A Fractional Hilbert Transform Order Optimization Algorithm Based

DE for Bearing Health Monitoring

Libao Deng1, Zhanbin Hou1, Haotian Liu1, Zhongxin Sun2
1.School of Information Science and EngineeringˈHarbin Institute of Technology, Weihai 264200
2.Weihai Dynamic Test Technology Co.,Lt, Weihai 264209, China
E-mail:1denglibao_paper@163.com

Abstract: Bearings are widely used in various industries, especially in emerging industries such as un-manned aerial vehicles and so on.
However, the higher failure rate and maintenance cost of bearing have become the most intractable problems in these applications.
Mechanical failures of bearing leads to abnormal vibration signal and therefore, its condition and damage could be monitored and evaluated
by analyzing the vibration signal. Fast Fourier transform (FFT) method can be used in the spectrum analysis of envelope signals, which
could only give the global energy-frequency distributions and fail to reflect the details of a signal. So it is hard to analyze a signal effectively
when the fault signal is weaker than the interfering signal. At present, the Hilbert Transform (HT) based envelope analysis has been widely
used in bearing fault diagnosis and it could effectively extract envelope of the rolling element fault vibration signal. As a generalization of
the HT, the Fractional Hilbert Transform (FHT) is defined in the frequency-domain based upon the modification of spatial filter with a
fractional parameter, and it can be used to construct a new kind of fractional analytic signal. FHT can obtain more information than other
analysis methods with the gained benefit directly affected by the selection of the fractional order. Unfortunately, it is rather difficult to find
the best order of FHT. In this paper, an automated method is proposed to find the optimal order using Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm.
DE is a simple and efficient evolutionary algorithm for global optimization, and has shown significant success in solving different numerical
optimization problems. It is seen as a continuous optimization problem to search the optimal order of FHT. When weak faults occur on a
bearing, some of the characteristic frequencies could clearly show by analyzing vibration signal with the optimal order of FHT. These
characteristic frequencies can be used for bearing weak fault feature extraction. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through
simulation and experiment data.
Key Words: bearing monitoring, Fractional Hilbert Transform, optimal order, Differential Evolution

discussed and the system modeling is carried out by

1 Introduction
The wind turbine vibration signal processing system is a
software system for processing and analyzing vibration
signals collected by the data acquisition equipment[1,2]. The
aim of the system is to analyze the characteristic frequency
of the wind turbine’s main bearing for determining whether
it has faults and accurately locate them[3].
There are some methods for signal frequency-domain
analysis, such as Fourier transform, wavelet transform and
Hilbert transform. The standard for judging the quality of the
frequency-domain analysis method used in signal processing
systems is whether it can extract the characteristic frequency
from the main bearing’s vibration signal, or more specifically
whether the extracted characteristic frequency is obvious or
not[4]. Therefore, in order to seek a better method of
frequency-domain analysis, the two methods of Fourier
transform and Hilbert transform are analyzed and compared
and further discussed based on this standard[5]. The
Fractional Hilbert Transform (FHT) is defined in the
frequency-domain based upon the modification of spatial
filter with a fractional parameter, and it can be used to
construct a new kind of fractional analytic signal[6].
2 System modeling of two frequency-domain
methods
In the process of designing the signal processing system,
the two basic frequency-domain analysis methods are
MATLAB. After analysis and comparison, a better analysis
method is sought.
2.1 Frequency domain analysis based on Fourier
Transform
Fourier transform is the simplest and most common
method in signal frequency-domain analysis. It uses a special
integral transform to calculate the frequency, amplitude and
phase of different sinusoidal signals contained in analog
signals obtained by the signal measurement. The integral
transformation formula is
∞
Fሺωሻ = ‫׬‬-∞ f(t)e-jωt dt ˄1˅
The Fourier transform is divided into continuous Fourier
transform and Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT). Discrete
Fourier transform is a method of frequency-domain analysis
of acquired discrete signals, and has a wide range of
applications in computers and other microprocessors. Fourier
transform has many fast algorithms, one of which is Fast
Fourier Transform (FFT). FFT is widely used in the field of
digital signal processing.
MATLAB is employed to build a signal processing
simulation system. First the vibration signal data to be
processed is read, and then the signal sampling rate is set in
the data analysis according to the actual sampling rate in the
signal acquisition device ,after which the FFT operation
function in the MATLAB function library is called to
perform Fourier transform on the signal to obtain the

*This work is supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central
Universities. (GrantNo. HIT. NSRIF. 2019083) and Guangxi Key Laboratory
of Automatic Detecting Technology and Instruments (Grant No. YQ19203).

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 frequency-domain signal. Finally, the resulting spectrum MATLAB is employed to build a signal processing
map is displayed. simulation system. First the vibration signal data to be
processed is read, and then the signal sampling rate is set in
2.2 Envelope analysis based on Hilbert Transform
the data analysis according to the actual sampling rate in the
The Hilbert transform is an important analytical method in signal acquisition device, after which the Hilbert transform
signal processing, which is commonly used to calculate function in the MATLAB function library is called to obtain
instantaneous parameters as well as represent narrowband vibration signal’s envelope signal. The next step is
signals. It transforms a real signal into a corresponding performing FFT on the envelope signal and finally the
parsed signal that only contains the positive frequency spectrum map is displayed. Figure 1 is a flow chart of the
portion to reduce the sampling rate. The Hilbert transform is Fourier transform MATLAB program.
defined as a spatial filter with equal amplitude and phase shift
3 Order optimization method for fractional Hilbert
of f90e. It effectively extracts the envelope of the input
signal and then the characteristic frequency could be
Transformation
obtained through frequency-domain analysis on the envelope Based on the basic Hilbert transform, the Hilbert transform
signal. Instantaneous amplitude C(t) and phase ‫(׎‬t) can be of fractional order is studied to find a better method for fault
calculated from the signal x(t). The formula of amplitude and feature extraction of bearing vibration signals.
phase is
3.1 Fractional Hilbert Transformation
Cሺtሻ =ඥx(t)2 +H(x(t))2 (2)
xሺtሻ The FHT is defined as an improved spatial filter with equal
‫׎‬ሺtሻ = -arctan (3)
H൫xሺtሻ൯ amplitudes and phase shifts of -90e to 90e with different
“H(·)" represents the Hilbert transformation of the signal. fractional orders (-2 to 2) . Its amplitude and phase formulas
H൫xሺtሻ൯  ൌ x(መt) ൌ  ‫׬‬-∞
∞ x(τ)
dτ (4) are
τ-t
The Hilbert transform can also be seen as the process of หHp (ω)ห=1 (8)
π
converting one time-domain signal into another. The -p× ω>0
amplitude of the time-domain signal is C(t) and the phase is φp ሺωሻ= ൝ π2 (9)
p× ω<0
‫(׎‬t). If the signal x(t) has a real value, so does x(መt). The 2
Hilbert transform could also be thought of as a filter with a The parameter p is the order of the fractional order. The
kurtosis analysis can be performed according to different
constant amplitude and a phase shift of f90e on the signal.
signals to obtain different optimal orders p, so that the fault
The input is x(t) and output is x(መt), so the Hilbert transformer feature extraction effect is optimized.
is also called a 90ephase shifter. The transfer function is A more significant feature frequency can be obtained by
-j  ω>0 performing a FHT envelope analysis on the signal using a
Hሺωሻ=-jsgn(ω)= ൝ 0 ω=0 (5) better order. The order optimization of the FHT becomes the
j  ω<0 main basis for evaluating the saliency of the characteristic
For Hሺωሻ frequency in signal analysis. In the development of signal
ȁH(ω)ȁ=1 (6) analysis and processing technology, the requirements for
π
signal feature frequency saliency are getting higher and
- ω>0 higher. Therefore, so more stringent requirements for the
φp ሺωሻ= ൝π 2 (7) optimization of FHT orders are proposed in the envelope
 ω<0
2 analysis of signals.
3.2 The traditional method of FHT order optimization
Start
The basic idea of the traditional FHT order optimization is
to set the stepping precision so that the order changes from -
Read signal data 2 to 2 with the same interval and then the signal is analyzed
and compared to obtain the optimized order. The stepping
accuracy is the interval A, which ranges from -2 to 2. The
Set the sampling rate smaller the value of A, the higher the accuracy, and the
smaller the error of the final order.
The signal analysis procedure is to perform signal FHT
HT transform envelope signal
under the current order p, and then perform kurtosis
calculation on the envelope of the signal. The order with the
largest kurtosis is the final order. The specific steps are as
Envelope signal FFT transform follows:
(1) Set the step interval A, read the input signal data and
initialize the current order p=0 and the current final order
Display spectrum
pm=0.
(2) Enter the for loop to perform signal FHT and kurtosis
End analysis at the current order p.
(3) Judgment. If the current order p is better than the
Fig. 1 Flow chart of envelope analysis program based on Hilbert current final order pm, then pm=p, otherwise skip this step
transform

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 and add the current order p by a step interval p to enter the
next order loop. Start
(4)Determine whether it is over. If the order overflows(p
Initialize the popula
is greater than 1), the optimization end procedure is tion and algorithm p
Read signal data
completed, and pm is the optimized order of the obtained arameters
set accuracy
FHT.
(5) Conduct fractional Hilbert Transform and envelope
analysis with the final order pm on the vibration signal to get Check evolution
Mutation operation
the characteristic frequency and display the spectrum. algorithm
In traditional FHT order optimization methods, the
running time of the program depends on the setting of the
order precision. The better order of seeking is at the expense Cross operation
of more running time. This is because the program uses the
for loop to traverse all the orders in the step precision range
one by one, so that the higher the step precision setting , the
Get the optimal order Kurtosis analysis
more times the for loop is, which leads to the longer order
optimization time. When the step accuracy is increased by an
order of magnitude, the program’s run time is
correspondingly an order of magnitude higher. For Select operation
FHT envelope analysis
example,106 times calculation is needed for an optimization to obtain characteristic
order of 10-6 precision. frequency
N
3.3 The differential algorithm is used to find the optimal
order of FHT Meet the termin-
ation condition?
In order to make up for the shortcomings of the traditional End
methods, a new method to improve the above phenomenon
Y
is proposed, which is a fractional-order Hilbert transform
order optimization method based on differential evolution Fig. 2 flow chart of FHT order optimization method based on
algorithm[7]. The flow chart is shown in Fig. 2. differential evolution algorithm
The specific steps of using the differential evolution (2) Mutation operation
algorithm to find the optimal order FHT are as follows: The differential evolution algorithm uses a differential
Step 1: Read the signal data and store them in the register. strategy to generate variant individuals. This strategy uses a
Select the order parameters that need to be optimized, and set binomial crossover model to randomly select three
the convergence accuracy of the optimization. individuals xr1 , xr2 ,xr3 ,i≠r1≠r2≠r3, from the previous
Step 2: Use the differential evolution algorithm (DE) to set generation population. The two individual vectors’
the appropriate algorithm parameters and number of difference are scaled and then vector-synthesized with the
iterations. After initializing the population, the loop performs individuals to be mutated. Its formula is
mutation, cross, kurtosis analysis, and selection operation to vi,G+1 =xr1,G +F×൫xr2,G -xr3,G ൯ (12)
optimize the fractional order until the set convergence
accuracy is met or the maximum number of iterations is r1,r2,r3ę[1,NP]are randomly drawn integers that satisfy
reached. The specific steps are as follows: i≠r1≠r2≠r3 . vi,G+1 represents the mutation vector. F is a
(1) Initial population mutation operator that scales the difference vector to control
Each individual in the population represents a solution to the search step size.
the problem. The G-th generation population contains NP (3) Crossover operation
individuals, each of which has a Dim dimension. The The crossover operator crosses the mutation vector viG+1
individual’s formula is obtained by mutation operation with the individual target
vector xGij to generate test vector uij
G+1
. The expression of
XG =xi,G =൛xi1,G 漓xi2,G 漓…漓xiDim,G ൟˈi=1,2,…,NPˈ binomial interlace operation is
G
­
° vij if rand() d CR or j=randi(D)
G=1,2,…,Gm (10) u ijG 1 ® G (13)
°̄ x ij otherwise
Gm represents the maximum evolutionary number.
The initial population is generated randomly in the —
൅ͳ
‹Œ represents the j-th variable of the i-th individual of the
allowable range of variables. Its expression is newly generated experimental vector. CR is the cross
probability factor and randi(D) is a number randomly
selected from the dimensions of j=1,..., D , to ensure that at
xij,G =xmin j ൯
max
j +rand()×൫xj -xmin (11)
least one dimension of the experimental vector uG+1 ij is from
The rand() is a random number in the range of 0 to1, and the mutation vector vG ij and to avoid being the same as the
xmax
j j  respectively represent the upper and lower
and xmin G
parent vector xij .
boundary values of the variable. In order to ensure the uG+1ij in the range of xj
max
to xmin
j ,
repair operations for infeasible solutions is very necessary.

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 Experimental vectors that violate the range cannot make any Based on the DE method, the accuracy of 10-6 can be
contributions to the evolution of the population, oppositely, achieved by calculating about 300 evolutionary times.
it will affect the optimization efficiency of DE. Therefore, it Compared with the 106 operations of the traditional method,
is necessary to repair the infeasible solution through the processing speed of algorithm is obviously improved.
reinitialization. The repair expression of the infeasible Step 3: Perform frequency-domain analysis on the
solution is collected signal. The FHT is performed on the signal with the
uGi ij ęൣxj ,xj
if uG+1 min max
൧ optimized order to obtain the transformed envelope signal.
uG+1
i = ቊ min (14) Then the envelope signal is subjected to fast Fourier
xj +rand()×൫xj -xj ൯ otherwise
max min
transform (FFT) to obtain the optimized spectral signal and
(4)Kurtosis analysis the characteristic frequency.
Under the order of the current optimization process, the Fig. 3 is a frequency-domain analysis of the data at 03:10
signal is subjected to a FHT to obtain an envelope signal, on June 12, 2017. The first picture is the signal waveform.
after which the envelope signal is subjected to frequency- The second and third pictures are frequency-domain analysis
domain analysis using a fast Fourier transform. Then the of the Fast Fourier Transform and the envelope analysis of
kurtosis (K) calculation is performed on the transformed the Hilbert transform respect. The fourth one is an envelope
frequency-domain signal. The formula is analysis graph that uses the differential evolution algorithm
1 N
σ ሺ-xത ሻ4
KሺxGi ሻ= N j=1 i
(15) to find the optimal order FHT. 12.44Hz is the speed of the
1 2 2
ቀ σNj=1൫xij -xത i ൯ ቁ fan, and 50Hz is the frequency of the power interference. It
N
xGi represents the i-th individual of the G-th generation can be seen that the characteristic frequency obtained by the
population. N represents total number of sampling signal. envelope analysis after the FHT is the most obvious among
xij is the澳j-th sampling point of the signal and xത i is the average three figures.
of the signal samples. 4 Conclusion
(5)Selecting operation
After obtaining the kurtosis of the current vector, the The differential evolution algorithm is used to optimize
selection operation uses a greedy screening operator to the fractional order by mutation, crossover, kurtosis analysis
compare the current vector with the target vector based on and selection with fast speed and expected accuracy, which
the standard of kurtosis. The better ones are saved to the next overcomes the traditional method’s shortcoming to obtain
generation. Greedy filter operator expression is better order at the expense of running time. With this new
­
°u
G+1
if K(u iG ) > K(x iG ) method, the order optimization of the FHT can be performed
x iG+1 = ® iG (16) efficiently with good precision and robustness.
°̄ x i otherwise
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š‹
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൅ͳ

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