Gearbox Fault Detection Using Hilbert and TT-Transform

Machine vibration signal has been used in fault detection and diagnosis. Modulation and non-stationarity existing in the signal generated by a faulty gearbox present challenges to effective fault detection. Hilbert transform has the ability to address the modulation issue. This paper outlines a novel fault detection method called Hilbert & TT-transform (HTT-transform) which combines Hilbert transform and TT-transform obtained from the inverse Fourier transform of the S-transform. The principle of the proposed method is to analyze the modulating signal created by a faulty gear using a time-time representation. The method has the advantage of providing a new way of localizing the time features of the modulating signal around a particular point on the time axis through scaled windows. It is verified with simulated signals and real gearbox vibration signals. The results obtained by CWT, S-transform, TT- transform, and HTT-transform are compared. They show that utilizing the proposed method can improve the effectiveness of gearbox fault detection.