Special Issue Article

Journal of Low Frequency Noise,

Vibration and Active Control
2018, Vol. 37(3) 477–494
Fault detection enhancement in wind ! The Author(s) 2017
DOI: 10.1177/1461348417725950
turbine planetary gearbox via stationary journals.sagepub.com/home/lfn

vibration waveform data

Shawki A Abouel-seoud

Abstract
Planetary gearbox fault diagnosis is very important for reducing the downtime, maintenance cost, and for improving the
safety, reliability, and lifespan of wind turbines. The present work reports the results concluded by long-term experi-
ments to a defected planetary gearbox system, with a transverse cut with a depth of 1.0 mm and thickness of 0.2 mm to
simulate the planetary gearbox component crack. For each defect, recordings every 60.0 min were acquired and a total
of 7 recordings ( 6.0 h of test duration) were resulted until the termination of the test. Fault is assured by increasing the
test period to the point of where the remaining metal in the tooth area has enough stress to be in the plastic deformation
region. An experimental procedure is developed to assess the severity of the gearbox component fault. Gearbox
components faults of cracked planet gear tooth, cracked planet gears carrier, and cracked main bearing inner race
were tested under accelerated fault conditions, where a comparative analysis of condition monitoring indicators for
various crack detection has been done. The experimental localized fault signals (vibration acceleration signals) were
subjected to the same diagnostic techniques such as spectrum comparisons, spectral kurtosis analysis, skewness analysis,
and crest factor analysis. The method is validated on a set of seeded localized faults on all gears and components: sun
gear, ring gear, etc. The results look promising, where the root mean square value analysis could be a good indicator
when compared with the other indicators in terms of early detection and characterization of faults.

Keywords
Wind turbine, planetary gearbox, fault diagnosis, vibration, condition monitoring indicators

Introduction
Structures and dynamics of planetary gears are very different from fixed axis gears and special attention is given to
fault diagnostics of planetary gear system. In this paper, a distinctive nature of damage-induced vibration of
planetary gear box, namely tidal frequency, considering fault transmission paths of planetary gear system is
discussed and proposed. Artificial planetary sun gear fault is introduced to an experimental test rig, and the
proposed tidal frequency for planetary sun gear faults is demonstrated, which may be a promising feature for
the planetary gear system condition monitoring.1,2
With the widespread application of wind turbines, their maintenance is a growing concern. Bearings play a
critical role in industrial applications and it is necessary to effectively monitor their health status. The shock pulse
method (SPM) can detect the incipient fault of bearings and prevent the fault consequence effectively. However,
many researchers used laboratory data to validate the SPM. This study mainly concentrates on the SPM appli-
cation on the bearing fault detection of wind turbines. Shock pulse signals are derived from the gearbox of

Faculty of Engineering (Mataria), Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt

Corresponding author:
Shawki A Abouel-seoud, Faculty of Engineering (Mataria), Helwan University, Masaken El helmia, P.O. Box 11718, Cairo, Egypt.
Email: s_a_seoud@hotmail.com

Creative Commons CC-BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and
Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
478 Journal of Low Frequency Noise, Vibration and Active Control 37(3)

industrial wind turbine test rig by SPM instrument. According to the frequency spectrum analysis, the bearing
fault has been accurately detected and located. The analysis results demonstrate that the SPM technology was
potentially effective for detecting the bearing faults of the industrial wind turbines.3,4
The important issue in planetary gear fault diagnosis is extracting the dependable fault characteristics from
the noisy vibration signal of planetary gearbox. This critical problem was addressed by an envelope manifold
demodulation method, which was proposed for planetary gear fault detection. This method combines complex
wavelet, manifold learning, and frequency spectrogram to implement planetary gear fault characteristic extrac-
tion. The vibration signal of planetary gear was demodulated by wavelet enveloping. The envelope energy was
adopted as an indicator to select meshing frequency band. Manifold learning was utilized to reduce the effect of
noise within meshing frequency band. The fault characteristic frequency of the planetary gear was shown by the
spectrogram. The planetary gearbox model and test rig were established and experiments with planet gear faults
were conducted for verification. All results of the experiment analysis demonstrate its effectiveness and
reliability.5–8
Planetary gearbox fault diagnosis has been done mostly through vibration analysis over the past years.
Vibration signals theoretically have the amplitude modulation effect caused by time-variant vibration transfer
paths due to the rotation of planet carrier and sun gear, and therefore their spectral structure was complex. It was
difficult to diagnose planetary gearbox faults via vibration analysis. Strain sensor signals on the other hand have
less amplitude modulation effect. Thus, it was potentially easy and effective to diagnose planetary gearbox faults
via strain sensor signal analysis. A research investigation on planetary gearbox fault diagnosis via strain sensor
signal analysis was reported. The investigation involved using time synchronous average technique to process
signals acquired from a single piezoelectric strain sensor mounted on the housing of a planetary gearbox and
extracting condition indicators for fault diagnosis. The reported investigation included analysis results on a set of
seeded fault tests performed on a planetary gearbox test rig in a laboratory. The results have showed a satisfactory
planetary gearbox fault diagnostic performance using strain sensor signal analysis.9–13
A technique for detecting faults in variable speed wind turbines with permanent magnet synchronous generators
was proposed. The proposal consists on sampling and process vibration signals at constant position intervals, in
order to obtain a speed independent vibration spectrum. The angular position information is obtained using a
reduced-order observer, which allows estimating rotor position using voltage and current measurements, without
the need of a position sensor. The estimated position was used for re-sampling vibration signals at constant
position intervals with a high number of samples per revolution. Experimental results including a rotor imbalance
fault were presented to validate the proposal.14–18
In this paper, a comparative analysis of condition monitoring indicators for various crack detection has been
done. A crack has been simulated on planetary gear tooth root, planet gears carrier, and main bearing inner race.
The experimental methodology is briefly introduced and the information about the experimental investigation is
tested under accelerated fault conditions at different speeds and load cases. Moreover, an experimental procedure
is developed to assess the severity of the gearbox component fault. The cracks specifications have been introduced.
The experimental localized fault signals (vibration acceleration signals) were subjected to the same diagnostic
techniques such as spectrum comparisons, spectral kurtosis analysis, skewness analysis, and crest factor analysis.
Finally, the present work reports the results obtained by long-term (6.0 h) experiments to a defected planetary
gearbox system, with a transverse cut with a depth of 1.0 mm and thickness of 0.2 mm to simulate the planetary
gearbox components crack.

Condition monitoring indicators

Planetary gearbox components condition indices process the vibration of the wind turbine gearbox to return a
single value indicating its overall health. This signal could be either increasing or decreasing as the gearbox damage
(crack or pit) increases. The vibration signal of a defective gearbox usually considers being amplitude modulated at
characteristic defect frequency. Matching the measured vibration spectrum with the defect characteristic frequency
enables the detection of the presence of a defect and determines where the defect is. Figure 1 shows a description of
the traditional diagnostic scheme.19

Root mean square

Root mean square (RMS) signifies the energy content within a signal with respect to time. The RMS is defined
as the square root of the mean of the sum of the squares of signal samples. It measures the magnitude
Abouel-seoud 479

Raw Feature Diagnostics

Signal Extraction

Figure 1. Traditional planetary gearbox diagnostics scheme.

of a discretized signal and is given by

vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
u " N #
u1 X
RMSx ¼ t ðxi Þ 2
ð1Þ
N i¼1

where x is the original sampled time signal, N is the number of samples, and i is the sample index.

Skewness
Skewness, SK (xIN) measures the asymmetry of the data about its mean value. A negative SK value and positive
SK value imply that the data have a longer or fatter left tail and a longer or fatter right tail, respectively.

PN  1

 3
i¼1
N x i  x
SKðxIN Þ ¼ "rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi#3 ð2Þ
1
PN  
 2
N i¼1 xi  x

Kurtosis
Kurtosis (KT)is the fourth-order moment normalized by the square of variance of a signal and gives a measure of
the peakedness of the signal. It measures the peakedness, smoothness, and the heaviness of tail in a data set and is
given by

P  
 4
N Ni¼1 xi  x
KTðxIN Þ ¼   2 ð3Þ
PN   2
i¼1 xi  x

For a healthy gear vibration signal, kurtosis is approximately 3.

Crest factor
Crest factor (CF) is defined as the ratio of the peak value to the RMS of a signal and in other terms is equal to the
peak amplitude of a waveform divided by the RMS value. The purpose of the crest factor calculation is to give an
analyst a quick idea of how much impact is occurring in a waveform.

Peak Crest Value

Crest Factor ¼ ¼
RMS  RMS  Value
SupxðiÞ
CF ðxiN Þ ¼ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð4Þ
1
PN 2
N i¼1 ½xðtÞ
1
Peak ¼ CrestValue ¼ ½maxðxðtÞÞ  minðxðtÞÞ
2
480 Journal of Low Frequency Noise, Vibration and Active Control 37(3)

Figure 2. Wind turbine gearbox20.

Higher order statistics indices

From the previous discussion, descriptive and higher order statistics (HOS) indices have been generating intensive
interest. The RMS, average crest factor, and kurtosis values calculated from the measured signal have nearly
similar trend, where the RMS value is found to be a better indicator when compared to either average crest factor
or kurtosis. The RMS values of rotational vibration acceleration are used to evaluate the wind turbine gearbox
components faults severity assessment. Component fault health level (CFHL) can be calculated based on the
following equation

ðRMSÞHealthy  ðRMSÞFaulty
CFHL, ð%Þ ¼ ð5Þ
ðRMSÞHealthy

where CFHL, ð%Þ is the component fault health level; ðRMSÞHealthy is the RMS value for healthy condition;
ðRMSÞFaulty is the RMS value for faulty condition.

Experimental methodology
Background
A wind turbine gearbox has three stages, where the first stage is planetary and the second and third stages
are helical. The difference in the size of the wheels is equal or over 1:5 in the first stage, while the difference
in size of the wheels is also equal or over 1:5 in the second and third stages. When the two ratios are combined,
the output shaft will turn equal or over 25 times for every rotation of the hollow shaft (input) and the main shaft
of the wind turbine combined. One can say that the gearbox has a gear ratio of 1:25. Normally, the ratio in
every set of gearwheels is restricted to about less than 1:6. If the 150 kW wind turbine has a rotor rotational
speed of 40 r/min with a generator speed of about 1000 r/min, the gearbox must have a total gear ratio of 40/1000
or 1:25. This is possible using a three-stage gearbox (one planetary stage and two helical stages (Figure 2)).

Test rig layout

Figure 3 shows a photograph of the layout of the test rig which will be used for the vibration analysis in the
detection, quantification, and advancement monitoring of fault incurred by wind turbine gearbox components.
The tested wind turbine gearbox is the same as the one described above (it contains three stages), where the first
stage is planetary and the second and third stages are helical. Owing to the difficulties of obtaining a real gearbox
in one unit, two separate units are considered namely, one planetary gearbox and one helical gearbox. Both
gearboxes (planetary and helical) are connected by flexible coupling producing one combined gearbox. The
axes of the gears either of planetary gearbox or helical gearbox are supported by two bearings each. Either the
planetary gearbox or the helical gearbox system is settled in an oil basin in order to ensure proper lubrication. SAE
90 oil was used as a lubricant where the full lubrication level is 100 mm and half lubrication level is 50 mm. The
combined gearbox is powered by an electric motor and consumes its power on a hydraulic disc brake. A short shaft
Abouel-seoud 481

Figure 3. Photograph of the test rig layout.

is attached directly to the shaft of the motor to minimize the effects of misalignment and transmission of vibration
from motor. The shaft is supported at its ends through two bearings and then the motion is transmitted directly to
the gearboxes. The system characteristics are as follows:

. Stage 1 – planetary gearbox with three planet gears

. Stage 2 – helical gearbox with four helical gears
. Stage 3 – phase 11 kW motor (220 V, 50 Hz, 1400 r/min) controlled by an inverter
. Hydraulic disc brake
. The shafts are bearing supported

Experimental procedure
The measurement methodolgy used induction motor drawing power through a electrical source and driving wind
turbine gearbox, a separately excited brake that is coupled to the output shaft of the gearbox and connected brake
paddle to apply or remove load into the gearbox. In order to measure the vibration responses of the wind turbine
gearbox on real condition monitoring signals, the established test rig was utilized to provide data on a commercial
transmission as its health progresses from healthy to faulty. Table 1 tabulates the technical data for planetary
gearbox (3 planet gears, 1 sun gear, 1 rig gear). The whole turbine gearbox (planetary and helical) is driven at a set
input speed using a 15 horsepower (hp), 1440 r/min AC drive motor. The maximum speed and load are 40 r/min
and 15 hp. The speed variation can be accomplished by varying the frequency to the motor with an AC inverter
unit. The mechanical and electrical losses are sustained by a small fraction of whole power. The established test rig
has the capability of testing most of the wind turbine gearboxes with ratios from about 25 to 50. The system is
sized to provide the maximum versatility to speed and load settings. The use of different speed ratios and
gearboxes than that listed in this study is possible if appropriate consideration to system operation is given.
The motor, hydraulic disc brake, flywheel, and gearbox are hard-mounted and aligned on a bedplate. The bedplate
is mounted using isolation feet to prevent vibration transmission to the floor. The shafts are connected with both
flexible and rigid couplings. Since the planetary stage has a high torque with low speed and consequently most of
the failure modes occur in this stage, therefore, all the experimental work will be carried out on the planetary stage
rather than on the helical stages. The planetary gearbox consists of three planet gears, one sun gear, and one ring
gear, which is fixed to the gearbox frame.
One nondestructive technique has been employed to record the gearbox during operation, namely vibra-
tion acceleration generation. Two Bruel & Kjaer accelerometers were used for the vibration acceleration sig-
nals recording both mounted upon the gearbox case, one in each side-axis. The sampling frequency used was
6.0 kHz and signals of 1.0 s duration were recorded. B&K portable and multichannel PULSE-type 3560-B-X05
analyzer is used (see Figure 4). The B&K PULSE labshop is the measurement software type 7700 that is used
to analyze the results. The speed is measured by a photoelectric probe. Recordings were carried out at constant
speed.
482 Journal of Low Frequency Noise, Vibration and Active Control 37(3)

Table 1. Technical data for planetary gearbox (3 planet gears, 1 sun gear, 1 rig gear).

No. Model parameter Notation Unit Value

1 Number of plant teeth Zp – 26

2 Number of sun teeth Zs – 16
1 Number of ring teeth ZR – 68
2 Mass of planet gear mp kg 2.746
3 Mass of sun gear ms kg 1.446
4 Mass of ring gear mR kg 0.677
5 Mass of carrier mc kg 13.153
6 Number of planet gear s – 3.0
7 Young’s modulus E N/m2 2.068  1011
8 Poisson’s ratio v – 0.3
9 Pressure angle  degree 20
10 Planet diameter Dp mm 110
11 Sun diameter Ds mm 84.87
12 Ring diameter DR mm 360.68
13 Face width W mm 60.0
14 Transmission ratio RP – 5.25

Figure 4. Portable and multichannel PULSE.

It is well known that most of the motions in the gearbox are rotational. On the other hand, it is a fact that 50%
of all coordinates are rotational (as opposed to translations) and 75% of all frequency response functions (FRF)
involve rotational coordinates. However, it is extremely rare to find enough references to methods for the meas-
urement of rotational responses and this reflects the fact that virtually none are made. This situation arises from a
considerable difficulty encountered when trying to measure either rotational responses or excitations and also
when trying to apply rotational excitation, i.e. an excitation torque.
There are basically two problems to be tackled: the first is that of measuring rotational responses and the second
is a companion one of generating and measuring the rotational excitations. The first of these is the less difficult and
a number of techniques have been evaluated, which use a pair of matched accelerometers placed a short distance
apart on the gearbox’s structure to be measured as presented in Ewins.21
Three small faults (cracks) have been made artificially on the planetary gearbox components, namely planet
gear tooth, planet gear carrier, and main bearing with wire electrical discharge machining to create a stress
concentration, which eventually led to a propagating crack. The cracks dimensions are listed in Table 2 and
are shown in Figures 5 to 8 for all the three gearbox components. For each defect, recordings every 60 min
were acquired and a total of 7 recordings (0–6 h of test duration) were resulted until the termination of the test.
Abouel-seoud 483

Table 2. Wind turbine planetary gearbox components defects dimensions.

No. Component defect Defect dimensions

0 Healthy gearboxes Free from defects

1 Planet gear tooth crack Depth 1.0 mm
Thickness 0.2 mm
2 Low-speed shaft (LSS) main bearing crack Depth 1.0 mm
Thickness 0.2 mm
3 Planet gears carrier crack Depth 1.0 mm
Thickness 0.2 mm

Healthy

Figure 5. Wind turbine gearbox: Healthy components.

Crack

Depth 1.0 mm
Thickness 0.2 mm

Figure 6. Wind turbine gearbox: Cracked planet gear tooth component.

This type of test was preferred in order to have the opportunity to monitor path defect modes, i.e. the natural
defect propagation. Damage is assured by increasing the test period to the point where the remaining metal in the
tooth area has enough stress to be in the plastic deformation region. With respect to healthy gearbox, there are no
cracks but the vibration responses are due to the component misalignment, components machining tolerances,
planet gear profile errors, manufacturing errors (especially roundness error of the ring gear), etc.
484 Journal of Low Frequency Noise, Vibration and Active Control 37(3)

Crack

Depth 1.0 mm
Thickness 0.2 mm

Figure 7. Wind turbine gearbox: Cracked main bearing inner race component.

Crack

Depth 1.0 mm
Thickness 0.2 mm

Figure 8. Wind turbine gearbox: Cracked planet gears carrier component.

Results and discussion

Rotational vibration based gearbox fault components diagnosis
Healthy gearbox components. Figures 9 and 12 illustrate the rotational vibration acceleration in terms of time-
domain and at speed of 20 r/min with torque load of 20 Nm and at speed of 40 r/min with torque load of
40 Nm respectively for healthy gearbox component measured based on the experimental methodology presented
an earlier section. Figures 9(a) and 10(a) show the original signal at 1000 ms, while Figures 9(b) and 10(b) show
zoomed signal at 100 ms This is done to display the difference between the defect signal and that for the healthy
one in clear way. Figures 11 and 12 show the frequency-domain and at a speed of 20 r/min with torque load of
20 Nm and at speed of 40 r/min with torque load of 40 Nm respectively for healthy gearbox components measured
based on the experimental methodology presented in the previous section, where the signals in these figures are
normally dominated by tooth meshing harmonics modulation with the rotation of the gear shaft. The signal is
normally dominated by tooth meshing harmonics modulation by the rotation of the gear shaft. In most cases, the
modulation waveforms are also sinusoids with lower shaft orders, i.e. one time and/or two times the shaft
frequency.
Referring to Tables 3 to 5, the healthy planetary gearbox components condition monitoring indicator values
computed based on equations (1) to (4) for 20 r/min, 20 Nm are as follows: RMS 0.035 rad/s2, SK -0.052, KT 3.481
Abouel-seoud 485

(a) Speed 20 rpm, Torque load 20 Nm, Healthy gearbox

0.4

0.3

Rotational Vibration Acceleratio

0.2

rad/s^2 x 10^-3
0.1

-0.1

-0.2

-0.3

-0.4
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Time, ms

(b) Speed 20 rpm, Torque load 20 Nm, Healthy gearbox

0.4

0.3
Rotational Vibration Acceleration ,

0.2
rad/s^2 x 10^-3

0.1

-0.1

-0.2

-0.3

-0.4
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Time, ms

Figure 9. Time-domain, rotational vibration acceleration at 20 r/min and 20 Nm: (a) original signal plot at 1000 ms; (b) zoomed signal
in plot (a) for 100 ms.

and CF 4.626, while the values for 40 r/min, 40 Nm are as follows: RMS 0.065 rad/s2, SK 0.041, KT 3.261, and
CF 4.035. On the other hand, the normal distribution has either kurtosis or crest factor value of 3, which is a good
condition for the planetary gearbox components. Moreover, in both 20 r/min, 20 Nm and 40 r/min, 40 Nm, the
skewness values indicate that the experimental results data has fatter left trail.

Cracked planet gear tooth component. In cracked planet gear, the crack is simplified and the path of the crack is
considered to be a straight line. The intersection angle between the crack and the centerline of the tooth is set at a
constant of 45 . The wind turbine planetary gearbox component of planet gear crack defect dimensions is tabu-
lated in Table 2. Figures 13 and 14 illustrate zoomed signal at 100 ms as a sample from the measured results based
on the experimental methodology presented in the ‘‘Experimental methodology’’ section for a comparison between
healthy and cracked planet gear zoomed signals of the rotational vibration acceleration in terms of time-domain at
a speed of 20 r/min with 20 Nm and at 40 r/min with torque load of 40 Nm at testing time of 6.0 h respectively,
where the vibration acceleration signals are considered to be stationary waveform. It is observed that the overall
time-domain spectrum levels are higher for the cracked planet gear than that of healthy condition, which indicates
cracks. When a localized tooth defect occurs, such as crack, the engagement of the cracked tooth will induce an
impulsive change with comparatively low energy to the gear mesh signal. This can produce some higher shaft-
order modulations and may excite structure resonance.
Table 3 tabulates the cracked planet gear condition monitoring indicators values calculated based on equations
(1) to (4) of RMS, SK, KT, and CF for the testing time ranging from 0.0 to 6.0 h with the corresponding healthy
gearbox at 20 r/min with 20 Nm and at 40 r/min with torque load of 40 Nm. For more accurate observation of
these values through the range of the testing time, the RMS value is increased with the increase in the testing time.
A magnification is obtained, which is important and possesses diagnostic value as they can be used to define and
characterize the critical changes of the gears damage accumulation and evaluation. The values of the remaining
indicator parameters are scattering.
486 Journal of Low Frequency Noise, Vibration and Active Control 37(3)

(a) Speed 40 rpm, Torque load 40 Nm, Healthy gearbox

0.4

Rotational Vibration Acceleration,

0.3

0.2

rad/s^2 x 10^-3
0.1

-0.1

-0.2

-0.3

-0.4
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Time, ms

(b) Speed 40 rpm, Torque load 40 Nm, Healthy gearbox

0.4
Rotational Vibration Acceleration ,

0.3

0.2
rad/s^2 x 10^-3

0.1

-0.1

-0.2

-0.3

-0.4
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Time, ms

Figure 10. Time-domain, rotational vibration acceleration at 40 r/min and 40 Nm: (a) original signal plot at 1000 ms; (b) zoomed
signal in plot (a) for 100 ms.

Speed 20 rpm, Torque load 20 Nm, Healthy gearboxes

35
Rotational Vibration Acceleration,

28
rad/s^2 x 10 ^3

21

14

0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Frequency, Hz

Figure 11. Frequency-domain rotational vibration acceleration (20 r/min, 20 Nm).

Cracked planet gears carrier component. The wind turbine planetary gearbox component of planet gears carrier crack
defect dimensions is tabulated in Table 2. Figures 15 and 16 illustrate zoomed signal at 100 ms as a sample from
the measured results based on the experimental methodology presented in the ‘‘Experimental methodology’’
section for a comparison between healthy and cracked planet gears carrier zoomed signals of the rotational
vibration acceleration in terms of time-domain and at 20 r/min with 20 Nm and at 40 r/min with torque load of
40 Nm at testing time of 6.0 h respectively, where the vibration acceleration signals are considered to be stationary
waveform. Based on the time-domain spectra, the overall levels are higher for gear carrier crack than that for
Abouel-seoud 487

Speed 40 rpm, Torque load 40 Nm, Healthy gearbox

35

Rotational Vibration Acceleration,

28

rad/s^2 x 10 ^3
21

14

0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Frequency, Hz

Figure 12. Frequency-domain rotational vibration acceleration (40 r/min, 40 Nm).

Table 3. Wind turbine gearbox: Cracked planetary gear tooth results data.

Testing time (h)

No. Condition monitoring indicators Healthy 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0

0 Speed 20 r/min – Torque load 20 Nm

1 Root mean square (RMS) (rad/s2) 0.035 0.046 0.053 0.056 0.058 0.059 0.06 0.070
2 Skewness (SK) 0.050 0.14 11.6 0.056 0.108 0.07 1.28 0.01
3 Kurtosis (KT) 3.481 3.86 3.37 2.904 3.344 3.099 2. 80 3.199
4 Crest factor (CF) 4.626 4.01 3.83 3.384 3.960 3.365 3.76 3.560
0 Speed 40 r/min – Torque load 40 Nm
1 Root mean square (RMS) (rad/s2) 0.065 0.119 0.122 0.125 0.129 0.139 0.142 0.146
2 Skewness (SK) 0.041 3.11 0.07 0.011 0.02 0.07 4.19 0.071
3 Kurtosis (KT) 3.261 4.937 3.512 3.312 3.768 3.734 6.749 3.450
4 Crest factor (CF) 4.035 6.751 4.913 4.402 7.343 4.400 8.289 4.733

Table 4. Wind turbine gearbox: Cracked planetary gears carrier results.

Testing time (h)

No. Condition monitoring indicators Healthy 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0

0 Speed 20 r/min – Torque load 20 Nm

1 Root mean square (RMS) (rad/s2) 0.035 0.057 0.059 0.065 0.071 0.08 0.083 0.085
2 Skewness (SK) 0.05 0.012 0.04 0.056 0.046 0.08 0.04 0.109
3 Kurtosis (KT) 3.481 2.881 3.262 3.039 2.784 2.97 2.803 3.202
4 Crest factor (CF) 4.626 3.322 4.073 4.375 3.892 3.50 3.791 4.459
0 Speed 40 r/min – Torque load 40 Nm
1 Root mean square (RMS) (rad/s2) 0.065 0.107 0.11 0.119 0.122 0.13 0.15 0.155
2 Skewness (SK) 0.041 0.013 0.01 0.01 0.05 0.01 0.03 0.10
3 Kurtosis (KT) 3.261 3.068 3.178 3.206 3.194 3.22 3.23 3.365
4 Crest factor (CF) 4.035 4.140 4.252 4.597 3.402 4.42 4.71 4.655
488 Journal of Low Frequency Noise, Vibration and Active Control 37(3)

Table 5. Wind turbine gearbox: Cracked main bearing inner race results.

Testing time, h

No. Condition monitoring indicators Healthy 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0

0 Speed 20 r/min – Torque load 20 Nm

1 Root mean square (RMS) (rad/s2) 0.035 0.059 0.061 0.063 0.066 0.07 0.08 0.09
2 Skewness (SK) 0.05 0.06 3.170 0.095 0.014 0.12 0.01 0.109
3 Kurtosis (KT) 3.481 3.082 0.11 3.014 2.949 3.22 2.67 3.202
4 Crest factor (CF) 4.626 4.174 3.970 4.068 4.004 3.81 3.41 3.562
0 Speed 40 r/min – Torque load 40 Nm
1 Root mean square (RMS), (rad/s2) 0.065 0.118 0.138 0.141 0.147 0.15 0.16 0.170
2 Skewness (SK) 0.041 0.088 0.009 0.01 0.060 0.06 0.05 0.013
3 Kurtosis (KT) 3.261 3.213 3.009 3.052 3.070 3.44 3.10 3.084
4 Crest factor (CF) 4.035 4.263 4.630 4.177 4.263 4.45 4.59 4.059

Speed 20 rpm, Torque load 20 Nm, Cracked planetary gear tooth

0.4
Healthy
Rotational Vibration Acceleration,

0.3
Cracked planetary gear tooth
0.2
rad/s^2 x 10^-3

0.1

-0.1

-0.2

-0.3

-0.4
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Time, ms

Figure 13. Zoomed time-domain rotational vibration acceleration for cracked planet gear tooth at 40 r/min and 40 Nm.

healthy condition, which indicates crack. Figures 15 and 16 depict the spectra features of rotational vibration
acceleration signals for the two cases under the same load. They exhibit complicated patterns and high density of
spectral component, which needs careful examination to find the components of interest and will not appear for a
healthy planetary gearbox. The presence of higher levels in the time regions may be due to the gearbox manu-
facturing and installation errors.
Table 4 tabulates the planet gears carrier crack condition monitoring indicators values computed based
on equations (1) to (4) for the testing time ranging from 0.0 to 6.0 h with the corresponding healthy gearbox
at 20 r/min with 20 Nm and at 40 r/min with torque load of 40 Nm. Basically, the RMS of the rotational vibra-
tion acceleration signal is more closely related to gearbox rotational vibration acceleration and mechanical
interaction. In addition to RMS, three physical meshing behavior-related condition indicators are also seen:
SK, KT, and CF.
SK, KT, and CF are global indicators that react to changes in the whole time signal and identify major
abnormal behaviors. An increase in the vibration level is generally observed in the case of planet gears carrier
such as crack faults without significant change in the spectrum, which will result in the increase in SK, KT, and CF
values. They will increase if a periodic signal contains a local increase in level.
Abouel-seoud 489

Speed 40 rpm, Torque load 40 Nm, Cracked planetary gear carrier

0.4
Healthy
Cracked planetary gears carrier

R otational V ibration A cceleration,

0.3

0.2

rad/s^2 x 10^-3
0.1

-0.1

-0.2

-0.3

-0.4
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Time, ms

Figure 14. Zoomed time-domain rotational vibration acceleration for cracked planet gear tooth at 40 r/min and 40 Nm.

Speed 20 rpm, Torque load 20 Nm, Cracked planetary gears carrier

0.4
Healthy
R o ta tio n a l V ib ra tio n A c c e le ra tio n ,

0.3 Cracked planetary gears carrier

0.2
ra d /s ^2 x 1 0 ^-3

0.1

-0.1

-0.2

-0.3

-0.4
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Time, ms

Figure 15. Zoomed time-domain rotational vibration acceleration for cracked planet gears carrier at 40 r/min and 40 Nm.

Cracked main bearing component. The wind turbine planetary gearbox component of main bearing inner race crack
defect dimensions is tabulated in Table 2. Figures 15 and 16 illustrate zoomed signal at 100 ms as a samples from
the measured results based on the experimental methodology presents in the ‘‘Experimental methodology’’ section
for a comparison between healthy and cracked planet gears carrier zoomed signals of the rotational vibration
acceleration in terms of time-domain at a speed of 20 r/min with 20 Nm and at speed of 40 r/min with torque load
of 40 Nm at testing time of 6.0 h respectively, where the vibration acceleration signals are considered to be sta-
tionary waveform. Based on time-domain spectra, the overall levels are higher for gear carrier crack than that for
healthy condition, which indicates crack. From the spectra in Figures 17 and 18, it can be seen that the charac-
teristic of bearing fault and its harmonics may be interfered by the complex gearbox signal components. Some
time-domain levels may be greatly reduced, which is not conductive to bearing fault diagnosis. Therefore, only the
time-domain with high level values will be selected for bearing fault diagnosis.
490 Journal of Low Frequency Noise, Vibration and Active Control 37(3)

Speed 40 rpm, Torque load 40 Nm, Cracked planetary gear carrier

0.4
Healthy
0.3 Cracked planetary gears carrier

R o ta tio n a l V ib ra tio n A c c e le ra tio n ,

0.2

ra d /s ^2 x 1 0 ^-3
0.1

-0.1

-0.2

-0.3

-0.4
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Time, ms

Figure 16. Zoomed time-domain rotational vibration acceleration for cracked planet gears carrier at 40 r/min and 40 Nm.

Speed 20 rpm, Torque load 20 Nm, Cracked main bearing inner race
0.4
Healthy
R o ta tio n a l V ib ra tio n A c c e le ra tio n ,

0.3 Cracked main bearing inner race

0.2
ra d /s ^2 x 1 0 ^-3

0.1

-0.1

-0.2

-0.3

-0.4
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Time, ms

Figure 17. Zoomed time-domain rotational vibration acceleration for cracked main bearing inner race at 40 r/min and 40 Nm.

In order to suppress the interference from gear vibration, time synchronous technology is used to extract the
residual signal, which mainly contains the vibration produced by bearing fault. Firstly, the vibration signal is
resampled according to the rotational information, which ensures the signal is sampled with equal shaft degree.
Then, this resampled signal minus the equal length of time synchronous averaging signal will result in the residual
signal. Next, the post processing is based on the residual signal.
Table 5 tabulates the planet gears carrier crack condition monitoring indicators values computed based on
equations (1) to (4) for the testing time ranging from 0.0 to 6.0 h with the corresponding healthy gearbox at
20 r/min with 20 Nm and at 40 r/min with torque load of 40 Nm. Basically, the RMS of the rotational vibration
acceleration signal is more closely related to gearbox rotational vibration acceleration and mechanical interaction.
In addition to RMS, three physical meshing behavior-related condition indicators are also seen: SK, KT, and CF.
Abouel-seoud 491

Speed 40 rpm, Torque load 40 Nm, Cracked main bearing inner race
0.4

0.3

Rotational Vibration Acceleration,

0.2

rad/s^2 x 10^-3
0.1

-0.1

-0.2

-0.3 Healthy
Cracked main bearing inner race
-0.4
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Time, ms

Figure 18. Zoomed Time-domain rotational vibration acceleration for cracked main bearing inner race at 40 r/min and 40 Nm.

Wind turbine gearbox: Testing Time 6.0 h

0.2
R o ta tio n a l V ib ra tio n A c c e le ra tio n ,

Speed 20 rpm-Torque Load 20 Nm

Speed 40 rpm-Torque Load 40 Nm
0.16
ra d /s ^ 2 x 1 0 ^ -3

0.12

0.08

0.04

0
Healthy Cracked planetary Cracked planetary Cracked main
gear tooth gears carrier bearing inner race
Defect (Fault) Type

Figure 19. RMS values for nominal vibration acceleration.

Then the rotational acceleration signal condition indicators were calculated on the time-domain signals. Three
condition indicators as introduced in section ‘‘Condition monitoring indicators’’ were computed using the time-
domain vibration acceleration signals.
In summary, it can be seen that for axial vibration accelerometer mounted on the bearing housing, the RMS
and KT show good fault detection potential. SK and CF of the axial accelerometers work in most cases but are not
stable. The vibration signals are highly affected by the background noise or mechanical resonance, making their
performance unstable.

Gearbox components defects (faults) severity assessment

From the previous discussion, the condition monitoring indicators of RMS, skewness SK, KT, and CF have been
generating intensive interest. They have nearly similar trend, where the RMS value is found to be a better indicator
when compared to other indicators. However, the RMS values of rotational vibration acceleration are used to
evaluate the wind turbine gearbox components faults severity assessment. Figure 19 depicts severity assessment
which has been achieved by the development of the experimental technique at 20 r/min and torque load of 20 Nm
and speed of 40 r/min and torque load of 40 Nm at testing time of 6.0 h. The figure indicates that the cracked main
bearing posses the highest RMS value followed by cracked planet gears carrier with cracked planet gear has the
least RMS value.
492 Journal of Low Frequency Noise, Vibration and Active Control 37(3)

On the other hand, in order to establish both the sensitivity and robustness of the gearbox condition indicator
Figures 20 to 22 tabulate the percentage of the fault’s rotational vibration acceleration RMS change from
the healthy gearbox level from that of the healthy gearbox (CFHL) at 20 r/min and torque load of 20 Nm, and
at 40 r/min and torque load of 40 Nm at the testing time of 6.0 h based on equation (5) with respect to cracked

Wind turbine gearbox : Cracked planetary gear tooth

180
Speed 20 rpm-Torque Load 20 Nm

C h an g e fro m th e h ealth y g earb o x (% )

160
Speed 40 rpm-Torque Load 40 Nm
140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Testing Time, h

Figure 20. Percentage change from healthy gearbox of cracked planetary gear tooth.

Wind turbine gearbox: Cracked planetary gears carrier

180
Speed 20 rpm-Torque Load 20 Nm
Change from the healthy gearbox (%)

160
Speed 40 rpm-Torque Load 40 Nm
140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Testing Time, h

Figure 21. Percentage change from healthy gearbox of cracked planetary gears carrier.

Wind turbine gearbox: Cracked main bearing inner race

180
Speed 20 rpm-Torque Load 20 Nm
C h an g e from th e h ealth y g earb ox (% )

160 Speed 40 rpm-Torque Load 40 Nm

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Testing Time, h

Figure 22. Percentage change from healthy gearbox of cracked main bearing inner race.
Abouel-seoud 493

planet gear, cracked planet gears carrier, and cracked main bearing, respectively. Generally speaking, the CFHL
computed for the faults considered in this work at speed of 40 r/min and torque load of 40 Nm is greater that of
20 r/min and torque load of 20 Nm. The use of CFHL, % has shown that the fault on wind turbine planetary
gearbox can be detected at its early stages, and symptoms of fault on vibration is not primarily caused by the
reduction components stiffness (which is the case for the detection of a localized fault), but mainly due to the
deviations in component shape from the true component shape, where the deviations in component shape causes
the original vibration and consequently causes the onset of the fault, whatever be the value of stiffness.

Conclusions
In this paper, a new measurement technique-based planetary gearbox components fault diagnostic methodology
was presented. The presented method was accomplished through the real-time signals and condition indicators to
extract diagnostic features for planetary gearbox diagnosis. First, the accelerometer signal is band pass analyzed so
as to retain the information related to the gear conditions. Then, the time-domain signal is computed to obtain the
periodically repeated waveform. The presented method was validated using data collected from seeded fault tests
conducted on a planetary gearbox test rig in a laboratory.
In stationary vibration waveform feature, the periodical impulses caused by the wind turbine gearbox faults
appear in the time-domain signal as the fault level increases. This carries diagnostic information, which is of great
importance for extracting features of the fault. Furthermore, experimental results are revealed where the wind
turbine planetary gearbox components defects (faults) can be identified.
In order to extract the impulse feature of faulty gearbox components, rotational vibration acceleration signals
are used to analyze the vibration signals of both healthy and faulty gearbox. The wind turbine gearbox compo-
nents considered are planet gear, planet gear carrier, and main bearing. Furthermore, the condition monitoring
indicators of the RMS, SK, KT, and CF reflect the rotational vibration responses of the gearbox. The results look
promising, where the RMS value analysis could be a good indicator when compared with the other indicators
considered for early detection and characterization of faults. Moreover, multihour tests were conducted and
recordings and were acquired using rotational vibration monitoring.
From this investigation, the gearbox components faults severity assessment has indicated that the cracked main
bearing possess the highest RMS value followed by cracked planet gears carrier with cracked planet gear having the
least RMS value. This can help to identify which type of defect can be considered first. Moreover, the symptoms of
fault on vibration is not primarily caused by the reduction components stiffness (which is the case for the detection of
a localized fault), but mainly due to the deviations in component shape from the true component shape.
In this paper, a gearbox condition indicator was investigated in order to determine its sensitivity to faults under
variable operational conditions. It was demonstrated that the gearbox condition indicators are able to discriminate
between proper and improper fault conditions. However, it cannot be used to follow the progression of the fault
and is sensitive to variations in the operational conditions. Further investigation is required to improve the ability
of the gearbox condition indicators. Furthermore, future work will include the investigation of multiple localized
defects and extension of the theoretical model in three dimensions to simulate helical gears.
The use of percentage of the faults’ rotational vibration acceleration RMS change from the healthy gearbox
level from that of healthy gearbox (CFHL), % which has shown that the fault on wind turbine planetary gearbox
can be detected at its early stages, and symptoms of fault on vibration is not primarily caused by the reduction
components stiffness (which is the case for the detection of a localized fault), but mainly due to the deviations in
component shape from the true component shape.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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