Planetary Gearbox Diagnosis Using Varying-stable Stochastic Resonance

Planetary gearbox is an important part of the mechanical devices, but the fault-induced impulses that induced by the fault and submerged in strong noise are too weak to be detected. Stochastic resonance (SR) can improve the weak signal with the help of noise, which suits the detection of the weak signal. Bi-stable SR (BSR) is the most classical SR and has been used for the mechanical fault diagnosis. Varying-stable SR (VSR), whose potential is the varying-stable potential, is proposed for the planetary gearbox diagnosis. Unlike the bi-stable potential, the number of varying-stable potential well is different under different parameters, which enhances the SR effect. To verify the proposed method, two planted fault tests of the planetary gearbox are carried out. For comparison, the fault signals are analyzed by BSR and VSR respectively. The results prove that VSR is feasible for the planetary gearbox diagnosis and more effective than BSR.