Condition Indicators for Gears

Diagnostics of faults in gears requires development of reliable condition indicators. A large number of condition indicators, which are based on statistical moments of the synchronous average and its derivatives (difference and residual signals) were previously suggested. This study evaluates the efficiency of different gear condition indicators that are based on statistical moments and compares them with two new types of condition indicators that are suggested. The two new types of condition indicators are based on the order spectrum and the spectral kurtosis of the synchronous average. The study was conducted on the labeled data of PHM'09 challenge. This data included recordings of vibrations in helical and spur gearboxes with seeded faults.