Reliability and Random Lifetime Models of Planetary Gear Systems

Conventional reliability models of planetary gear systems are mainly static. In this paper, dynamic reliability models and random lifetime models of planetary gear systems are developed with dynamic working mechanism considered. The load parameters, the geometric parameters, and the material parameters are taken as the inputs of the reliability models and the random lifetime models. Moreover, failure dependence and dynamic random load redistributions are taken into account in the models. Monte Carlo simulations are carried out to validate the proposed models. The results show that the randomness of the load distribution is obvious in the system working process. Failure dependence has significant influences on system reliability. Moreover, the dispersion of external load has great impacts on the reliability, lifetime distribution, and redundancy of planetary gear systems.