Diagnosis of Artificial Gear Defects on Single Stage Gearbox Using Acoustic Emission

Abstract

Acoustic Emission is a very powerful tool for health monitoring of structures and mechanical components, especially due to its sensitivity, which is very useful at the early stages of damage evolution. Evaluation of its potential on rotating structures such as gearboxes, is studied in the present paper. A new concept of transducer mounting is realized in a single stage in-house built gearbox. The acoustic emission signature of the healthy gears is acquired. Then artificial defects are seeded and the acquisition is repeated. The signals are afterwards analyzed and the assessment of the applicability of the method becomes possible. Given the present experimental setup, health monitoring of gearboxes using acoustic emission is considered to be of rising potential.