Amplitude and frequency estimator for aperiodic multi-frequency noisy vibration signals of a tram gearbox

Sinusoidal parameter estimation for determining frequency position and amplitude is challenging for noisy short vibration signals, e.g. from machines or human vibrations. In this paper, we propose the “Trimmed Window Discrete Fourier Transform” (TWDFT) estimator, which uses for every frequency a one-point discrete Fourier transform (DFT) to determine the corresponding spectral amplitude. To avoid leakage effects, it cuts the time interval so that it corresponds to an integer number of period durations. To evaluate the estimator performance, we compare it with relevant estimators such as the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) and the spectral spline interpolation applied on a noisy mono-frequent test signal with a fractional frequency. For the estimated parameters, the mean squared errors (MSE) are calculated and compared as a function of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The advantages of the TWDFT estimator can be seen over the whole SNR range. The TWDFT estimates are better than the fast Fourier transform (FFT) starting at a SNR of –6 dB. At a SNR of 30 dB, the estimator meets the real value of the frequency and reaches similar results as the CRLB. The application of the TWDFT estimator as a short-time analysis on a vibration signal of a tram gearbox shows a significantly more differentiated time-frequency analysis compared to a short-time Fourier transform (STFT)