Contributions to the Diagnosis and Prognosis of Ring Gear Faults of Planetary Gearboxes Using Acoustic Emissions

In this work the use of the acoustic emission (AE) technology for fault diagnosis and prognosis of planetary gearboxes (PGs) is addressed. Different signal processing methods are presented and their potential for the analysis of AE signals is discussed. The methods are tested with data measured on different PGs, including not only laboratory measurements but also field measurements on wind turbine gearboxes. Two types of ring gear faults are analyzed, which are worn and cracked teeth. The results obtained in this research constitute the basis for the analysis of AE signals to detect and evaluate specific faults in PGs.