Fault detection in rotating machines by vibration signal processing techniques

Machines with moving parts give rise to vibrations and consequently noise. The setting up and the status of each machine yield to a peculiar vibration signature. Therefore, a change in the vibration signature, due to a change in the machine state, can be used to detect incipient defects before they become critical. This is the goal of condition monitoring, in which the informations obtained from a machine signature are used in order to detect faults at an early stage. There are a large number of signal processing techniques that can be used in order to extract interesting information from a measured vibration signal. This study seeks to detect rotating machine defects using a range of techniques including synchronous time averaging, Hilbert transform-based demodulation, continuous wavelet transform, Wigner-Ville distribution and spectral correlation density function. The detection and the diagnostic capability of these techniques are discussed and compared on the basis of experimental results concerning gear tooth faults, i.e. fatigue crack at the tooth root and tooth spalls of different sizes, as well as assembly faults in diesel engine. Moreover, the sensitivity to fault severity is assessed by the application of these signal processing techniques to gear tooth faults of different sizes.

Crustal heterogeneities and complexities of fault processes

In this work we study the relation between crustal heterogeneities and complexities in fault processes. The first kind of heterogeneity considered involves the concept of asperity. The presence of an asperity in the hypocentral region of the M = 6.5 earthquake of June 17-th, 2000 in the South Iceland Seismic Zone was invoked to explain the change of seismicity pattern before and after the mainshock: in particular, the spatial distribution of foreshock epicentres trends NW while the strike of the main fault is N 7◦ E and aftershocks trend accordingly; the foreshock depths were typically deeper than average aftershock depths. A model is devised which simulates the presence of an asperity in terms of a spherical inclusion, within a softer elastic medium in a transform domain with a deviatoric stress field imposed at remote distances (compressive NE − SW, tensile NW − SE). An isotropic compressive stress component is induced outside the asperity, in the direction of the compressive stress axis, and a tensile component in the direction of the tensile axis; as a consequence, fluid flow is inhibited in the compressive quadrants while it is favoured in tensile quadrants. Within the asperity the isotropic stress vanishes but the deviatoric stress increases substantially, without any significant change in the principal stress directions. Hydrofracture processes in the tensile quadrants and viscoelastic relaxation at depth may contribute to lower the effective rigidity of the medium surrounding the asperity. According to the present model, foreshocks may be interpreted as induced, close to the brittle-ductile transition, by high pressure fluids migrating upwards within the tensile quadrants; this process increases the deviatoric stress within the asperity which eventually fails, becoming the hypocenter of the mainshock, on the optimally oriented fault plane. In the second part of our work we study the complexities induced in fault processes by the layered structure of the crust. In the first model proposed we study the case in which fault bending takes place in a shallow layer. The problem can be addressed in terms of a deep vertical planar crack, interacting with a shallower inclined planar crack. An asymptotic study of the singular behaviour of the dislocation density at the interface reveals that the density distribution has an algebraic singularity at the interface of degree ω between -1 and 0, depending on the dip angle of the upper crack section and on the rigidity contrast between the two media. From the welded boundary condition at the interface between medium 1 and 2, a stress drop discontinuity condition is obtained which can be fulfilled if the stress drop in the upper medium is lower than required for a planar trough-going surface: as a corollary, a vertically dipping strike-slip fault at depth may cross the interface with a sedimentary layer, provided that the shallower section is suitably inclined (fault "refraction"); this results has important implications for our understanding of the complexity of the fault system in the SISZ; in particular, we may understand the observed offset of secondary surface fractures with respect to the strike direction of the seismic fault. The results of this model also suggest that further fractures can develop in the opposite quadrant and so a second model describing fault branching in the upper layer is proposed. As the previous model, this model can be applied only when the stress drop in the shallow layer is lower than the value prescribed for a vertical planar crack surface. Alternative solutions must be considered if the stress drop in the upper layer is higher than in the other layer, which may be the case when anelastic processes relax deviatoric stress in layer 2. In such a case one through-going crack cannot fulfil the welded boundary conditions and unwelding of the interface may take place. We have solved this problem within the theory of fracture mechanics, employing the boundary element method. The fault terminates against the interface in a T-shaped configuration, whose segments interact among each other: the lateral extent of the unwelded surface can be computed in terms of the main fault parameters and the stress field resulting in the shallower layer can be modelled. A wide stripe of high and nearly uniform shear stress develops above the unwelded surface, whose width is controlled by the lateral extension of unwelding. Secondary shear fractures may then open within this stripe, according to the Coulomb failure criterion, and the depth of open fractures opening in mixed mode may be computed and compared with the well studied fault complexities observed in the field. In absence of the T-shaped decollement structure, stress concentration above the seismic fault would be difficult to reconcile with observations, being much higher and narrower.

Architectures and design patterns for functional design of logic control and diagnostics in industrial automation

Recently in most of the industrial automation process an ever increasing degree of automation has been observed. This increasing is motivated by the higher requirement of systems with great performance in terms of quality of products/services generated, productivity, efficiency and low costs in the design, realization and maintenance. This trend in the growth of complex automation systems is rapidly spreading over automated manufacturing systems (AMS), where the integration of the mechanical and electronic technology, typical of the Mechatronics, is merging with other technologies such as Informatics and the communication networks. An AMS is a very complex system that can be thought constituted by a set of flexible working stations, one or more transportation systems. To understand how this machine are important in our society let considerate that every day most of us use bottles of water or soda, buy product in box like food or cigarets and so on. Another important consideration from its complexity derive from the fact that the the consortium of machine producers has estimated around 350 types of manufacturing machine. A large number of manufacturing machine industry are presented in Italy and notably packaging machine industry,in particular a great concentration of this kind of industry is located in Bologna area; for this reason the Bologna area is called “packaging valley”. Usually, the various parts of the AMS interact among them in a concurrent and asynchronous way, and coordinate the parts of the machine to obtain a desiderated overall behaviour is an hard task. Often, this is the case in large scale systems, organized in a modular and distributed manner. Even if the success of a modern AMS from a functional and behavioural point of view is still to attribute to the design choices operated in the definition of the mechanical structure and electrical electronic architecture, the system that governs the control of the plant is becoming crucial, because of the large number of duties associated to it. Apart from the activity inherent to the automation of themachine cycles, the supervisory system is called to perform other main functions such as: emulating the behaviour of traditional mechanical members thus allowing a drastic constructive simplification of the machine and a crucial functional flexibility; dynamically adapting the control strategies according to the different productive needs and to the different operational scenarios; obtaining a high quality of the final product through the verification of the correctness of the processing; addressing the operator devoted to themachine to promptly and carefully take the actions devoted to establish or restore the optimal operating conditions; managing in real time information on diagnostics, as a support of the maintenance operations of the machine. The kind of facilities that designers can directly find on themarket, in terms of software component libraries provides in fact an adequate support as regard the implementation of either top-level or bottom-level functionalities, typically pertaining to the domains of user-friendly HMIs, closed-loop regulation and motion control, fieldbus-based interconnection of remote smart devices. What is still lacking is a reference framework comprising a comprehensive set of highly reusable logic control components that, focussing on the cross-cutting functionalities characterizing the automation domain, may help the designers in the process of modelling and structuring their applications according to the specific needs. Historically, the design and verification process for complex automated industrial systems is performed in empirical way, without a clear distinction between functional and technological-implementation concepts and without a systematic method to organically deal with the complete system. Traditionally, in the field of analog and digital control design and verification through formal and simulation tools have been adopted since a long time ago, at least for multivariable and/or nonlinear controllers for complex time-driven dynamics as in the fields of vehicles, aircrafts, robots, electric drives and complex power electronics equipments. Moving to the field of logic control, typical for industrial manufacturing automation, the design and verification process is approached in a completely different way, usually very “unstructured”. No clear distinction between functions and implementations, between functional architectures and technological architectures and platforms is considered. Probably this difference is due to the different “dynamical framework”of logic control with respect to analog/digital control. As a matter of facts, in logic control discrete-events dynamics replace time-driven dynamics; hence most of the formal and mathematical tools of analog/digital control cannot be directly migrated to logic control to enlighten the distinction between functions and implementations. In addition, in the common view of application technicians, logic control design is strictly connected to the adopted implementation technology (relays in the past, software nowadays), leading again to a deep confusion among functional view and technological view. In Industrial automation software engineering, concepts as modularity, encapsulation, composability and reusability are strongly emphasized and profitably realized in the so-calledobject-oriented methodologies. Industrial automation is receiving lately this approach, as testified by some IEC standards IEC 611313, IEC 61499 which have been considered in commercial products only recently. On the other hand, in the scientific and technical literature many contributions have been already proposed to establish a suitable modelling framework for industrial automation. During last years it was possible to note a considerable growth in the exploitation of innovative concepts and technologies from ICT world in industrial automation systems. For what concerns the logic control design, Model Based Design (MBD) is being imported in industrial automation from software engineering field. Another key-point in industrial automated systems is the growth of requirements in terms of availability, reliability and safety for technological systems. In other words, the control system should not only deal with the nominal behaviour, but should also deal with other important duties, such as diagnosis and faults isolations, recovery and safety management. Indeed, together with high performance, in complex systems fault occurrences increase. This is a consequence of the fact that, as it typically occurs in reliable mechatronic systems, in complex systems such as AMS, together with reliable mechanical elements, an increasing number of electronic devices are also present, that are more vulnerable by their own nature. The diagnosis problem and the faults isolation in a generic dynamical system consists in the design of an elaboration unit that, appropriately processing the inputs and outputs of the dynamical system, is also capable of detecting incipient faults on the plant devices, reconfiguring the control system so as to guarantee satisfactory performance. The designer should be able to formally verify the product, certifying that, in its final implementation, it will perform itsrequired function guarantying the desired level of reliability and safety; the next step is that of preventing faults and eventually reconfiguring the control system so that faults are tolerated. On this topic an important improvement to formal verification of logic control, fault diagnosis and fault tolerant control results derive from Discrete Event Systems theory. The aimof this work is to define a design pattern and a control architecture to help the designer of control logic in industrial automated systems. The work starts with a brief discussion on main characteristics and description of industrial automated systems on Chapter 1. In Chapter 2 a survey on the state of the software engineering paradigm applied to industrial automation is discussed. Chapter 3 presentes a architecture for industrial automated systems based on the new concept of Generalized Actuator showing its benefits, while in Chapter 4 this architecture is refined using a novel entity, the Generalized Device in order to have a better reusability and modularity of the control logic. In Chapter 5 a new approach will be present based on Discrete Event Systems for the problemof software formal verification and an active fault tolerant control architecture using online diagnostic. Finally conclusive remarks and some ideas on new directions to explore are given. In Appendix A are briefly reported some concepts and results about Discrete Event Systems which should help the reader in understanding some crucial points in chapter 5; while in Appendix B an overview on the experimental testbed of the Laboratory of Automation of University of Bologna, is reported to validated the approach presented in chapter 3, chapter 4 and chapter 5. In Appendix C some components model used in chapter 5 for formal verification are reported.

Three dimensional seismic imaging and earthquake locations in a complex, segmented fault region in Southern Apennines (Italy)

The southern Apennines of Italy have been experienced several destructive earthquakes both in historic and recent times. The present day seismicity, characterized by small-to-moderate magnitude earthquakes, was used like a probe to obatin a deeper knowledge of the fault structures where the largest earthquakes occurred in the past. With the aim to infer a three dimensional seismic image both the problem of data quality and the selection of a reliable and robust tomographic inversion strategy have been faced. The data quality has been obtained to develop optimized procedures for the measurements of P- and S-wave arrival times, through the use of polarization filtering and to the application of a refined re-picking technique based on cross-correlation of waveforms. A technique of iterative tomographic inversion, linearized, damped combined with a strategy of multiscale inversion type has been adopted. The retrieved P-wave velocity model indicates the presence of a strong velocity variation along a direction orthogonal to the Apenninic chain. This variation defines two domains which are characterized by a relatively low and high velocity values. From the comparison between the inferred P-wave velocity model with a portion of a structural section available in literature, the high velocity body was correlated with the Apulia carbonatic platforms whereas the low velocity bodies was associated to the basinal deposits. The deduced Vp/Vs ratio shows that the ratio is lower than 1.8 in the shallower part of the model, while for depths ranging between 5 km and 12 km the ratio increases up to 2.1 in correspondence to the area of higher seismicity. This confirms that areas characterized by higher values are more prone to generate earthquakes as a response to the presence of fluids and higher pore-pressures.

Fault delineation and stress orientations from the analysis of background, low magnitude seismicity in Southern Apennines (Italy)

The aim of this work was to show that refined analyses of background, low magnitude seismicity allow to delineate the main active faults and to accurately estimate the directions of the regional tectonic stress that characterize the Southern Apennines (Italy), a structurally complex area with high seismic potential. Thanks the presence in the area of an integrated dense and wide dynamic network, was possible to analyzed an high quality microearthquake data-set consisting of 1312 events that occurred from August 2005 to April 2011 by integrating the data recorded at 42 seismic stations of various networks. The refined seismicity location and focal mechanisms well delineate a system of NW-SE striking normal faults along the Apenninic chain and an approximately E-W oriented, strike-slip fault, transversely cutting the belt. The seismicity along the chain does not occur on a single fault but in a volume, delimited by the faults activated during the 1980 Irpinia M 6.9 earthquake, on sub-parallel predominant normal faults. Results show that the recent low magnitude earthquakes belongs to the background seismicity and they are likely generated along the major fault segments activated during the most recent earthquakes, suggesting that they are still active today thirty years after the mainshock occurrences. In this sense, this study gives a new perspective to the application of the high quality records of low magnitude background seismicity for the identification and characterization of active fault systems. The analysis of the stress tensor inversion provides two equivalent models to explain the microearthquake generation along both the NW-SE striking normal faults and the E- W oriented fault with a dominant dextral strike-slip motion, but having different geological interpretations. We suggest that the NW-SE-striking Africa-Eurasia convergence acts in the background of all these structures, playing a primary and unifying role in the seismotectonics of the whole region.

Diagnosis and Fault detection in Electrical Machines and Drives based on Advanced Signal Processing Techniques

In the present thesis, a new methodology of diagnosis based on advanced use of time-frequency technique analysis is presented. More precisely, a new fault index that allows tracking individual fault components in a single frequency band is defined. More in detail, a frequency sliding is applied to the signals being analyzed (currents, voltages, vibration signals), so that each single fault frequency component is shifted into a prefixed single frequency band. Then, the discrete Wavelet Transform is applied to the resulting signal to extract the fault signature in the frequency band that has been chosen. Once the state of the machine has been qualitatively diagnosed, a quantitative evaluation of the fault degree is necessary. For this purpose, a fault index based on the energy calculation of approximation and/or detail signals resulting from wavelet decomposition has been introduced to quantify the fault extend. The main advantages of the developed new method over existing Diagnosis techniques are the following: - Capability of monitoring the fault evolution continuously over time under any transient operating condition; - Speed/slip measurement or estimation is not required; - Higher accuracy in filtering frequency components around the fundamental in case of rotor faults; - Reduction in the likelihood of false indications by avoiding confusion with other fault harmonics (the contribution of the most relevant fault frequency components under speed-varying conditions are clamped in a single frequency band); - Low memory requirement due to low sampling frequency; - Reduction in the latency of time processing (no requirement of repeated sampling operation).

Numerical modeling of the Alto Tiberina low angle normal fault

The aim of this Thesis is to obtain a better understanding of the mechanical behavior of the active Alto Tiberina normal fault (ATF). Integrating geological, geodetic and seismological data, we perform 2D and 3D quasi-static and dynamic mechanical models to simulate the interseismic phase and rupture dynamic of the ATF. Effects of ATF locking depth, synthetic and antithetic fault activity, lithology and realistic fault geometries are taken in account. The 2D and 3D quasi-static model results suggest that the deformation pattern inferred by GPS data is consistent with a very compliant ATF zone (from 5 to 15 km) and Gubbio fault activity. The presence of the ATF compliant zone is a first order condition to redistribute the stress in the Umbria-Marche region; the stress bipartition between hanging wall (high values) and footwall (low values) inferred by the ATF zone activity could explain the microseismicity rates that are higher in the hanging wall respect to the footwall. The interseismic stress build-up is mainly located along the Gubbio fault zone and near ATF patches with higher dip (30°fault plane roughness.

Kinematic models of interseismic deformation from inversion of GPS and InSAR measurements to estimate fault parameters and coupling degree

We have used kinematic models in two Italian regions to reproduce surface interseismic velocities obtained from InSAR and GPS measurements. We have considered a Block modeling, BM, approach to evaluate which fault system is actively accommodating the occurring deformation in both considered areas. We have performed a study for the Umbria-Marche Apennines, obtaining that the tectonic extension observed by GPS measurements is explained by the active contribution of at least two fault systems, one of which is the Alto Tiberina fault, ATF. We have estimated also the interseismic coupling distribution for the ATF using a 3D surface and the result shows an interesting correlation between the microseismicity and the uncoupled fault portions. The second area analyzed concerns the Gargano promontory for which we have used jointly the available InSAR and GPS velocities. Firstly we have attached the two datasets to the same terrestrial reference frame and then using a simple dislocation approach, we have estimated the best fault parameters reproducing the available data, providing a solution corresponding to the Mattinata fault. Subsequently we have considered within a BM analysis both GPS and InSAR datasets in order to evaluate if the Mattinata fault may accommodate the deformation occurring in the central Adriatic due to the relative motion between the North-Adriatic and South-Adriatic plates. We obtain that the deformation occurring in that region should be accommodated by more that one fault system, that is however difficult to detect since the poor coverage of geodetic measurement offshore of the Gargano promontory. Finally we have performed also the estimate of the interseismic coupling distribution for the Mattinata fault, obtaining a shallow coupling pattern. Both of coupling distributions found using the BM approach have been tested by means of resolution checkerboard tests and they demonstrate that the coupling patterns depend on the geodetic data positions.

Understanding block rotation of strike-slip fault zones: Paleomagnetic and structural approach

This thesis is focused on the paleomagnetic rotation pattern inside the deforming zone of strike-slip faults, and the kinematics and geodynamics describing it. The paleomagnetic investigation carried out along both the LOFZ and the fore-arc sliver (38º-42ºS, southern Chile) revealed an asymmetric rotation pattern. East of the LOFZ and adjacent to it, rotations are up to 170° clockwise (CW) and fade out ~10 km east of fault. West of the LOFZ at 42ºS (Chiloé Island) and around 39°S (Villarrica domain) systematic CCW rotations have been observed, while at 40°-41°S (Ranco-Osorno domain) and adjacent to the LOFZ CW rotations reach up to 136° before evolving to CCW rotations at ~30 km from the fault. These data suggest a directed relation with subduction interface plate coupling. Zones of high coupling yield to a wide deforming zone (~30 km) west of the LOFZ characterized by CW rotations. Low coupling implies a weak LOFZ and a fore-arc dominated by CCW rotations related to NW-sinistral fault kinematics. The rotation pattern is consistent with a quasi-continuous crust kinematics. However, it seems unlikely that the lower crust flux can control block rotation in the upper crust, considering the cold and thick fore-arc crust. I suggest that rotations are consequence of forces applied directly on both the block edges and along the main fault, within the upper crust. Farther south, at the Austral Andes (54°S) I measured the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) of 22 Upper Cretaceous to Upper Eocene sites from the Magallanes fold-thrust belt internal domains. The data document continuous compression from the Early Cretaceous until the Late Oligocene. AMS data also show that the tectonic inversion of Jurassic extensional faults during the Late Cretaceous compressive phase may have controlled the Cenozoic kinematic evolution of the Magallanes fold-thrust belt, yielding slip partitioning.

Fault detection, diagnosis and active fault tolerant control for a satellite attitude control system

Modern control systems are becoming more and more complex and control algorithms more and more sophisticated. Consequently, Fault Detection and Diagnosis (FDD) and Fault Tolerant Control (FTC) have gained central importance over the past decades, due to the increasing requirements of availability, cost efficiency, reliability and operating safety. This thesis deals with the FDD and FTC problems in a spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS). Firstly, the detailed nonlinear models of the spacecraft attitude dynamics and kinematics are described, along with the dynamic models of the actuators and main external disturbance sources. The considered ADCS is composed of an array of four redundant reaction wheels. A set of sensors provides satellite angular velocity, attitude and flywheel spin rate information. Then, general overviews of the Fault Detection and Isolation (FDI), Fault Estimation (FE) and Fault Tolerant Control (FTC) problems are presented, and the design and implementation of a novel diagnosis system is described. The system consists of a FDI module composed of properly organized model-based residual filters, exploiting the available input and output information for the detection and localization of an occurred fault. A proper fault mapping procedure and the nonlinear geometric approach are exploited to design residual filters explicitly decoupled from the external aerodynamic disturbance and sensitive to specific sets of faults. The subsequent use of suitable adaptive FE algorithms, based on the exploitation of radial basis function neural networks, allows to obtain accurate fault estimations. Finally, this estimation is actively exploited in a FTC scheme to achieve a suitable fault accommodation and guarantee the desired control performances. A standard sliding mode controller is implemented for attitude stabilization and control. Several simulation results are given to highlight the performances of the overall designed system in case of different types of faults affecting the ADCS actuators and sensors.

NLGA based Active Control in Aerospace: fault tolerability, disturbance rejection, and parameter estimation

A new control scheme has been presented in this thesis. Based on the NonLinear Geometric Approach, the proposed Active Control System represents a new way to see the reconfigurable controllers for aerospace applications. The presence of the Diagnosis module (providing the estimation of generic signals which, based on the case, can be faults, disturbances or system parameters), mean feature of the depicted Active Control System, is a characteristic shared by three well known control systems: the Active Fault Tolerant Controls, the Indirect Adaptive Controls and the Active Disturbance Rejection Controls. The standard NonLinear Geometric Approach (NLGA) has been accurately investigated and than improved to extend its applicability to more complex models. The standard NLGA procedure has been modified to take account of feasible and estimable sets of unknown signals. Furthermore the application of the Singular Perturbations approximation has led to the solution of Detection and Isolation problems in scenarios too complex to be solved by the standard NLGA. Also the estimation process has been improved, where multiple redundant measuremtent are available, by the introduction of a new algorithm, here called "Least Squares - Sliding Mode". It guarantees optimality, in the sense of the least squares, and finite estimation time, in the sense of the sliding mode. The Active Control System concept has been formalized in two controller: a nonlinear backstepping controller and a nonlinear composite controller. Particularly interesting is the integration, in the controller design, of the estimations coming from the Diagnosis module. Stability proofs are provided for both the control schemes. Finally, different applications in aerospace have been provided to show the applicability and the effectiveness of the proposed NLGA-based Active Control System.