Gear crack detection using modified TSA and proposed fault indicators for fluctuating speed conditions

Fault diagnosis of gearbox at an early stage is very important to avoid catastrophic failures. Condition indicators (CI) are used to quantify the level of vibration generated by the defected gears. A comprehensive comparison of various CIs, i.e., RMS, kurtosis, crest factor, FM0, FM4, M6A, NB4, energy ratio, NA4, energy operator and two new proposed condition indicators (PS-I and PS-II), have been performed for no crack, initial crack and advanced crack for different fluctuating profiles of input speed. This comparative analysis shows the responsiveness of indicators towards crack detection. Limited speed fluctuations and instantaneous high speed fluctuations are considered. Results suggest that newly proposed condition indicators are more robust, stable and effective towards crack detection under fluctuating profiles of speed. A modified time synchronous averaging (MTSA) is also proposed to increase signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.