Fault mode analysis and detection for gear tooth crack during its propagating process based on dynamic simulation method

Abstract Gearbox is one of the most important parts of rotating machinery, therefore, it is vital to carry out health monitoring for gearboxes. However, it is still an unsolved problem to disclose the impact of gear tooth crack fault on gear system vibration features during the crack propagating process, besides effective crack fault mode detection methods are lacked. In this study, an analytical model is proposed to calculate the time varying mesh stiffness of the meshing gear pair, and in this model the tooth bending stiffness, shear stiffness, axial compressive stiffness, Hertzian contact stiffness and fillet-foundation stiffness are taken into consideration. Afterwards, the vibration mechanism and effects of different levels of gear tooth crack on the gear system dynamics are investigated based on a 6 DOF dynamic model. Then, the crack fault vibration mode is studied, and a parametrical-Laplace wavelet method is presented to describe the crack fault mode. Furthermore, based on the maximum correlation coefficient (MCC) criterion, the optimized Laplace wavelet base is determined, which is then designed as a health indicator to detect the crack fault. The results show that the proposed method is effective in fault diagnosis of severe tooth crack as well as the early stage tooth crack.