Enhanced fault diagnosis via stochastic resonance in a piecewise asymmetric bistable system

Weak fault signals are often overwhelmed by strong noise or interference. The key issue in fault diagnosis is to accurately extract useful fault characteristics. Stochastic resonance is an important signal processing method that utilizes noise to enhance weak signals. In this paper, to address the issues of output saturation and imperfect optimization of potential structure models in classical bistable stochastic resonance (CBSR), we propose a piecewise asymmetric stochastic resonance system. A two-state model is used to theoretically derive the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the bistable system under harmonic excitations, which is compared with the SNR of CBSR to demonstrate the superiority of the method. The method is then applied to fault data. The results indicate that it can achieve a higher output SNR and higher spectral peaks at fault characteristic frequencies/orders, regardless of whether the system operates under fixed or time-varying speed conditions. This study provides new ideas and theoretical guidance for improving the accuracy and reliability of fault diagnosis technology.