Adaptive scale chirplet transform and its application to bearing fault analysis

Abstract In response to the problems of biased estimation of instantaneous frequency (If) and poor noise immunity in current time–frequency (Tf) analysis methods, the adaptive scale chirplet transform (ASCT) is proposed in this paper. The core idea of the proposed algorithm is to use a frequency-dependent quadratic polynomial kernel function to approximate the IF of the signal and to use the time-varying window length to overcome the frequency resolution problem due to the change in signal modulation. This method can dynamically select suitable parameters and overcome the disadvantage of unfocused energy of TF distribution. The experimental results show that the ASCT algorithm has high TF aggregation and can suppress noise interference well. In practical signal processing, the advantage of the ASCT algorithm is that it can accurately depict the characteristic frequency of the signal and detect the fault in the bearing signal. Both simulation and experimental results prove the strong realistic relevance of this algorithm.