Impact characterization of multiple-points-defect on machine fault diagnosis

Multiple points fault in the rotary machinery induce complex vibration signatures, which have the tendency to mislead the fault diagnostic models. One of the challenging problems in machine fault diagnosis is to model and study fault signatures dynamics in case of multiple points fault. The existing literature lacks in the study of multiple points fault and the associated vibration signatures. In this study, a multiple-points defect model (MPDM) is proposed which can formulate n-points bearing fault signature´s dynamics. Impact of multiple points defect on the well-established state-of-the-art fault diagnostic models is quantified in terms of fault detection accuracy. Results for fault detection accuracy are obtained using Support Vector Machine (SVM) and a modification is recommended in the existing fault diagnostic models in order to nullify the impact of multiple-points fault.