Diagnosis of multiple faults using a double parallel two-hidden-layer extreme learning machine

Abstract

Multiple faults are easily confused with single faults. In order to identify multiple faults more accurately, a highly efficient learning method is proposed based on a double parallel two-hidden-layer extreme learning machine, called DPT-ELM. The DPT-ELM method is a variant of an extreme learning machine (ELM). There are some issues with ELM. First, achieving a high accuracy requires too many hidden nodes; second, the direct connection between the input layer and the output layer is ignored. Accordingly, to deal with the above-mentioned problems, DPT-ELM extends the single-hidden-layer ELM to a two-hidden-layer ELM, which can achieve a desired performance with fewer hidden nodes. In addition, a direct connection is built between the input layer and the output layer. Since the input layer weights and the thresholds of the two hidden layers are determined randomly, this simplifies the improved model and shortens the calculation time. Additionally, to improve the signal to noise ratio (SNR), an adaptive waveform decomposition (AWD) algorithm is used to denoise the vibration signal. Then, the denoised signal is used to extract the eigenvalues by the time-domain and frequency-domain methods. Finally, the eigenvalues are input to the DPT-ELM classifier. In this paper, two groups of rolling bearing data at different speeds, which were collected from a real experimental platform, are used to test the method. Each set of data includes three single fault states, two complex fault states and a healthy state. The experimental results demonstrate that the DPT-ELM method achieves fast learning speed and a high accuracy. Moreover, based on 10-fold cross-validation, it proves to be an effective method to improve the accuracy with fewer hidden nodes.