Novel optimisation of bicoherence estimation for fatigue monitoring

The bicoherence method is widely used for nonlinearity and non-Gaussianity monitoring in many engineering applications, including damage monitoring in aerospace applications, for example fatigue monitoring in aircraft structures and gear teeth checking in helicopter transmissions. A size optimisation of the time segment for bicoherence estimation for fatigue monitoring is investigated here for the first time, it is claimed. The existence of optimal ranges of segment sizes is shown. These findings are in contrast to traditional bicoherence estimation in which the unique optimal value of segment size is employed.