Feature Selection and Fault Classification of Reciprocating Compressors using a Genetic Algorithm and a Probabilistic Neural Network

Reciprocating compressors are widely used in industry for various purposes and faults occurring in them can degrade their performance, consume additional energy and even cause severe damage to the machine. Vibration monitoring techniques are often used for early fault detection and diagnosis, but it is difficult to prescribe a given set of effective diagnostic features because of the wide variety of operating conditions and the complexity of the vibration signals which originate from the many different vibrating and impact sources. This paper studies the use of genetic algorithms (GAs) and neural networks (NNs) to select effective diagnostic features for the fault diagnosis of a reciprocating compressor. A large number of common features are calculated from the time and frequency domains and envelope analysis. Applying GAs and NNs to these features found that envelope analysis has the most potential for differentiating three common faults: valve leakage, inter-cooler leakage and a loose drive belt. Simultaneously, the spread parameter of the probabilistic NN was also optimised. The selected subsets of features were examined based on vibration source characteristics. The approach developed and the trained NN are confirmed as possessing general characteristics for fault detection and diagnosis.