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Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing

Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 18 (2004) 985992
www.elsevier.com/locate/jnlabr/ymssp

Fault diagnosis in gears operating under non-stationary rotational speed using polar wavelet amplitude maps
G. Meltzera,*, Nguyen Phong Dienb
a

Institute of Power Engines and Machine Laboratory, Dresden University of Technology, Dresden D-01062, Germany b Department of Applied Mechanics, Hanoi University of Technology, 1. Dai Co Viet Road, Hanoi, Viet Nam Received 22 December 2003; accepted 28 January 2004

Abstract This paper will attempt to analyse the effectiveness of the Continuous Wavelet Transform in vibroacoustical diagnostics of gearboxes operating under non-stationary rotational speed. For this, a simple PCsoftware program for signal processing and extraction of diagnostic features was developed and tested. The objective of the program test is fault-detection, localisation, and assessment at helical spur gears. This includes improvements of the visual estimation of the WT-plots, especially by the task-specic balance of time- and frequency-resolution and by the display of the wavelet amplitude versus the rotational angle in polar coordinates. The following examples demonstrate the improvements in the detection of gear faults. r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction In recent years, the timefrequency analysis has become a successful method for detection of gear faults. The application of the timefrequency analysis allows a deep insight into the properties of the measured vibration signal. There exist some studies, in the eld of diagnostics, on gearboxes under non-stationary operational condition by the use of the timefrequency distributions, among others also some previous studies by the same authors [12]. A recently completed Ph.D. thesis [3] describes the results in this eld. For getting these a software program for signal processing and extraction of diagnostic features on the basis of the computing program MATLABs was developed and tested in different applications [45]. Among the applied and compared signal-processing tools, the Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) has been proved to have a high level of efciency in accurate information and short
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +49-351-4633-5372; fax: +49-351-4633-7298. E-mail address: meltzer@mal.mw.tu-dresden.de (G. Meltzer). 0888-3270/$ - see front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ymssp.2004.01.009

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processing time. Two of the most outstanding advantages are the absence of any articial crosscomponents and the simple adaptation of time- and frequency resolution to the requirements of the special diagnostic task. In some outstanding studies [810], researchers showed the visual advantage of the CWT to detect and localise gear faults. Boulahbal et al. [10] proposed a polar representation for the amplitude and phase wavelet maps. This new representation could be helpful also to pinpoint the location of the crack at a tooth root. Some additional references can be found in Ph.D. theses [6] and [7]. This paper presents improvements of the visual estimation of the WT-plots, especially by the task-specic balance of time- and frequency-resolution and by the display of the wavelet amplitude versus the rotational angle in polar coordinates. The following examples demonstrate such improvements in the detection of gear faults.

2. Experimental set-up The target of our activities was the investigation of the inuence of different tooth faults on the measured acceleration at the gearbox housing. All experiments were done at an ordinary back-toback test rig with different levels of constant loading torque. Rotational speed was controlled as a constant, as a linearly increasing ramp, and as sinusoidal changing respectively. The faults were situated at the teeth of helical pinion as well as at the wheel. The following kinds of faults were under consideration:
*

* *

pitting at the tooth ank surface: seeded pittings as well as pittings risen by fatigue during long time exploitation; fracture of tooth head edges; fatigue cracks in the tooth root.

One-pulse per revolution signals were generated by two proximity sensors on both shafts. These reference signals were used for the synchronous averaging process. The acceleration signals were sampled at 10 kHz with 32-bit ADC simultaneously in a multi-channel data-acquisition system. Thus, the signal recorded at the closest position to the pinion, in axial direction, was used for the following analysis.

3. Signal processing procedure In this study, the Morlet wavelet is used for the CWT since it provides a signal-adaptive timefrequency analysis [11]: ct p1=4 eio0 t et =2 :
2

The parameter o0 balances the time-frequency resolution of the Morlet wavelet. In situations where the signal contains several spectral lines whose frequencies are close, the Morlet wavelets with large parameter o0 can separate each of these components. In addition, Morlet wavelets with smaller parameter o0 can emphasise the local events in the signal, which are consecutive in time domain (see also Ref. [4,5]).

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In the case of gearbox vibration the shaft order can be replaced by multiples of the gear meshing frequencies fz, which result in meshing orders. By using polar co-ordinates of the shaft order k versus the shaft angle j, the wavelet amplitude map of a time-synchronous averaged signal (TSA-signal) can be represented as the Polar Wavelet amplitude Map (PWM). If the full circle of the PWM is divided into the parts corresponding to the number of gear wheel tooth, it makes possible precisely to localize a tooth damage (Fig. 1). The PWM can be applied for the time-synchronous averaged signal (overall PWM) as well as the corresponding residual signal, in which all harmonic components of meshing frequency are deleted (residual PWM). Fig. 2 shows that the residual PWM reveals fault presence clearer than the overall PWM. The signal-processing procedure used for analysing the experimental data is illustrated by an example in Fig. 2. This includes the CWT of raw signals, the time-synchronous averaging (TSA), extracting the residual signal from the corresponding TSA-signal [12], calculating and representing the overall PWM as well as the residual PWM. As shown in Fig. 2, the meshing frequency fz and its harmonics can be identied in the wavelet amplitude map of the raw signal as a broad dark patch with the periodically varying values of frequency along the time axis. The fault is additionally indicated by a clear pattern of sidebands around the meshing frequency and its higher harmonics as well as by an expected serie of transient signal components at a natural frequency fe of about 870 Hz. Consequently, transient vibration components caused by the impact due to improper meshing of the faulted teeth and amplitude modulation effects can be used as two separate features for fault detection. A suitable balance of time and frequency resolution by an adapted choice of different Morletparameters allows to distinguish between different kinds of fault from vibration signals, as shown in Fig. 3 and 4. Modulated parametric vibrations and free vibrations generated by impacts are characterised by different frequency components (sidebands around the meshing harmonics or natural frequencies) and by different angles, at which the maximum of vibration amplitude appears. Therefore, PWMs with a high-frequency resolution (large Morlet-parameter) and such ones with a high time resolution (small Morlet-parameter) give different information about the nature of fault, that complements each the other.

Fig. 1. Polar wavelet amplitude map of a residual signal using Morlet (o0=10), seeded fault 60% area of a tooth surface, the gear has 14 teeth.

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Fig. 2. Signal-processing procedure for the acceleration signal measured at the sinusoidal changing speed, the fault is the fracture of a tooth head edge.

Fig. 3 shows by good frequency resolution the appearance of side- band- components near the 8th harmonics of meshing frequency, generated by fault-caused reduction of torsional stiffness of one or more teeth, as well as free vibration with the torional eigenfrequency. But there is no information available about location of this faults.

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Fig. 3. The residual PWM for the short-time test with 20% seeded fault on a single tooth, calculating by large Morletparameter (o0 100).

Fig. 4. The PWMs calculated from the same signal as Fig. 3, using small Morlet-parameter (o0 10) (a) overall PWM, (b) residual PWM, (c) individual residual PWM with transient natural vibration only (d) individual residual PWM which corresponds to sidebands around the 8th meshing harmonic only.

Fig. 4 shows by good time resolution in the overall PWM and in different residual PWMs a seeded fault (pitting) on one pinion tooth ank. Figs. 4a and b indicate this concentrated fault near the fourth tooth, but nothing can be recognised concerning the kind of vibration excitation. By eliminating different orders out of the residual PWM (thereby getting residuals of residuals

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or individual residual) the free vibration as symptoms for impact excitation and the sidebands as symptoms for the modulated parametric vibration could be separated (Fig. 4c and d). Comparing both, a small difference in the angular situation can be recognised. The maximum of the parametric vibration appears a short time earlier than the impact happens. By successively analysing the measured signal with a high and low Morlet-Parameter the fault could be well indicated, identied and localised.

4. Results Fig. 5 displays some diagnostic results of the tooth surface fatigue test. The gear conditions are % referred to as states 1 to 4, which are specied by parameter S dened as follows: % S Total of the damaged flank surface at both wheels 100%: Total of the flank surface at both wheels 2

The TSA-signals were calculated using the reference signal from the pinion shaft (the pinion has 14 teeth). An excellent fault detection and localisation capability by the use of the residual PWM can be clearly observed. By using the same amplitude scale for all PWMs the damage progress, including situation and degree of faults can be visually recognised. Fig. 6 shows some diagnostic results of the tooth fatigue crack test. The TSA-signals were calculated using the reference signal from the pinion shaft. State 1 represents the baseline

Fig. 5. Residual PWMs calculated from the residual signals for the tooth surface fatigue test, using Morlet (o0 10), % % the dark zones indicate the damaged teeth. State 1: without fault, State 2: S 0:83%; State 3: S 1:25%; State 4: % S 2:56% .

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Fig. 6. Residual PWMs for the pinion (27 teeth) at the tooth fatigue crack test (using Morlet o0 10), the running time corresponding to state 1 to 4, respectively: begin, 30 min, 1 hour 45 min, 2 hour 15 min (tooth 8 brokes off immediately after this).

condition with a new gear pair (in this case the pinion has 27 teeth). The residual PWM corresponding state 2 indicates a pattern of a transient signal component between the 4th and 5th meshing harmonic, giving a clear indication of the presence of the crack in 8th tooth already 30 min after beginning of the test. The residual PWM at state 3 shows clearly the cracks also at several neighbouring teeth. Here the transient vibrations arise between the 2nd and 3rd as well as 4th and 5th meshing harmonic. Their amplitude rises with increasing running time and becomes particularly large with an outbreak of the tooth (state 4). The depth of cracks was approximately measured by using an eddy current inspection. The measurement showed that the depth of cracks is about 0.2 mm at state 2 and about 0.6 mm at state 3. Considering the root width of about 10 mm, it can be seen that the residual PWM is very effective for detection, localisation and assessment of faults.

5. Conclusions In this paper, the effectiveness of the continuous wavelet transform in vibro-acoustical diagnostics of gearboxes has been illustrated by means of the program test for the fault diagnosis at helical spur gears. The display of the wavelet amplitude in polar coordinates has been proved to have a high sensitivity as well as accuracy in detection, localisation and assessment of the faults.

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References
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