Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 2831–2845

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Journal of Sound and Vibration

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

Vibration-based condition monitoring of rotating machines

using a machine composite spectrum
Keri Elbhbah, Jyoti K. Sinha n
School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

a r t i c l e i n f o abstract

Article history: Vibration-based condition monitoring (VCM) requires vibration measurement on each
Received 24 July 2012 bearing pedestal using a number of vibration transducers and then signals processing for
Received in revised form all the measured vibration data to identify fault(s), if any, in a rotating machine. Such a
21 December 2012
large vibration data set makes the diagnosis process complex generally for a large
Accepted 21 December 2012
rotating machine supported through a number of bearing pedestals. Hence a new
Handling Editor: K. Shin
Available online 26 January 2013 method is used to construct a single composite spectrum using all the measured
vibration data set. This composite spectrum is expected to represent the dynamics of
the complete machine assembly and can make fault diagnosis process relatively easier
and more straightforward. The paper presents the concept of the proposed composite
spectrum which was applied to a laboratory test rig with different simulated faults;
healthy and three faulty cases named misalignment, crack shaft, and shaft rub.
A comparison between the composite spectrum with and without the coherence has
been investigated for the simulated faults in the rig. It has been observed that the
coherent composite spectrum provides much better diagnosis compared to the non-
coherent composite spectrum.
& 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

The machine vibration response is sensitive to any small structural or process parameter change in the machine [1].
The conventional vibration based condition monitoring (VCM) method used on rotating machines requires a number of
vibration transducers at each bearing in the machine, four sensors at each bearing (two accelerometers on the bearing
pedestal and two proximitors to measure shaft relative vibration) [1]. In addition to that, a tacho sensor is also required for
the phase reference of the rotor with respect to the stationary part (bearing pedestal) and for the rotor speed measurement
[1]. This implies the number of transducers usually increases with the increase in the number of bearings in the machine,
such as a typical Turbo-Generator (TG) set, where there is a high pressure, intermediate pressure and a few low pressure
turbines together with a generator and an exciter as shown in Fig. 1.
The large number of bearings leads to a huge amount of vibration data that need to be analysed in order to track any
fault(s) in a machine. Numbers of signal processing are used to track and detect the different types of rotating machine
faults which generally require a high skilled people with an engineering experience. Goldman and Muszynska [2], and
Sinha [1] gave the summary of such vibration based techniques for identifying different faults. A number of methods [3–9]
have been proposed for the fault diagnosis in the rotating machines that includes the wavelet analysis, statistical analysis,

n
Corresponding author. Tel.: þ44 161 306 4639.
E-mail addresses: Keri.Elbhbah@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk (K. Elbhbah), Jyoti.Sinha@manchester.ac.uk (J.K. Sinha).

0022-460X/$ - see front matter & 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsv.2012.12.024
2832 K. Elbhbah, J.K. Sinha / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 2831–2845

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of Turbo Generator.

Flexible Balancing Shaft Rigid Ball

Motor
Coupling Discs Coupling Bearings

Brg.1 Brg.2 Brg.3 Brg.4

12 18 45 19 8 8 21 21

152

Fig. 2. The Rig. (a) Picture of the rig, (b) schematic of the rig (dimension in cm).

principal component analysis, model based diagnosis, etc. using the measured vibration signals. The present study is also
related to the fault diagnosis in the rotating machine with an effort to reduce the number of sensors.
A single vibration sensor (accelerometer) has been proposed at each bearing pedestal, and then a data fusion technique
in the frequency domain has been used to compute a single composite spectrum for a machine instead of a number of
vibration spectra from the measurements at all bearings in a machine. The composite spectrum has been computed in two
ways; with and without coherence between the signals. A comparison between the composite spectrum with and without
the coherence between the bearings vibration data has been investigated for different faults simulated in an experimental
rotating rig. The computed composite spectrum with and without coherence, the results, and observations are discussed in
the paper.

2. Experimental set-up [10]

The rig consists of two rigidly coupled shafts (1 m and 0.5 m length and 20 mm diameter) mounted on four ball
bearings along the span of the shafts and connected to an electric motor by flexible coupling. The electric motor can run up
to 3000 rev/min (50 Hz) and controlled by a PC speed controller (NEWTON TESLA CL750 and FR Configurator SW3) which
allow the user to define the run up, run down or any constant speed for the shaft rotation. There are three steel balance
discs on the rig, two of them on the long shaft and the third one on the middle of the short shaft. A photograph and a
schematic of the rig with dimensions in centimeter (cm) are shown in Fig. 2.

2.1. Dynamic characterisation

The modal testing [11] has been carried on the rig using the impulse-response method. The rig was excited by a PCB
instrumented hammer (PCB 0860C03) and the vibration responses were measured by PCB accelerometers (PCB 352C33)
along the length of the shafts. The first three identified natural frequencies of the rig are 68 Hz, 144 Hz, and 352.5 Hz.
 K. Elbhbah, J.K. Sinha / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 2831–2845 2833

Fig. 3. A picture of the cracked shaft.

Bearing1 Perspex Sheet

Shaft Perspex Sheet

Fig. 4. Shaft rub’s simulation in the rig. (a) Photograph of shaft rub, (b) schematic of shaft rub.

3. Fault simulation and experiments [10]

The tests conducted for two different speeds (2040 rev/min, 3000 rev/min) for four different cases—(i) healthy
condition with a residual unbalance and possibly a very small misalignment at the shafts coupling, (ii) misalignment case
was studied by introducing 2 mm misalignment in both vertical and horizontal directions between the rotor and the motor
shaft near Bearing 1, (iii) a 4 mm crack depth was created on the long shaft 10 cm from Bearing 1 (near motor) in order to
study the crack shaft case. The crack was a sharp cut with 0.25 mm crack width created by using the spark erosion method
as shown in Fig. 3. This was unlikely to breath during the shaft rotation. Hence a thin metal sheet of 0.22 mm was inserted
and glued at a side before the experiment so that the crack breathing (opening and closing) during the shaft rotation can
be realised and (iv) shaft rub case was simulated by using a perspex sheet with a 21 mm hole introduced near Bearing 1.
The photograph of the shaft rub simulator in the rig and its schematic diagram are shown in Fig. 4.

4. The composite spectrum

If there are measurements at ‘b’ number of bearing pedestals then ‘b’ number of vibration spectra need to be looked into
in order to identify any fault(s) in a machine. Hence the data fusion to construct a composite spectrum from the ‘b’ number
of spectra is used which is discussed in the following sections.

4.1. The non-coherent composite spectrum

Assume that the measured vibration data are divided into ‘‘n’’ numbers of equal segments for all the bearings. The non-
coherent composite spectrum (NCCS) for the machine is defined and calculated as
P
n   n  
X rNCCS f k X rNCCS f k
  r¼1
SNCCS f k ¼ (1)
n
where X rNCCS ðf k Þ is called the non-coherent composite Fourier Transformation (FT) for the rth segment of data from all
 
bearings at the frequency, fk, and X rNCCS f k is its complex conjugate. X rNCCS ðf k Þ is computed as
n

rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
   r       1=ðb1Þ
X rNCCS f k ¼ Sx1 x2 f k Srx2 x3 f k    Srxðb1Þ xb f k (2)
     
where Srx1 x2 f k , Srx2 x3 f k , y., Srxðb1Þ xb f k are the cross-power spectrum between the bearings 1–2, 2–3, y., (b 1)-b
respectively and are calculated as
    n  
Srxp xp þ 1 f k ¼ ½X rp f k X rp þ 1 f k  (3)
   
where X rp f k is the FT of the rth segment of the vibration responses at the pth bearing, and X rpnþ 1 f k is the complex
conjugate of the FT of the vibration response at (p þ1)th bearing and b¼1, 2, y., b.
2834 K. Elbhbah, J.K. Sinha / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 2831–2845

4.2. The coherent composite spectrum

The coherent composite spectrum is computed in order to get rid of some uncorrelated noise in the measured vibration
responses at each bearing, by modifying the cross-power spectrum between the bearings to the coherent cross-power
spectrum which is calculated as

  h     n  i
Srxp gpðp þ 1Þ xp þ 1 f k ¼ X rp f k g2pðp þ 1Þ f k X rp þ 1 f k (4)

 
where g2pðp þ 1Þ f k is the coherence between the pth and (p þ1)th bearings and is calculated as [11–13]

 n 
P r  2
 Sxp xp f k 
   þ1
r¼1
g2pðp þ 1 Þ f k ¼ P
n   Pn  
(5)
Srxp xp f k Srxp x fk
þ1 pþ1
r¼1 r¼1

The coherence in Eq. (5) is a well-known tool for assessing the linear correlation between the 2 measured signals
[12,13], for example, the coherence is often used in the modal testing to estimate dependency of the structural response in
the frequency domain due to the applied input excitation to the structure while extracting the modal parameters—natural
frequencies, modal damping, and mode shapes [11]. The coherence between the 2 signals close to unity means the both
responses are linearly correlated. However, in practice the measured vibration responses are contaminated with noises
(generated due to measuring instruments or/and machine and structures) which may cause reduction in coherence. Hence
the use of the coherence between the bearings vibration responses in the cross-power spectrum as defined in Eq. (4) may
further removed the uncorrelated noise and responses from the measured vibration responses at bearings. Hence the NCCS
in Eq. (1) is modified to compute the Coherent Composite Spectrum (CCS) as
P
n   n  
X rCCS f k X rCCS f k
  r¼1
SCCS f k ¼ (6)
n
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
   r       1=ðb1Þ
X rCCS f k ¼ Sx1 g12 x2 f k Srx2 g23 x3 f k    Srxðb1Þ gðb1Þb xb f k (7)
 
where X rCCS f k is computed as in Eq. (7) which is a simple modification in the Eq. (2). Both non-coherent and coherent
composite spectra have been applied to the experimental rig discussed earlier.

5. Spectrum analysis

The averaged spectra have been computed for the measured vibration data at all the bearing pedestals for the four
cases—healthy, misalignment, crack shaft, and shaft rub at the two speeds. Sampling frequency, fs ¼5000 Hz with a
number of data points, N ¼ 8192 and a frequency resolution of 0.6104 Hz. Also, 80 percent data overlap with Hanning
window has been used to compute the averaged spectrum.

5.1. Analysis of the spectrum amplitude

Typical amplitude spectra at Bearing 1 are shown in Figs. 5 and 6 for the four cases at the rotor speeds of 2040 rev/min
(34 Hz) and 3000 rev/min (50 Hz) respectively. For the rotor speed 2040 rev/min (34 Hz), the spectrum at Bearing 1 shows
peaks at 1  and a few higher harmonics with smaller amplitude for the healthy case possibly due to small residual
misalignment between Bearings 2 and 3 which is expected for any healthy machine. Misalignment case shows the same
harmonics with an increase in their amplitude values. Crack shaft case shows peaks at 4  and 5  in addition to 1  and
2  and the components of the sub-harmonics are appearing in the shaft rub case. Although the spectra shown in Fig. 5
show different features for each fault at 2040 rev/min but the features of the spectra observed changing at different speeds
for different faults. This is clearly evident from the measured vibration spectra for the 4 cases at Bearing 1 at 3000 rev/min
which are shown in Fig. 6. As can be observed from the spectrum at Bearing 1 that the healthy case shows prominent 1 
peak at both speeds but increase in 2  amplitude at 3000 rev/min. Misalignment shows significant increase in amplitude
at higher harmonics at 3000 rev/min compared to 2040 rev/min. Crack feature has changed significantly between the two
speeds, prominent peak at 4  in addition to 1  at 2040 rev/min but the prominent peak at 2  at 3000 rev/min. For rub
case, the spectrum at Bearing 1 at the lower speed of 2040 rev/min clearly shows the humps at 0.5  and 1.5  but these
peaks are absent at 3000 rev/min. In fact, these observations show no much difference between the healthy and rub cases
at 3000 rev/min as per the spectrum analysis although the ‘touch and go’ kind of noise was noticed during experiment at
3000 rev/min compared to the strong rub at lower speed.
 K. Elbhbah, J.K. Sinha / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 2831–2845 2835

0.1 0.1

Acceleration, m/s2

Acceleration, m/s2
0.075 0.075

0.05 0.05

0.025 0.025

0 0
0 34 68 102 136 170 204 0 34 68 102 136 170 204
Frequency, Hz Frequency, Hz

0.1 0.1
Acceleration, m/s2

Acceleration, m/s2
0.075 0.075

0.05 0.05

0.025 0.025

0 0
0 34 68 102 136 170 204 0 34 68 102 136 170 204
Frequency, Hz Frequency, Hz

Fig. 5. Typical amplitude spectra at Bearing 1 at 2040 rev/min. (a) Healthy, (b) misalignment, (c) crack shaft, (d) shaft rub case.

0.8 0.8
Acceleration, m/s2

Acceleration, m/s2

0.6 0.6

0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2

0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Frequency, Hz Frequency, Hz

0.8 0.8
Acceleration, m/s2

Acceleration, m/s2

0.6 0.6

0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2

0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Frequency, Hz Frequency, Hz

Fig. 6. Typical amplitude spectra at Bearing 1 at 3000 rev/min. (a) Healthy, (b) misalignment, (c) crack shaft, (d) shaft rub case.

The visual inspection of all spectra at 2040 rev/min and 3000 rev/min do not give very clear feature for each fault.
Hence, the components of the spectrum for harmonics 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X, normalised with 1X (the amplitude at the rotation
speed) for both speeds have also been plotted and shown in Figs. 7 and 8. Five sets of data have been calculated for each
state of the rig. The total observations for each state become equal to twenty (five sets times the measurement at the 4
bearings). It is clear from Figs. 7 and 8 that it is very difficult to distinguish the different fault types because there is no
2836 K. Elbhbah, J.K. Sinha / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 2831–2845

1.2 1.6

0.9 1.2
3X/1X

4X/1X
0.8
0.5
0.4

0.1 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4
2X/1X 2X/1X

1.2

1.6
0.8
1.2
5X/1X

4X/1X
0.8
0.4
0.4

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
2X/1X 3X/1X

1.2 1.2

0.8 0.8
5X/1X
5X/1X

0.4 0.4

0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
3X/1X 4X/1X

Fig. 7. Typical normalised spectrum components for the four cases at 2040 rev/min.

clear separation between the different combinations of the spectrum cases components for the healthy and the faulty
cases observed except the misalignment case.

5.2. Analysis of the spectrum phase

The spectrum amplitude is not giving good indication for any case. Hence, further investigation has been made on the
phase of different harmonics with respect of the first harmonic (machine rotation) which has been used as a reference for
the phase computation, during the process of averaged spectrum computation. During the averaging process for the
spectrum, the time domain signal, x(t), is generally divided into a number of equal segments (with or without overlap) and
the amplitudes of the FT of all segments at each frequency are then averaged over the number of the segments.
Lets consider the signal, x(t), is divided into n equal segments and the FT of the rth segment, xr(t) at a frequency, fk can be
written as
 
X r f k ¼ ar,k þ jbr,k (8)

where Xr(fk) is the FT at the frequency, fk for the rth segment, xr(t). ar,k and br,k are the real and the imaginary parts of Xr(fk)
respectively. Eq. (8) can be further written as
 
) X r f k ¼ Ar,k ejyr,k (9)
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2
where the amplitude, Ar,k ¼ a2r,k þ br,k and the phase angle, yr,k ¼ tan1 br,k =ar,k .
The phase, yr,k may not be constant for each segment because the segments may be selected with a fixed reference
point during the spectrum averaging process, however the phase relation between any two frequencies is expected to be
the same for every segment of a signal. Hence, the phase in the Eq. (9) for each segment has been normalised with the
 K. Elbhbah, J.K. Sinha / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 2831–2845 2837

2 30

1.5
20
3X/1X

4X/1X
1
10
0.5

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
2X/1X 2X/1X

4 30

3
20
5X/1X

4X/1X
2
10
1

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
2X/1X 3X/1X

4 4

3 3
5X/1X

5X/1X

2 2

1 1

0 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 0 10 20 30
3X/1X 4X/1X

Fig. 8. Typical normalised spectrum components for the four cases at 3000 rev/min.

calculated phase angle at the frequency of the machine speed for each segment so that the variation in the phase angles at
higher harmonics during the average process can be observed. Eq. (9) can be written as
 
X r f k ¼ Ar,k ejar,k (10)

where ar,k ¼ yr,k  yr,speed is the phase angle at the frequency, fk with respect to the phase angle, yr,speed at 1  (machine
speed) calculated from the FT of the rth segment, xr(t). Hence the angle, ar,k at the higher harmonics (2  , 3  , 4  y.)
should be nearly constant for the steady-state vibration response for each segment of the signal, x(t). The phase calculated
(ar,k) at higher harmonics for each segment during the spectrum averaging process are shown in Figs. 9 and 10 for
the healthy cases at both speeds at bearings 1 and 3. The mean of the phase angle at each harmonics are also shown
in Figs. 9 and 10. It is clear from the phase plots at both the speeds that there are significant variations, generally between
1801 and þ1801 during the spectrum average process from one segment to another segment and possibly this could be
the reason that the spectrum analysis is not providing proper diagnosis. Similarly observations are also made for the faulty
cases at both speeds.

6. Application of the methods suggested in Section 4

The methods suggested in Section 4 the composite spectrum with and without coherence are also applied to the
measured vibration data for all 4 cases at both speeds. The observations are discussed here.
2838 K. Elbhbah, J.K. Sinha / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 2831–2845

180 180

90 90

Phase, deg.
Phase, deg.
0 0

-90 -90

-180 -180
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Harmonics Harmonics

180
180

90

Phase, deg.
90
Phase, deg.

0 0

-90 -90

-180 -180
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Harmonics Harmonics

Fig. 9. Typical spectrum phases for Healthy case at 2040 rev/min, (a-Phase, b-Mean phase) at Bearing 1, (c-Phase, d-Mean phase) at Bearing 3.

180 180

90 90
Phase, deg.

Phase, deg.

0 0

-90 -90

-180 -180
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Harmonics Harmonics

180 180

90 90
Phase, deg.
Phase, deg.

0 0

-90 -90

-180 -180
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Harmonics Harmonics

Fig. 10. Typical spectrum phases for Healthy case at 3000 rev/min, (a-Phase, b-Mean phase) at Bearing 1, (c-Phase, d-Mean phase) at Bearing 3.

6.1. Non-coherent composite spectrum analysis

Non-coherent composite spectrum has been calculated as per Eq. (1) for the measured vibration data. Typical
non-coherent composite spectra for the 4 cases healthy, misalignment, crack shaft and shaft rub at 2040 rev/min and
3000 rev/min speeds are shown in Figs. 11 and 12.
As expected, the 1  and a very small 2  , 3  y components for the healthy case in Figs. 11(a)–12(a) may be due
to the residual rotor unbalance and a very small misalignment at both speeds. The predominant 2  component and
 K. Elbhbah, J.K. Sinha / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 2831–2845 2839

0.4 0.4

Acceleration, m/s2
Acceleration, m/s2
0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0 0
0 34 68 102 136 170 204 0 34 68 102 136 170 204
Frequency,Hz Frequency,Hz

0.4 0.4
Acceleration, m/s2

Acceleration, m/s2
0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0 0
0 34 68 102 136 170 204 0 34 68 102 136 170 204
Frequency,Hz Frequency,Hz

Fig. 11. Typical non-coherent composite spectra at 2040 rev/min. (a) Healthy, (b) misalignment, (c) crack shaft, (d) shaft rub.

0.6 0.6
Acceleration, m/s2

Acceleration, m/s2

0.45 0.45

0.3 0.3

0.15 0.15

0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Frequency,Hz Frequency,Hz

0.6 0.6
Acceleration, m/s2
Acceleration, m/s2

0.45 0.45

0.3 0.3

0.15 0.15

0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Frequency,Hz Frequency,Hz

Fig. 12. Typical non-coherent composite spectra at 3000 rev/min. (a) Healthy, (b) misalignment, (c) crack shaft, (d) shaft rub.

increased 3  amplitude in the composite spectrum shown in Fig. 11(b) compared to the healthy state clearly indicate the
presence of misalignment in the rotor. The dominating peaks at 2  and 4  in the composite spectrum shown in Fig. 11(c)
indicate the breathing of the crack during the shaft rotation for the crack case. Fig. 11(d) contains 0.5  , 1  , 1.5  , 2 
components which reflects the sign of the rub phenomena. However the vibration displacement of the shaft was not
enough at 50 Hz speed to generate sufficient rub as observed at a speed of 34 Hz, but it may be like a ‘‘touch and go’’
situation. The presence of 2  , 3  ycomponents at slightly higher amplitudes compared to the healthy case in
the composite spectrum at 50 Hz speed in Fig. 12(a) could be an indication of the ‘‘touch and go’’ phenomenon.
These observations clearly highlight the advantages of data fusion where a unique feature related to each fault has been
observed in the composite spectrum.
2840 K. Elbhbah, J.K. Sinha / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 2831–2845

0.42 1

0.36 0.8
3X/1X

4X/1X
0.3 0.5

0.24 0.2
0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2
2X/1X 2X/1X

0.6 1

0.5 0.8

4X/1X
5X/1X

0.4 0.6

0.3 0.4

0.2 0.2
0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45
2X/1X 3X/1X

0.6 0.6

0.5 0.5
5X/1X

5X/1X

0.4 0.4

0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2
0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
3X/1X 4X/1X

Fig. 13. Typical normalised non-coherent composite spectra components at 2040 rev/min.

In order to see the clarity of the non-coherent composite spectrum features, the non-coherent composite spectrum
amplitude components 2  y6  normalised to 1  component for the 4 cases at both speeds has been plotted in different
combination. All the combinations of the composite spectrum components show a better separation for all the
4 cases as shown in Figs. 13 and 14. This composite spectrum also highlights the fact that the rubbing can also be
detected confidently without looking into the sub-harmonic related components.

6.1.1. Non-coherent composite spectrum phase behaviour

To understand a much better diagnosis using the non-coherent composite spectrum, the phase analysis has again been
investigated for the non-coherent composite spectrum. The observations on the phase variation are typically shown in
Figs. 15 and 16 for the healthy condition at both speeds at Bearings 1 and 3. It has been observed that the phase angle at
2  , 3  , 4  , y. are nearly constant during the spectrum average process and their mean values are nearly ‘zero’ degree.
Approximately same phenomena are observed for the faulty cases at different bearings and at different speeds i.e., a very
small scatter in phase angles at harmonics with the mean nearly zero degree. These observations simply indicate that the
strength of signal in the non-coherent composite spectrum at each harmonic has been significantly enhanced due to the
combination of the measured responses from 4 bearings which has leads to a much better diagnosis.

6.2. Coherent composite spectrum

Although the non-coherent composite spectrum analysis gave an excellent diagnosis, the coherent composite spectrum
has also been calculated for the same four cases vibration data at both speeds and the results are shown in Figs. 17 and 18.
 K. Elbhbah, J.K. Sinha / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 2831–2845 2841

0.5 0.6

0.475 0.5
3X/1X

4X/1X
0.45 0.4

0.425 0.3

0.4 0.2
0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1
2X/1X 2X/1X

0.5 0.6

0.45 0.5
5X/1X

4X/1X
0.4 0.4

0.35 0.3

0.2
0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 0.4 0.425 0.45 0.475 0.5
2X/1X 3X/1X

0.5 0.5

0.45 0.45
5X/1X
5X/1X

0.4 0.4

0.35 0.35

0.3 0.3
0.4 0.425 0.45 0.475 0.5 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
3X/1X 4X/1X

Fig. 14. Typical normalised non-coherent composite spectra components at 3000 rev/min.

180 180

90 90
Phase, deg.
Phase, deg.

0 0

-90 -90

-180 -180
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Harmonics Harmonics

Fig. 15. Typical non-coherent composite spectra phase for Healthy case at 2040 rev/min, (a) phase, (b) mean phase.

Grossly the features of the non-coherent and coherent composite spectra for each case are identical in terms of the
frequency contents. However, the background noise over the frequency range is definitely reduced to nearly zero level in
the coherent spectra for all 4 cases. It is evident from Figs. 17 and 18 when compared with Figs. 11 and 12. For example,
the background noise in the non-coherent spectrum (Fig. 11) for the crack case at 2040 rev/min is around 0.2 which is
higher compared to the other cases at 2040 rev/min and it may impact the diagnosis. However the use of the coherence in
the composite spectrum has reduced the amplitude of the noise and uncorrelated signals to nearly zero level as evident in
Figs. 17 and 18. Hence the comparison of the amplitudes of different harmonics for the fault diagnosis is expected to be
better even if there are measurement noises. This improvement in the composite spectrum may not be possible/feasible by
2842 K. Elbhbah, J.K. Sinha / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 2831–2845

180 180

90 90

Phase, deg.
Phase, deg.
0 0

-90 -90

-180 -180
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Harmonics Harmonics

Fig. 16. Typical non-coherent composite spectra phase for Healthy case at 3000 rev/min, (a) phase, (b) mean phase.

0.4 0.4

Acceleration, m/s2
Acceleration, m/s2

0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0 0
0 34 68 102 136 170 204 0 34 68 102 136 170 204
Frequency, Hz Frequency,Hz

0.4 0.4
Acceleration, m/s2

Acceleration, m/s2

0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0 0
0 34 68 102 136 170 204 0 34 68 102 136 170 204
Frequency,Hz Frequency,Hz

Fig. 17. Typical coherent composite spectra at 2040 rev/min. (a) Healthy, (b) misalignment, (c) crack shaft, (d) shaft rub.

using a filter or a series of filters because the background noise is not just limited to a small frequency band of the
measured vibration responses. Hence the use of the coherence in the proposed coherent composite spectrum concept has
not altered the frequency peaks seen in the non-coherent composite spectra but only reduces the background noise to
nearly zero level.
Similar analysis for the normalised components 2  y5  with respect to its 1  component has also been made for
the coherent composite spectra and are shown in Figs. 19 and 20 for 2040 rev/min and 3000 rev/min respectively. A little
better separation has been observed between the healthy and 3 faulty cases compared to the non-coherent composite
spectra. However the observation on the phase for the coherent composite spectrum is almost the same as the non-
coherent composite spectrum analysis.
The feature of the reduction in the background noises in the measured vibration data by the coherent composite spectra
may not show any significant impact on the diagnosis in the present experimental study. However the coherent composite
spectrum is expected to be useful for the noisy measured data and this allows the direct comparison of the healthy
coherent composite spectrum with faulty cases.

7. Conclusion

A single composite spectrum for a machine has been used by means of data fusion in the frequency domain to bypass
the analysis of vibration spectrum measured at each bearing pedestal in the machine for the fault(s) diagnosis. Two kinds
 K. Elbhbah, J.K. Sinha / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 2831–2845 2843

0.6 0.6

Acceleration, m/s2
Acceleration, m/s2
0.45 0.45

0.3 0.3

0.15 0.15

0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Frequency,Hz Frequency,Hz

0.6 0.6

Acceleration, m/s2
Acceleration, m/s2

0.45 0.45

0.3 0.3

0.15 0.15

0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Frequency,Hz Frequency,Hz

Fig. 18. Typical coherent composite spectra at 3000 rev/min. (a) Healthy, (b) misalignment, (c) crack shaft, (d) shaft rub.

0.25 1

0.2 0.75
3X/1X

4X/1X

0.15 0.5

0.1 0.25

0.05 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
2X/1X 2X/1X

0.3 1

0.75
0.2
4X/1X
5X/1X

0.5
0.1
0.25

0 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 0 0.1 0.2 0.3
2X/1X 3X/1X

0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2
5X/1X

5X/1X

0.1 0.1

0 0
0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1
3X/1X 4X/1X

Fig. 19. Normalised coherent composite spectra components at the four bearings at 2040 rev/min.
2844 K. Elbhbah, J.K. Sinha / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 2831–2845

0.5 0.24

0.4 0.21

4X/1X
3X/1X 0.18
0.3

0.2 0.15

0.1 0.12
0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
2X/1X 2X/1X

0.4 0.24

0.3 0.21

4X/1X
5X/1X

0.2 0.18

0.1 0.15

0 0.12
0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
2X/1X 3X/1X

0.4 0.4

0.3 0.3
5X/1X
5X/1X

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0 0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
3X/1X 4X/1X

Fig. 20. Normalised coherent composite spectra components at the four bearings at 3000 rev/min.

of the composite spectra, non-coherent and coherent, have been used. Both spectra were applied to a test rig with healthy
and three faulty cases, namely, the shaft misalignment, the crack shaft and the shaft rub. The observations certainly
highlight the importance and advantages of the composite spectrum in the fault diagnosis. The non-coherent and the
coherent composite spectra give similar features for each case but the coherent composite spectra remove the noise in a
wider frequency band which may not be possible when a normal filter is used. This feature of the coherent composite
spectrum may be a useful tool for the machine fault diagnosis even for noisy measured data at the plant site. Hence the
proposed method and its results show the potential for the future VCM of rotating machines. Further research is also
underway to understand the usefulness and robustness of the proposed composite spectrum for the bearing diagnosis and
the rotor related fault(s) diagnosis in presence of the bearing defect.

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