Planetary Gear Train Dynamics

A model to simulate the dynamic behavior of a single-stage planetary gear train with helical gears is developed. The three-dimensional dynamic model includes all six rigid body motions of the gears and the carrier. The generic nature of the formulation allows the analysis of a planetary gear set with any number of planets. Planets can be arbitrarily spaced (equally or unequally) around the sun gear. The model is also capable of handling different planet meshing conditions which are functions of number of gear teeth and planet positions. The linear time-invariant equations of motion are solved to obtain the natural modes and the forced vibration response due to static transmission errors. The proposed model is employed to describe the effects of the planet mesh phasing conditions on the dynamic behavior of a four-planet system.