Vibration Condition Monitoring of an Electric Drive Unit

Abstract

The increasing competition and rapid development in electromobility are driving accelerated product development, higher drivetrain performance, and consequently greater mechanical stress on components. Ensuring reliability and safety therefore requires effective condition monitoring during testing. Vibration-based condition monitoring is widely used for this purpose; however, the effectiveness of such monitoring strongly depends on the measurement setup, particularly sensor placement. In practice, sensor positioning is often performed without a structured approach, which could lead to inconsistent and potentially unreliable results. This study focuses on developing a standardized procedure for vibration measurement setup during drivetrain testing. Multiple real-time measurements were conducted and analysed using various evaluation metrics to assess the influence of sensor placement and operating conditions. The results demonstrate that sensor placement must be carefully optimised for different machine configurations. In addition, the classification of load cases requires refinement to support a consistent and standardized testing methodology. The proposed approach contributes to improved reliability and comparability of condition monitoring results.