Vibration Based Gear Fault Diagnosis under Empirical Mode Decomposition and Power Spectrum Density Analysis

Rotating machinery plays a significant role in industrial applications and covers a wide range of mechanical equipment. A vibration analysis using signal processing techniques is generally conducted for condition monitoring of rotary machinery and engineering structures in order to prevent failure, reduce maintenance cost and to enhance the reliability of the system. Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is amongst the most substantial non-linear and non-stationary signal processing techniques and it has been widely utilized for fault detection in rotary machinery. This paper presents the EMD, time waveform and power spectrum density (PSD) analysis for localized spur gear fault detection. Initially, the test model was developed for the vibration analysis of single tooth breakage of spur gear at different RPMs and then specific fault was introduced in driven gear under different damage conditions. The data, recorded by means of a wireless tri-axial accelerometer, was then analyzed using EMD and PSD techniques and the results were plotted. The results depicted that EMD algorithms are found to be more functional than the ordinarily used PSD and time waveform techniques.