Abstract
Typical vibration monitoring systems for helicopter gearboxes rely on single-axis accelerometer data. This paper investigates whether triaxial accelerometers can provide crucial flight regime information for helicopter gearbox monitoring systems. The frequency content of the three different directions is compared and analyzed using time-synchronously averaged vibration data. The triaxial data are decorrelated using a mathematical transformation, and compared to the original axes to determine their optimality. The benefits of using triaxial data for vibration monitoring and diagnostics are explored by analyzing the changes in the direction of the principal axis of vibration formed using all three axes of vibration. The statistical variation introduced due to the experimental variables is further analyzed using an Analysis of Variance approach to determine the effect of each variable on the overall signature. The results indicate that triaxial accelerometers can provide additional information about the frequency content of helicopter gearbox vibrations, providing researchers and industry with a novel method of capturing and monitoring changes in the baseline vibration signatures.
