Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing (2001) 15(5), 887}903

doi:10.1006/mssp.2001.1416, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on

EARLY DETECTION OF GEAR TOOTH CRACKING

USING THE RESONANCE DEMODULATION
TECHNIQUE
WENYI WANG
Airframes and Engines Division, Aeronautical and Maritime Research Laboratory,
Defence Science and Technology Organisation, P.O. Box 4331, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia.
E-mail: wenyi.wang@dsto.defence.gov.au

The resonance demodulation technique has been extensively used for rolling bearing
diagnostics. This paper presents a scheme of using the resonance demodulation technique
for early detection of gear tooth cracks. The objective is to supplement the current
techniques of gearbox fault diagnosis based on the synchronous signal averaging technique.
The proposed scheme focuses on the fact that gear tooth crack will produce vibration
impacts that would excite the structural resonances when the cracked tooth is engaged.
Using this scheme, the regular gear meshing harmonics are "rst removed from the syn-
chronous signal average to generate the residual signal. The residual signal is then band-pass
"ltered around a structural resonance within the range of gear meshing harmonics. The
bandpassed residual signal is demodulated to extract the features related to the crack-
induced sudden change in a complete revolution of the gear of interest. A number of
statistical measures can then be used on the demodulated signal as an indicator on the
existence and status of the crack. In this paper, an analytic signal model is also proposed to
describe the gear meshing signal and its processing, the resonance demodulation technique is
presented based on the signal model. The method is validated using numerically simulated
data, test data from a gear rig, and helicopter in-#ight vibration data. The results show that
the resonance demodulation technique is an e!ective tool for the early detection of gear
tooth cracks.
 2001 Academic Press

1. INTRODUCTION
The synchronous signal averaging technique is widely accepted as a powerful tool in the
detection and diagnosis of gear faults. When the measured vibration signal is synchronously
averaged with the rotation of the gear of interest, the resulting signal is an estimate of the
average meshing vibration of that particular gear over a complete revolution. For healthy
gears, the gear meshing frequency and its harmonics that constitute what is called the
regular signal [1] will dominate the meshing vibration spectrum. In addition to the gear
meshing harmonics, there will be some low-order (e.g. "rst and second order) modulation
sidebands accompanying them [2]. These modulation e!ects are generated by transmission
errors that are related to geometric and assembly errors of the gear pair, such as pitch
errors, eccentricity and shaft alignment [3, 4].
When a local gear fault such as a tooth crack is present, the vibration signal in a complete
revolution will be modi"ed by the e!ects of a short duration impact at a comparatively
low-energy level. The impact will produce additional amplitude and phase modulation
e!ects to the normal meshing vibration signal [4]. Because of the short-period nature of the
impact, the corresponding modulation sidebands will spread over a wide frequency range,
which can produce high-order sidebands with low amplitudes. Hence, one may concentrate

0888}3270/01/050887#17 $35.00/0  2001 Academic Press

888 W. WANG

on the high-order modulation sidebands for extracting the information related to local gear
fault. The regular gear meshing harmonics and sometimes low-order modulation sidebands
become redundant for the purpose of fault detection and diagnosis. Therefore, the removal
of the regular gear meshing harmonics from the synchronous signal average (SSA) would
result in a signal predominantly containing the portion that is caused by gear fault and
geometrical irregularity. This is the so-called residual signal [1, 2]. Apparently, the residual
signal possesses broadband features due to the abrupt changes caused by localised gear
faults. Currently, most gear fault diagnostic techniques are based upon the residual signal.
Statistical measures of the residual signal are the most commonly used methods. These
include residual kurtosis (FM4), variance, and other parameters such as the ratio of the
maximum peak-to-peak amplitude to the sum of amplitudes at the meshing harmonics
(FM0) and the quasi-normalised residual kurtosis (NA4) [5].
The narrowband demodulation technique is another approach for analysing the SSA.
Under this approach, the SSA is band-pass "ltered at the dominant gear meshing harmonic
and the "ltered signal is shifted in frequency to 0 Hz. This d.c. component is then set to zero
to derive the demodulated signal. If the bandwidth of the band-pass "lter is properly chosen,
the demodulated signal will carry information related to the gear fault [6]. With the
demodulated signal, both the amplitude (envelope signal) and the phase (phase-modulating
signal) can be calculated. The kurtosis of the demodulated signal (such as quasi-normalised
envelope kurtosis*NB4) appears to be a good indicator of gear cracks at their early stage
[5]. It is argued that the phase-modulating signal may be more e!ective for the detection of
gear cracks than the envelope signal [6]. Some other indicators based on the demodulation
technique have also been reported recently. These include percentage modulation of
amplitude, negative peak count on the envelope, percentage modulation of phase, kurtosis
of unwrapped phase and kurtosis of the "rst phase derivative [7].
Among the above approaches, the low-energy high-order sidebands produced by local
gear faults are the most important. Another feasible way is to analyse the structural
resonance excited by the impacts produced by local gear faults. This can be achieved by
utilising the well-known resonance demodulation technique (also known as the envelope
technique and high-frequency resonance technique [8]) which has been extensively used in
the fault detection and diagnosis of rolling element bearings. The structural resonance in
this case can be seen as an ampli"er to the low-energy impacts. In this paper, a scheme of
using the resonance demodulation technique is presented for the early detection of gear
tooth cracks. The scheme is based upon the fact that a gear tooth crack generates vibration
impacts that will excite structural resonances and the system responses to the crack-induced
impacts will be measured by accelerometers as modulated resonant vibration. The modula-
ting (envelope) function of the resonant vibration will carry information related to the tooth
cracking. Assuming that the resonance appears at a frequency band where gear meshing
harmonics are signi"cant, the regular gear meshing harmonics are "rstly removed from the
SSA to derive the residual signal. The residual signal is then band-pass "ltered around
a structural resonance excited by the tooth crack within the range of gear meshing
harmonics. The bandpassed residual signal is demodulated for the extraction of the
envelope of the resonant vibration. In ideal cases where the resonance is located at
a frequency band far beyond any signi"cant gear meshing harmonic, it is not necessary to
obtain the residual signal before band-pass "ltering. For the demodulated signal, statistical
measures can be used to indicate the existence and status of the gear tooth crack. In this
paper, an analytic signal model for describing gear meshing vibration is also proposed and
the resonance demodulation technique is presented based on this model. The method is
validated using numerically simulated data, gear tooth crack propagation test data from
a gear test rig, and helicopter in-#ight vibration data. Analysis results show that the
 EARLY DETECTION OF GEAR TOOTH CRACKING 889
resonance demodulation technique is an e!ective tool in the early detection of gear tooth
cracks. Some results suggest that the technique may be further used for assessing the
severity of cracks.

2. THE SIGNAL MODEL FOR GEAR MESHING VIBRATION

In general, vibration signals generated from a healthy gearbox are dominated by gear
meshing vibration accompanied by some modulation e!ects caused by geometric and
assembly errors, speed and load #uctuations of the gears. The modulation e!ects include
both amplitude and phase modulations [3, 9]. In a complete revolution of the gear of
interest, the signal average of gearbox vibration signal can be described by the following
equation [4, 6]:

+
x(t) " A [1#a (t)] cos+2nf t#b #b (t), (1)
K K K K K
K
where m (0, 1, 2, M) is the meshing harmonic number, A the amplitude at the mth
K
harmonic frequency f ( f "m ) Nf , where N is the gear tooth number, f the gear-shaft
K K Q Q
rotation frequency and Nf represents the fundamental gear meshing frequency). At the
Q
mth-order harmonic, functions a (t) and b (t) are the amplitude- and phase-modulation
K K
functions, respectively, and b the initial phase.
K
In the case where a localised gear fault occurs, an impact will be produced by the fault
and the signal in equation (1) will be added by an impact-induced structural resonance
[3, 9, 10]. In a complete revolution of the gear, the impact-induced resonant vibration is
denoted by z(t) and it can be expressed by

z(t)"d(t) cos(2nf t#h ) (2)

P P
where d(t) is the envelope (modulating) function of the resonant vibration that is dependent
on the system response to the impact produced by the gear fault, f is the resonance
P
frequency (carrier frequency) and h the corresponding initial phase. The impact may also
P
introduce additional amplitude and phase modulations to the normal gear vibration where
the carrier is the gear meshing vibration. The resulting signal may describe the meshing
vibration produced by the faulty gear, which can be further complicated by the transmission
path between the gear meshing area and the transducer. However, there is no simple way to
model the transfer function of this transmission path and, for simplicity, the e!ects of the
transfer function on gear meshing vibration are assumed relatively insigni"cant [6, 11]. The
resonant vibration depends largely on the transmission path and it may even be associated
with the natural frequency of an element in the path. Hence, it is important for the proposed
technique to assume that the resonant vibration is not signi"cantly attenuated by the
transmission path. The measured signal can be written as the superposition of the resonant
vibration excited by the crack-induced impact and the gear meshing vibration a!ected by
the impact, viz.,

+
y(t)" A [1#aJ (t)] cos+2nf t#b #b (t),#d(t) cos(2nf t#h ) (3)
K K K K K P P
K
where aJ (t) and b (t) are the modi"ed amplitude- and phase-modulation functions (ac-
K K
counting for the additional modulations produced by the fault-induced impact) at the mth
890 W. WANG

harmonic, respectively. Apparently, the amplitudes and phase angles at the meshing
harmonics and their sidebands in the "rst term of equation (3) will be di!erent from those in
equation (1), and the di!erence will be magni"ed in the vicinity of resonant frequencies. For
the purpose of fault detection, we are only interested in the information embedded in aJ (t),
K
b (t) and d(t). The narrowband demodulation technique addresses the former two and the
K
resonance demodulation technique presented in this paper focuses on the latter, i.e. the
envelope function of the resonant vibration*d(t).

3. THE RESONANCE DEMODULATION TECHNIQUE

In the last section, we have discussed a signal model about the meshing vibration
produced by faulty gears. We have noticed that the information concerning the localised
gear fault may be extracted from the signal in equation (3) by demodulating the resonant
vibration excited by the local fault. In this section, we will use a standard demodulation
technique to detect and diagnose the local fault by identifying the characteristics of the
sudden change produced by the mesh of the faulty tooth.
Assuming that the resonant component in equation (3) coexists with the gear meshing
harmonics in the analysis band, the residual signal should "rst be obtained from the signal
average by removing the meshing frequency and its harmonic components in the frequency
domain. The residual signal is then band-pass "ltered around the major resonance peak
with the frequency of f shown in equation (3). The bandwidth of the "lter can be chosen
P
such that the whole range of the resonance is covered, provided the resonance peak is
clearly de"ned. The bandpassed residual signal is then squared and low-pass "ltered. The
resulting signal is regarded as the squared envelope signal that describes the power of the
sudden change produced by the mesh of the faulty tooth in the analysis band.
Due to the complexity of the meshing vibration signal, no attempt is made to derive the
precise form of the residual signal from equation (3). Instead, it is assumed that the removal
of meshing harmonics, i.e. the subtraction of A cos(2nf t#b ), m"0, 1, 2, M, from the
K K K
"rst term in equation (3), yields a signal of

+ +
x (t)" r (t)+ A +aJ (t) cos[2nf t#b ]!b (t) sin[2nf t#b ], (4)
P K K K K K K K K
K K
where r (t) is the residual components from the mth meshing harmonic. This signal
K
represents the summation of a series of suppressed-carrier amplitude-modulation signals
[12]. The above approximation was derived by McFadden [4] under the assumptions of
"aJ (t)";1, "b (t)";n and "aJ (t)b (t)";1. If we also assume that the e!ect of removing the
K K K K
meshing harmonics on the second term in equation (3) is negligible (which is numerically
proved), the residual signal from equation (3) can be expressed by

+
y (t)"x (t)#d(t) cos(2nf t#h )" r (t)#d(t) cos(2nf t#h ). (5)
P P P P K P P
K
The following band-pass "ltering will only pass those r (t)'s that fall within the resonance
K
bandwidth. This yields the bandpassed residual signal

H
yJ (t)" r (t)#dI (t) cos(2nf t#h ) (6)
P K P P
KG
 EARLY DETECTION OF GEAR TOOTH CRACKING 891

Figure 1. Resonance demodulation via digital spectral manipulations.

where i and j (i)j) represent the ith to jth meshing harmonics within the resonance
bandwidth, respectively, and dI (t) is the bandpassed version of d(t). This signal is then
squared to yield

 
H  H
[yJ (t)]" r (t) #2dI (t) cos(2nf t#h ) r (t)#dI (t) cos(2nf t#h ). (7)
P K P P K P P
KG KG
Assuming that only one meshing harmonic f is in the pass band, we can show that, after
G
low-pass "ltering with a cut-o! frequency of less than f , the above equation becomes
P
(see Appendix A)

y (t)"[yJ (t)]" - + A [aJ (t)#b (t)]#A dI (t)[aaJ (t)#bb (t)]# dI (t) (8)
C P      G G G G G G 
where a and b are two constants associated with the initial phase di!erence between the ith
meshing harmonic and the resonant vibration, i.e. h !b . This is the squared envelope of
P G
the residual signal in equation (5), which represents the power of the envelope in the analysis
band. The power of this impulsive envelope signal is expected to be concentrating on a very
short period corresponding to the mesh of the faulty tooth, which may well be used to
identify localised gear faults.
When there exists no local fault, then d(t) is zero, so is dI (t), and aJ (t)"a (t) and b (t)"b (t);
G G G G
hence,

y (t)"x (t)" A[a(t)#b(t)] (9)

C C  G G G
and the squared envelope signal only consists of the amplitude- and phase-modulating
functions a (t) and b (t), which exist in the meshing vibration signal of healthy gears. It is
G G
expected that the power envelope in equation (9) would be distributed randomly across the
whole signal period (a complete revolution) with a non-spiky nature.
The above-resonance demodulation procedures can also be performed through digital
manipulations in the spectral domain. Because the signal averaging approach produces an
exact periodic time signal, there is no discontinuity at both ends of the signal samples. This
allows direct conversion between time and frequency domains without windowing [4]. By
introducing the analytic signal using Hilbert transform, procedures for the spectral manip-
ulation are described by Fig. 1. In an ideal case where the resonance is located far beyond
the e!ective range of gear meshing harmonics, the second box in Fig. 1 can be ignored, and
the squared envelope function in equation (8) can be simpli"ed to d (t)/2.

4. APPLICATION TO MODEL GENERATED DATA

In this section, the resonance demodulation technique is applied to the numerically
simulated signal averages of gear meshing vibration using the signal model in equation (3).
During the simulation, we assume the gear has 27 teeth and the meshing vibration has six
signi"cant meshing harmonics (i.e. the e!ective range) with modulation functions consisting
892 W. WANG

Figure 2. The numerically simulated (a) amplitude- and (b) phase-modulation functions.

of the "rst and second shaft order components. To simulate the gear fault e!ects, we assume
that an impact is produced by the gear tooth cracking near 2103 of the shaft angle, and the
impact excites the resonance at the 121st shaft order. The envelope function of the resonant
vibration is simulated by the normalised form of the following function d (t), i.e.

d(t)"d (t)/max"d (t)":
 

 
1 (ln t!k)
d (t)" exp ! (10)
 tp(2n p

where k"!0.22 and p"1 with a sampling interval of 0.02. We also assume that the
impact creates additional modulation e!ects to the amplitude and phase modulation
functions associated with the normal gear. The additional amplitude modulation is
simulated by #d(t)/121 (i.e. an amplitude jump) and the additional phase modulation by
!d(t)/121 (i.e. a phase lag), where 121 is the centre frequency of the resonance (in shaft
orders). The resultant modulation functions are shown in Fig. 2. The peak near 2103 of shaft
angle in Fig. 2(a) simulates a sudden amplitude increase for the meshing vibration and the
dent in Fig. 2(b) simulates a sudden phase lag. Figure 3 shows the amplitude spectra of
simulated meshing vibration signals for (a) a normal gear and (b) a cracked gear, respective-
ly. The major di!erence between the two spectra in Fig. 3 is in the region around the 121st
shaft order where a resonance is assumed excited. In reality, however, the magnitudes of the
meshing harmonics produced by a cracked gear may be substantially di!erent from those
by a normal gear.
For the signal that generates the amplitude spectrum in Fig. 3(b), as shown in Fig. 4(a),
the resonance demodulation technique is applied. Firstly, the residual signal is extracted
and a band-pass "lter from 90 to 150 shaft orders is applied to the residual signal to isolate
 EARLY DETECTION OF GEAR TOOTH CRACKING 893

Figure 3. Amplitude spectra of (a) normal gear meshing signal and (b) gear meshing with tooth crack.

Figure 4. The simulation of gear meshing vibration with advanced tooth crack: (a) signal average, (b) the
residual signal and (c) the squared envelope signal.
894 W. WANG

Figure 5. The simulation of gear meshing vibration with early tooth crack: (a) signal average, (b) the residual
signal and (c) the squared envelope signal.

the structural resonance at the 121st shaft order. A square-law envelope detection [12] is
then followed to identify the envelope of the resonant vibration. Figure 4 shows the
simulated signal average of meshing vibration, the residual signal and the squared envelope
signal. Kurtosis values are calculated for both the residual signal and the squared envelope
signal; they are 20.0 and 30.5 respectively. Apparently, these values are strong indications of
gear tooth crack. In fact, the amplitude of function d(t) used in this example is comparable
to the largest meshing harmonic.
Figure 5 shows another example where the amplitude of function d(t) is reduced to 4% of
the largest meshing harmonic. The kurtosis of the residual signal [Fig. 5(b)] has dropped
from 20.0 to 2.8 while the corresponding envelope kurtosis value was virtually unchanged.
Notice that there are some ripples on both sides of the impulsive change in Fig. 5(c), which
are caused by the modulation sidebands within the resonance pass band. This is because the
relative amplitudes of these sidebands to function d(t) are now much greater than those in
the previous example. It seems that as long as the crack-induced impact is capable of
exciting a structural resonance, no matter how small the resonant component is, the feature
of its envelope function d(t) can be extracted by resonance demodulation technique. This
has an important implication that the kurtosis of the squared envelope signal could be
a very e!ective indicator of incipient gear tooth crack.
Compared to the resonance demodulation, the narrowband demodulation is carried out
around the dominant meshing harmonic, and is shown to be able to extract features related
to the crack-induced sudden change only if the meshing harmonic is inside a structural
resonant band. Figure 6 demonstrates an example where demodulation is carried out with
narrowbands centred at the "rst, second and fourth meshing harmonics for the signal
shown in Fig. 5(a). The bandwidth used in the demodulation is 13 shaft orders, which is
about half of the meshing frequency (27 shaft orders). Among the three "gures, only the
 EARLY DETECTION OF GEAR TOOTH CRACKING 895

Figure 6. Narrowband demodulation for the signal average in Fig. 5(a) around (a) "rst, (b) second and (c) fourth
meshing harmonics.

bottom one is to some extent capable of detecting the change produced by the tooth
cracking, giving a kurtosis value of 7.76. This is because the fourth meshing harmonic is at
the 108th shaft order and a narrowband around it can just catch the left half of the
resonance centred at 121 shaft orders. The other two narrow bands are far away from the
resonance centre, so the demodulated waveforms are dominated by modulating functions
associated with normal gears, i.e. a (t) and b (t) in equation (1).
K K

5. EXPERIMENT WITH GEAR TOOTH CRACKING

The experiments of gear vibration were conducted earlier in [9] on a gear rig for the study
of tooth crack propagation in spur gears. The test procedures were designed to simulate the
natural development of gear tooth cracking. The test rig con"guration is shown in Fig. 7.
The test gearbox was driven by an electric motor through a belt drive that provides a full
loading capacity of 45 kW. The output gear shaft was coupled via a belt drive with
a hydraulic dynamometer where the torque load was generated. During the test, the torque
load was controlled by a potentiometer, and the input speed to the gearbox was set to
2400 rpm (40 Hz) although the actual speed tended to drop slightly under heavy loads.
The test gear was the input pinion, labelled G6, with a spark-eroded notch
(length;width;depth"2 mm;0.1 mm;1 mm) at the root "llet across the middle of the
tooth width. The notch was designed to promote crack initiation. The gear was manufac-
tured under AGMA Class 13 standard (aircraft quality); it had 27 teeth, a width of 10 mm
and a rated load of 24.5 kW. The vibration of the test gearbox was continuously monitored
using accelerometers and an analysis computer. The trend of the kurtosis of the residual
signal of gear meshing vibration was tested and used as a local fault indicator [9].
896 W. WANG

Figure 7. The gear test rig.

To accelerate the process of crack growth, the test rig had been run for a total of 30.5
hours under various overloads between 30 and 45 kW. The rig was then run for another 8.5
hours under a constant load of 45 kW. The monitored kurtosis value and visual inspection
after this 39 hour run time showed no sign of crack growth [9]. The sudden increase of the
residual kurtosis was monitored after a further 3.5 hours of running at 45 kW. This enabled
the detection of the crack propagation that was subsequently con"rmed by visual inspec-
tion. Having developed the tooth cracking, the rig was then run under various loads from
20% to the full rated load of the test pinion for about 1.2 hours before the rig was "nally
shut down for the test of G6 gear. The total run time for G6 gear was 44 hours. The test data
are now analysed using the proposed resonance demodulation technique.

6. ANALYSIS OF RIG TEST DATA USING RESONANCE DEMODULATION

TECHNIQUE
The natural propagation of tooth cracking was successfully simulated through the above
tests. The cracked gear was tested under di!erent load conditions, and the data were used to
investigate the e!ectiveness of the resonance demodulation technique. Using the rig test
data, the resonance demodulation technique is compared with other techniques including
residual kurtosis and narrowband demodulation technique.
As mentioned in the previous section, the G6 test gear had started the crack propagation
from 42.5 hours of running. We now analyse the signal average taken at 43 hours and
26.4 min run time where the rig was loaded to 40% rated load of the test gear. The analysis
result is shown in Fig. 8. In the signal average of Fig. 8(a), we can see the dominance of gear
meshing harmonics and the amplitude modulation waveform with a period of about two
cycles per revolution. This modulation is due to misalignment of the gears [9]. The residual
signal is extracted from the signal average, as shown in Fig. 8(c), and its kurtosis value is
 EARLY DETECTION OF GEAR TOOTH CRACKING 897

Figure 8. Analysis of gear meshing signal under 40% rated load of G6 gear using resonance demodulation.

calculated to be 3.03. This small kurtosis can hardly be seen as an indication of local gear
fault. However, the residual signal contains some high-frequency oscillation near 2003 of
shaft angle, which is the modulated resonant oscillation excited by the tooth crack. In the
spectrum of signal average shown in Fig. 8(b), there is a clearly de"ned resonance peak
centred at about 120 shaft orders. By demodulating the resonance with the pass band of
82}155 shaft orders, the squared envelope signal [Fig. 8(d)] is obtained, which highlights the
power of the change created by the tooth crack. This squared envelope signal has a distinct
peak at around 2003 of shaft angle and has a kurtosis value of 38.8.
Figure 9 shows the analysis results on the signal average taken at 43 hours and 45 min of
run time (the last set of data taken for the test), where the cracked tooth was about to
fracture. At this stage, the mesh of the cracked tooth, under the full rated load of the test
gear, created a huge impact. As shown in Fig. 9(a), the signal average has obvious abrupt
changes between 180 and 2403 of the shaft angle. The kurtosis value of the residual signal
shown in Fig. 9(c) was 10.0, which indicates a severe fault with the gear. By demodulating
the resonance at about 120 shaft orders (82}155 shaft orders), the squared envelope signal is
obtained as shown in Fig. 9(d). The squared envelope kurtosis is 18.1, which is however not
as big as that in the previous case. This is because the crack had a!ected the mesh of more
than one tooth, therefore making the impulsive change extend to a wider shaft angle,
thereby reducing the spikiness of the change and hence the kurtosis. Comparing Figs 8(d)
and 9(d), we notice that the characteristics of the two envelope signals are very di!erent. The
impulsive change in Fig. 8(d) covers a relatively narrow shaft angle and the ripples at other
shaft angles are clearly seen. On the other hand, the change in Fig. 9(d) covers an angle of
898 W. WANG

Figure 9. Analysis of gear meshing signal under 100% rated load of G6 gear using resonance demodulation.

about four tooth widths and the relative strength of the impulsive change is much bigger.
This fact may well be utilised to quantify the severity of the tooth crack.
Compared to the narrowband demodulation technique [6], the resonance demodulation
technique is found to be more appropriate for the detection and diagnosis of local gear
faults. Figure 10 illustrates the analysis results of the signal average shown in Fig. 9(a) using
the narrowband demodulation technique. Narrowband demodulations around the funda-
mental meshing frequency, the second and fourth harmonics, which could be identi"ed from
Fig. 9(b), are conducted. It is found that the narrowband demodulation technique can be
e!ective only if the demodulated band falls into the band of a structural resonance. As seen
in the spectrum in Fig. 9b, the fundamental meshing frequency coincides with a minor
resonance and the fourth meshing harmonic is covered by a major resonance. Hence, the
demodulations around these two harmonics are, to some extent, capable of identifying the
tooth crack whereas the demodulation about the second harmonic is not. It is also
interesting to notice that the result from the fourth harmonic, where there was a major
resonance nearby, is much better than the one from the fundamental that coincides with
a minor resonance (see Fig. 10). Of the three demodulated phase functions in Fig. 10 (the
right column), only Fig. 10(f ) demonstrates some signi"cance with a sudden phase lead of
n at about 2103 of shaft angle where the demodulated amplitude reaches a minimal.
However, similar sudden phase changes also occur in Fig. 10(d) at about 953 (a phase lead)
and 3153 (a phase lag) of shaft angles where the demodulated amplitudes approach zero but
do not indicate the existence of the tooth crack. This is probably a good example to support
 EARLY DETECTION OF GEAR TOOTH CRACKING 899

Figure 10. Analysis of signal average in Fig. 9(a) using narrowband demodulation at (a, b) the "rst, (c, d) the
second and (e, f ) the fourth mesh harmonics. The kurtosis values are (a) 6.36; (b) 1.89; (c) 3.97; (d) 1.99; (e) 15.3;
(f ) 2.70.

the argument that the structural resonance excited by tooth cracking provides more
valuable information for the tooth crack diagnosis than that from amplitude/phase modula-
tion [9].

7. ANALYSIS OF WESSEX HELICOPTER IN-FLIGHT DATA

In this section, some analyses are conducted using the Wessex helicopter in-#ight data.
The in-#ight vibration data were recorded on a Wessex Mark 31B helicopter which was
crashed in 1983 caused by a fatigue crack in the input pinion of the main transmission
gearbox [4]. The input pinion in the Wessex main gearbox (serial number Wak143) was
a thin-rim spiral bevel gear with 22 teeth and 42.7 Hz rotational speed. The tape recorded
analogue vibration signals were low-pass "ltered using an anti-aliasing "lter at 4 kHz. The
signal averages of gear meshing vibration were acquired from the tape recordings by
Forrester [9] using synchronous signal averaging method. The signal averages are now
analysed using the proposed resonance demodulation technique.
Figure 11(a) shows the signal average of the gearbox input pinion, under 100% rated load
(about 1 MW), 103 hours before the crash. At this stage, the fatigue crack was estimated to
be 20 mm in length and 1.2 mm in depth [4]. Figure 11(b) exhibits the amplitude spectrum
of the signal average, which is dominanted by the second meshing harmonic at 44th shaft
order. By removing the gear meshing harmonics at 22, 44, 66 and 88 shaft orders and the
ghost component at 25 shaft orders, the residual signal is extracted, as shown in Fig. 11(c).
The kurtosis value of the residual signal is calculated to be 4.16. From the spectrum,
however, we can hardly identify a dominant structural resonance, so that we choose to use
a wide analysis band from the "rst shaft order to the 100th shaft order. Using the same
900 W. WANG

Figure 11. Analysis of gear meshing signal of Wessex Wak143 input pinion under 100% rated load and at 103
hours before failure.

Figure 12. Analysis of gear meshing signal of Wessex Wak143 input pinion under 100% rated load and at 42
hours before failure.
 EARLY DETECTION OF GEAR TOOTH CRACKING 901
procedures as described in Fig. 1, the squared envelope signal is obtained. As illustrated in
Fig. 11(d), the squared envelope signal has a distinct impulsive change between 180 and 2403
of the shaft angle, which corresponds to the amplitude change in the signal average in
Fig. 11(a). The kurtosis value of the squarm med envelope signal is 18.7, which is a clear
indication of local gear fault.
As the fatigue crack further propagated to a size of approximately 20 mm;5 mm at 42
hours before failure, the sudden change in the signal average [shown in Fig. 12(a)] becomes
more obvious and covers a wider range of shaft angles. In the spectrum shown in Fig. 12(b),
several minor resonance peaks are clearly exhibited. The kurtosis of the residual signal in
Fig. 12(c) is calculated to be 6.78. Using the same analysis band as in Fig. 11, the squared
envelope signal is extracted as shown in Fig. 12(d). The squared envelope signal has
produced a kurtosis value of 32.6, and we have identi"ed two big and one small spikes
between the shaft angle of 180 and 2403. This gives an important indication that, 42 hours
before failure, the fatigue crack in the input pinion had propagated to an advanced stage
and had a!ected the mesh of more than three teeth.

8. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUDING REMARKS

In the above sections, a scheme of using the resonance demodulation technique is
proposed for early detection of gear tooth cracks and the method is applied to numerically
simulated data, rig test data and helicopter in-#ight vibration data. The resonance de-
modulation technique focuses on the fact that a gear tooth crack produces impacts in the
meshing vibration that excite structural resonances, and the envelope of the structural
resonant vibration carries the fault-related information. Therefore, it is bene"cial to have
a clearly de"ned structural resonance for an e$cient extraction of the impulse produced by
the mesh of the cracked tooth, such as the cases shown in Figs 8(b) and 9(b). However, the
use of this technique does not totally rely upon a clearly de"ned resonance. In the case
where a series of minor structural resonances are present, such as the cases shown in
Figs 11(b) and 12(b), the analysis band can simply be a wide band that includes all the minor
resonances. Furthermore, because the resonance demodulation is conducted with the
residual signal where dominant gear meshing components are removed, the resonance to be
demodulated can be inside the range of meshing harmonics. If a resonance is outside the
e!ective range of meshing harmonics, say much higher than the highest signi"cant order
harmonic frequency, this technique should also be suitable as long as the tooth crack is
capable of exciting the resonance.
Compared to the narrowband demodulation technique where the demodulation is
carried out around the dominant mesh harmonic, the resonance demodulation technique is
superior in situations where the dominant meshing component is not associated with
a major structural resonance. This is demonstrated by the analysis results shown in Figs 9,
10 and 12. In particular, the results in Fig. 10 have provided a good example to support the
argument that it is the crack-induced structural resonance, rather than the additional
amplitude/phase modualtion to the gear meshing vibration, that provides most of the
information on a gear tooth crack [9].
It is also worthwhile to emphasise that the squared envelope signal extracted by the
resonance demodulation method represents the power of the crack-induced change in
the analysis band and is suitable for describing the characteristics of impulsive signatures.
This signal can produce a larger kurtosis value than the actual envelope signal if they are
impulsive, while under normal conditions the kurtosis values of the squared envelope and
the actual envelope remain the same. From the analysis results shown in Figs 8 and 11, it is
obvious that the squared envelope kurtosis provides a better indication of the gear tooth
902 W. WANG

crack than does the residual kurtosis. With an advanced tooth crack at heavy loadings, the
spike(s) in the squared envelope signal can cover a shaft angle across several tooth widths, as
is the case in Figs 9(d) and 12(d), but this may not necessarily correspond to larger kurtosis
values, such as the case in Fig. 9(d) [compared to Fig. 8(d)]. This fact may be used to develop
a severity measure of the tooth crack by considering the kurtosis value, the shaft angle
covered by the impulsive change, the analysis bandwidth and the loading relative to gear
rating.
In conclusion, the analysis results presented in this paper have demonstrated that the
resonance demodulation technique provides an e!ective supplement to the current tech-
niques of gearbox fault diagnosis based on synchronous signal averaging method. The
kurtosis of the squared envelope signal extracted by resonance demodulation analysis
is a robust indicator of gear tooth cracks. This technique has some advantages
over the current gear diagnosis techniques and is thus potentially a powerful tool for gear
diagnostics.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank Dr Albert K. Wong, Mr Sam Fisher and Mr David Blunt
of Aeronautical and Maritime Research Laboratory (AMRL), Australia for their comments
on the paper. Many thanks also to Dr David Forrester of AMRL for the use of the Wessex
Wak143 signal averages calculated by him, and to Mr Luther Krake of AMRL for the
permission to use his drawing of the test rig set-up in this paper.

REFERENCES
1. R. M. STEWART 1977 Applications of ¹ime Series Analysis. ISVR, University of Southampton:
Some useful data analysis techniques for gearbox diagnostics.
2. P. D. MCFADDEN 1987 Mechanical System and Signal Processing 1, 173}183. Examination of
a technique for the early detection of failure in gears by signal processing of the time domain
average of the meshing vibration.
3. R. B. RANDALL 1982 ASME Journal of Mechanical Design 104, 259}267. A new method of
modelling gear faults.
4. P. D. MCFADDEN 1985 Aero Propulsion Report 169, DS¹O, Australia. Analysis of the vibration of
the input bevel pinion in RAN wessex helicopter main rotor gearbox WAK143 prior to failure.
5. F. K. CHOY et al., 1994 NASA ¹echnical Memorandum 106623. Vibration signature analysis of
a faulted gear transmission system.
6. P. D. MCFADDEN 1986 Journal of <ibration, Acoustics, Stress, and Reliability in Design 108,
165}170. Detecting fatigue cracks in gears by amplitude and phase demodulation of the meshing
vibration.
7. G. KRISHNAPPA 1997 Proceedings of the Fifth International Congress on Sound and <ibration,
vol. II, Adelaide, Australia, December 15}18, 919}926. Gear fault detection parameter develop-
ment based on modulation techniques.
8. P. D. MCFADDEN 1990 Machine Condition Monitoring (Proceedings of the Seminar Organised by
the Institute of Mechanical Engineers), ¸ondon, ;.K., 9 January, 49}53. Condition monitoring of
rolling element bearings by vibration analysis.
9. B. D. FORRESTER 1996 Ph.D. thesis, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia. Advanced
vibration analysis techniques for fault detection and diagnosis in geared transmission systems.
10. D. B. BOARD 1977 Proceedings of AIAA/SAE 13th Propulsion Conference, Orlando, Florida, July
11}13, paper 77}898. Incipient failure detection for helicopter drive trains.
11. S. BRAUN and B. DATNER 1979 ASME Journal of Mechanical Design 101, 118}125. Analysis of
roller/ball bearing vibrations.
12. M. SCHWARTZ 1970 Information Transmission, Modulation and Noise*A Uni"ed Approach to
Communication Systems, 2nd edn. New York: McGraw-Hill.
 EARLY DETECTION OF GEAR TOOTH CRACKING 903
APPENDIX A
In equation (7), if only r (t) falls into the pass band ( f and f are close to each other), then
G P G
[yJ (t)]"[r (t)]#2dI (t) cos(2nf t#h )r (t)#dI (t) cos(2nf t#h ). (A1)
P G P P G P P
For equation (4), it has been shown [4] that provided "aJ (t)";1, "b (t)";n and
K K
"aJ (t)b (t)";1, we have
K K
r (t)+A +aJ (t) cos[2nf t#b ]!b (t) sin[2nf t#b ],. (A2)
G G G G G G G G
Using trigonometric identi"es, the "rst term in equation (A1) becomes
[r (t)]+A+aJ (t) cos[2nf t#b ]!2aJ (t)b (t) cos[2nf t#b ] sin[2nf t#b ]
G G G G G G G G G G G
#b (t) sin[2nf t#b ],
G G G


aJ (t)
"A G [1#cos(2n2f t#2b )]!a (t)b (t) sin[2n2f t#2b ]
G 2 G G G G G G


b (t) 1
# G [1!cos(2n2f t#2b )] , (lowpassing)N A[aJ (t)#b (t)]. (A3)
2 G G 2 G G G
and the second term
2dI (t) cos(2nf t#h ) )A +a (t) cos[2nf t#b ]!b (t) sin[2nf t#b ],
P P G G G G G G G
"A d (t)+aJ (t) [cos(2n( f !f )t#h !b )#cos(2n( f #f )t#h #b )]
G G P G P G P G P G
!b (t)[sin(2n( f #f )t#h #b )!sin(2n( f !f )t#h !b )],
G P G P G P G P G
(lowpassing at less than f ) N A d (t)[aaJ (t)#bb (t)] (A4)
P G G G
where a"cos(h !b ) and b"sin(h !b ), respectively, provided that ( f !f ) is very small.
P G P G P G
Lastly, the third term in (A1)
 dI (t) [1#cos(2n2f t#2h )], (lowpassing at less than f ) N  dI (t). (A5)
 P P P 
Therefore, after low-pass "ltering at a cut-o! frequency of less than f , all the high-frequency
P
components at 2f and ( f #f ) are "ltered out. Equation (A1) becomes
P P G
[yJ (t)]" - + A[aJ (t)#b (t)]#A dI (t)[aa (t)#bb (t)]# dI (t). (A6)
P      G G G G G G