Discrete wavelet transform and artificial neural network for gearbox fault detection based on acoustic signals

Gearboxes are widely applied in power transmission lines, so their health monitoring has a great impact in industrial applications. In the present study, acoustic signals of Pride gearbox in different conditions, namely, healthy, worn first gear and broken second gear are collected by a microphone. Discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is applied to process the signals. Decomposition is made using Daubichies-5 wavelet with five levels. In order to identify the various conditions of the gearbox, artificial neural network (ANN) is used in decision-making stage. The results indicate that this method allow identification at a 90 % level of efficiency. Therefore, the proposed approach can be reliably applied to gearbox fault detection.