Separation of Frequency Coexisting Vibration Signals in Wind Turbines Gearboxes

Abstract

In this paper, a method for separation of vibration signals coexisting in the same frequency bin and coming from different mechanicals pieces is presented. A blind source separation method for vibration signals in gearboxes based on a clustering technique is applied. The proposed method uses the fact that spatial separation of vibration sources produces a difference in the hermitian angle between vectors composed by samples of the discrete Fourier transform of the signals measured and a reference vector. For simulations and a real case considering a wind turbine gearbox, time segments with signals providing from different mechanical pieces are identified.