DOI 10.

1007/s00170-003-1830-8
ORI GI NAL ARTI CLE
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2005) 25: 542550
Tahar Fakhfakh Fakher Chaari Mohamed Haddar
Numerical and experimental analysis of a gear systemwith teeth defects
Received: 10 March 2003 / Accepted: 14 June 2003 / Published online: 24 November 2004
Springer-Verlag London Limited 2004
Abstract The modelling of a one-stage spur gear trans-
mission by a two degrees of freedom system produces two
modes: rigid body and elastic. The time varying meshing
stiffness is the main internal excitation source for the trans-
mission and governs the behaviour of the elastic mode. De-
terioration of one or several teeth, which affects the gear
mesh stiffness, is considered in this work. The beginning
of crack or spalling are modelled respectively by tooth hav-
ing localised and distributed defect and are taken into ac-
count in the model. Simulation results are analysed by cep-
strum and spectrum techniques. It is found that cepstrum and
spectrum techniques are very efcient for localised and dis-
tributed defects, respectively. Series of tests are made in the
experimental setup. Spectrum and cepstrum analysis of the
recorded responses, with and without defects, are compared
with numerical results and conrms their usefulness in gear
monitoring.
Keywords Cepstrum Gear defects Spectrum Vibration
analysis
1 Introduction
Gear drives are widely used in industry. They are very useful
in transmitting important torques, in producing high rotational
speeds and in changing the direction of rotational movement.
Gears generally work in severe conditions. They are sub-
jected to progressive deterioration of their state, especially on
their teeth. Then it is necessary to submit them to a continu-
ous conditional monitoring in order to detect wear and the early
stages of cracks [1].
T. Fakhfakh F. Chaari M. Haddar (u)
Mechanics Modelling and Production research Unit,
Mechanical Engineering Department,
National School of Engineers of Sfax,
BP. W. 3038 Sfax, Tunisia
E-mail: mohammed_haddar@yahoo.fr
Several methods of machine monitoring were proposed.
Vibration analysis is manifestly the most commonly used
method [24]. Indeed, this method can give some qualitative in-
formation about efforts developed within parts of the machine
and allows for the detection of possible defects with a suitable
diagnosis.
Techniques for extracting features of defects by vibration an-
alysis are numerous. Spectral analysis can detect some initiated
cracks described by stationary and periodic signal components.
This technique remains insufcient since measured signals have
non-stationary features or they may contain several families of
periodicities [5]. Hence, it is difcult to extract components of
defects. Wavelet analysis [6] is used for the diagnosis of localised
defects with stationary or non-stationary features. Cepstrum an-
alysis is very efcient for signals with many families of period-
icities [1, 2, 7, 8]. This analysis highlights the signal components
of defects that modulate the amplitude or the frequency of the
perfect system response.
In this work, numerical and experimental analysis of a single-
stage gear drive without defects and with localised and dis-
tributed defects is presented.
First, we develop a gear head model with two degrees of
freedom. The model involves two modes of dynamic behaviour.
Rigid body mode expresses the condition of rolling without slip
and (taking into account the reduction ratio factor) the equality
between inertia torques of the motor and receiving shafts. Little
motion due to the bending of meshing teeth, which is responsible
for transmission error, is described by the elastic mode.
Dynamical responses of the model developed are matched by
numerical integration algorithm in both cases of perfect and de-
fected teeth with localised and distributed defects. Spectrum and
cepstrum techniques are then used to detect those defects.
In a second step, a series of tests are made in the experimental
setup to observe the dynamic behaviour of the transmission. De-
fects are introduced on perfect wheels by means of a pre-cracked
tooth or by uniformly distributed spallling. Comparison of the
signal responses before and after introducing these defects are
made by spectrum and cepstrum techniques in order to outline
their features.
543
2 Gear defects
There are three categories of gear defects: manufacturing de-
fects (tooth prole error, eccentricity of wheels, etc.), installation
defects (parallelism, etc.) and defects appearing during transmis-
sion (wear tooth, crack, spalling, etc.). These defects express
transmission error and may yield gearbox failure.
Recent works deal with manufacturing and installation de-
fects. The eccentricity introduces modulation amplitude (at the
decient wheel rotation frequency) of the response marked by
time varying gear mesh stiffness [9]. Sidebands around gear
mesh frequency f
e
and its harmonics appear in the signal spec-
trum. Parallelism defects increase the vibratory level of the ma-
chine, more precisely, the gear mesh spectral amplitude of mesh-
ing frequency and its harmonics [10].
The tooth wear leads to a loss of contact with respect to
the ideal tooth prole and consequently a periodic fall of the
tooth stiffness. The beginning of the tooth crack yields to a fall
of stiffness occurring at the rotation frequency of the decient
wheel [1113]. These two types of defects are discussed in the
present work, and numerical simulation and experimental tests
are used to study their inuence on the dynamic response of the
geared transmission.
3 Dynamic model of a one-stage gear transmission
At this stage, were interested in modelling gear transmission
with both a perfect and defected tooth (wear tooth, crack,
spalling, etc.) without any manufacturing or installation defects.
The driving shaft with basis radius r
1
is subjected to the motor
torque T
1
, while the driven shaft with basis radius r
2
is submit-
ted to the torque T
2
created by external imposed loads. Thus, in
steady state movement, transmission ratio of the gear transmis-
sion is expressed by:
=
r
1
r
2
. (1)
3.1 Gear mesh stiffness model
Two cases can be considered. In the rst case, the transmission is
supposed to be innitely rigid, while in the second case the gear
mesh exibility is taken into account.
In the rst case, the perfect transmission is supposed to be
innitely rigid and the opposed load provides permanent pinion-
wheel contact (with no shocks). Thus, there will be no substantial
vibrations and the transmission is said to be ideal.
Actually, this is never the case and the transmission isnt
innitely rigid. Indeed, teeth in the mesh, which supports the tor-
sion torque, increase bending and bruising stiffness. In the same
way, wheels and shafts (both the driving and driven ones) op-
pose twisting stiffness. The static torque is equal to an equivalent
stiffness k
eq
multiplied by the sum of the angular displacements
due to teeth, wheels and shafts, which represent the transmission
error. Then, this equivalent stiffness is given by [14]:
1
k
eq
=
1
k
bn
+
1
k
br
+
1
k
w
+
1
k
t
(2)
with k
bn
being the tooth bending stiffness, k
br
being the bruising
stiffness, k
w
being the wheel body stiffness and k
t
being the shaft
twisting stiffness.
Since the bruising, the body wheel and twisting shaft stiff-
ness are very high compared to the tooth bending stiffness, an
equivalent stiffness, called the gear mesh stiffness, is therefore
almost equal to the bending stiffness k
bn
.
Nevertheless, during one gear mesh period T
e
and for a given
conducting ratio (1 < < 2), the pinion and wheel are rst in
contact with only one pair of teeth during ( 1)T
e
, then by two
pairs of teeth during (2)T
e
. Figure 1 illustrates the gear mesh
process.
Thus, gear mesh stiffness is periodic with the period T
e
and
can be approximated by [9]:
k(t) =
_
k
max
if nT
e
t (n + 1)T
e
k
min
if (n + 1)T
e
t (n +1)T
e
(3)
where n is an integer representing the nth gear mesh period.
Fourier development of k(t) yields:
k (t) = k
m
+
k

i=1
1
i
_
sin 2i( 1) cos
2it
T
e
+(1cos 2i( 1) sin
2it
T
e
_
(4)
with:
k
m
= k
max
( 1) +(2)k
min
(5)
k = k
max
k
min
(6)
and with k
m
and k being positive. We will take k
max
= 610
7
N/m, k
min
= 310
7
N/m and = 1.66. Figure 3a represents the
time variation of stiffness gear mesh k(t).
3.2 Dynamical model of the transmission
A one-stage gearing train can be modelled by the two degrees of
freedom system shown in Fig. 2, whose motion is described by
the angular rotations
1
(t) and
2
(t), respectively, for the pinion
Fig. 1. Engaged teeth on gear mesh [14]
544
Fig. 2. Dynamic model of the transmission
(1) and the wheel (2) [9, 10, 14]. The pinion has a basis radius r
1
,
inertia moment J
1
and is subjected to the torque T
1
. The wheel
has a basis radius r
2
, inertia moment J
2
and is subjected to the
torque T
2
.
During gear mesh, the teeth oppose the bending stiffness k(t)
represented by Fig. 3a and a damping torque (with the propor-
tional viscous coefcient c(t)), whichare bothtime dependent, de-
pending on whether one or two pairs of teeth are engaged (Fig. 1).
Writing kinetic and potential energies of the model yields
(considering Lagrange formalism) the equations of motion:
M

(t) +C (t)

(t) + K (t)

(t) =

F (t) (7)
with:
M =
_
J
1
0
0 J
2
_
, C (t) = c (t) A, K (t) = k (t) A,
A =
_
r
2
1
r
1
r
2
r
1
r
2
r
2
2
_
,

(t) =
_

1
(t)

2
(t)
_
and

F (t) =
_
T
1
(t)
T
2
(t)
_
Fig. 3. Excitation and time response of the transmission without tooth defects
which are, respectively, inertia, damping and stiffness matrices,
angular displacement and external torque vectors applied to the
wheels. Equation Eq. 7 becomes:
M

(t) +
_
b
2
+ (t)
_
A

(t) +
_
a
2
+(t)
_
A

(t) =

F (t) (8)
which is a Hill equation. We notice that for the given data of the
problem, the solution of Eq. 8 is stable [1].
A modal basis of the free non-damped movement system
with the following averaged stiffness matrix:

K (t) = k
m
_
r
2
1
r
1
r
2
r
1
r
2
r
2
2
_
= k
m
A (9)
can be easily obtained. We nd a rigid-body mode having the
eigenvector (r
2
r
1
)
T
and an elastic mode with angular eigen-
value
0
given by:

2
0
= k
m
_
J
1
r
2
2
+ J
2
r
2
1
_
J
1
J
2
(10)
and with the eigenvector
_
r
1
J
1
r
2
J
2
_
T
. The variables and are
proportionality coefcients and the symbol letter
T
indicates the
transposed operator. For convenience, we suppose that:
_
= 1
= m
e
=
J
1
J
2
J
1
r
2
2
+J
2
r
2
1
(11)
where m
e
is any equivalent mass. The matrix of coordinate
change is:
=
_
r
2
m
e
r
1
J
1
r
1
m
e
r
2
J
2
_
. (12)
It expresses the coordinates (
1

2
)
T
in terms of the generalised
coordinates (q
1
q
2
)
T
. Projection on this modal basis of orth-
545
ogonal eigenvectors allows us to write, with reference to Eq. 7,
the equations of motion as:
_
_
_
J
1
r
1
J
2
r
2
q
1
(t) = m
e
_
T
1
r
1

T
2
r
2
_
m
e
q
2
(t) +c (t) q
2
(t) +k (t) q
2
(t) = m
e
_
r
1
J
1
T
1
+
r
2
J
2
T
2
_
(13)
with:
_
q
1
(t) = m
e
_
r
2
J
2

1
(t)
r
1
J
1

2
(t)
_
q
2
(t) =r
1

1
(t) +r
2

2
(t)
(14)
For wheels with 22 and 44 teeth, having a modulus, m, equal to 2,
a thickness equal to 2 cm and a density = 7800 Kg/m
3
(made
of steel), the average eigenfrequency f
0
of the transmission (e.g.,
peculiar to the elastic mode) is nearly 410
4
Hz, which is much
greater than f
e
.
The rst line of Eq. 13 represents the rigid body motion. In
the steady state motion of the transmission, the second member
of this equation is nil and we get (relative to the transmission
ratio) the equality between rotational speeds of the pinion and the
wheel as well as the equality between driving and driven inertia
torques.
The second equation represents the elastic mode. The
generalised coordinate q
2
(t) describes the elastic motion is
the transmission error. It is the main source of excitation of
gearboxes [15]. Numerical integration of this equation for
a given variation of the gear mesh stiffness provides pre-
cious information about dynamic behaviour of the geared
transmission.
4 Numerical simulation
The equation of motion representative of the elastic mode (sec-
ond line of the system Eq. 13 is a second-order differential equa-
Fig. 4. Spectrum and cepstrum of the responsefor perfect transmission
tion with variable coefcients. The resolution is obtained using
the implicit method of Newmark [16].
In the rst trial, the pair of wheels is supposed to be perfect.
Then, a model of the distributed and localised defects on pinion
or wheel have been considered.
The response is presented in time and frequency domains.
Cepstrum analysis usually obtains more information about intro-
duced defects.
The cepstrum C
e
() is dened as the inverse Fourier trans-
form of the logarithm of the response power spectrum S( f) [8]:
C
e
() = TF
1
{log S( f)} . (15)
Simulations are then carried out with the conditions: Z
1
= 22,
Z
2
= 44, N
1
= 550 rpm and = 0.5.
4.1 Perfect teeth
In this case, stiffness variation is given by Eq. 3 and is illustrated
by Fig. 3a. The response q
2
(t) of the model is shown in Fig. 3b.
It is found to be steady and this justies the statement that the
response is practically periodic with a fundamental angular fre-
quency
e
[5, 6]:
q
2
(t) =
M

m=0

m
cos (m
e
t +
m
) (16)
where M is a large integer.
Figure 4a shows the spectrum modulus of the response
(whose averaged component is removed) in the frequency range
[02000 Hz].
The spectrum is marked by the gear mesh frequency and
its harmonics. Figure 4b shows the cepstrum on which we note
the gear mesh quefrency (the inverse of frequency) and its
harmonics.
546
4.2 Teeth defects
4.2.1 Localised defect
In this case, k(t) becomes periodic with angular frequency
r
=
2/T
r
(r = 1 or 2 depending on whether the defect is on the pin-
ion or the wheel). It is affected by repeated impulses at every
meshing process with the faulty tooth. The associated signal,
which has a wide sidebands spectrum, modulates the signal am-
plitude of the perfect gear mesh and we obtain a complex spec-
trum characterised by sidebands around the gear mesh frequency
and its harmonics (Fig. 5a). The modulating function can be writ-
ten as [5]:
a (t) =
M

m=0
a
m
cos (m
r
t +
m
). (17)
Fig. 5. Spectrum and cepstrum of the response with a localized tooth defect on pinion
Fig. 6. Spectrum and cepstrum due to distributed defects on some pinion teeth
Regarding the model stability feature, the response q
2
(t) can be
written [5, 6]:
q
2
(t) =
M

m=0

m
(1+a(t)) cos (m
e
t +
m
). (18)
Figures 5a and 5b show the spectrum and cepstrum modulus of
the response obtained by numeric integration of Eq. 13 when
considering a localised defect on the pinion.
Cepstrum analysis extracts the modulating function from the
gear mesh signal and highlights the presence of the defect. Com-
pared with the cepstrum of the response without defects, we can
notice the amplitude increase of the pinion rotation quefrency
and its harmonics.
The spread of the defects, which affect other teeth and are
caused by, for example, spalling, has the feature of being smooth
547
Fig. 7. Spectrum and cepstrum of the response due to a distributed defect on all pinion teeth
and regular with respect to its corresponding modulating func-
tion compared to the localised defect, which has a sharp mod-
ulating function. The spectrum of this modulated function has
narrow sidebands. Then, the spectrum of the modulated signal
response is characterised by narrow sidebands around the mesh
frequency and its harmonics (Fig. 6a) [8]. On the cepstrum, we
notice the increase of the gear mesh quefrency amplitude and its
rahmonics (Fig. 6b).
4.2.2 Distributed defects
When tooth defects become nearly uniformly distributed like in
spalling, for example (i.e., when the modulating function due to
this kind of defect is nearly constant), k(t) will be periodic in
angular frequency
e
. The response q
2
(t) can be written as [5, 6]:
q
2
(t) =
M

m=0

m
(1+b(t)) cos (m
e
t +
m
) (19)
with:
b (t) =
M

m=0
b
m
cos (m
e
t +
m
) (20)
and b(t) being the gear mesh defect-modulating signal.
The uniformly distributed defect due to spalling acts on the
spectrum by increasing the gear mesh frequency amplitude and
its harmonics (Fig. 7a). However, cepstrum seems to be indiffer-
ent for this defect.
5 Experimental survey
Experimental analysis of a one-stage geared transmission has
been made using an experimental setup initially conceived for
the survey of parallelism defects. The experimental setup in-
cludes a servomotor as a driving machine, a six cylinder injec-
tion pump as the receiving machine and a one-stage gearbox
containing 22 and 44 teeth wheels (transmission ratio = 0.5).
Measurements are done with accelerometers placed on a bear-
ing close to the transmission for given motor speeds (N
1
= 550).
These measurements are communicated to a bi-channel signal
analyser.
5.1 Perfect teeth
In the rst trial, measurements are made for a pair of perfect
gears (no tooth defects). The power spectral density in the fre-
quency range [0800 Hz] of the acceleration signals recorded
on a bearing is shown in Fig. 8. This frequency range includes
gear mesh frequency and its rst harmonics. We can easily dis-
tinguish frequency peaks characterising the fuel injection pump
f
i
= 6 f
2
and its harmonics ( f
2
being the receiving shaft ro-
tational frequency). The teeth number of the pinion and the
wheel was chosen to get a gear mesh frequency f
e
distinctive
from n f
i
.
It is found that the receiving machine marks the experimen-
tal setup vibration activity. However, the spectral analysis in the
range [050 Hz] permits us to visualise low frequency evolution
Fig. 8. Response spectrum with no tooth defects [0800 Hz]
548
Fig. 9. Response spectrum [050 Hz] and corresponding rened zoom [176226 Hz] a: no crack, b: with crack
phenomena, while the rened zoom analysis (around frequen-
cies n f
e
, n integer) permits us to supervise the transmission
behaviour and modulation effects (Fig. 9) [1].
5.2 Defected teeth
5.2.1 Localised defect
The localised defect is a crack made on one pinion tooth. The
recorded results and analysed vibratory signals in the range [0
50 Hz] show the apparition of peaks at pinion and wheel rota-
tional frequencies f
1
and f
2
(Fig. 9b).
The rened zoom analysis of the response in the frequency
range [176226 Hz] with such a defect conrms the ampli-
tude modulation phenomena by the apparition of sidebands at
Fig. 10. Response cepstrum a with no defects and b with a crack on one tooth of the pinion
f
e
n f
r
(Fig. 9b). Cepstrum analysis shows clearly this effect
(Fig. 10b).
Figures 10a and 10b show the cepstrum of the response with-
out and with crack, respectively. We notice the dominating fre-
quency 1/ fi = 0.036 s due to the vibration activity of the fuel
injection pump.
5.2.2 Distributed defects
Distributed defects, such as spalling, are induced uniformly on
all the pinion teeth by matter removal. It introduces a little devi-
ation from the initial prole affecting all teeth. Figure 11 shows
the power spectrum of the response to such defect in rened
zoom analysis around the frequencies f
e
and 2 f
e
. We notice the
increase of the gear mesh amplitude and its harmonics. This is
549
Fig. 11. Rened zoom analysis of the response spectrum a with no defect and b with a distributed defect
the result of the modulation effect of two signals with the same
period. In this case, the cepstrum shows similarly a variation in
the quefrency amplitude.
6 Conclusion
The one-stage geared transmission is studied experimentally and
modelled by two degrees of freedom system with time vary-
ing gear mesh stiffness. The elastic mode resulting from this
model permits the analysis of transmission error effects on the
system dynamic behaviour. Fourier analysis of both experi-
mentally recorded signal and model response shows that gear
mesh frequency and its harmonics mark deeply this dynamic
behaviour.
Gear defects, which can be either localised or distributed,
mainly affect the pinions or wheels teeth. Depending on the de-
fect type (e.g., localised or distributed), they can be presented by
a periodic fall of the gear mesh stiffness with a frequency cor-
responding to the rotation of the faulty gear for localised defect
or to the gear mesh frequency for nearly uniformly distributed
defects.
Experimental and numerical analyses show that the gear
mesh signal is characterised and modulated by defect periodicity.
In the case of localised defects, modulation aspect results in
sidebands on the response spectrum at the faulty gear rotational
frequency. Cepstrum analysis has the advantage to extract que-
frency that expresses the defect while spectrum analysis shows
numerous peak frequencies hardly discernable, especially for
low rotational speeds.
In the case of distributed defects, Fourier analysis seems to
be sufcient to detect their presence. In such cases, we notice the
increase of both the signal amplitude and the spectral component
of the response.
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