Utilisation of ensemble empirical mode decomposition in conjunction with cyclostationary technique for wind turbine gearbox fault detection

Abstract

In this paper the application of cyclostationary signal processing in conjunction with Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) technique, on the fault diagnostics of wind turbine gearboxes is investigated and has been highlighted. It is shown that the EEMD technique together with cyclostationary analysis can be used to detect the damage in complex and non-linear systems such as wind turbine gearbox, where the vibration signals are modulated with carrier frequencies and are superimposed. In these situations when multiple faults alongside noisy environment are present together, the faults are not easily detectable by conventional signal processing techniques such as FFT and RMS.