Multi-model ensemble deep learning method for intelligent fault diagnosis with high-dimensional samples

Deep learning has achieved much success in mechanical intelligent fault diagnosis in recent years. However, many deep learning methods cannot fully extract fault information to recognize mechanical health states when processing high-dimensional samples. Therefore, a multi-model ensemble deep learning method based on deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) is proposed in this study to accomplish fault recognition of high-dimensional samples. First, several 1D DCNN models with different activation functions are trained through dimension reduction learning to obtain different fault features from high-dimensional samples. Second, the obtained features are constructed into 2D images with multiple channels through a conversion method. The integrated 2D feature images can effectively represent the fault characteristic contained in raw high-dimension vibration signals. Lastly, a 2D DCNN model with multilayer convolution and pooling is used to automatically learn features from the 2D images and identify the fault mode of the mechanical equipment by adopting a softmax classifier. The proposed method, which is validated using the bearing public dataset of Case Western Reserve University, USA and a one-stage reduction gearbox dataset, has high recognition accuracy. Compared with other classical deep learning methods, the proposed fault diagnosis method has considerable improvements.