EMD Mode Mixing Separation of Signals with Close Spectral Proximity in Smart Grids

Abstract

The Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) is a signal analysis method that separates multi-component signals into single oscillatory modes called intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). These IMFs can generally be associated to a physical meaning of the process from which the signal is obtained. When the phenomena of mode mixing occurs, as a result of the EMD sifting process, the IMFs may lose their physical meaning hindering the interpretation of the results of the analysis. Previous research presents a rigorous mathematical analysis that shows how EMD behaves in the case of a composite two-components signal, explaining the roots of the mode mixing problem. Also, the frequency-amplitude region within which a good separation is achieved with EMD is well identified and discussed. However, a solution that offers good IMF separation when components reside within the same octave is not yet available. In this paper, a method to separate spectral components that reside within the same octave, is presented. This method is based on reversing the conditions by which mode mixing occurs presented in the paper "One or Two frequencies? The Empirical Mode Decomposition Answers", in [3]. Numerical experiments with signals containing spectral components within the same octave shows the effective separation of modes that EMD can perform after this principle is applied. This separation technique has potential application for identifying the cause of different oscillatory modes with spectral proximity present in the smart grid.