Gear Damage Detection Using Chaotic Dynamics Techniques: A Preliminary Study

This paper is a preliminary study applying nonlinear time series analysis to crack detection in gearboxes. Our investigations show that the vibration signal emerging from a gearbox is chaotic. Appearance of a crack in a gear tooth alters this response and hence the chaotic signature. We used correlation dimension and Lyapunov exponents to quantify this change. The main goal of this study is to point out the great potential of these methods in detection of cracks and faults in machinery.