Lukas Merkle

• Master of Science
• Deputy Head of Drive Technolgy Department at University of Stuttgart

Gearbox failure in offshore wind turbines can be caused by fatigue damages like tooth flank fracture (TFF) or pitting damage. For damage detection in current applications, simple threshold values for vibration amplitudes are used to initiate a shutdown of the wind turbine. At this time significant damage to the gear is already present and an extern...

Condition monitoring with very early gear damage detection enables remaining useful life prediction and health management of drive units. For a reliable detection of tooth flank damage during operation, a holistic approach combines experimental investigations, physical and AI-based data evaluation and is supplemented by FE and multi-body simulation...

Early damage detection in gearbox applications enables the implementation of Prognostics and Health Management (PHM). On the one hand, the earliest possible damage detection provides a precise in-sight into the state of health of a gearbox. In addition, early damage detection offers the possibility to slow down the damage progress and extend the re...

The economic efficiency of machinery operation is significantly impacted by maintenance strategies. In the realm of condition-based or predictive maintenance strategies, the early detection of fatigue-induced damages is crucial. Therefore, this study focuses on the early detection of pitting damages during operation. Experimental investigations are...

Many failures of wind turbines are due to drive failures caused by pitting. Each failure can be associated with high repair costs and time-consuming repair work. This particularly applies to offshore facilities. For these reasons, increasing the remaining useful life of wind power drives is essential to leave a minimal ecological footprint by simul...

In critical industrial applications, gearboxes are already equipped with Condition Monitoring Systems (CMS) based on vibration sensors. However, these systems are only developing their full potential if damages can be detected early and if the accumulated sensor data can be assigned to a type of damage and a damage size. The aim of this investigati...

Elastomere Radial-Wellendichtungen werden in fast jedem antriebstechnischen Aggregat eingesetzt. Ohne Abdichtung der Wellendurchtrittstelle ist ein Betrieb unmöglich. Obwohl die Dichtringe millionenfach eingesetzt werden, kommt es immer wieder zum Systemschaden „Leckage“. Die Dichtringe zeigen als tribologischen Primärschaden beispielsweise Verhärt...

Elastomeric rotary shaft seals are a common seal type for various industrial applications. They are comparably cheap and easy to use and offer an overall good performance. But the wear behavior of these sealing systems is not fully understood and not predictable so far. If a lip seal fails, it causes high maintenance costs and environmental damage....

Radial lip seals are used in various sizes and designs to seal shaft interfaces. In contrast to other sealing systems, elastomeric radial lip seals have a back-pumping capability. Fluid is pumped under the sealing edge from the air side to the fluid side. The simplest method for measuring the back-pumping rate is the converse installation of the ra...

Radial lip seals are a common seal type for various industrial applications. In retarder breaking systems for commercial vehicles, radial lip seals are exposed to very fast changing oil sump temperatures. Due to increasing demands, the elastomer seals are increasingly failing premature in such applications. It is assumed that this is caused in part...

https://www.isgatec.com/artikel/improving-a-gear-box-sealing-system/30204

Radial shaft seals are used in various sizes and designs to seal shaft interfaces. The use of a specific seal type for certain applications has often grown historically and then remains unchanged for many years. Furthermore. seals are not only selected based on technical criteria, but also for economic reasons. Often, these sealing systems work wit...