Research on Fault Feature Extraction Method Based on Parameter Optimized Variational Mode Decomposition and Robust Independent Component Analysis

The variational mode decomposition mode (VMD) has a reliable mathematical derivation and can decompose signals adaptively. At present, it has been widely used in mechanical fault diagnosis, financial analysis and prediction, geological signal analysis, and other fields. However, VMD has the problems of insufficient decomposition and modal aliasing due to the unclear selection method of modal component k and penalty factor α. Therefore, it is difficult to ensure the accuracy of fault feature extraction and fault diagnosis. To effectively extract fault feature information from bearing vibration signals, a fault feature extraction method based on VMD optimized with information entropy, and robust independent component analysis (RobustICA) was proposed. Firstly, the modal component k and penalty factor α in VMD were optimized by the principle of minimum information entropy to improve the effect of signal decomposition. Secondly, the optimal parameters weresubstituted into VMD, and several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) wereobtained by signal decomposition. Secondly, the kurtosis and cross-correlation coefficient criteria were comprehensively used to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each IMF.And then, the optimal IMFs were selected to construct the observation signal channel to realize the signal-to-noise separation based on RobustICA. Finally, the envelope demodulation analysis of the denoised signal was carried out to extract the fault characteristic frequency. Through the analysis of bearing simulation signal and actual data, it shows that this method can extract the weak characteristics of rolling bearing fault signal and realize the accurate identification of fault. Meanwhile, in the bearing simulation signal experiment, the results of kurtosis value, cross-correlation coefficient, root mean square error, and mean absolute error are 6.162, 0.681, 0.740, and 0.583, respectively. Compared with other traditional methods, better index evaluation value is obtained.