Planetary-gearbox fault classification by convolutional neural network and recurrence plot

Abstract

Recurrence-plot (RP) analysis is a graphical tool to visualize and analyze the recurrence of nonlinear dynamic systems. By combining the advantages of the RP and a convolutional neural network (CNN), a fault-classification scheme for planetary gear sets is proposed in this paper. In the proposed approach, a vibration is first picked up from the planetary-gear test rig and converted into an angular-domain quasistationary signal through computed order tracking to eliminate the frequency blur caused by speed fluctuations. Then, the signal in the angular domain is divided into several segments, and each segment is processed by the RP to constitute the training sample. Moreover, a two-dimensional CNN model was developed to adaptively extract faulty features. Experiments on a planetary-gear test rig with four conditions under three operating speeds were carried out. The results of measured vibration demonstrated the validity of CNN and recurrence plot analysis for the fault classification of planetary-gear sets.