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ANALYSIS OF EPICYCLIC GEARBOX VIBRATION

David Forrester
Air Vehicles Division, DSTO

David Blunt
Air Vehicles Division, DSTO

ABSTRACT
Many aircraft transmissions use epicyclic gear trains, particularly helicopter main rotor gearboxes and
propeller reduction gearboxes. As these gears form a non-redundant critical part of the drive to the main rotor,
or propeller, it is important to have advanced techniques and tools to assess the condition of these
components. One such tool is vibration analysis. However, epicyclic gear train vibrations are difficult to
analyse. Not only are there multiple planet gears producing similar vibrations, but there are multiple and
time-varying vibration transmission paths from the gear mesh points to any vibration transducer mounted on
the gearbox housing. These factors combine to reduce the sensitivity of conventional fault detection algorithms
when they are applied to epicyclic gears. This paper outlines the DSTO-developed techniques for analysing
epicyclic gear train vibration, based on an algorithm for separating the meshing vibrations from each planet.
The results of applying these techniques to seeded fault tests, using DSTO vibration data, are shown to
significantly improve the detection of localised gear faults.

INTRODUCTION In this paper, an alternative method for performing signal

Synchronous signal averaging has proved to be the most useful
vibration analysis tool for detecting faults in gears. However,
there has been a problem in the past in applying the technique to
epicyclic gearboxes. An epicyclic gearbox has a number of planet
gears which all mesh with the sun and ring gears. The problems
encountered when attempting to perform a signal average for
components within an epicyclic gearbox are twofold. Firstly, there
are multiple tooth contacts, with each planet being simultaneously
in mesh with both the sun and ring gears, and secondly, the axis
of the planets move with respect to both the sun and ring gears.
averaging for epicyclic gearbox components is presented which
overcomes these problems. A mathematical derivation of the
method is provided which shows that the averaging can be
performed with no loss of information by proportionally dividing
the vibration data amongst the individual gear meshes. Practical
examples are presented which show that the method has far
superior performance than conventional signal averaging.
The techniques presented here are the subject of Australian Patent
40638/95 [3], United States Patent 6,298,725 [4], and United States
Provisional Patent [5].

An earlier method of performing selective signal averaging on EPICYCLIC GEARBOX VIBRATION

epicyclic gearboxes was developed and tested at the Defence
Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) [1,2], and proved
successful in detecting faults on individual planet gears. However,
this method was tedious to implement, required an excessively
long time to perform even a small number of averages and
required the selective slicing up of the time signal which proved
to introduce discontinuities in the signal average.
Epicyclic gearboxes are typically used in applications requiring a
large reduction in speed (greater than three to one) at high loads,
such as the final reduction in the main rotor gearbox of a
helicopter. A typical epicyclic reduction gearbox has three or more
planet gears each meshing with a sun and ring gear, as shown in
Figure 1. Drive is provided via the sun gear, the ring gear is

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Copyright Commonwealth of Australia 2003

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stationary and the axes of the planet gears are connected to a mounted on the ring gear of an epicyclic gear train will be the sum
carrier which rotates in relation to both the sun gear and the ring of the individual planet gear vibrations multiplied by the planet
gear. The planet carrier provides the output of the epicyclic gear pass modulations,
train. P

Vibration
x (t ) =
∑α
p =1
p (t )v p (t ) (4)

transducer
where αp(t) is the amplitude modulation due to planet p, and vp(t)
is the tooth meshing vibration for planet p.

The amplitude modulation function αp(t) (planet pass modulation)

will have the same form for all planets, differing only by a time
delay, and will repeat with the planet carrier rotation period 1/fc
∞

∑
 p   2πmp 
α p (t ) = a t + = A(m ) cos 2πmf c t +  (5)
 f c P   P 
m= 0
where a(t) is the planet pass modulation function and A(m) is its
Fourier Transform. Equation (4) can be rewritten in terms of the
common planet pass modulation function giving
Figure 1: Typical epicyclic gear train. P

Tooth meshing frequencies and relative rotations

x(t ) =
∑
p =1

a  t +

p 
v p (t ) .
f c P 
(6)

Where fc , fp and fs are the rotational frequencies of the planet

carrier, planet and sun gear respectively, and there are Nr, Np and PLANET SEPARATION TECHNIQUE
Ns teeth on the ring, planet and sun gears respectively, the
meshing frequency of the epicyclic fm is given by: An alternate method of extracting representative signal averages
( )
f m = Nr fc = N p f p + fc = N s ( f s − f c ) (1) for each planet is to incorporate a selective (continuous) time filter
into the signal averaging process. The time filter proportionally
divides the overall vibration signal into the estimated
The relative frequencies f p + fc of the planet to the carrier and fs - fc
of the sun to the carrier are: contributions from each planet.
(
f p + fc = f m N p = fc Nr N p ) (2)
For each planet signal average, the time window, b(t), is centred at
f s − f c = f m N s = f c (N r N s ) (3) the point at which the planet is adjacent to the transducer. Signal
averaging of the filtered vibration signal is performed with a
Planet pass modulation period equal to the relative planet rotation, 1/(fp+fc), giving, where
N is the number of averages,
N −1

∑
The only place in which it is normally feasible to locate a
   
z p (t ) =
1 p l l
transducer to monitor the vibration of an epicyclic gear train is on b t + + x t +  (7)
the outside of the ring gear. This gives rise to planet pass N  f P f + f   f + f 
l =0    
c p c p c
modulation due to the relative motion of the planet gears to the
transducer location.
With careful selection of the time window characteristics and the
As each planet approaches the location of the transducer, an signal averaging parameters, the separation can be performed
increase in the amplitude of the vibration will be seen, reaching a with minimum ‘leakage’ of vibration from other planets, no loss of
peak when the planet is adjacent to the transducer then reducing vibration data, and no distortion of the signal average.
as the planet passes and moves away from the transducer. For an
epicyclic gear train with P planets, this will occur P times per Properties and restrictions
revolution of the planet carrier, resulting in an apparent
It is shown in Appendix A that where:
amplitude modulation of the signal at frequency Pfc.
a) the separation time window is real valued, even and
Expected epicyclic gear train vibration signal periodic with the planet carrier rotation, 1/fc,
b) the signal averaging is performed over the relative
The expected planet gear vibration signal recorded at a transducer planet rotation period, 1/(fp+fc), and the number of

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averages is an integer multiple of the number of teeth on SUN GEAR TECHNIQUE

the ring gear, Nr, and
c) the time window, b(t), is a Fourier series with less than P The sun gear technique computes ‘separated’ averages of the sun
terms, gear vibration ‘seen’ through each planet, which are then phase
the time filtered signal average for planet p (7) reduces to shifted so that the beginning of each average starts with the same
P sun gear tooth in mesh with each planet, and recombined
z p (t ) =
∑k =1
v k (t )c ( p − k ) . (8)
(averaged) to produce a modified sun gear average.

Ideally, with complete separation of the vibration from each

The separation function, c(n), is defined by both the applied time planet, the technique produces a modified average that represents
window, b(t), and the planet pass modulation function, a(t), the average meshing behaviour of the sun gear seen through a
 P −1  single typical, or average, planet. In contrast, a conventional sun
c(n ) =
1
 B(0 )A(0) +
2

∑m =0
 2πmn  
B(m)A(m) cos
 P 


(9) gear average represents the average meshing behaviour of the sun
gear seen through all the planets simultaneously (with the
accompanying summation and cancellation of certain vibration
where the applied time window is components).
P −1
b(t ) =
∑m =0
B (m ) cos(2πmf c t ) . (10) The procedure for computing the modified sun gear average is:
a) Compute the separated sun gear averages. This is the
same as computing the separated planet gear averages,
except that the averaging period is that of the sun gear
Note that the summation of the time filtered signal averages is instead of the planet gear. The same separation window
equal to the sum of the mean planet vibration signals multiplied function is used (i.e., the window function is still based
by a constant on the planet-carrier position).
P P P P

∑ z p (t ) = ∑ ∑
vk (t ) ∑ v (t ) .
c( p − k ) = PB (0 )A(0 )
b) Phase shift the separated sun gear averages so that the
k mesh points align. For example, in a three planet gear
p =1 k =1 p =1 k =1 train, Planet 2 must be shifted +120°, and Planet 3 must
That is, the separation process is performed using all of the be shifted -120° (or +240°) to align both with Planet 1, as
available vibration data. shown in Figure 2. Note that the sun gear meshes with
the planets in the reverse order that they pass the
Separation window functions transducer on the ring gear.
c) Combine (average) the aligned averages.
If the planet pass modulation was known exactly, complete
separation could be made by setting the time window coefficients, The theoretical development for this is shown in Appendix A.
B(0) = 1/A(0) and B(m≠0) = 2/A(m), giving c(0) = P and c(n≠0) = 0.
However, this is rarely practical in operational gearboxes.
+120° Vibration
transducer
Two separation windows which have been found to perform well
are a cosine window raised to the power of P-1 [3], 1
b(t ) = (1 + cos (2πf c t ))P −1 , (11)
which is a tapered function with maximum value when the planet
is adjacent to the transducer and a value of zero when the planet is
furthest from the transducer, and a window with B(0) = ½ and 2 -120°
B(m ≠0) = 1,
P −1
b(t ) =
1
2
+
∑ m =1
cos (2πmf c t ) , (12)
3
which relies upon the planet pass modulation itself to provide the
separation. That is, where the time window in (12) is used, the
separation function, c(n), becomes
P −1 Figure 2: Phase shifts for separated sun gear averages.
c(n ) =
∑m =0
 2πmn 
A(m ) cos 
 P 
.

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IMPLEMENTATION
Angle domain
In the preceding description of the technique, it is assumed that
the speed of the epicyclic gearbox is constant. In practice, even for
a nominally constant speed machine, this is not always the case.
To allow for speed fluctuations all analysis is done in the 'angle'
domain rather than the time domain; this simply involves the
substitution of a angular reference for the time based variable, t.
In practice, the conversion from the time domain to the angle
domain is done by synchronising the vibration signal sampling
with an angular reference on one of the shafts of the gearbox. The
synchronisation can be done either using phase-locked frequency
multipliers or by digital re-sampling [4, 5].
signal enhancement [6] on the separated signal averages for the
faulty planet using: (a) the planet separation technique with the
time window defined in (11), and (b) the conventional signal
averaging technique. For this example, the analysis time is 75
seconds (10 x 32 revolutions of the planet carrier). The kurtosis of
the residual signal is used as a measure of local variation in the
tooth meshing behaviour. The kurtosis is defined as the fourth
statistical moment normalised by the square of the variance. The
residual signal is obtained by removing all the known regular
frequency components such as the mesh harmonics. A kurtosis
value greater than 4.5 is considered to be a clear indication of a
local defect and a value below 3.5 indicates a ‘good’ gear.

Planet carrier positional reference

For the calculation of the time windowed signal averages (7) a

planet carrier positional reference is required to set the starting
time (t = 0) to a point at which one of the planets (p = P) is
adjacent to the transducer. The positional reference can be
obtained either by using a shaft encoder/tacho on the planet
carrier (usually the output of the gearbox) or by software
synchronisation to the planet pass modulation signal.

In the case where a carrier positional reference is not directly

available, the planet carrier position can be estimated by Figure 3: Three-planet epicyclic gearbox.
examining the ‘planet pass modulation.’ This involves performing
a signal average of planet carrier (ring gear) vibration. As each 0.10
planet passes the transducer location the vibration level increases,
giving an amplitude modulation of the vibration signal.
Demodulation of the ring gear signal average about the gear mesh
Acceleration (g)

vibration [8] is used to determine the modulation peaks as each

planet gear passes the transducer location. The point with the
maximum amplitude in the demodulated signal average is
selected as the zero point for the planet carrier positional
reference.
-0.10
EXAMPLES 0 360
Rotation (degrees)
(a) Planet separation technique – Planet Gear 2 (Kurtosis = 5.9)
The following examples are from a recorded vibration signal of
0.10
the epicyclic gearbox shown in Figure 3 with three planet gears
each having 32 teeth, a sun gear with 28 teeth, and a ring gear
with 95 teeth.
Acceleration (g)

Planet Gear

A small fault was implanted on one of the planet gears [2].

Approximately 0.05 mm was ground from the face of one of the
teeth to form a narrow flat surface at the pitch line. The gearbox
was reassembled so that when under load the damaged tooth face -0.10
0 360
meshed with the ring gear. Rotation (degrees)
(b) Conventional signal averaging technique (Kurtosis = 3.1)
Figure 4 shows the results obtained by performing a residual Figure 4: Planet gear fault.

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The planet separation technique gives a kurtosis of 5.9, clearly
indicating the presence of the fault. Over the same analysis period
the conventional signal averaging technique (kurtosis=3.1) gives
no indication of the fault.
Sun Gear
A small fault was implanted on the sun gear [2]. Approximately
0.05 mm was ground from the face of one of the teeth to form a
narrow flat surface at the pitch line. The gearbox was reassembled
so that when under load the damaged tooth face meshed with the
planet gears.
Figure 5 shows the results obtained by performing a residual
signal enhancement [6] on the signal averages for the faulty sun
gear using: (a) the sun gear technique with the time window
defined in (11), and (b) the conventional signal averaging
technique. For this example, the analysis time is also 75 seconds
(10 x 32 revolutions of the planet carrier).
0.40
1, 2, 3
Acceleration (g)
-0.40
0 360
Rotation (degrees)
(a) Sun gear technique (Kurtosis = 7.9)
0.40 3
1 Vibration”, United States Provisional Patent Application, 24
2
Acceleration (g)
-0.40
0 360
Rotation (degrees)
(b) Conventional signal averaging technique (Kurtosis = 4.9)
Figure 5: Sun gear fault.
The sun gear technique gives a kurtosis of 7.9, very clearly
indicating the presence of the fault, while the conventional
APPENDIX A: Theoretical Development
Planet Separation
Assuming that all vibration which is not synchronous with the relative planet rotation will tend toward zero with the signal averaging
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averaging technique only gives a kurtosis of 4.9. It is also possible
to see that the impacts of the fault with each of the planet gears
are distributed at intervals of 120° in the conventional average, but
they are aligned in the modified sun gear average, as shown in the
figure.
CONCLUSION
Techniques for analysing the individual planet and sun gear
vibration signatures in a epicyclic gearbox have been developed. It
has been shown that these techniques significantly improve the
detection (by up to 90% using the residual kurtosis method) of a
single tooth fault in a planet or sun gear, and consequently have
considerable advantages over conventional synchronous signal
averaging for condition monitoring of aircraft transmission
systems incorporating epicyclic gear trains.
REFERENCES
[1] Howard, I.M., “An Investigation of Vibration Signal
Averaging of Individual Components in an Epicyclic
Gearbox”, Propulsion Report 185, Department of Defence,
Aeronautical Research Laboratory, March 1991.
[2] McFadden, P.D. and Howard, I.M., “The Detection of Seeded
Faults in an Epicyclic Gearbox by Signal Averaging of the
Vibration”, Propulsion Report 183, Department of Defence,
Aeronautical Research Laboratory, October 1990.
[3] Forrester, B.D., “Method and Apparatus for Performing
Selective Signal Averaging”, Australian Patent 672166
(40638/95).
[4] Forrester, B.D., “A Method for the Separation of Epicyclic
Planet Gear Vibration Signatures”, United States Patent
6,298,725, October 2001.
[5] Blunt, D.M., “Synchronous Averaging of Epicyclic Sun Gear
January 2003.
[6] Forrester, B.D., “Advanced Vibration Analysis Techniques for
Fault Detection and Diagnosis in Geared Transmission
Systems”, PhD Thesis, Swinburne University of Technology,
February 1996.
[7] McFadden, P.D., “A Model for the Extraction of Periodic
Waveforms by Time Domain Averaging”, Aero Propulsion
Technical Memorandum 435, Department of Defence,
Aeronautical Research Laboratory, March 1986.
[8] McFadden, P.D., “Examination of a Technique for the Early
Detection of Failure in Gears by Signal Processing of the Time
Domain Average of the Meshing Vibration”, Mechanical
Systems and Signal Processing, Vol. 1(2), pp. 173-183, 1987.
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process [6, 7], the time filtered signal average (7) using the time window, b(t), taken over N periods of the relative planet rotation, 1/(fp+fc),
can be expressed as
N −1    
z p (t ) = ∑ b t +
1 p l x t + l 
+
N l =0  f c P f p + f c   f p + f c 
N −1
 lN p  
 P  lN p 
∑ b t + ∑
1 p k l
= + v k  t +
 a t + +  (A.1)
   f p + f c 
N
l =0 fc P fc N r  k =1 
  f c P fc N r
P
1 N −1  lN p   lN p 
∑
vk (t ) ∑
p k
= b t + + a t + + 
k =1 N l =0  f c P f c N r   f c P f c N r 
where vk (t ) is the mean vibration for planet k, which repeats with period, 1/(fp+fc), and a(t) is the planet pass modulation (5).

Condition a): b(t) is real valued, even and periodic in 1/fc

Under the condition that b(t) is real valued, even and periodic in 1/fc,
∞
b(t ) = ∑ B(m)cos(2πmf t )
m =0
c
, (A.2)
and the time filtered signal average becomes
P
z p (t ) = ∑ v (t )Ψ( p, k , t )
k =1
k (A.3)

where
∞ ∞ N −1 cos (
2π (m + n ) f c t +
2π ( mp + nk )
+
2πl ( m + n )N p
)+
Ψ ( p, k , t ) = ∑∑ B(m )A(n ) ∑  
P Nr

( )
1

m= 0 n = 0
2N 
l = 0 cos 2π (m − n ) f c t +
2π ( mp − nk )
+
2πl (m − n ) N p 
 P Nr 
( cos 2π (m + n ) f t +
 c
2π ( mp
P
+ nk )
cos ) (
2πl ( m + n ) N p
Nr
) −

∞ ∞ ( 
N −1 sin 2π (m + n ) f t +

2π (mp + nk )
sin ) (
2πl (m + n ) N p
)+

∑∑ B(m )A(n ) ∑
c P Nr
=
( )
1 (A.4)
m = 0 n =0
2N
( 
l = 0  cos 2π (m − n ) f c t +
2π (mp − nk )
P
cos )
2πl ( m − n ) N p
Nr

−

( 
sin 2π (m − n ) f c t +
2π ( mp − nk )
P
sin ) (
2πl (m − n )N p
Nr
) 


Condition b): the number of averages is an integer multiple of Nr

If the number of averages, N, is an integer multiple of the number of teeth on the ring gear, Nr, then, since

∑ cos ( ) = 1, n = −m
iN r −1
1 2πl ( m + n ) N p
Nr
iN r l =0
, (A.5)

∑ sin ( ) = 0, n ≠ −m
iN r −1
1 2πl ( m + n )N p
Nr
iN r l =0
we have

∑[ ( )+ B(m)A(m) cos( )]
1 ∞ 2πm ( p − k ) 2πm ( p − k )
Ψ ( p, k , t ) = B (m) A(− m ) cos P P
2 m=0
(A.6)
1
( )

∞
=  B(0 ) A(0 ) +
2
B (m ) A(m ) cos ∑ 2πm ( p − k )
P .
m=0 

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Condition c): b(t) is a Fourier series with less than P terms

The summation in m is a discrete Fourier series with period P, and, to avoid aliasing, the number of terms in the series needs to be limited
to less than P. This is done by setting the limitation that the time window function, b(t), be a Fourier series of less than P terms,
P −1
b(t ) = ∑ B(m)cos(2πmf t )
m =0
c (A.7)

and the time filtered signal average over iNr averages with period, 1/(fp+fc ), becomes
P
z p (t ) = ∑ v (t )c( p − k )
k =1
k (A.8)

where
1   2πmn  
P −1
c(n ) =
2 
B(0)A(0) +
m= 0
∑
B(m)A(m) cos  .
 P  
(A.9)

Sun Gear Technique

A similar result can be found for the separated sun gear averages by substituting relative sun rotation, 1/(fs-fc), instead of 1/(fp+fc), into
(A.1) giving the separated sun gear average for planet p, as
P
z s , p (t ) = ∑ v (t )c( p − k )
k =1
s, k (A.10)

where v s,k (t ) is the mean vibration of the sun gear with planet k, and c(n) is the same as (A.9).

The modified sun gear average, z ms (t ) , is then

P P
 2πp 
z ms (t ) = ∑∑ v s ,k  t− c( p − k ) (A.11)
p =1 k =1  P 
. gear averages so that the beginning of each average starts with the same sun gear tooth
where the delay, 2πp/P, aligns the separated sun
in mesh with each planet.

If the sun gear vibration with each planet is identical, it repeats with a period of 2πp/P, i.e.,
 2πp 
v s ,k (t ) = v s  t +  (A.12)
 P 
,
where vs is the meshing vibration of the sun gear with a planet. Substituting (A.12) into (A.11) gives
P P
z ms (t ) = v s (t ) ∑∑ c( p − k )
p =1 k =1 (A.13)
= PB (0 )A(0 )v s (t ).
and the modified sun gear average would thus represent, to within a constant, the average vibration of the sun gear with a single planet.
However, since the sun gear vibration will, in practice, not be identical with each planet, the modified average will only tend to average-
out the differences between the meshing behaviour with each planet. Nevertheless, because the separated averages will be aligned at the
same sun gear tooth, any localised sun gear defect will always appear at the same angular position, and thus be reinforced. This should
lead to an improved ability to detect the fault compared to an ordinary sun gear average, where the influence of the defect will be more
distributed.

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