Niamat Ullah

This study proposes an explainable and lightweight pipeline leak-diagnosis framework based on a leak-oriented Acoustic Spectral Portrait (ASP) processing pipeline and transfer learning. The ASP processing pipeline converts one-dimensional acoustic emission signals into compact two-dimensional spectral representations through AR pre-whitening, overlapping Hann-window segmentation, zero-padded fast Fourier transform analysis, logarithmic scaling, percentile-based normalization, and temporal spectral aggregation. These spectral portraits are processed by a lightweight convolutional neural network, in which source-domain knowledge is adapted using limited labeled target-domain data. Gradient-weighted class activation mapping is further employed to provide qualitative post hoc interpretation of the spectral regions contributing to model predictions, rather than direct physical validation, supported by supplementary perturbation, model-randomization, and attribution-stability analyses. The framework was evaluated using three gas- and water-pipeline datasets through six directed source-to-target transfer tasks, with each experiment repeated 10 times using mutually exclusive data partitions. Scenario-averaged classification accuracies of 98.36%, 97.09%, and 98.58% were achieved across the three transfer scenarios. For the representative DS-1 to DS-2 transfer task, transfer learning improved target-domain accuracy from 91.80% to 96.85% while reducing target-model training time from 17.3 min for training from scratch to 9.2 min for fine-tuning. The proposed spectral portrait representation also achieved a mean scenario-averaged classification accuracy of 98.01%, outperforming conventional time-frequency representations. These results demonstrate effective source-to-target adaptation for pipeline leak diagnosis across the three investigated composite operating and acquisition domains.

This paper presents a novel pipeline leak diagnosis framework that combines Savitzky–Golay scalograms with a lightweight advanced deep learning architecture. Pipelines are critical for transporting fluids and gases, but leaks can lead to operational disruptions, environmental hazards, and financial losses. Leak events generate acoustic emissions (AE), captured as transient signals by AE sensors; however, these signals are often masked by noise and affected by the transported medium. To overcome this challenge, a fluid-independent detection approach is proposed that begins with acquiring AE data under various operational conditions, including multiple intensities of pinhole leaks and normal states. The transient signals are transformed into detailed scalograms using the Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT), revealing subtle time–frequency patterns associated with leak events. To enhance these leak-specific features, a targeted Savitzky–Golay (SG) filter is applied, producing refined Savitzky–Golay scalograms (SG scalograms). These SG scalograms are then used to train a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and a newly developed lightweight Vision Transformer with streamlined self-attention (LViT-S), which autonomously learn both local and global features. The LViT-S achieves reduced embedding dimensions and fewer Transformer layers, significantly lowering computational cost while maintaining high performance. Extracted local and global features are merged into a unified feature vector, representing diverse visual characteristics learned by each network through their respective loss functions. This comprehensive feature representation is then passed to an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for final classification, accurately identifying the presence, severity, and absence of leaks. The effectiveness of the proposed method is evaluated under two different pressure conditions, two fluid types (gas and water), and three distinct leak sizes, achieving a high classification accuracy of 98.6%. Additionally, a comparative evaluation against four state-of-the-art methods demonstrates that the proposed framework consistently delivers superior accuracy across diverse operational scenarios.

A method is proposed for fault classification in milling machines using advanced image processing and machine learning. First, raw data are obtained from real-world industries, representing various fault types (tool, bearing, and gear faults) and normal conditions. These data are converted into two-dimensional continuous wavelet transform (CWT) images for superior time-frequency localization. The images are then augmented to increase dataset diversity using techniques such as rotating, scaling, and flipping. A contrast enhancement filter is applied to highlight key features, thereby improving the model’s learning and fault detection capability. The enhanced images are fed into a modified AlexNet model with three residual blocks to efficiently extract both spatial and temporal features from the CWT images. The modified AlexNet architecture is particularly well-suited to identifying complex patterns associated with different fault types. The deep features are optimized using ant colony optimization to reduce dimensionality while preserving relevant information, ensuring effective feature representation. These optimized features are then classified using a support vector machine, effectively distinguishing between fault types and normal conditions with high accuracy. The proposed method provides significant improvements in fault classification while outperforming state-of-the-art methods. It is thus a promising solution for industrial fault diagnosis and has potential for broader applications in predictive maintenance.

This paper presents a fault diagnosis technique for milling machines based on acoustic emission (AE) signals and a hybrid deep learning model optimized with a genetic algorithm. Mechanical failures in milling machines, particularly in critical components like cutting tools, gears, and bearings, account for a significant portion of operational breakdowns, leading to unplanned downtime and financial losses. To address this issue, the proposed method first acquires AE signals from the milling machine. AE signals, capturing the dynamic responses of machine components, are transformed into continuous wavelet transform (CWT) scalograms for further analysis. Gaussian filtering is applied to enhance the clarity of these scalograms, effectively reducing noise while maintaining essential features. A convolutional neural network (CNN) based on the VGG16 architecture is utilized for spatial feature extraction, followed by a bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) network to capture the temporal dependencies of the scalograms. The genetic algorithm (GA) is used to optimize feature selection and ensure the selection of the most relevant features to further improve the model’s performance. The optimized features are finally fed into a fully connected (FC) layer of the proposed hybrid model for fault classification. The proposed method achieves an accuracy of 99.6%, significantly outperforming traditional approaches. This method offers a highly accurate and efficient solution for fault detection in milling machines, allowing for more reliable predictive maintenance and operational efficiency in industrial settings.

Pipeline leakage represents a critical challenge in smart cities and various industries, leading to severe economic, environmental, and safety consequences. Early detection of leaks is essential for overcoming these risks and ensuring the safe operation of pipeline systems. In this study, a hybrid convolutional neural network–long short-term memory (CNN-LSTM) model for pipeline leak detection that uses acoustic emission signals was designed. In this model, acoustic emission signals are initially preprocessed using a Savitzky–Golay filter to reduce noise. The filtered signals are input into the hybrid model, where spatial features are extracted using a CNN. The features are then passed to an LSTM network, which extracts temporal features from the signals. Based on these features, the presence or absence of a leakage is determined. The performance of the proposed model was compared with two alternative approaches: a method that employs combined features from the time domain and LSTM and a bidirectional gated recurrent unit model. The proposed approach demonstrated superior performance, as evidenced by lower validation loss, higher validation accuracy, enhanced confusion matrices, and improved t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding plots compared to the other models when tested on industrial data. The findings indicate that the proposed model is more effective in accurately detecting pipeline leaks, offering a promising solution for enhancing smart cities and industrial safety.

This study explores a novel approach utilizing acoustic emission (AE) signaling technology for pipeline leakage detection and analysis. Pipeline leaks are a significant concern in the liquids and gases industries, prompting the development of innovative detection methods. Unlike conventional methods, which often require contact and visual inspection with the pipeline surface, the proposed time-series-based deep learning approach offers real-time detection with higher safety and efficiency. In this study, we propose an automatic detection system of pipeline leakage for efficient transportation of liquid (water) and gas across the city, considering the smart city approach. We propose an AE-based framework combined with time-series deep learning algorithms to detect pipeline leaks through time-series features. The time-series AE signal detection module is designed to capture subtle changes in the AE signal state caused by leaks. Sequential deep learning models, including long short-term memory (LSTM), bi-directional LSTM (Bi-LSTM), and gated recurrent units (GRUs), are used to classify the AE response into normal and leakage detection from minor seepage, moderate leakage, and major ruptures in the pipeline. Three AE sensors are installed at different configurations on a pipeline, and data are acquired at 1 MHz sample/sec, which is decimated to 4K sample/second for efficiently utilizing the memory constraints of a remote system. The performance of these models is evaluated using metrics, namely accuracy, precision, recall, F1 score, and convergence, demonstrating classification accuracies of up to 99.78%. An accuracy comparison shows that BiLSTM performed better mostly with all hyperparameter settings. This research contributes to the advancement of pipeline leakage detection technology, offering improved accuracy and reliability in identifying and addressing pipeline integrity issues.

Detecting pipeline leaks is an essential factor in maintaining the integrity of fluid transport systems. This paper introduces an advanced deep learning framework that uses continuous wavelet transform (CWT) images for precise detection of such leaks. Transforming acoustic signals from pipelines under various conditions into CWT scalograms, followed by signal processing by non-local means and adaptive histogram equalization, results in new enhanced leak-induced scalograms (ELIS) that capture detailed energy fluctuations across time-frequency scales. The fundamental approach takes advantage of a deep belief network (DBN) fine-tuned with a genetic algorithm (GA) and unified with a least squares support vector machine (LSSVM) to improve feature extraction and classification accuracy. The DBN-GA framework precisely extracts informative features, while the LSSVM classifier precisely distinguishes between leaky and non-leak conditions. By concentrating solely on the advanced capabilities of ELIS processed through an optimized DBN-GA-LSSVM model, this research achieves high detection accuracy and reliability, making a significant contribution to pipeline monitoring and maintenance. This innovative approach to capturing complex signal patterns can be applied to real-time leak detection and critical infrastructure safety in several industrial applications.

This paper proposes an intelligent framework for the fault diagnosis of centrifugal pumps (CPs) based on wavelet coherence analysis (WCA) and deep learning (DL). The fault-related impulses in the CP vibration signal are often attenuated due to the background interference noises, thus affecting the sensitivity of the traditional statistical features towards faults. Furthermore, extracting health-sensitive information from the vibration signal needs human expertise and background knowledge. To extract CP health-sensitive features autonomously from the vibration signals, the proposed approach initially selects a healthy baseline signal. The wavelet coherence analysis is then computed between the healthy baseline signal and the signal obtained from a CP under different operating conditions, yielding coherograms. WCA is a signal processing technique that is used to measure the degree of linear correlation between two signals as a function of frequency. The coherograms carry information about the CP vulnerability towards the faults as the color intensity in the coherograms changes according to the change in CP health conditions. To utilize the changes in the coherograms due to the health conditions of the CP, they are provided to a Convolution Neural Network (CNN) and a Convolution Autoencoder (CAE) for the extraction of discriminant CP health-sensitive information autonomously. The CAE extracts global variations from the coherograms, and the CNN extracts local variations related to CP health. This information is combined into a single latent space vector. To identify the health conditions of the CP, the latent space vector is classified using an Artificial Neural Network (ANN). The proposed method identifies faults in the CP with higher accuracy as compared to already existing methods when it is tested on the vibration signals acquired from real-world industrial CPs.

A hybrid deep learning approach was designed that combines deep learning with enhanced short-time Fourier transform (STFT) spectrograms and continuous wavelet transform (CWT) scalograms for pipeline leak detection. Such detection plays a crucial role in ensuring the safety and integrity of fluid transportation systems. The proposed model leverages the power of STFT and CWT to enhance detection capabilities. The pipeline’s acoustic emission signals during normal and leak operating conditions undergo transformation using STFT and CWT, creating scalograms representing energy variations across time–frequency scales. To improve the signal quality and eliminate noise, Sobel and wavelet denoising filters are applied to the scalograms. These filtered scalograms are then fed into convolutional neural networks, extracting informative features that harness the distinct characteristics captured by both STFT and CWT. For enhanced computational efficiency and discriminatory power, principal component analysis is employed to reduce the feature space dimensionality. Subsequently, pipeline leaks are accurately detected and classified by categorizing the reduced dimensional features using t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding and artificial neural networks. The hybrid approach achieves high accuracy and reliability in leak detection, demonstrating its effectiveness in capturing both spectral and temporal details. This research significantly contributes to pipeline monitoring and maintenance and offers a promising solution for real-time leak detection in diverse industrial applications.