Abstract 

The performance of fault diagnostics for a planetary gearbox depends on vibration modulation characteristics, which can vary with manufacturing & assembly tolerance, and load condition. In this paper, a fault diagnostics technique that considers vibration modulation characteristics is proposed for the effective fault detection of planetary gearboxes in wind turbines. For identifying the vibration modulation characteristics in practice, re-sampled vibration signals are processed with narrow band-pass filters. Thereafter, the optimal position of the vibration extraction window is identified for effective detection of faulty signals under the varying vibration modulation characteristics. The proposed diagnostics technique makes it possible to perform robust diagnostics of the planetary gearbox with regard to the changeable vibration modulation effect. For demonstrating the proposed fault diagnostics technique, a 2-kW WT testbed is designed with two DC motors and gearboxes. A faulty gear with partial tooth breakage is machined and assembled into the gearbox.