Abstract:

Thermal technique can augment vibration analysis in an approach called vibro-thermal analysis, which is developed in this study. Vibro-thermal analysis is appropriate especially for large machines in enterprises and for the aviation industry. This study designed a test setup located in laboratory conditions to investigate the effects of oil starvation under different loads on a worm-type gear using a new perspective called tribo-prognostics. The main purpose of the study is to introduce this new prognostics and health management (PHM) approach. Thermal data, infrared distribution and quantitative charts were considered for thermal analysis; and spectrum data, waterfall data and quantitative charts were considered for vibration analysis. Tribo-prognostics was efficiently implemented by detecting oil starvation through a symptomatic level of the condition monitoring. Vibro-thermal analysis uses vibration and thermal monitoring to reduce the errors in data interpretation for predictive maintenance practices. The health of a gearbox can be assessed by vibration analysis of a bearing; and gear vibration frequencies become more prominent when the load and oil insufficiency are increased. Thermal monitoring assists vibration analysis with respect to the overall mapping of the inspected system and can help assess system health more quickly. This paper shows that vibro-thermal analysis is a viable supplementary model of vibration and thermal analysis