Experimental investigation of the ring-planet gear meshing forces identification

Abstract

The dynamic gear meshing forces are the primary sources of vibration and noise in planetary gear transmissions (PGTs), leading to lower transmission accuracy and shorter service life. An accurate estimation of dynamic meshing forces is valuable for the low vibration and noise design and condition monitoring of PGTs. In this paper, we aim to evaluate the dynamic ring-planet gear meshing forces in PGTs, and a moving forces identification model is developed to evaluate the ring-planet meshing forces. Firstly, the ring-planet meshing forces are modelled as moving forces acting on the inner wall of the ring gear. Extend frequency response functions (EFRFs) are proposed to represent the time-varying vibration transmission path of the PGTs. Then, a moving force identification (MFI) model is established to evaluate the meshing forces. Besides, singular value decomposition (SVD) and regularization techniques are employed to solve the ill-posed inverse problem. A simplified ring model is taken as an example for numerical investigation to access the accuracy and feasibility of the proposed method. Finally, experimental vibration signals are used to identify ring-planet meshing forces. Compared with the testing meshing forces derived from dynamic strain signals, identification results indicated that the presented method can evaluate the dynamic ring-planet meshing forces with acceptable results.