Effects of operating conditions on the Acoustic Emissions (AE) from planetary gearboxes

In the last decade, the use of acoustic emissions has received growing acceptance for its application in machine condition monitoring. This is because it offers good possibilities to diagnose failures at early stages and low rotational speeds. The use of acoustic emissions for condition monitoring of gears, however, is still an active field of research, because several questions remain unanswered. One of these questions is the effect of operating conditions on the AE generated during gear meshing. In this work, the results of experiments carried out on a non-faulty planetary gearbox test bench are presented. A planetary gearbox is considered, because of its usual application on machines subjected to variable operating conditions. The effects of lubricant temperature, load and rotational speed are investigated. The conclusions obtained from the experiments are used for the analysis of the AE measured on the planetary gearbox of a bucket wheel excavator.