Improved Vibration Signal Models of Localized Faults of Sun Gears to Predict Modulation

The vibration modulation of the localized faults of sun gears is complicated because of the structure and motion features of planetary gearboxes. It is challenging to completely determine the vibration modulation mechanism. To address this issue, the influences of fluctuations in speed on the factors that affect vibration like the transfer path function, time-varying projection function, and meshing force were studied. Improved vibration amplitude and frequency modulation models were then established by combining the factors affecting vibration considering the speed fluctuations caused by the localized faults of sun gears. Regarding the features of vibration modulation of localized faults of sun gears, we concluded that both fault feature frequency and carrier rotational frequency modulate the harmonics of the meshing frequency, which form two groups of modulation sidebands. In addition, the harmonics of the fault feature frequency over the whole frequency range are modulated by the rotational frequency of the carrier, which is more dominant in the resonance domain. The experimental results of localized faults of sun gears strongly agree with those deduced using the proposed models. This research contributes an effective frequency indicator that can be used to confirm the condition of planetary gearboxes.