Vibration based condition monitoring of a multistage epicyclic gearbox in lifting cranes

• We propose a vibration based condition monitoring method of a planetary gearbox.
• We make a comparison with a number of usual CM methods.
• An accelerated lifetime test bench of a lifting winch is used.
• The proposed procedure enhances the wear detection ability of planetary gearboxes.

This paper proposes a model-based technique for detecting wear in a multistage planetary gearbox used by lifting cranes. The proposed method establishes a vibration signal model which deals with cyclostationary and autoregressive models. First-order cyclostationarity is addressed by the analysis of the time synchronous average (TSA) of the angular resampled vibration signal. Then an autoregressive model (AR) is applied to the TSA part in order to extract a residual signal containing pertinent fault signatures. The paper also explores a number of methods commonly used in vibration monitoring of planetary gearboxes, in order to make comparisons. In the experimental part of this study, these techniques are applied to accelerated lifetime test bench data for the lifting winch. After processing raw signals recorded with an accelerometer mounted on the outside of the gearbox, a number of condition indicators (CIs) are derived from the TSA signal, the residual autoregressive signal and other signals derived using standard signal processing methods. The goal is to check the evolution of the CIs during the accelerated lifetime test (ALT). Clarity and fluctuation level of the historical trends are finally considered as a criteria for comparing between the extracted CIs.This study reveals the most relevant features to be used for damage detection and condition monitoring of the gear system. It is also shown that the proposed procedure using a combination of cyclostationarity and autoregressive modeling enhance the ability to detect and diagnose mechanical wear in multi-staged planetary gears.

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