Variable stiffness-based vibration prediction for full coupling model of gearbox

Vibration is a problem worthy of attention in gearbox design. In the case of high speed and heavy load, vibration may be more significant, so some methods are needed to predict the vibration of the gearbox. At present, most vibration prediction methods have the problems of few research parameters, low fidelity and a large amount of calculation. In this paper, a fully coupled finite method model of variable stiffness gearbox based on lumped parameter method (LPM) is proposed, and the vibration prediction of gearbox housing is carried out considering time-varying meshing stiffness (TVMS), transmission error and other factors. Firstly, a new stiffness calculation method was proposed based on finite element theory and potential energy method, which can accurately solve the TVMS of fault gear. At the same time, the comprehensive meshing error of gear was solved. At then, the TVMS and comprehensive meshing error of the healthy gear and fault gear were brought into the dynamic equation of two-stage spur gear to obtain meshing force. After that, the meshing force was used as an excitation to solve the vibration of the gearbox housing. Finally, the vibration regularity of the health gearbox and fault gearbox was compared. The sensitivity of each gear shaft to the vibration caused by fault and the vibration regularity of different bearing seats of the same gear shaft was explored. The effectiveness of the simulation results was verified by experiments.