The application of high-frequency acoustic emission (AE) technology to conditionmonitoring of gears is still in its infancy. Understanding the influence of gearoperating parameters on the generation of AE is essential in applying the AEtechnology to gear condition monitoring. This paper presents experimentalfindings on the influence of speed and load in generating AE for operatinghelical and spur gears. The experimental findings suggest that any percentagereduction in specific film thickness (gimel), a direct consequence of a changein load condition, results in a nine- and four-fold percentage change in AE rmsfor the spur and helical gear sets, respectively. A numerical model representingchanges in AE rms with variation in load and speed under near isothermalconditions for spur and helical gears was also established. In conclusion, it ispostulated that the AE technology could offer a means of measuring in situ theeffectiveness of a lubricant for operational spur and helical gears therebyestablishing if the correct lubricating conditions are present to ensure optimallife usage.
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