the simulated

signal is shown in Fig.6. The spectrum of the simulated signal is divided into three components by using this method.

The spectra and envelope spectra of c1 to c3 obtained by EWT are shown in Fig.7. Compared with Fig.5, it is found

that PSD guided VMD method has absolute advantages in the extraction ability of the fault feature and harmonics.

First, from the perspective of the spectrum, the spectrum distribution of Fig.5 is more compact, while the frequency

band distribution of Fig.7 is wider, and there is obvious frequency band aliasing. Then, from the square envelope

spectrum, Fig.5 has a remarkable harmonic signal-to-noise ratio advantage over Fig.7. For the extraction of the roller

fault feature, the number and regularity of harmonics obtained in Fig.5 are quite better than that in Fig.7.

Table 2. Comparison information of the methods of determining the number of VMD modes for simulated signal

#-based VMD Number of 𝐾 Number of iterations Calculation duration(s)

Morphological method 4 249 5.3

Modified scale-space method 4 448 9.5

Particle swarm optimization algorithm 3 706 13.1

Gray wolf algorithm 3 354 7.2

Proposed method 3 130 2.9

0.15
Amplitude

0.1

0.05

0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
frequency/Hz
 Fig.6. Frequency spectrum division of simulated signal based 𝑃𝑖 for EWT

2f bs
Amplitude 500 4f bs

Amplitude
0.01 6f bs
c1
0.005

0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
frequency/Hz fo1 frequency/Hz
2f o1 3f
Amplitude

Amplitude
500
0.02 o1
c2
0.01 4f o1
0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
frequency/Hz frequency/Hz
500 0.02 fo2
Amplitude

Amplitude
2f o2
c3 0.01

0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
frequency/Hz frequency/Hz

Fig.7. Comparison: spectra and square envelope spectra of EWT for the simulation signal from left to right

B. PSD-guided VMD-based multicomponent fault diagnosis for railway wheelset bearings

A set of faulty experiments with railway wheelset bearings in a high-speed train wheelset running in a testbed shown

in Fig.8(a) has been conducted to further demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method in real bearing

vibration data. Faulty bearings are located in one axle box, and the implementation information of a strain type

vibration sensor is shown in Fig.8(b). The investigated bearings in the vehicle axle box are double-row tapered roller

bearings. Three bearings from in-service trains with multicomponent faults (i.e., bearing with outer-race and cage

compound fault; bearing with roller and outer-race compound fault; and bearing with outer-race, roller, and cage

compound fault) are used. Pictures of fault details of the three bearings are shown in Fig.9. According to [43], the

fault feature frequencies can be analytically calculated as:

𝑍𝑓𝑖 𝑑
𝑓𝑜 = 2 (1 ― 𝐷cos𝛼), (13)

𝐷𝑓𝑖 𝑑 2
𝑓𝑏𝑠 = 2𝑑 (1 ― (𝐷) (cos𝜗)2), and (14)

𝑓𝑖 𝑑
𝑓𝑐 = 2 (1 ― 𝐷cos𝜗), (15)

where 𝑓𝑖 is the shaft rotating frequency; 𝑍 is the roller number; and 𝑑, 𝐷, and 𝜗 are roller diameter, pitch diameter,

and contact angle, respectively. The specific values of the above parameters are as follows: 𝑍 = 19, 𝜗 = 9°, 𝑑 = 26.9
 mm, and 𝐷 = 180 mm. The sampling frequency is 10 kHz for all measurements. The rolling speed is set to be 100

km/h, and the rotation frequency of the shaft is 10.28 Hz. The characteristic frequencies in correspondence to outer-

race, roller, and cage faults are 83.23, 33.93, and 4.39 Hz, respectively.

Fig.8. Faulty experiments with railway wheelset bearings: (a) wheelset running in testbed overview and (b) sensor

implementation

(a) (b) (c)

Fig.9. Pictures of (a) cage, (b) pin roller, and (c) three outer-race faults of wheelset bearings

Time-domain curves, frequency spectra, and corresponding spectrum envelopes of vibration signals under all cases

are listed in Fig.10. The amplitude of the bearing vibration signal with three types of faults is higher than that with

two types of faults. The characteristic frequencies in the spectrum envelopes are marked. From the spectrum envelope

in Fig.10(c), the outer-race fault feature frequency and its harmonics denoted by 𝑓𝑜 or multiples of 𝑓𝑜 and the 2nd and

4th harmonics of the fault feature frequencies denoted by multiples of 𝑓𝑏𝑠 can be extracted. However, these

characteristics are not remarkable because they are submerged in many frequency components. Fig.10(f) shows that

the feature frequency corresponding to the outer-race fault and its harmonics can be easily spotted, but the amplitude

of the cage fault feature frequency, denoted by 𝑓𝑐, can hardly be identified. Fig.10(i) shows that the feature frequencies

of all three types of bearing fault can be successfully and remarkably identified. The 2nd and 4th harmonics of the
 roller fault feature frequency can also be reflected in the envelope spectra for all three cases, whereas the zoomed-in

view is necessary for further identification. Overall, identifying bearing fault feature frequencies in accordance with

the envelope spectrum may be feasible but not an optimum option particularly for the higher-order harmonics flooded

in other unwanted interferences, leading to potential false or missed fault detection.

Origin waveform Origin waveform Origin waveform

50 50 50

Amplitude

Amplitude
Amplitude

0 0 0

-50 -50 -50

0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10
(a) (d) (g) t/s
t/s t/s

Frequency spectrum Frequency spectrum Frequency spectrum

6
4 4
Amplitude
Amplitude

Amplitude
4
2 2
2

0 0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
(b) frequency/Hz frequency/Hz (h) frequency/Hz
(e)
fo
Envelope spectrum Envelope spectrum fc Envelope spectrum
fo fo 1.5
4f bs
1 2fo 2 2fo 2f o
4fbs 3fo 3fo 2f bs
Amplitude

2fbs
Amplitude

Amplitude
fc 1 3f o
0.5 1
0.5

0 0 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 500
(c) frequency/Hz (f) frequency/Hz frequency/Hz
(i)

Fig.10. Time-domain curves, frequency spectrum, and envelope spectrum of the vibration signals of three experiments:

(a–c) outer-race and roller compound fault data; (d–f) outer-race and cage compound fault data; and (h–i) outer-race,

roller, and cage compound fault data of wheelset bearing.

a. Experiment 1: outer-race and roller compound fault data of wheelset bearing

The signal with outer-race and roller compound fault information is analyzed by PSD-guided VMD first. The PSD,

𝑃𝑖 , and {𝑅𝑃𝑘} of the original data are shown in Fig.11. According to Fig.11, the 𝐾 for the outer-race and roller

compound fault data of wheelset bearing is 3. The outer-race and roller compound fault data of the wheelset bearing

are decomposed by PSD-guided VMD into three IMFs. Fig.12 depicts the time domain curves, spectra, and

corresponding squared envelope spectra of IMF1 to IMF3. The squared envelope spectrum of the first IMF is

dominated by the 2nd harmonic bearing outer-race fault feature frequency in Fig.12(g). The squared envelope

spectrum in Fig.12(h) exhibits evident patterns of roller fault that contains 𝑓𝑏𝑠 and its harmonics and sidebands around

𝑓𝑏𝑠. Patterns come in the form of 2𝑓𝑏𝑠 or multiples of 2𝑓𝑏𝑠 because a defect on roller surface generates impulses on

inner and outer races, exciting double impulses [43]. A strong pattern of bearing outer-race fault can also be revealed
 in the squared envelope spectrum of the third IMF and is marked by a red arrow in Fig.12(i). According to the patterns

of IMF2 and IMF3, the wheelset bearing with outer-race and roller compound faults can be reliably identified.

50
PSD
Pi
40 RP1
RP2

30 RP3

Amplitude
20

10

0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
frequency/Hz

Fig.11. PSD, 𝑃𝑖 , and {𝑅𝑃𝑘} of the signal of Experiment 1

waveform 105 frequency spectrum envelope spectrum

20 2
2 2f o

Amplitude
Amplitude

Amplitude

10
IMF1 0 1 1
-10
0 0
0 5 10 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
(a) t/s (d) frequency/Hz (g) frequency/Hz
4
10
1
20 5 2f bs
Amplitude

Amplitude

Amplitude
4f bs
IMF2 0 0.5
6f bs
-20
0 0
0 5 10 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
(b) t/s (e) 4 frequency/Hz frequency/Hz
10
(h)
20 2f o
fo 3f o
4f o
Amplitude
Amplitude

5
Amplitude

0.5
4f o
IMF3 0

-20 0 0
0 5 10 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
(c) t/s (f) frequency/Hz (i) frequency/Hz

Fig.12. Results of PSD-guided VMD for Experiment 1: (a–c) time-domain curves, (d–f) frequency spectra, and (g–i)

envelope spectra of IMF1–3.

Table 3 shows the detailed comparison information of other methods of determining the number of VMD modes. It

can be seen that the number of 𝐾 determined by the modified scale-space- and gray wolf algorithm-based VMD all are

3, which is the same as the result of the proposed method. As shown in Fig.12, the decomposition result of 𝐾 = 3 of

the signal for Experiment 1 shows a superior decomposition effect. When the decomposition mode number is greater

than 3, over decomposition and band aliasing will occur, shown as Fig.13 which contains the results of 𝐾 = 4 and

𝐾 = 5. Similarly, the PSD-guided VMD strategy has remarkable advantages in the number of iterations and

computational cost.
 The comparison result for Experiment 1 with EWT is shown in Fig.14. The method of frequency spectrum division

and boundaries determination is consistent with the processing of the simulation signal. The spectrum of the signal for

Experiment 1 is divided into three components by using this method. The spectra and square envelope spectra of mono-

components c1 to c3 obtained by EWT are shown in Fig.14. It is found that the mono-component c2 has serious

frequency aliasing and does not separate the outer race and roller fault feature frequencies, which makes it difficult to

extract the roller fault features effectively.

Table 3. Comparison information of the methods of determining the number of VMD modes for Experiment 1

#-based VMD Number of 𝐾 Number of iterations Calculation duration(s)

Morphological method 5 281 7.8

Modified scale-space method 3 320 7.4

Particle swarm optimization algorithm 4 683 15.0

Gray wolf algorithm 3 276 7.9

Proposed method 3 129 2.8

envelope spectrum envelope spectrum

Amplitude
Amplitude

2
2f 0 2 2f 0
IMF1 1 IMF1 1
0
0 0 100 200 300 400 500
0 100 200 300 400 500
2f bs f0 f0
frequency/Hz
Amplitude

frequency/Hz
4f bs
1 0.5
Amplitude

IMF2
IMF2 0.5 0
0 100 200 300 400 500
0 2f bs frequency/Hz
f0
Amplitude Amplitude Amplitude

0 100 200 300 400 500 1

frequency/Hz IMF3 0.5
Amplitude

0.4 0
f0 2f 0 3f 0 0 100 200 300 400 500
IMF3 0.2
f0 2f 0 frequency/Hz
0 0.4
0 100 200 300 400 500 IMF4 3f 0
0.2
frequency/Hz 0
0 100 200 300 400 500
Amplitude

1 2f 0
f0 3f 0 f0 frequency/Hz
IMF4 0.5 1 2f 0 3f 0
IMF5 0.5
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 0
0 100 200 300 400 500
frequency/Hz
frequency/Hz

(a) (b)

Fig.13. Comparison for Experiment 1: square envelope spectra of VMD with different composition modes: (a) 𝐾 = 4

and (b) 𝐾 = 5.
 104
2

Amplitude
Amplitude
2
2f o
c1 1 1

0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
frequency/Hz
fo frequency/Hz
2f bs 4f bs
1 2f o 6f bs
Amplitude

Amplitude
5000 3f o
c2 0.5

0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
frequency/Hz frequency/Hz
2
Amplitude

Amplitude
5000
fo 2f o 3f o 4f o
c3 1

0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
frequency/Hz frequency/Hz

Fig.14. Comparison for Experiment 1: spectra and square envelope spectra of EWT from left to right

b. Experiment 2: outer-race and cage compound fault data of wheelset bearing

The outer-race and cage compound fault data of wheelset bearing is analyzed subsequently. The PSD, 𝑃𝑖 , and

{𝑅𝑃𝑘} of the original data are shown in Fig.15, which indicates that the 𝐾 for the outer-race and cage compound fault

data of wheelset bearing is 3. The outer-race and cage compound fault data of wheelset bearing is decomposed by

PSD-guided VMD into three IMFs. Fig.16 shows the time domain curves, spectra, and corresponding squared

envelope spectra from IMF1 to IMF3. The squared envelope spectrum of the first IMF is dominated by the bearing

outer-race fault feature frequency in Fig.16(g) and includes some interference frequencies. Combined with the first

case, results show an outer-race fault in the bearing and that the energy of the outer-race fault feature frequency always

dominates. The squared envelope spectrum in Fig.16(h) reveals evident pattern of cage fault that contains 𝑓𝑐 and its

4th harmonic. The squared envelope spectrum of the third IMF exhibits strong pattern caused by outer-race fault in

the bearing (marked by red arrows in Fig.16[i]) containing the harmonic components with decreasing energy, and

interference frequencies are almost completely filtered out. Through the envelope spectra of IMF2 and IMF3, the

outer-race and cage compound fault of wheelset bearing can be reliably identified.
 50 PSD
Pi
RP1
40
RP2
RP3

Amplitude
30

20

10

0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
frequency/Hz

Fig.15. PSD, 𝑃𝑖 , and {𝑅𝑃𝑘} of outer-race and cage compound fault data of wheelset bearing

waveform 105 frequency spectrum envelope spectrum

40 2
fo
Amplitude

Amplitude 5

Amplitude
20

IMF1 0 1

-20
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
(a) t/s (d) frequency/Hz (g) f frequency/Hz
10
4 c
20 5 1
4f c
Amplitude
Amplitude

Amplitude
IMF2 0 0.5

-20 0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
(b) t/s (e) frequency/Hz (h) frequency/Hz
4
10
20 2
2f o
Amplitude

Amplitude
Amplitude

5 fo 3f o
0 1 4f o
IMF3
-20 0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
(c) t/s (f) frequency/Hz (i) frequency/Hz

Fig.16. Results of PSD-guided VMD for processing the outer-race and cage compound fault data of wheelset bearing:

(a)–(c) time-domain curves, (d–f) frequency spectra, and (g–i) envelope spectra of IMF1–3.

Table 4 shows the detailed comparison information of other methods of determining the number of VMD modes. It

can be seen that the number of 𝐾 determined by the modified scale-space- and particle swarm optimization algorithm

-based VMD all are 3, which is the same as the result of the proposed method. As shown in Fig.16, the decomposition

result of 𝐾 = 3 of the signal for Experiment 2 shows a superior decomposition effect. When the decomposition mode

number is greater than 3, over decomposition and band aliasing will occur, shown as Fig.17 which contains the results

of 𝐾 = 4. Similarly, the PSD-guided VMD strategy has remarkable advantages in the number of iterations and

computational cost.

The comparison result for Experiment 2 with EWT is shown in Fig.18. The method of frequency spectrum division

and boundaries determination is consistent with the processing of the simulation signal. The spectrum of the signal for

Experiment 2 is divided into three components by using this method. The spectra and square envelope spectra of mono-
components c1 to c3 obtained by EWT are shown in Fig.18. It is found that the mono-component c2 has serious

frequency aliasing, which makes it difficult to extract the cage fault features effectively.

Table 4. Comparison information of the methods of determining the number of VMD modes for Experiment 2

#-based VMD Number of 𝐾 Number of iterations Calculation duration(s)

Morphological method 4 277 6.5

Modified scale-space method 3 285 6.3

Particle swarm optimization algorithm 3 611 11.6

Gray wolf algorithm 4 350 7.3

Proposed method 3 132 2.9

envelope spectrum
f0
Amplitude

5
IMF1
0
0 100 200 300 400 500
fc frequency/Hz
Amplitude

1
4f c
IMF2 0.5
0
0 100 200 300 400 500
frequency/Hz
Amplitude

1
f0
IMF3 0.5
0
0 100 200 300 400 500
frequency/Hz
Amplitude

2 f0 2f 0
IMF4 1
0
0 100 200 300 400 500
frequency/Hz

Fig.17. Comparison for Experiment 2: square envelope spectra of VMD with 𝐾 = 4.

 104
5

Amplitude
Amplitude
2 fo
c1 1

0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
frequency/Hz frequency/Hz
1
fc 4f
c
Amplitude

Amplitude
5000 fo
c2 0.5

0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
frequency/Hz frequency/Hz
2f o
Amplitude

Amplitude
5000 2 3f o 4f o
fo
c3 1
0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
frequency/Hz frequency/Hz

Fig.18. Comparison for Experiment 2: spectra and square envelope spectra of EWT from left to right

c. Experiment 3: outer-race, roller, and cage compound fault data of wheelset bearing

As shown in Fig.19, the 𝐾 for the outer-race, roller, and cage compound fault data of wheelset bearing is 4. This set

of data is decomposed by PSD-guided VMD into four IMFs. The time-domain curves, spectra, and corresponding

squared envelope spectra of IMF1 to IMF4 are shown in Fig.20. The squared envelope spectrum of the first IMF

includes some interference frequency except an outer-race fault feature frequency without any harmonics in Fig.20(i).

The squared envelope spectrum in Fig.20(j) is dominated by the cage fault feature frequency and contains 𝑓𝑐 and its

4th harmonic. The squared envelope spectrum of the third IMF exhibits strong pattern of bearing roller fault marked

by red arrow in Fig.20(k) containing 𝑓𝑏𝑠 and its harmonics and sidebands around 𝑓𝑏𝑠. In this envelope spectrum, the

cage fault feature frequency can also be found, and frequency aliasing occurs. The fault feature frequency of the cage

is close to that of the roller for rolling bearings, resulting in difficult separation [30]. The bearing outer-race fault

feature frequency and its harmonics can be extracted from the squared envelope spectrum of the fourth IMF in

Fig.20(l), revealing a strong pattern of the outer-race fault of bearing.

 50 PSD
Pi

RP1
40 RP2
RP3 RP4

Amplitude
30

20

10

0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
frequency/Hz

Fig.19. PSD, 𝑃𝑖 , and {𝑅𝑃𝑘} of outer-race, roller, and cage compound fault data of wheelset bearing

waveform 105 frequency spectrum envelope spectrum

50 2 4
Amplitude

Amplitude
Amplitude

fo
IMF1 0 1 2

-50 0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
(a) (e) 4 frequency/Hz (i) frequency/Hz
t/s 10
Amplitude
Amplitude

Amplitude
20
5
fc
IMF2 0 0.5 4fc
-20
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
(b) t/s
(f) (j) fc 4f
104 frequency/Hz frequency/Hz
2 1 c
Amplitude
Amplitude

Amplitude

20 2fbs
IMF3 0 1 0.5 4fbs
6fbs
-20 0
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 0 100 200 300 400 500
(c) (g) 41000 2000 3000 4000 5000 (k) frequency/Hz
t/s 10 frequency/Hz 0.4 f
20
Amplitude

4
Amplitude

Amplitude

o 3fo 4fo
0 0.2 2fo
IMF4 2

-20 0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
(d) t/s (h) frequency/Hz (l) frequency/Hz

Fig.20. Results of PSD-guided VMD for the outer-race, roller, and cage compound fault data of wheelset bearing: (a–

d) time-domain curves, (e–h) frequency spectra, and (i–l) envelope spectra of IMF1–4.

Table 5 shows the detailed comparison information of other methods of determining the number of VMD modes. It

can be seen that the number of 𝐾 determined by the modified scale-space-, particle swarm optimization algorithm-,

and gray wolf algorithm-based VMD all are 5, and 𝐾 determined by the morphological method-based VMD is 6, which

all are different from the result of the proposed method. As shown in Fig.20, the decomposition result of 𝐾 = 4 of the

signal for Experiment 3 shows a superior decomposition effect. When the decomposition mode number is greater than

4, over decomposition and band aliasing will occur, shown as Fig.21 which contains the results of 𝐾 = 5 and 𝐾 = 6.

In addition to remarkable advantage of feature extraction, the PSD-guided VMD strategy also performs best in the

number of iterations and computational cost.

 The comparison result for Experiment 3 with EWT is shown in Fig.22. The spectrum of the signal for Experiment 3

is divided into four components. The spectra and square envelope spectra of mono-components c1 to c4 obtained by

EWT are shown in Fig.22. It is found that the cage fault feature frequency and its harmonics failed to be extracted.

Although the outer race and roller faults are detected, the harmonics are submerged in the interference frequencies.

Table 5. Comparison information of the methods of determining the number of VMD modes for Experiment 3

#-based VMD Number of 𝐾 Number of iterations Calculation duration(s)

Morphological method 6 451 8.8

Modified scale-space method 5 378 8.3

Particle swarm optimization algorithm 5 663 12.7

Gray wolf algorithm 5 410 9.4

Proposed method 4 129 3.1

envelope spectrum envelope spectrum

Amplitude Amplitude Amplitude Amplitude Amplitude Amplitude 2f 0
Amplitude

1
2f 0 IMF1 0.5
IMF1 0.5
0
0 0 100 200 300 400 500
0 100 200 300 400 500 frequency/Hz
frequency/Hz 5
IMF2
Amplitude

5
IMF2 0
fc 0 100 200 300 400 500
0 frequency/Hz
0 100 200 300 400 500
fc 1
4f c 2f bs frequency/Hz IMF3 0.5
4f bs
Amplitude

0
IMF3 1 fc 0 4f c 100 2f 200 300 400 500
0.5 bs frequency/Hz
2
0 IMF4 4f bs
0 100 200 300 400 500 1
frequency/Hz 0
Amplitude

0 100 200 300 400 500

0.4
IMF4 2f 0 frequency/Hz
0.2 0.4 2f 0
IMF5 0.2
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 0
frequency/Hz 0 100 200 300 400 500
Amplitude

frequency/Hz
IMF5 0.1 2f 0 2f 0
3f 0 IMF6 0.1 3f 0
0.05 0.05
0 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 500
frequency/Hz frequency/Hz

(a) (b)

Fig.21. Comparison for Experiment 3: square envelope spectra of VMD with different composition modes: (a) 𝐾 = 5

and (b) 𝐾 = 6.
 104

Amplitude

Amplitude
4 fo
2
c1 1 2
0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400
frequency/Hz 2f bs frequency/Hz
Amplitude

Amplitude
c2 5000 2
1
0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
frequency/Hz frequency/Hz
2f o
Amplitude

Amplitude
4000
0.5
c3 2000
0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
frequency/Hz frequency/Hz
2f o 5f o
Amplitude

Amplitude
2000 3f o
0.1
c4 1000 0.05
0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 100 200 300 400 500
frequency/Hz frequency/Hz

Fig.22. Comparison for Experiment 3: spectra and square envelope spectra of EWT for the signal of Experiment 3

from left to right

V. CONCLUSION

This paper is motivated by the wide occurrence of compound faults of railway wheelset bearings. PSD-guided VMD

is proposed in this paper to enhance the performance and adaptability of VMD in compound fault detection. The core

idea is to determine the number and relative {𝛼} of IMFs in VMD by using the PSD characterization of the energy

distribution of the raw signal in the frequency domain. A set of simulation signals and three sets of signals collected

from industrial railway wheelset bearings with compound fault have been used to verify the effectiveness of the

proposed method. In comparison with a variety of the methods of determining the decomposition modes and a widely

concerned signal decomposition method--EWT, the PSD-guided VMD in detecting compound faults not only has

superior fault feature extraction and diagnosis ability but also has more advantages in the degree of result display,

mainly in that the fault feature frequency and its harmonics are more remarkable. In addition, the proposed strategy

also performs better in the number of iterations and computational cost. Actually, the application of this paper is close

to engineering practice and has high reference significance. PSD guides the energy distribution of the raw signal in the

frequency domain and can provide a loose criterion for the determination of the K value in the process of VMD.

Consequently, PSD-guided VMD can be adaptive upon over-segmentation or under segmentation of certain frequency

bands. By contrast, the performance of EWT is highly dependent on the segmentation outcome because it is strictly
guided by the pre-segmentation process. In summary, the proposed method exhibits satisfactory and advantageous

performance in bearing compound fault diagnosis with remarkable improvement in flexibility and efficiency. On the

one hand, pre-determining the number of IMFs through the Pi curve of PSD enhances the adaptability of conventional

VMD that heavily relies on the posterior knowledge of the spectrum. On the other hand, by inferring the center

frequency and weights of the quadratic penalty term based on the energy distribution through PSD, the calculation

efficiency can be enhanced.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This research work was partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number

51905453], the Research Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Traction Power [grant number 2020TPL-T14], the China

Postdoctoral Science Foundation [grant number 2019M663899XB].

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CRediT authorship contribution statement

Cai Yi and Hao Wang: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Writing - original draft,

Funding acquisition. Le Ran: Conceptualization, Software, Data curation, Funding acquisition, Resources,

Validation. Lu Zhou: Resources, Supervision, Writing - review & editing. Jianhui Lin: Project administration,

Supervision, Data curation.

Highlights

 Power spectral density is introduced to guide variational mode decomposition.

 A PSD curve smoothing method based on binary formula is proposed to determine the number of VMD

decomposition modes.

 A practical and concise compound fault diagnosis strategy which is not easy to miss detection is proposed.

 PSD guided VMD method has remarkable advantages in the number of iterations and calculation time.
Declaration of interests

☒ 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.

☐ The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential
competing interests: