An Approach to Fault Diagnosis of Gearbox Based on an Instantaneous Angular Acceleration. Experimental Study

Abstract

Introduction. Gears are important parts of almost every operating mechanism in many industries. The gear condition monitoring is an important unit of condition monitoring of a mechanism as a whole. The vibration is one of the most used sources of information for equipment technical diagnostics. Traditionally, vibration is measured by accelerometers which are fixed on the mechanism body. Analyse of the measured data from the accelerometers requires applying the special methods and the staff with developed analytical skills. On the other hand, a novel approach to the accelerometer fitting location allows receiving extra diagnostic information and facilitating diagnosis. Aim. The present study shows the application of the novel approach to the accelerometer fitting location and the analyse of extra information for gearbox diagnosis. Materials and methods. The novel accelerometer fitting location is a rotating shaft of the mechanism. The extra diagnostic information is an angular acceleration of the rotating shaft. The theoretical base for the angular acceleration as diagnosis information is shown in the study. Results. The study contains experimental results of fault detecting such as the 'chipped tooth' and 'broken tooth' of a pinion. In addition, the study contains the proposed criteria for the detection of the local fault. Conclusion. The experimental results and the applied criteria show that the proposed approach allows detecting the pinion local defect on the first pinion rotation frequency clearly at various rotation frequencies.