APPLICATION OF WAVELETS TO GEARBOX VIBRATION SIGNALS FOR FAULT-DETECTION

The wavelet transform is used to represent all possible types of trans ients in vibration signals generated by faults in a gearbox. It is sho wn that the transform provides a powerful tool for condition monitorin g and fault diagnosis. The vibration signal from a helicopter gearbox is used to demonstrate the application of the suggested wavelet by a s imple computer algorithm. The major advantage of the wavelet transform for analyzing the signal is that it possesses multi-resolutions for l ocalizing short-time components so that all possible types of gear fau lts can be displayed by a single time-scale distribution resulting fro m the transform. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited