Potential of Empirical Mode Decomposition for Hilbert Demodulation of Acoustic Emission Signals in Gearbox Diagnostics

The acoustic emission (AE) analysis has been used increasingly for gearbox diagnostics. Since AE signals are of non-linear, non-stationary and broadband nature, traditional signal processing techniques such as envelope spectrum must be carefully applied to avoid a wrong fault diagnosis. One signal processing technique that has been used to enhance the demodulation process for vibration signals is the empirical mode decomposition (EMD). Until now, the combination of both techniques has not yet been used to improve the fault diagnostics in gearboxes using AE signals. In this research we explore the use of the EMD to improve the demodulation process of AE signals using the Hilbert transform and enhance the representation of a gear fault in the envelope spectrum. AE signals were measured on a planetary gearbox (PG) with a ring gear fault. A comparative signal analysis was conducted for the envelope spectra of the original AE signals and the obtained intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) considering three types of filters: highpass filter in the whole AE range, bandpass filter based on IMF spectra analysis and bandpass filter based on the fast kurtogram. It is demonstrated how the results of the envelope spectrum analysis can be improved by the selection of the relevant frequency band of the IMF most affected by the fault. Moreover, not considering a complementary signal processing technique such as the EMD prior the calculation of the envelope of AE signals can lead to a wrong fault diagnosis in gearboxes. The EMD has the potential to reveal frequency bands in AE signals that are most affected by a fault and improve the demodulation process of these signals. Further research shall focus on overcome issues of the EMD technique to enhance its application to AE signals.