Fault Diagnosing of Cycloidal Gear Reducer Using Statistical Features of Vibration Signal and Multifractal Spectra

Sensors (Basel). 2023 Feb 2;23(3):1645. doi: 10.3390/s23031645.

Abstract

The article presents a method for diagnosing cycloidal gear damage on a laboratory stand. The damage was simulated by removing the sliding sleeves from two adjacent external pins of the cycloidal gearbox. Damage to the sliding sleeves may occur under operating conditions and can lead to the destruction of the gear unit. Hence, early detection is essential. Signals from torque sensors, rotational speed sensors and vibration acceleration sensors of input and output shafts for various rotational speeds and transmission loads were recorded. The frequency analysis of these signals was carried out. Due to the fluctuation of the rotational speed, the frequency spectrum gives an approximate picture and is not useful in detecting this type of damage. The statistical characteristics of the signal were determined. However, only statistical moments of higher orders, such as kurtosis, are sensitive to the tested damage. Therefore, the use of multifractal analysis of the vibration signal using the wavelet leader method (WLMF) was considered. Then log-cumulants of the multifractal spectrum were selected as the new signal features.

Keywords: cycloidal gearbox; diagnostics; multifractal analysis.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.