Blind separation of rotating machine sources: bilinear forms and convolutive mixtures

We propose the use of blind source separation (BSS) for separation of a machine signature from distorted measurements. Based on an analysis of the mixing processes relevant for machine source separation, we indicate that instantaneous mixing may hold in acoustic monitoring. We then present a bilinear forms-based approach to instantaneous source separation. For simulated acoustic mixing, we show that this method may give rise to a more robust separation. For vibrational monitoring, a convolutive mixture model is more appropriate. The demixing algorithm by Nguyen Thi-Jutten allows for separation of the contributions of two coupled machines, both in an experimental setup and in a real-world situation. We conclude that BSS is a feasible approach for blind separation of distorted rotating machine sources. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.