Investigation on the influence of spalling defects on the dynamic performance of planetary gear sets with sliding friction

Abstract

With the lubrication conditions deteriorating, sliding friction appears and affects the dynamic performance of planetary gear sets significantly. Furthermore, sliding friction can accelerate tooth surface fatigue and consequently cause many kinds of tooth failures. Spalling defect is a typical tooth failure of planetary gear sets. The influence of the spalling defect on the dynamic performance of planetary gear sets remains unknown when sliding friction is considered. In this paper, a dynamic model is proposed to investigate the dynamics of planetary gear sets with the spalling defect and sliding friction. The dynamic model includes the effect of the time-varying mesh stiffness, mesh damping, sliding friction forces and torques. A planetary gear set with three planet gears is taken as an example to analyze the effect of the spalling defect under sliding friction. Through the simulation analysis, it can be found that the spalling defect and sliding friction have remarkable influence on the dynamic responses of the planetary gear set. Finally, the dynamic model is validated by the experiments. This research establishes the theoretical basis for the diagnosis of the spalling defect of the planetary gear set with sliding friction.