Experimental and numerical analysis on load-sharing behavior of gear set with simultaneously actuated pinions

Abstract

The load-sharing behavior is important for the gear set actuated by multiple parallel pinions to avoid the excessive wear and fatigue failure. A lumped parameter dynamic model of gear set driven by three pinions simultaneously is established, in which their support stiffness and mounted positions of gear pairs are considered. A load-sharing index is defined as the ratio of the maximal and the minimal transmission loads of three gear pairs. The load-sharing behavior of gear set is numerically investigated with four distributions of three pinions. A corresponding testing device was presented. The load-sharing behavior of gear set with various mounted positions of three pinions was studied experimentally and compared with numerical results. The similar behavior denotes that the load transmission of various gear pairs has close relation with the mounted positions of pinions. Then, the load-sharing behavior of the gear set driven by three pinions is discussed in which the contact ratios and the support stiffness of pinions are considered. The results show that the increase of the contact ratios and the decrease of the support stiffness may worsen the load-sharing behavior of gear set actuated by multiple pinions. Suitable mechanical parameters of gear systems are important for the load transmission and dynamic behavior of multiple gear pairs.