Doppler effect reduction based on time-domain interpolation resampling for wayside acoustic defective bearing detector system

In the wayside Acoustic Defective Bearing Detector (ADBD) system, the recorded acoustic signal will be severely distorted by the Doppler effect because of the high moving speed of the railway vehicle, which is a barrier that would badly reduce the effectiveness of online defect detection. This paper proposes a simple and effective method, called time-domain interpolation resampling (TIR), to remove the Doppler effect embedded in the acoustic signal. The TIR is conducted in three steps. First, the time vector for resampling is calculated according to the kinematic analysis. Second, the amplitude of the distorted signal is demodulated. Third, the distorted signal is re-sampled using spline interpolation. In this method, both the spectrum structure and the amplitudes of the distorted signal can be restored. The effectiveness of TIR is verified by means of simulation studies and train roller bearing experiments with various types of defects. It is also compared to an existing Doppler effect reduction method that is based on the instantaneous frequency estimation using Hilbert transform. Results indicate that the proposed TIR method has the superior performance in removing the Doppler effect, and can be well implemented to Doppler effect reduction for the ADBD system. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.