This work develops an analytical model of planetary gears and uses it to investigate their natural frequencies and vibration modes. The model admits three planar degrees of freedom for each of the sun, ring, carrier and planets. It includes key factors affecting planetary gear vibration such as gyroscopic effects and time-varying stiffness. For the linear, time-invariant case, examination of the associated eigenvalue problem reveals the well-defined structure of the vibration modes, where the special structure results from the cyclic symmetry of planetary gears. Vibration modes are classified into rotational, translational and planet modes. The unique characteristics of each type of mode are analytically investigated in detail. For each class of mode, reduced-order eigenvalue problems are derived.

Issue Section:
Research Papers
Topics:
Free vibrations, Planetary gears, Vibration, Eigenvalues, Degrees of freedom, Stiffness
1.
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2.
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3.
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