An Optimal Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition Method for Vibration Signal Decomposition

Abstract

The vibration signal decomposition is a critical step in the assessment of machine health condition. Though ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) method outperforms fast Fourier transform (FFT), wavelet transform, and empirical mode decomposition (EMD) on nonstationary signal decomposition, there exists a mode mixing problem if the two critical parameters (i.e., the amplitude of added white noise and the number of ensemble trials) are not selected appropriately. A novel EEMD method with optimized two parameters is proposed to solve the mode mixing problem in vibration signal decomposition in this paper. In the proposed optimal EEMD, the initial values of the two critical parameters are selected based on an adaptive algorithm. Then, a multimode search algorithm is explored to optimize the critical two parameters by its good performance in global and local search. The performances of the proposed method are demonstrated by means of a simulated signal, two bearing vibration signals, and a vibration signal in a milling process. The results show that compared with the traditional EEMD method and other improved EEMD method, the proposed optimal EEMD method automatically obtains the appropriate parameters of EEMD and achieves higher decomposition accuracy and faster computational efficiency.