The major purpose of a gear lubricant is to provide adequate oil film thickness to reduce and prevent gear tooth surface failures. Real time monitoring for gear failures is important in order to predict and prevent unexpected failures which would have a negative impact on the efficiency, performance and safety of the gearbox. This paper presents experimental results on the influence of specific oil film thickness on Acoustic Emission (AE) activity for operational helical gears. Variation in film thickness during operations was achieved by spraying liquid nitrogen onto the rotating gear wheel. The experimental results demonstrated a clear relationship between the root mean square (r.m.s) value of the AE signal and the specific film thickness. The findings demonstrate the potential of Acoustic Emission technology to quantify lubrication regimes on operational gears.
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