The enhancement of the detection of weak signals against a strong noise background is a key problem in local gear fault diagnosis. Because the periodic impact signal generated by local gear damage is often modulated by high-frequency components, fault information is submerged in its envelope signal when demodulating the fault signal. However, the traditional bistable stochastic resonance (BSR) system cannot accurately match the asymmetric characteristics of the envelope signal because of its

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... metrical potential well, which weakens the detection performance for weak faults. In order to overcome this problem, a novel method based on underdamped asymmetric periodic potential stochastic resonance (UAPPSR) is proposed to enhance the weak feature extraction of the local gear damage. The main advantage of this method is that it can better match the characteristics of the envelope signal by using the asymmetry of its potential well in the UAPPSR system and it can effectively enhance the extraction effect of periodic impact signals. Furthermore, the proposed method enjoys a good anti-noise capability and robustness and can strengthen weak fault characteristics under different noise levels. Thirdly, by reasonably adjusting the system parameters of the UAPPSR, the effective detection of input signals with different frequencies can be realized. Numerical simulations and experimental tests are performed on a gear with a local root crack, and the vibration signals are analyzed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The comparison results show that the proposed method possesses a better resonance output effect and is more suitable for weak fault feature extraction under a strong noise background.