Varying Load Detection in A Gearbox System Based on Adaptive Threshold Estimation

Abstract

This article presents an adaptive threshold computation for varying load detection in gearbox system. This method was applied on the vibration signal which is captured from gearbox housing. The experimental work was carried out using a three-stage gearbox connected with a motor and a generator. The developed adaptive threshold is obtained through several repeated experiments in the healthy mode and under the same operating conditions. An appropriate statistical test is used to examine the validity of the adaptive threshold estimation approach. Besides and for all experiments, a confidence interval is obtained which is closely linked to the distribution frequencies of the gearbox vibration signal as a random variable. In addition, several significance levels are considered to show the performances of the proposed adaptive thresholding technique compared to the limitations of the fixed threshold through the rate of false detection alarms. It is demonstrated from various experimental varying load mode of a gearbox system the effectiveness and accuracy of the adaptive threshold in term of evaluating gearbox operating conditions.