Dynamic modelling and simulation of gear transmission error

for gearbox vibration analysis

Author:
Du, Shu
Publication Date:
1997
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/4133
License:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/
Link to license to see what you are allowed to do with this resource.

Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/54386 in https://

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DYNAMIC MODELLING AND SIMULATION

OF GEAR TRANSMISSION ERROR FOR

GEARBOX VIBRATION ANALYSIS

by

Shu DU
(B.E, M.E.)

A Thesis submitted to

The University of New South Wales

for

The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering

September 1997
 ABSTRACT

This thesis investigates the dynamic characteristics of a gearbox and the gear
Transmission Error (TE).

Despite a lot of investigations devoted to gear vibration analysis there still remains to be
developed a general dynamic model capable of predicting the effects of variations in gear
geometry, transmitted load, shaft and/or gear inertia, and shaft speed on system
vibration. Research of gear transmission e"or is of interest for two main reasons: (a) it
is one of the main sources of noise and vibration and (b) it gives a measure of the
precision of a gear train.

This study considers not only the gear geometric error but also the variations of the
tooth body stiffitess and the tooth local contact stiffitess with contact location as the
sources of gear transmission error, and also considers how these sources interact to
influence the total transmission error, in particular the components present at tooth-mesh
frequency and harmonics. The main focuses of the study were to develop a modified
loaded static TE model taking into account the variations of the tooth body stiffness and
the tooth local contact stiffhess and to develop a dynamic TE model which is able to
simulate effects of the shaft speed relative to system natural frequencies.

The models have been verified by comparison of simulation results with those obtained
from the test rig used in this study. Nylon gear sets were used in the measurement to
verify the models by simulating a system where tooth deflection dominates over
geometric errors. These models may be used to predict practical gear set transmission
error, in particular for high precision gear sets and to predict the dynamic transmission
error with the effects of the shaft speed and system resonances.

In the gear transmission error measurement, A method of reducing or cancelling the

effect of encoder error was introduced, and a method of estimating the range of encoder
error is given for both a 1: 1 ratio case and a non 1: 1 ratio case. The verification of the
method was carried out using measurement results.

11
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my sincere gratitude and indebtedness to Associate Professor R.

B. Randall for his valuable guidance and support throughout my PhD study. I would also
like to express my sincere thanks to Associate Professor D. W. Kelly for his valuable
suggestions in my PhD study

I also very appreciate the Overseas Postgraduate Research Scholarship provided by the
Australian Government for my doctoral study.

Special thanks to Mr R N Overhall for his patience and assistance during my

experimental work in the Acoustic and Vibration Laboratory. Also special thanks to the
staff of the workshop of the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering for
their help

Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their understanding and encouragement

Ill
 CONTENTS

ABSTRACT•..•......•.............•...•••.•..•....•..•.•..•..••.•..•.................•.••.•............ i
A CKN"0 WLEDG MENTS•.•••••...••••.•.•.....•........•••••.••..••...•......•••.•••........ iii
CONTENTS...•.•.••••••••••.••.........••••.••.........•.••••................•••..•.............••.•. iv
LIST OF FIGURES•••.••••••••••••••..•••••..•••••..•••••••.••••••••••.....•.•••..••..••..•..••.• ix

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .......••••••.•..•........••.•.•••••••..........••........•. !

1. 1 OUTLINE....... ...... ... ........................... ................................. ... .... ...... ........ .... ... .. 1

1.2 GEAR TRANSMISSION ERROR ........................................................................... 2

1.3 LA YOur OF THE CURRENT STUDY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................ 7

2 1 OVERVIEW .............................................. ········ . . . . . ...... .......... . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2.2 MODELS WITII Toorn ONLY. ... . .. .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . ... ......... . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2.2.1 Single Tooth Models........... ............. ....... ......................... .. ... .... .. .9
2.2.2 Models with a Pair of Teeth .... ............. .. ....... ...................... . ........ 10

2.3 MODELS WITII Toorn AND OTHER ELEMENTS....... ........... ................. .... . . . 12

2.4 MODELS Wirn OVERALL GEARBOXES........................................... . . . .... .. 16

2.5 MoDELS w THis STUDY .................................................................................. 19

CHAPTER 3: MODELLING OF TOOTH FOR MESH STIFFNESS

ANALYSIS •...............................•.......................••.•.......... 21

3.1 OVERVIEW ............................. ··················· . ························ . . . 21

IV
 3.2 MODELLING OF THE TOOTII BODY DEFLECTION ................................................ 24
3 .2.I Introduction ............................................................................................... 24
3.2.2 FE model with Single Gear Tooth ............................................................... 24
3 .2.3 Stiflhess Matrix Calculation ...................................................................... 27

3.3 MODELLING OF THE TOOTII LOCAL CONTACT DEFORMATION ........................... 28

3.3 .I Introduction ............................................................................................... 28
3.3.2 Non-Linear Problems and Application of the Gap Element .......................... 29
3.3.3 Determination ofthe Contact Area.............................................................. 32
3.3.4 Validation ofthe Model and the Stiflhess Vector Calculation ..................... 37

3.4 COMBINED MESH STIFFNESS············································································· 37

3.5 CONCLUSION ................................................................. ··································· 39

CHAPTER 4: MODELLING OF OVERALL GEARBOX FOR

DYNAMIC ANALYSIS ••••....••••••••••••••.•••••••••••.•..•........... 40
4.I INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 40

4.2 CONSIDERATIONS FOR GEARBOX INTERNALS. ................................................. 42

4.2.I Gears and Shafts ......................................................................................... 42
4.2.2 Gear Mesh Stiflhess .................................................................................. 44
4.2.3 Bearing Stiflhess ......................................................................................... 45

4.3 CASING AND FLEXIBLE MOUNT MODELLING ..................................................... 45

4. 3 .I Casing Modelling ...................................................................................... 46
4.3.2 Flexible Mount Modelling ....................................................................... 47

4.4 MODEL VALIDITY WITII GEARBOX VIBRATION MEASUREMENT ........................ 49

4.4.1 Overview ................................................................................................ 50
4.4.2 Gearbox Vibration Measurement Setup........................................ . ........... 51
4.4.3 Modal Analysis with the Measured Data ................................................. 54
4.4.4 Comparison ofMeasured and FE Model Results... ............. . . ........... . . 57

4.5 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 62

CHAPTER 5: MEASUREMENT OF GEAR TRANSMISSION

ERROR ••...•••.•••..•••...••.••.•.••••.•....•.........•••.•••.•.•••...•........... 63
5.1 INTRODUCTION....... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 63

5.2 EXPERIMENTAL RIG SETUP ................................................................................ 65

5.2.1 General Arrangement.. .......................................................................... 65
5.2.2 Characteristics of the Drive and Loading ..................................................... 66
5.2.3 Gearbox Assembly ...................................................................................... 67
5.2.4 Encoders......................................................................... ....... ... ............. 68

v
 5.3 GEAR TRANSMISSION ERROR MEASUREMENT SYSTEM ...................................... 70

5.4 MEASUREMENT DATA PROCESSING-- PHASE DEMODULATION ........................ 72

5.4.1 Theoretical Background .............................................................................. 73
5.4.2 Technique of the Demodulation in This Study ............................................ 75

5.5 ENCODER ERROR ANALYSIS IN GEAR TRANSMISSION ERROR MEASUREMENT ... 79

5.5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 79
5.5.2 Theoretical Development ofEncoder Error Analysis .................................. 80
5.5.3 Experimental Setup and Implementation ..................................................... 83
5.5.4 Test Results ................................................................................................ 85
5. 5. 5 Discussion .................................................................................................. 94
5.5.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 97

CHAPTER 6: STATIC MODEL OF GEAR TRANSMISSION

ERROR--- EFFECTS OF TOOTH AND CONTACT
STIFFNESS VARIATION ............................................. 98
6.1 OVERVIEW........................................................................................................ 98

6.2 MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF THE TRANSMISSION ERROR .................................. 100

6.2.1 Theoretical Development .......................................................................... 100
6.2.2 Linearity ofthe combined Mesh Compliance ............................................ 101
6.2.3 Geometric Error simulation ....................................................................... 101
6.2.4 Iteration Method--Optimal Method ........................................................... 102
6.2.5 Implementation in TE Model Algorithm .................................................... 106

6.3 MODEL VALIDATION------ A COMPARISON OF TEST RIG AND SIMULATION

RESULTS . . ...... .. . . . .. .. ... . ......... .. . ......... ...... ........ ............ .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 108

6.4 CONCLUSION ...................................... ································ ..................... 118

CHAPTER 7: DYNAMIC MODEL OF GEAR TRANSMISSION

ERROR --- EFFECTS OF SHAFT SPEED AND
INERTIA VARIATION ............................................... 120

7.1 OVERVIEW..................... ················································································ 120

7.2 DYNAMICMATHEMATICALMODEL ............................................................. 121

7.2.1 Theoretical Development ........................................................................ 121
7.2.2 Dynamic Transmission Error Model Implementation ................................ 125

7.3 MODEL VALIDATION ............................................................................ 127

7.3.1 A Comparison of Test Rig and Simulation Results.. ................... . ...... 128
7.3.2 A Comparison ofTE Results with Extra Shaft Inertia......... . .............. 130
7.3.3 A Detailed Comparison of Demodulated TE Results .............................. 139
7.3.4 Discussion ................................................................................................ 139

VI
 7.4 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................. 144

CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR

FURTHER WORK .......•..•.••.......•...........................•... 145
8.1 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................ 145

8.2 RECOMMENDATIONSFORFURTHER WORK ....................................................... 148

REFERENCES ................•.•......•..•.............•••••.••••.•.......•.•..............••••... 150

APPENDIX A: EXPERIMENTAL RIG SETUP ............................... 163

A.1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 163

A.2 GENERAL ARRANGEMENT .............................................................................. 163

A.3 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DRIVE AND LOADING .......................................... 165

A.3.1 Hydraulic Recirculating Power System ............................................. 165
A.3.2 Speed and Loading Specifications................................... ............. . ...... 166

A.4 GEARBOX ASSEMBLy............................ . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 166

A.5 ENCODERS................................................................................................... 167

APPENDIX B: GEARBOX CASING DESIGN DRAWINGS .•......... 169

APPENDIX C SYNCHRONOUS TRIGGER DESIGN ..................... 173

APPENDIX D: VERIFICATION OF YOUNG'S MODULUS FOR

THE NYLON MATERIAL .•.•.................................... 175
D.1 OVERVIEW............................................................................................... ... 175

D.2 FE MODEL OF CIRCULAR NYLON PLATE.................................. .. .... .. . 176

D .3 MEASUREMENT OF THE DISPLACEMENT OF THE CIRCULAR NYLON PLATE . . . . 178

0.4 VERIFYING NYLON YOUNG'S MODULUS ................................................. 181

APPENDIX E: SIMULATION MODEL IN SIMNON ..•.•.••...••••••...•. 182

E.1 OlJTLINE OF SIMNON .................................................................................... 182

E.2 SYSTEM MODELS .......................................................................................... 183

VII
 E.3 ALGORITHM OF SYS1EM MODELS ................................................................... 185
E.3 .I Subsystem 1: translational subsystem ...................................................... 185
E.3.2 Subsystem 2: torsional subsystem ......................................................... 187
E.3.3 Simulation ofthe System........................................................ ........... 190
E. 3.4 Connection of the Subsystems ....... .................... ..... .... .... .... . ... .... . ....... ... 191

APPENDIX F: GEARBOX MOUNT DESIGN .................................. 192

F .1 INlRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 192

F.2 RUBBER PAD STIFFNESS .................................................................................. 193

APPENDIX G: GEAR TOOTH GEOMETRIC FORM ERRORS ... 197

G.1 INlRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 197

G.2 STEEL GEAR TOOTH GEOMETRIC FORM ERRORS ............................................. 198

G.3 NYLON GEAR TOOTH GEOMETRIC FORM ERRORS ........................................... 198

G.4 ERRORPARAME1ERS USED IN THE SIMULATION ............................................ 199

APPENDIX H: NOISE IN TE SPECTRA ..............•......•.................... 204

H.1 INlRODUCTION ................................................................................... 204

H.2 ANALYSIS FOR THE FACTOR OF ENCODER ERROR ....................................... 205

H.3 ANALYSIS FOR ALIASING {AFFEC1ED BY ENCODER PULSE DIVISION fACTOR) 205

H.4 ANALYSIS FOR FACTOR OF SPEED FLUCTUATION ... ... ............ ... ..... . .... ..... 206

APPENDIX 1: 12 DOF MODEL ......................................................... 210

Vlll
 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure .2.1 Blocks of the classification of gear dynamic models ............................... 8

Figure 3.1 3D FE model of a gear tooth ................................................................... 25
Figure 3.2 Benchmark plate ................................................................................... 26
Figure 3. 3 Convergence of the element mesh...................................... ..... . .............. 26
Figure 3.4 An equivalent model of the GAP element ................................................. 30
Figure 3.5 The GAP element .................................................................................... 30
Figure 3.6 Gap axial force vs. deflection ............................................................... 33
Figure 3.7 Gap lateral force vs. deflection............... ................................ . ... .... 33
Figure 3.8 2D FE model of teeth in contact.................................. .............. . . .. 34
Figure 3. 9 Deformation of Hertzian line contact by finite element method compared to
deformation calculated by classic Hertz formula .... .... .. . . .............. . 34
Figure 3.10 Detail of contact zone of2D FE model....... ........ . ...................... . .... 36
Figure 3.11 Gear pair contact deformation results ............................................. 38
Figure 3 .12 Tooth with mid-plane .... ................... .. ........... .. .. . . ... ...... ... ... ........ 38
Figure 4.1 Mass element of a gear ...................................................................... 43
Figure 4.2 Modelling ofthe stiffitess for a bearing .................................................... 46
Figure 4.3 Casing with a patch structure.. .......................................................... .. 48
Figure 4.4 Simulation of the discontinuous welding .................................................. 48
Figure 4.5 FE model of the overall gearbox.............................. .......................... .. 49

IX
Figure 4.6 Dynamic system with input and output.. ................................................. 50
Figure 4.7 Photograph ofthe measurement setup ............................................. 52
Figure 4.8 Detail setup of the excitation point.. ....................................................... 52
Figure 4.9 Gearbox vibration measurement system ................................................... 53
Figure 4.10 Measurement points on the gearbox ....................................................... 54
Figure 4.11 Casing plate vibration mode shape from FE analysis ........................... 58
Figure 4.12 Shaft vibration mode shape from FE analysis ......................................... 59
Figure 4.13 Gearbox twist vibration mode shape from FE analysis ........................... 60
Figure 4.14 Casing plate vibration mode shape from model analysis ......................... 61
Figure 4.15 Shift vibration mode shape from model analysis ........ ..... ...... ...... ........ . 61
Figure 4.16 Gearbox twist vibration mode shape from model analysis ...................... 62
Figure 5.1 Diagram of standard transmission error measurement system ................... 64
Figure 5.2 Schematic diagram of the experimental rig...... .. .. ........ ...... ...... . . .. ..... . .. 66
Figure 5.3 Incremental encoder ............................................................................ 69
Figure 5.4a Photograph of gear transmission error measurement system setup in this
study ........................................................................................ 70
Figure 5. 4b Diagram of gear transmission error measurement system in this study ... 71
Figure 5.5 Phase modulated signal.. ...................................................................... 74
Figure 5.6 Spectrum ofthe measured encoder signal............................ ............ 76
Figure 5. 7 Phase modulated signal and unwrapped phase signal......... 78
Figure 5.8 Transmission error signal and spectrum of steel gear. ....... 79
Figure 5.9 Analysis ofthe phase error....... . .. ............. .... ....... . . . ........ 84
Figure 5.1 Oa Raw TE data..... ... .... ... ...................................... ..... ... . . .... 86
Figure 5.1 Ob Processed data from Fig. 5. 1Oa .............................. .... ..... ...... ......... 87
Figure 5.11 Processed data for spur gear ............................................................... 87
Figure 5.12 Processed data for helical gear...... .................. ........ .... .. . ... ...... 88
Figure 5.13 Processed data for misalignment at 30 Nm load.... ... . ... .. .... 88
Figure 5.14 Processed data for misalignment at 70 Nm load . ..... . . . ... 89
Figure 5.15 Frequency analysis of combined encoder error ofFigure 5 lOb... 89
Figure 5.16 Frequency analysis of combined encoder error of Figure 5.11 . . ......... 90
Figure 5.17 Frequency analysis of combined encoder error of Figure 5.12 .. ... ....... 90

X
Figure 5.18 Frequency analysis of combined encoder error of Figure 5.13 .. .... ... ... ... 91
Figure 5.19 Frequency analysis of combined encoder error of Figure 5.I4 ............. 9I
Figure 5.20 Raw TE data for non I: I ratio......................... ............ ...... .. ........ 93
Figure 5.2I Non 1:1 TE processing data (M = 49) ................................................. 93
Figure 5.22 Non 1: I TE processing data (M = 32) .................................................... 94
Figure 6.I Simplex form in 2-dimensional problem ............................................... 103
Figure 6.2 Strategy of modified simplex method................................... ... ..... . ... I 04
Figure 6.3 Flow chart of the algorithm of the TE simulation ................................ I07
Figure 6.4 Gear mesh stiflhess................................................................................ II 0
Figure 6.5 Measured TE of steel gear (standard alignment) at 30 Nm load ............ Ill
Figure 6.6 Simulated TE of steel gear (standard alignment) at 30 Nm load ............. Ill
Figure 6.7 Measured TE of steel gear (standard alignment) at 70 Nm load .............. II2
Figure 6.8 Simulated TE of steel gear (standard alignment) at 70 Nm load ............ I12
Figure 6.9 Measured TE of steel gear (misalignment 1/500) ................................... I13
Figure 6.I 0 Simulated TE of steel gear (misalignment 1/500) .............................. I13
Figure 6.11 TE signals of nylon gears (standard alignment) .... . ... . . ... . . . ... .. .. . . 114
Figure 6.12 TE signal of nylon gears (misalignment 1/500) .................................... 1I5
Figure 6.I3 Measured TE of nylon gear (standard alignment) .............................. 1I6
Figure 6.14 Simulated TE of nylon gear (standard alignment)............ . .... .... . . 1I6
Figure 6.15 Tooth-mesh fundamental amplitude ofTE(standard alignment). . . . 117
Figure 7. I Model of the gear transmission system............ ........... ... . ...... .... .. . . 122
Figure 7.2 Sketch of the dynamic TE simulation.................... ................. .. 127
Figure 7.3 Time history of dynamic response ofe 1...........•..........••......... ...••..... . . . I29
Figure 7.4 Shaft torque fluctuation ...... ............ . . .. .... ........ .. .......... ... ....... .... .. ....... 129
Figure 7.5 Time history of dynamic response ofe 1 with torque fluctuation at 4Hz shaft
speed......... .................................................................................... 13I
Figure 7.6 Time history of dynamic response of with e. torque fluctuation at 8Hz shaft
speed......... ... . . .............. ...................... ......... .. ..... . . ...... 131
Figure 7.7 Simulated dynamic TEat 4Hz shaft speed........................... ... ......... 132
Figure 7.8 Simulated dynamic TEat 8Hz shaft speed .......................................... 132
Figure 7.9 Measured Dynamic TEat 4Hz shaft speed.................... ... ......... . 133

XI
Figure 7.10 Measured dynamic TEat 8Hz shaft speed ........................................... 133
Figure 7.11 Tooth-mesh component amplitude ofTE ............................................. 134
Figure 7.12 Tooth-mesh component amplitude ofTE with extra inertia .................. 136
Figure 7.13 Simulated dynamic TE with extra inertia at 5Hz shaft speed ................ 137
Figure 7.14 Measured dynamic TE with extra inertia at 5 Hz shaft speed. . ......... ... 13 7
Figure 7.15 Simulated dynamic TE with extra inertia at 10Hz shaft speed ............ 138
Figure 7.16 Measured dynamic TE with extra inertia at I 0 Hz shaft speed ..... .. .. .... . 13 8
Figure 7.17 Demodulated TMF of simulated TE at 5 Hz shaft speed ...................... 140
Figure 7.18 Demodulated TMF of measured TE at 5 Hz shaft speed ...................... 140
Figure 7.19 Demodulated TMF of simulated TE at 10 Hz shaft speed..................... 141
Figure 7.20 Demodulated TMF of measured TEat 10Hz shaft speed ................... 141
Figure 7.21 Demodulated TMF ofMeasured vibration signal at 5Hz shaft speed .. 142
Figure 7.22 Demodulated TMF of measured vibration signal at 10 Hz shaft speed .. I42
Figure 7.23 Demodulated TMF ofmeasured vibration signal at 5Hz shaft speed .... 143
Figure A. 1 Schematic diagram of the experimental rig. .. .. ............. .... ........ ... ....... ... 164
Figure B.I Assembly drawing of the gearbox casing ............................................... 170
Figure B.2 Top frame drawing of the gearbox casing ......................................... 17I
Figure B.3 Front plate drawing of the gearbox casing ........................................ I72
Figure C I 2-stage programmable frequency divider . ........ ........ . .... .. ... I74
Figure D. I FE 3D model of nylon plate ................................................................ 177
Figure D.2 Measurement set-up.............................................................. .. ... .... 179
Figure D.3 Measurement results for plate No. I ........................................... ........ I79
Figure D.4 Measurement results for plate No.2 ..................................................... 180
Figure E.I Sketch of the dynamic TE simulation.. ....................... .... ...... ...... .......... . 183
Figure E.2 Sketch of the subsystems in TE simulation .......... .. ...... .... ...... ... .. . ... 184
Figure F.I Typical rubber pads illustrating different types of stress........................ I93
Figure F.2 Force-deflection curves for unbounded ................................................. I94
Figure G.I Positions of the gear tooth geometric form measurement ..................... 199
Figure G.2 A typical measurement results of pitch errors for a steel spur gear ......... 200
Figure G.3 A typical measurement results of profile errors for a steel spur gear(32
teeth)... .... . ................................................................. 20I

Xll
Figure G.4 A typical measurement result oflead errors for a steel spur gear (32
teeth) .................................................................................................... 202
Figure G.5 A typical measurement results of a nylon spur gear (32 teeth) ............... 203
Figure H. I Raw TE data (encoder 1) ...................................................................... 206
Figure H.2 Raw TE data (encoder 2) ..................................................................... 207
Figure H.3 True (average) TE data ...................................................................... 207
Figure H.4 TE time signal and the spectrum (900/rev) ........................................... 208
Figure H.5 TE time signal and the spectrum (225/rev) ........................................ 208
Figure H.6 TE time signal and the spectrum (without tracking) ........................... 209
Figure H. 7 TE time signal and the spectrum (with tracking) ................................. 209

XIII
CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1. OUTLINE

The history of gear drives has been concerned mainly with keeping the contact stresses
below material limits and with keeping the velocity ratio as constant as possible to avoid
dynamic effects which will give stress and increase vibration and noise. In particular,
noise related to automotive gearboxes has been the focus of much effort on the part of
engineers since the tonal qualities of this noise are such that even low noise emission
levels are sufficient for customers to become dissatisfied. It can also be interpreted as a
kind of environmental pollution.

1
Why are some gear drives quiet and others noisy? How can the vibration and noise of
gear trains be controlled? These topics are very popular in the automotive industry, and
other industries involving power transmission. The prediction and the control of gear
vibration and noise are becoming major concerns in transmission design. The problems of
gear vibration and noise are not easy, but analytical and measurement tools are now
available to those who care to put the effort into the problem. Therefore, theoretical and
experimental investigations of gearboxes have been carried out extensively by many
researchers with a view to reducing the vibration and noise level of the gearbox.

1.2 GEAR TRANSMISSION ERROR

Research of gear transmission error is of interest for two main reasons: (a) it is one of
the main sources of noise and vibration and (b) it gives a measure of the precision of a
gear train. The total Transmission Error (TE) is defined by Smith (Smith, 1983) as the
difference between the position that the output shaft of a gear drive would have if the
gearbox were perfect, without errors or deflections, and the actual position of the output
shaft.

It is just about 40 years since the concept of gear transmission error was introduced by
Harris (Harris, 1958). In service, the transmission error is mainly caused by:
• Tooth geometry errors: including profile, spacing, and runout errors from the
manufacturing process
• Elastic deformation: local contact deformation from each meshing tooth pair and
the deflections of teeth and gear bodies due to the transmitted load through and
transverse to the gear rotational axis.
• Imperfect mounting: geometric errors in alignment, which may be introduced by
static and dynamic elastic deflections in the supporting bearings and shafts.

In view of this, the investigations of the gear TE will cover the influences of the
transmitted load, shaft speed, gear inertia, bearings, gearbox casing and gear mesh

2
stiflhess. It means that the difficulty in the study of the gear TE is that the research and
modelling must consider many parameters which may be obtained from several individual
dynamic or static models.

On the other hand, aTE signal may be considered as a series of carrier frequencies (the
tooth-mesh frequency and its harmonics) subject to complex modulation due to the
1
effects of non-uniformity between mesh cycles in the basic period. The most important
feature of a TE signal from a noise point of view is generally the magnitude of the
fundamental tooth-mesh frequency component. In order to interpret the TE signal and its
characteristics, signal spectrum analysis and signal demodulation techniques will be
employed.

1.3. LAYOUT OF THE CURRENT STUDY

Despite a lot of investigations devoted to gear vibration analysis there still remains to be
developed a general dynamic model capable of predicting the effects of variations in gear
geometry, transmitted load, shaft and/or gear inertia, and shaft speed on system
vibration. The study in this thesis aims to investigate the dynamic characteristics of the
gearbox and to develop such a model.

The main focuses of the current study are:

( 1) to develop a modified loaded static TE model taking into account the variations
of the tooth body stiflhess and the tooth local contact stiflhess with contact
location.

1
The basic mesh period ts the number of tooth-mesh cycles required for a tooth pair initially in mesh to
return to the same position such that each gear has the identical orientation as that at the irutial posttJon
For a unity ratio gear-set the basic mesh period is one revolution, for a non-unity ratio, the number of
revolutions depends on the presence of mutual factors in the tooth counts of each gear.

3
(2) to investigate the relationship between the static TE and the dynamic TE and
develop a dynamic TE model using the static TE as input.

(3) to develop the gear-related components forTE models, such as the single tooth
model, the model of a pair of gears and the overall gearbox model.

The thesis in this study consists of 8 chapters and the outline of each chapter is given
below:

Chapter 1 describes the significance of the research work and objectives to be achieved.
The definition of gear transmission error and the reasons for its occurrence are given.
The specific characteristics of the research work are discussed. Finally the outline of the
study and the thesis are described.

Chapter 2 presents a literature review and a classification of gear dynamic mathematical

models. There are three groups of gear models in the classification. Models with the
tooth only in which the objectives usually are tooth stress, contact stress and gear-mesh
stiffness analysis belong to the first group. The second group of models includes gears,
shafts and sometimes bearings, and primarily focuses on the analysis of torsional and
lateral vibration in the gear system Overall gearbox models are classified as the last
group in which the gearbox casing is included in the models. All the models can be
implemented by the Jumped parameter method or the finite element method.

Chapter 3 introduces two finite element (FE) models for the gear-mesh stiffness
analysis. One is for the tooth body deflection and only a single tooth is considered in a
3D FE model Another is for the tooth local contact deformation and a pair of gears are
modelled in a 2D FE model. The validity of the models is discussed in connection with
the modelling. The tooth body stiffness matrix and the tooth local contact stiffness vector
are derived from these models

4
Chapter 4 investigates an overall gearbox model for the dynamic analysis of the gear
system. Three aspects are discussed in the modelling: considerations of gearbox and
internals; simulation of the discontinuous welding of the casing, and of the flexible
mounts for the casing; and calculation of the bearing stifthess. Gearbox vibration
measurements were carried out and the measured data processed for modal analysis
using the STAR® package(STAR®, 199I). The model validation is made by comparing
the measurement results and the results of the FE model. The basic gearbox natural
frequencies and bearing support stiffness are obtained from this model.

Chapter 5 describes the gear transmission error measurement set-up and method. The
phase demodulation method is used in the TE data processing. Analysis of the encoder
error in gear TE measurement is investigated. A method of reducing the effect of
encoder error is introduced and a method for measuring the range of encoder error is
given for both a I : I ratio case and non 1:1 ratio cases.

Chapter 6 develops an extended loaded static transmission error model based on a

simplified model (Sweeney, 1994). The simplex optimal method is employed in the
iteration program In order to achieve a situation where the tooth deflection component
is the dominant source of the TE, nylon gears were used in the measurement. The effects
of misalignment for the nylon spur gears are discussed in this chapter All the simulation
results have been compared with measured transmission errors from a single-stage
gearbox.

Chapter 7 derives a dynamic TE model from dynamic characteristics of the gear system
coupled with the stitlhess analysis of the previous chapter. The gear inertia, shaft speed,
shaft torque fluctuation and bearing support stitlhess are considered in the model. A
simulation program is developed applying SIMNQN® (SIMNQN®, 1993). Validation of
the dynamic transmission error model is carried out in this Chapter by comparing the
measured TE data and the simulated TE data. Extra inertias were added to the shafts to
reduce natural frequencies so that measurements could be made both below and above a
resonance frequency

5
Chapter 8 summarises the results obtained from the study presented in this thesis and
proposes future work.

6
CHAPTER2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 OVERVIEW

In most industrial environments, the problem of gear vibration and noise is ever present.
Therefore, there is a vast amount of literature on dynamic modelling of gear systems for
vibration analysis and noise control over the last half century. Different researches use
different mathematical models which may be focussed on the following topics: stresses
(bending stresses and contact stresses); transmission error; radiated noise; loads on the
other machine elements of the system (especially on bearings); stability regions; natural
frequencies of the system; reliability and fatigue life. Similarly, different models may have
different basic assumptions and simplifications in order to reduce a complex physical
process to a tractable mathematical problem.

7
Ozguven and Houser (Ozguven and Houser, 1988a) have presented a classification of
gear dynamic mathematical models. Later, Houser (Houser, 1990) and Zakrajsek et a/.
(Zakrajsek et a/., 1990) have reviewed the past and present research projects of gear
dynamics and gear noise in Ohio State University's research laboratory and NASA Lewis
Research Centre respectively. For this study, a classification into the groups of Figure
2.1 is found to be useful.

Translational
Models

Fig. 2.1. Blocks of the classification of gear dynamic models

(1) Models with Teeth Only. This group includes single tooth models and tooth pair
models. For single tooth models, the objectives usually are tooth stress analysis. For the

8
models with a pair of teeth, the focuses mostly are contact stress and meshing sti:tlbess
analysis. Some of them are analysed using the Finite Element Method (FEM).

(2) Models with Teeth & Other Elements. In this group, the torsional flexibility of
shafts and the lateral flexibility of the bearings are considered in the models. there are
two methods for the analysis of models. One is a parametric or modal method, another is
FEM.

(3) Models with a whole GearboL The studies in this group may be viewed as current
and advanced studies and all elements in the system including the gear casing, are
considered in the models. The gearbox may be single stage or multi-stage.

2.2 MODELS WITH TEETH ONLY

2.2.1 Single Tooth Models

In this group, the basic characteristic of the models is that only the compliance or
sti:tlbess of the gear tooth is considered and all other elements are assumed to be
perfectly rigid. These models are mainly based on cantilever beam theory

Wallace and Seireg (Wallace and Seireg, 1973) gave a good example of a single tooth
model analysis. They used the finite element method to analyse the stress, deformation
and fracture patterns in a gear tooth under dynamic loading. In the same year, Wilcox
and Coleman (Wilcox and Coleman, 1973) also analysed gear tooth stresses They
developed a new accurate stress formula for gear teeth based entirely on the finite
element method and presented a comparison between the new formula and the previous
one.

In the late 1980s, Ramamurti and Rao (Ramamurti and Rao, 1988) presented a new
approach to the stress analysis of spur gear teeth using FEM. Their new approach, with a

9
cyclic system of gear teeth and with asymmetry of the load on the teeth could allow
computation of the stress distribution in the adjacent teeth from the analysis of one tooth
only. The boundary conditions imposed between the two adjacent teeth in the
conventional FEM are avoided in this approach.

2.2.2 Models with a Pair of Teeth

The researches mentioned above did not consider the meshing and contact forces
between the teeth. When a pair of teeth is considered, the meshing and contact of the
loaded gear are analysed. Harris's work (Harris, 1958) was an important contribution.
He considered three internal sources of vibration: manufacturing errors, variation in the .
tooth stiffuess and non-linearity in tooth stiffuess due to the loss of contact. Harris seems
to have been the first to point out the importance of transmission error and to predict the
dynamic instability due to parametric excitation of the gear mesh.

In 1990, Sundarajan and Young (Sundarajan and Young, 1990) developed the three-
dimensional finite element substructure method to improve the accuracy of calculation of
gear tooth contact and fillet stress in large spur and helical gear systems. The attractive
work they did is that they produced a finite-element analysis and pre-processing
software. When some parameters (misalignment for example) are changed, most of the
stiffuess matrices are not recalculated. The pre-processing program makes the data input
much easier and has reduced significantly the manual effort involved in the analysis. They
considered the contact problem by using contact boundary conditions, which means that
the contact line or area is given in the analysis One year later, they investigated the finite
element analysis of a ring gear and the casing and presented another finite element
computer program to solve this problem ( Sundarajan and Amin, 1990).

Vijayakar, Busby and Houser (Vijayakar, Busby and Houser, 1988) used a simplex type
algorithm to impose frictional contact conditions on finite element models. They
established the contact equations with the frictional factor and solved them for known
output moment load on the output gear. In their finite element model, they analysed their

10
problem in two dimensions and in order to model the involute profile as closely as
possible, a special five-noded linear transition element was used. In the same year,
Ozguven and Houser (Ozguven and Houser, 1988b) presented a non-linear model of a
single degree of freedom system for the dynamic analysis of a gear pair. In their studies,
they developed two methods for calculating the dynamic mesh and tooth forces, dynamic
factors based on stresses, and dynamic transmission error from measured or calculated
loaded static transmission errors. The first method is an accurate method which includes
the time variation of both mesh stiffuess and damping. The second one is an approximate
method in which the time average of the mesh stiffuess is used.

Because the contact conditions of gear teeth are very sensitive to the geometry of the
contacting surfaces, the finite element mesh near the contact zone needs to be very highly
refined and it is not recommended in the computing to have a fine mesh everywhere.
Vijayakar and Houser (Vijayakar and Houser, 1993) studied the contact analysis of gears
using a combined finite element and surface integral method. They developed a Contact
Analysis Program Package which supports stress contour, transmission error, contact
pressure distribution and load distribution calculation. Their approach is based on the
assumption that beyond a certain distance from the contact zone, the finite element
method predicts deformations well and the elastic half space method is accurate in
predicting relative displacements of points near the contact zone. Under these
assumptions, it is possible to make predictions of surface displacements that make use of
the advantages of both the finite element method as well as the surface integral approach

In 1994, a review of the current contact stress and deformation formulations compared
to finite element analysis was given by Gosselin, et a/. (Gosselin, et al., 1994). They
presented an original approach to meshing line contact (spur) and point contact (spiral
bevel) gear pairs for finite element analysis using gap elements and then they compared
the contact deformation results to recognised analytical formulations. Their results
showed that the contact deformations differ from 20% to 150% between the different
analytical approaches and FEM. In the same year, Chen, Litrin and Shabana (Chen, Litrin
and Shabana, 1994) proposed an approach for the computerised simulation of mesh and

11
contact of loaded gear drives that enables determination of the instantaneous contact
ellipse, the contact force distributed over the contact ellipse and the real contact ratio.
They also established a finite element model for the maximum bending stress calculation
on a tooth. The friction forces between gear teeth, and the elastic deflection of the body
of the gear, the shaft and the bearings are neglected in their approach and their model.

2.3 MODELS WITH TEETH & OTHER ELEMENTS

Although the dynamic models in which the stiflhess and mass contribution of the shafts
carrying gears in mesh were ignored showed good agreement with the experimental
measurements, it was realised in the late 1960s and 1970s that dynamic models in which
the shaft and bearing flexibility were considered would be necessary for more general
models. The reason that the models of the previous section could get good agreement
with the measurements is that the experimental rigs used in such models satisfied their
basic assumptions. For example, a short shaft could justify the rigid shaft assumption and
so on.

The models that could be considered in this group are:

• torsional models in which only the torsional stiflhess of the gear-carrying shafts are
included;
• torsional and translational models in which both the torsional and transverse flexibility
of the gear-carrying shafts are considered;
• finite element models in which every element would be considered in the gear train.

In the early 1960s, Johnson (Johnson, 1962) used a receptance coupling technique to
calculate the natural frequencies from the receptance equation obtained by first
separately finding the receptances at the meshing point of each of a pair of geared shafts.
In this model, the varying mesh stiflhess was replaced by a constant stiflhess equal to the
mean value of the varying stiflhess and thus a linear system was obtained. His work was
one of the first attempts to use a mesh stiflhess in coupling the torsional vibration of gear

12
shafts. Mahalingam (Mahalingam, 1968) presented a similar model in 1968. In his model,
the formulae for support receptance at a gear-wheel bearing were developed and were
then used to study the effects of gearbox and frame flexibility on the torsional vibration.

In 1972, Wang and Morse (Wang and Morse, 1972) constructed a torsional model
including shaft and gear web stifihess as well as a constant mesh stifihess. The model is
represented by a spring-mass system having many degrees of freedom. The transfer
matrix technique has been applied to give the static and dynamic torsional response of a
general gear train system. The torsional natural frequencies and mode shapes determined
from a free vibration analysis correlated with experimental results at low frequencies.

In 1980, Iida, et a/. (Iida, et a/., 1980) investigated the coupled torsional-flexural
vibration of a shaft in a spur geared system in which they assumed that the output shaft is
flexible in bending and the input shaft is rigid in bending. They derived the equations of
motion for a 6-degree-of-freedom (DOF) system. In their model, the driving gear only
has torsional DOF while the driven gear has x, y and torsional DOF due to mass
unbalance and geometrical eccentricity. They assumed that the tooth contact is
maintained during the rotation and the mesh is rigid Four years later, Iida and Tamura
(Iida and Tamura, 1984) continued to study coupled torsional flexural vibration of a
shaft in a geared system. In that study, their model consists of three shafts, rather than
two shafts, one of them being a counter shaft.

Neriya, et a/ (Neriya, et al., 1985) also investigated the coupled torsional-flexural

vibration of a geared shaft system due to unbalance and geometrical eccentricity in 1985
The difference from Iida, et a/. (lida, et a/ , 1980) is that they used the finite element
method to solve their problem In their model, there are 6 beam elements for each of the
driving and driven shafts which are coupled at a contact point of the mating gear teeth
which has one DOF in the normal direction of the contact and accounts for the tooth
flexibility. Their model has 41 degrees of freedom. They solved the free vibration
problem to obtain the natural frequencies and mode shapes. Then the normal mode

13
analysis was employed to obtain the dynamic response of the system under the
excitations arising from the mass unbalance and geometrical eccentricity in gears

In early studies, the mesh stiflhess of teeth was considered as constant. lwatsubo and
Kawai (lwatsubo and Kawai, 1984a), studied the coupled lateral and torsional vibration
of geared rotors, considering mainly the effect of periodic variation of mesh stiffuess and
a tooth profile correction. Their model had two simply supported rotors with a spur gear
at the centre of each rotor. The stability condition of the system was analysed in their
study. In the same year, lwatsubo, Arii and Kawai (Iwatsubo, Arii and Kawai, 1984b)
analysed the coupled lateral and torsional vibration of the geared system constructed of a
pair of spur gears using the transfer matrix method. In their research, they considered
three cases in the analysis ofthe free vibration ofthe system: (1). The mesh force acting
on the contact line is a function of the rotation of each gear. (2). The mesh force acting
on the contact line is a function of the rotations and flexure at each gear. (3). The
system is not coupled by gears. Also the forced vibration caused by the mass unbalance
of the gears is calculated.

A new topic, the computer simulation of the torsional and flexural vibration in drive
systems, was studied by Laschet and Troeder (Laschet and Troeder, 1984). They have
written a package of computer programs and applied simulation techniques to predict
and analyse the performance of gear trains. The distinctive feature of their research is
that the backlash of the gears is considered in their programs and CAD data of the gear
geometry could be used in their programs.

In 1985, Wang (Wang, 1985) studied only torsional vibration in his model. He focused
on analytical evaluation of gear dynamic factors based on rigid body dynamics He
discussed different cases in which the transmission errors have different effects on the
dynamic load. He commented that the transmission errors have a system wide effect and
could be used to analyse rigid-body vibrating gear systems in which the gear deflection is
not considered.

14
Tavares and Prodonoff (Tavares and Prodonoff, 1986) proposed a new approach for
torsional vibration analysis of gear-branched propulsion systems in 1986. Idler gears in a
gear-branched system were modelled as part of the inertia of the master gear and the
finite element method was used in their approach. In the same year, Umezawa, et al.
(Umezawa, et al., 1986) set up a test gearing unit which consists of input-shaft,
countershaft and output-shaft. The gears can be placed at arbitrary positions on the
shafts in their unit so that the effect of the countershaft on the bending vibration and on
the sound radiation became clear. At almost the same time, Iida, eta/. (lida, et a/., 1986)
also studied a three axis gear system but have some differences from Umezawa, eta/
(Umezawa, et al., 1986). Firstly, the countershaft is supported softly and secondly, their
model is a coupled torsional-lateral vibration analytical model.

In 1992, a finite element model of a geared rotor system on flexible bearings has been
developed by Kahraman, et al. (Kahraman, et al., 1992). The coupling between the
torsional and transverse vibrations of the gears is considered in the model. They applied
the transmission error as excitation at the mesh point to simulate the variable mesh
stiflhess approximately. They presented three different geared systems as numerical
examples and discussed the effect of bearing compliance on gear dynamics. The
assumptions they used are that gear mesh was modelled by a pair of rigid disks
connected by a spring and a damper with constant value which represented average mesh
values and tooth separation was not considered

Another model presented by Kahraman (Kahraman, 1993) is a linear dynamic model of a

helical gear pair. The model considered the shaft and bearing flexibility and the dynamic
coupling among the transverse, torsional, axial, and rotational (rocking) motions due to
the gear mesh. The natural frequencies and mode shapes were predicted and the forced
response due to the static transmission error was predicted. After the parametric study of
the effect of the helix angle on the free and forced vibrational characteristics of a gear
pair, he reached the conclusion that the axial vibrations of a helical gear system can be
neglected in predicting the natural frequencies and the dynamic mesh forces. The
assumption for their model is that the gears are modelled as rigid disks, the clearances

15
and stiflhess changes of the bearings are neglected, and the system is assumed to be
symmetric about the transverse plane of the gears.

2.4 MODELS WITH OVERALL GEARBOXES

The focus of this group is on the dynamic analysis of the geared rotor system which
includes a gear pair, shafts, rolling element bearings, a motor, a load, a casing and
flexible or rigid mounts.

The researches in this group are viewed as current and advanced researches because
traditional analysis approaches mentioned previously in the gear dynamic area have been
concentrated on the internal rotating system and have excluded dynamic effects of the
casing and flexible mounts.

In 1991, T. C. Lim and R. Singh presented a detailed study for the vibration analysis of
overall gear boxes (Lim and Singh, 1991 ). This research was based on their previous
studies: bearing stiflhess formulation (Lim and Singh, 1991a) and system studies (Lim
and Singh, 1991 b). They developed linear time-invariant, discrete dynamic models of an
overall box by using lumped parameter and dynamic finite element techniques. They
studied three example cases: case I, a single-stage rotor system with rigid casing and
. flexible mounts, case II, a spur gear drive system with rigid casing and flexible mounts,
case III, a high-precision spur gear drive system with flexible casing and rigid mounts.
They used the gear mesh coupling stiffness matrix to couple the two gears and used the
bearing stiflhess matrix to link the shafts and the casing. In their finite element model, the
gear, pinion, motor and load are simulated as generalised mass and inertia elements and
the gear mesh stiffness matrix and bearing stiflhess matrix are modelled as six-
dimensional generalised stiffness matrices. They used the FEM software ANSYS to
analyse their models. They have made a parametric study of the effect of casing mass and
mount stiflhess on the system natural frequencies. A comparison of the casing flexural
vibrations between the simulation and the expenment was presented.

16
Choy, et al. (Choy, et al., 1991) presented a vibration analysis with the effect of casing
motion and mass imbalance for a multi-stage gear transmission in 1991. In order to
investigate the effect of the casing motion and mass imbalance, four major cases of
external excitations were examined in their study. They employed the modal method to
transform the equations of motion into modal coordinates to solve the uncoupled system.
They concluded that the influence of the casing motion on system vibration is more
pronounced in a stiffer rotor system. In the same year, El-Saeidy and Fawzi (El-Saeidy
and Fawzi, 1991) presented an analytical model for simulating the effect of tooth
backlash and ball bearing deadband clearance on the vibration spectrum in a spur
gearbox. They discussed the contact between meshing teeth using the time-varying mesh
stiffitess and mesh damping factor. From their study, they concluded that the backlash
and bearing deadband clearance have a pronounced effect on the vibration spectrum of a
gearbox In this model, the gearbox casing is assumed rigid, therefore, both ends of each
shaft have the same displacements. There is no experimental result to verify the analytical
result in this research.

One year later, Choy, et al. (Choy, et al., 1992) continued their study on the multi-stage
gear system. The work presented in that study is the development and application of a
combined approach of using the modal synthesis and finite element methods in analysing
the dynamics of multi-stage gear systems coupled with the gearbox structure (or casing)
In their solution procedure, modal equations of motion were developed for each rotor-
bearing-gear stage using the transfer matrix method to evaluate the modal parameters,
and the modal characteristics of the gearbox structure were evaluated using a finite
element model in NASTRAN. The modal equations for each rotor stage and the gearbox
structure were coupled through the bearing supports and gear mesh.

After this study, they used their analytical model to predict the dynamic characteristics of
a gear noise rig at the NASA Lewis Research Centre and then used experimental results
from the test rig to verify the analytical model (Choy, et al., 1993). Their conclusions are
that the dynamics of the casing can be accurately modelled with a limited amount of

17
analytically predicted vibration modes of the structure and the characteristics and trends
of the casing vibration spectra predicted by the analytical dynamic model are the same as
or very similar to those found in the experimental data.

In I 992, Ong (Ong, 1992) described the application of the eigenvalue economisation
method coupled with the frontal solution technique to a vehicle transmission system
comprising an integral bell-housing/gearbox, extension housing, drive shaft and rear-axle
assembly. In his study, he applied super-elements in the structural dynamic substructuring
technique for the finite element analysis. The pinion shafts were represented by beam
elements and gears and bearings were represented by lumped mass elements in his
analytical model. Finally, he made a comparison of experimental results and finite
element method predictions which showed a good agreement.

Most analysis of gearboxes is concerned with the dynamic response and vibration
characteristics. In 1994, Sabot and Perret-Liaudet (Sabot and Perret-Liaudet, 1994)
presented another phase of study---Noise analysis of gearboxes. They pointed out that a
troublesome part of the noise within the car or truck cab was caused by the gearbox and
this noise is associated with the vibrations induced by the transmission error which gives
rise to dynamic loads on the teeth, shafts, bearings and casing. They computed the noise
radiated by the gearbox casing using the Rayleigh integral formulation in which the
acceleration response of the casing associated with the finite element method calculation
was considered. Their results showed that although the test model is a simplified
gearbox, their numerical analysis provided a better understanding of the sound radiation
characteristics of geared transmission systems.

At the same time, Kato, et al (Kato, et al., 1994) developed a simulation method by
integrating finite element vibration analysis and boundary element acoustic analysis for
the purpose of evaluating the sound power radiated from a gearbox and got a good
agreement with the experimental results In their model, each shaft was modelled by a
beam element, the mass and rotating inertia of the gear were lumped and added to the
shaft, each rolling bearing was represented by a spring and damper and the casing of the

18
gearbox was modelled by using thin shell elements in the finite element package program
ISAP-6. Their acoustic analysis in the frequency domain showed that the sound power at
the mesh frequency was greater than the sound power at other frequencies

There are also various studies mainly aimed at modelling a single mechanical element, a
whole transmission system and other special topics, such as bearing stiffuess discussion
(Gargiulo, JR, 1980; Walford and Stone, 1980; Childs, eta/., 1980; Bahgat, eta/., 1981;
Lim and Singh, 1992}, only casing analysis of a gearbox (Drago, et a/., 1979; Randall,
1980; Randall, 1984; Randall, 1990b; Inoue, et a/., 1993}, transmission system design
(Mitchell, 1980; Lees, 1980; Albrecht, 1988}, modification of geometry of gears (Tobe,
eta/., 1976; Wang, 1978; Kishor, 1979; Terauchi and Nagamura, 1981; Cornell, 1981;
Kiyono and Fujii, 1981; Rosinski, 1992; Li and Tang, 1994) and noise reduction of gear
design (Badgley and Hartman, 1974; Masuda, eta/., 1986; Li, eta/., 1989; Tsukamoto,
eta/., 1991a; Tsukamoto, et al., 1991b) and analysis (Yuruzume, et al., 1979; Dejong
and Manning, 1984; Attia, 1989; Winter, eta/., 1989).

2.5 MODELS IN THIS STUDY

In this study, the primary work is to develop a loaded static transmission error model and
a dynamic transmission error model. The main differences between the current work and
the majority of the studies mentioned above are that:
• The loaded static transmission error model will extend Sweeney's simplified model
(Sweeney, 1994) by focussing on the variation of the tooth body stiffness and the
tooth local contact stiffness; the optimal iteration method was employed in the model
implementation, and nylon gears were used for the model validation
• The tooth body stiffness matrix and the tooth local contact stiffuess vector were
derived by using the finite element method.
• The loaded static transmission error results were used as the input of the dynamic
transmission error model and the bearing support stiffness and the shaft torque
fluctuation were considered in the model.

19
• The effects of the other connected elements, ie the motor, hydraulic pumps (load),
bearings and the shaft flexibility were investigated in the dynamic lumped parameters
model.
• An overall gearbox model including the gearbox casing and the flexible mounts was
established by employing the finite element method to predict the casing resonances
which may be excited by gear mesh frequencies at certain shaft speeds.
• The bearing support stiflhess (mainly dominated by the gearbox casing) were derived
from the overall gearbox model.

In view of this, the current work could not be classified into only one group listed above.
However, from the standpoint of the modelling method, it may be seen as a combination
of some studies of all the groups.

20
CHAPTER3

MODELLING OF TOOTH FOR

MESH STIFFNESS ANALYSIS

3.1 OVERVIEW

As mentioned in Chapter 1, the total transmission error may be considered as the sum of
tooth geometry errors, elastic deformation at the gear-mesh and imperfect mounting. The
elastic deformation is the main component of the transmission error for precision gear
sets For a precision elastic model, the general transmission error can be expressed as:

(3.1)

where

21
m is the individual meshing pair index.
8T
.. is a vector of the total (elastic and geometric) component of TE across a tooth

face, measured tangential to the base circle in the transverse plane (TE defined as
positive for gear separation)
CB .. is the matrix of tooth body compliance over the tooth surface which is defined as:

Ch11 C~z C~n

Ch21 Ch22
(3.2)

Pm is a load vector across a tooth face of pair m which is given by:

PI

(3.3)

Pn
Ccm is the matrix of tooth contact compliance across the tooth surface which is

defined as:

Cell Cc12 Ccln

Cczl Cczz
Ccm = (3.4)

Ccnl Ccnn

t;: (1) ( t;:(2J) is a vector of the components of static transmission error across a tooth face
g., g.,

on gears (1) and (2) due to any deviations ofthe tooth faces from perfect,
uniformly spaced involute surfaces, and misalignment when no loading is present.
(taken as negative when they are equivalent to removal of material from perfect
involute surfaces.) They can be represented by·

(3.5)

22
l; 8 is the total deflection due to the shaft centre separation and angular separation

under load.
n is the number of points on the tooth face where measurements are made.

The primary objective of this chapter is to investigate the gear-mesh stiffness or the first
two terms of Equation (3 .1 ). Two finite element models for the gear-mesh stiffness
analysis are introduced in this chapter. One is for the tooth body deflection and only a
single tooth is considered in a 3D FE model from which the tooth body stiffness matrix is
derived to assess the C8m of Equation (3 .1 ). Another is for the tooth local contact

deformation and a pair of gears are modelled in a 2D FE model. In this model, some
assumptions have been made as follows:

In practice, a typical tooth surface is quite complex topographically. In order to promote

the problem tractability, an approximation to the true physical situation will need to be
made That is, the curvatures of the tooth profile along the tooth surface at the same roll
angle are assumed to have the same value (ie profile errors are neglected for this
component and the mean tooth profile modifications could be accommodated) and the
edge effects are assumed much more localised for Hertzian deformation than for gross
body distortion. Thus, a very fine meshed FE model in 2D becomes possible and the
matrix of tooth local contact compliance can be simplified as a vector. This means not
only that the values are independent of axial position, but also that the deflection is
localised to the point of application of the force. This is justified by the fact that the mesh
size is of the order of I mm, while the contact zone is of the order of 25 IJ.m.

The validity of the models is discussed in connection with the modelling and the tooth
local contact stiffness vector is derived from this model to assess the Ccm of Equation

(3.1).

23
3.2 MODELLING OF THE TOOTH BODY DEFLECTION

3.2.1 Introduction

The tooth gross body deflection may be considered as the sum of the following modes:
• Tooth body bending and shear about an axial line at the root radius.
• Tooth body dishing about a radial line in the mode of a cantilevered plate.
• Root translation and sinking (tangentially & radially).
• Other deflections due to local rim flexibility.
These four elastic gross body deformation modes contribute to the majority of mesh
deflection at the transmitted load. However, the determination of the compliance of these
deformation modes is very difficult because it is an integral function over the entire
loaded tooth (Sweeney, 1994). Using FEM can circumvent this difficulty. The method
developed in this study by applying FEM to determine the tooth body compliance is
described in this section

3.2.2 FE Model with Single Gear Tooth

Wallace and Seireg (Wallace and Seireg, 1973) and Wilcox and Coleman (Wilcox and
Coleman, 1973) presented good examples for single gear tooth model investigations
Both of them developed a 20 finite element model for a single tooth so that only the
tooth body bending and shear deflections were considered in their models In the late
1980s, Ramamurti and Rao (Ramamurti and Rao, 1988) also investigated the single
tooth stress and deflection, but still in two dimensions. Oda, et a/ (Oda, et a/, 1993)
introduced a 3D FE model in which the tooth deflection and bending moment of a single
gear tooth due to concentrated load were investigated. The significant contribution of
their study is that the calculated tooth deflection and root stress results were compared
with measured results

24
In order to consider all the tooth gross body deflection modes, a 30 finite element model
for a single tooth was developed in this study. Figure 3.1 shows the 3D gear tooth
model. In this model, the integral function of the compliance of the tooth body may be

~-------------------------------

Fig. 3.1 30 FE model of a gear tooth

discretised into finite grids across the entire loaded tooth. This simplification has been
incorporated in Equations (3.1) to (3.5).

The mesh size of the gear tooth model has been considered for calculation time and
result accuracy with some bench-mark calculations (Holl, 193 7; Timoshenko and
Woinowsk:y-Krieger, 1959; Matusz, et al, 1969). Figure 3.2 is a bench-mark plate of the
gear tooth model in this study. The 8-node solid element was used in the bench-mark.
The convergence of the refined mesh size has been investigated and shown in Figure 3.3
which demonstrates that if the number of the elements in the bench-mark is greater than
200, the calculation will produce a reliable deflection result. The elements in the gear
tooth model (Figure 3. I) generated using the automatic mesh generator in

25
Pro/ENGINEER® (Pro/ENGINEER®, 1996) are 6-node solid elements. The number of
the elements in this model is 2925 according to the bench-mark and the effects of load
distribution on the tooth face. The model was solved using MSC/NAS~
(MSC/NAS~, 1995).

Fig. 3.2 Benchmark plate

1 Oe-3mm

175 °
0
·:

17 0 0

................................
0 0

1 65

16v·:
1.55 °
0

15 ... . .................................. ..
0 0

0 0 0

145 ..... 0
········:·················.··································

14~--~--~--~--~--~--~--~--~
0 ~ ~ ~ ~ 1~ 1~ 1~ 1~
Number of elements

Fig. 3.3 Convergence of the element mesh

26
By means of this model, the effects of load distribution on tooth bending can be included
in the gear transmission error model. The validity of the model was confirmed by
comparing the calculated results from this model with the results from Oda, eta/, (Oda,
eta/, 1993), and Wellauer and Seireg (Wellauer and Seireg, 1960).

3.2.3 Stiffness Matrix Calculation

A unit force, normal to the tooth profile, can be applied on each marked position (1-35)
on the tooth surface shown in Figure 3.1, respectively, in each calculation. In this case,
use was made of geometric symmetry to reduce the number of calculations. To subtract
Hertzian contact deformation from the overall displacement field, the displacements, or
elements of C8 .. , on the points (a, b, ... ) ofthe tooth mid-plane shown in Figure 3.1 were

determined in the direction of the force.

In the calculation using the FE model, C8m can be obtained as follows:

uJI Cb 11 Cb12 Cbln ~

uJ2 Cb21 Cb22 ~
= (3.6)

UJn Cbnl Cbnn pn

where, u1n G=1, 2, ... n) is the displacement ofthe point on the tooth mid-plane

When a unit force Pt = 1 N, while P2 = P3 ... = Pn = 0, the FE model will produce the u 11 ,
Ut 2, ... , Utn· Then, from Equation (3.6), the first column of the matrix CBm : Cb 11 , Cb 2 t, ...

Cbnt can be obtained

Cbu= Uu,

27
When Pn = I N, P1 = P2. = Pn-1 = 0, we can get Cb1n, Cb2n, .. Cbnn.

In practice, using the symmetry of the tooth face, only half of the cases were calculated.
That means, only half of the marked positions were used in the calculation. All the data
processing was carried out in MATLAB®.

For any load distribution across a tooth face, the tooth gross body deflection can be
determined using matrix C8 and the principle of superposition for a linear system.
.

3.3 MODELLING OF THE TOOTH LOCAL CONTACT DEFORMATION

3.3.1 Introduction

The tooth local contact deformation component or Hertzian deformation component can
not be neglected in the total gear tooth deformation because this component can be as
much as 25 percent of the total deformation (Coy and Chao, 1982). Therefore, there
have been recent studies of gear dynamics and gear tooth deformation based on the tooth
local contact deformation component. Tooth local contact deformation can be calculated
by two approaches
• Analytical formulations by employing Hertz theory
• Finite element analysis

Cornell (Cornell, 1981) gave a good investigation of tooth local contact compliance
analysis applying variant analytical formulations by employing Hertz theory and
presented the improved formula which had been developed based on the other previous
work. This formula was evaluated by comparing its predicted results with test and finite
element analysis results.

28
In 1994, a review of the current contact stress and deformation formulations compared
to finite element analysis was given by Gosselin, et a/ (Gosselin, et a/, 1994). After
reviewing the tooth local contact analytical formulations, they presented an original
approach to meshing line contact (spur) and point contact (spiral bevel) gear pairs for
finite element analysis using gap elements and then they compared the contact
deformation results to recognised analytical formulations.

A new study of the contact analysis of gears using a combined finite element and surface
integral method has been carried out by Vijayakar and Houser (Vijayakar and Houser,
1993). They developed a Contact Analysis Program Package which supports stress
contour, transmission error, contact pressure distribution and load distribution
calculation. Their approach is based on the assumption that beyond a certain distance
from the contact zone, the finite element method predicts deformations well and the
elastic half space method is accurate in predicting relative displacements of points near
the contact zone.

3.3.2 Non-Linear Problems and Application of the Gap Element

Non-linear effects in structures are mainly classified as follows.

• Geometric non-lmear effects in which the deformed shape of the structure appears
distinctive from the original geometry
• Material non-lmear effects in which the stress-strain relationship or the constitutive
equations are non-linear
• Boundary non-linear effects in which there is a change in constraints due to contact
during loading

Tooth local contact is the boundary non-linear problem mentioned above. This problem
can be solved by applying the GAP element in MSC/NAST~ (MSC/NAST~,
1995) because the GAP element simulates a point-to-point contact, and is often used to
simulate surface contact problems.

29
The GAP element changes its status when the load is applied. Figure 3.4 is an equivalent
model of the GAP element in the axial direction. In this model, kb << ka and kb is very
small. When the force F is applied, the gap will be closed and the elastic status of this
model has been changed significantly. Consider the internal forces of a GAP element
with an isotropic friction. Force components in the GAP element are the axial
compressive force (Fx) and the friction forces in lateral directions (Fy and Fz) in terms of
displacements (u, v, w) in the element coordinate system shown in Figure 3.5 where line
Ga-Gb defines the GAP element x-axis These internal forces can be computed based on
the GAP status as follows:

F F
----+ ----..----1

Fig. 3.4 An equivalent model ofthe GAP element

y,v

Fy

x,u
Fz

Fig 3. 5 The GAP element

30
• When the GAP is open (no contact, no lateral stiffuess), Ua-Ub<Uo,

(3.7)

where Kb is an arbitrary open stiffhess and Uo is the initial gap opening of the
element, not the separation distance.
• When the GAP is closed and sliding (no friction), Ua-Ub ~ Uo,

(3.8)

where Ka is the penalty value for the closed stiffhess.

• When the GAP is closed and sticking (static friction), Ua-Ub ~ Uo,

(3.9)

where Fx= Ka u, Fy= Kr v and Fz= Kr w using a static coefficient of friction (.us)
and the transverse shear stiffness (K,).
• When the GAP is closed and slipping (kinetic friction), Ua-Ub ~ Uo,

(3.10)

where

F = w.ukFx (3.11)
z .Jv2+w2

and .u k is a kinetic coefficient of friction.

31
The axial and lateral force-deflection curves of the GAP element are shown in Figures
3.6 and 3.7. Where Fo is the preload when the gap is Uo.

The most crucial task in using the GAP element is to determine the proper penalty value,
which dictates the accuracy, efficiency and the effectiveness of the analysis. The penalty
value should be chosen as large as possible for the solution accuracy but as small as
possible for the solution efficiency. The recommended value for the penalty stiffuess is
1000 times the stiffuess of the adjacent structure, which will produce an error ofO.l%.

3.3.3 Determination of the Contact Area

Because the contact conditions of gear teeth are very sensitive to the geometry of the
contacting surfaces and a typical tooth surface is quite complex topographically, an
approximation to the true physical situation has been made as described in section 3. 1. A
pair of gears in contact are modelled in a 2D FE model as shown in Figure 3.8. The mesh
consists of six node triangle and eight node quadrilateral elements generated using the
automatic mesh generator in Pro/ENGINEER®. The finite element models were solved
using MSC/NAST~. In order to include the full effect ofHertzian deformations in
tooth contact, the required element size of the model around the tooth to tooth contact
zone is discussed as follows:

In the finite element calculation of gear tooth deformation, the grid spacing in the zone
of the tooth to tooth contact must be chosen carefully, otherwise the effect of Hertzian
deformations will be overlooked. Coy and Chao (Coy and Chao, 1982) derived a method
of selecting finite element grid size so that the full effect of Hertzian deformations would
be included. Figure 3. 9 demonstrates the deformation of Hertzian line contact by the
finite element method compared to the deformation calculated by the classic Hertz
formula. The definition of the terms in the Figure are (Coy and Chao, 1982):

t5 - t5
Percent error = f h x 100 (3.12)
t5h

32
 Fx (compression)

slope=Kb

tension----------+-------------=~ compression
Uo Ua-Ub

Fig. 3.6 Gap axial force vs. deflection

(slope Ka is used when Ua-Ub~ Uo)

Nonlinear Shear

~vor ~w
slope=Kt

Fig. 3. 7 Gap lateral force vs. deflection

33
 r-·----------------------------
Lt.
l

'
!t

Fig. 3.8 2D FE model of teeth in contact

~
=~10~ n
~j_
T
c
..... e-
SINGLE
FINITE
ELEMENT
GRID ASPECT RATIO,
g 0~--- - - - PERCENT ERROR • 0
de

-+
0.9

~
1.8
3..0

-20~
-30 I
0 1 2 3 4
RATIO OF ELEMENT SIZE TO CONTACT WIDTH, elb

Fig. 3. 9 Deformation of Hertzian line contact by finite element method compared

to deformation calculated by classic Hertz formula (Coy and Chao, 1982)

34
where ~ is the deformation calculated by the finite element method, and ~ is the
deformation calculated from the Hertzian formula. h is the Hertzian contact width.

The grid spacing that gives zero percent error depends on the grid aspect ratio. The
aspect ratio (cle) is defined as the ratio of the element dimension (in the direction normal
to the loaded edge) to the element size (which is measured along the loaded edge). The
following equation derived from Figure 3. 9 relates element size and aspect ratio, giving
less than 1 percent error in calculated deflection within the interval of definition:

(~) =-o.z(;) + 1.2, c

0.9 <- < 3.0
e
(3.13)

The procedure for selecting a mesh spacing along the loaded edge of a gear tooth would
then be as follows:
• Determine the point of the involute at which the load acts. This point can be obtained
from the distance along the contact path from the pitch point:

(3 14)

where rh is the base circle radius and 8 is the angle of gear rotation. At the pitch
point, 8=0.

• Determine the Hertzian contact width h.

b= 2.15~P~n (3 15)

where p is the load per unit length, E is the Young's modulus and KD can be
expressed as·

35
 2

K 0 =rbtanrp[l-( s ) ] (3.16)
rb tanrp

where rp is the pressure angle.

Then from Equation (3.13), select the element size, e, given that the aspect ratio, cle, has
been selected beforehand.

Figure 3 .1 0 shows the detail around the contact zone. The distance AB/2 should be
approximately equal to the estimated contact semi-bandwidth under the transmitted load.
Five GAP elements are employed between the pinion and the gear.

Fig. 3.10 Detail of contact zone of 2D FE model

36
3.3.4 Validation of the Model and the Stiffness Vector Calculation

Figure 3 .11 shows the results from this model and compares them with results from
some analytical formulations which are variant forms of Hertz contact theory (Cornell,
1981; Johnson, 1985). The load transmitted by the gear set is 70 Nm This figure
demonstrates that the tooth contact model in this study is valid.

To obtain the contact deformation from the finite element results, the tooth bending
displacement must be subtracted from the overall displacement field. The implementation
for the subtraction is shown in Figure 3.12 (Gosselin, eta/, 1994). First, before the load
is applied, find out the coordinates of the main contact point A and the intersection point
B which is between the contact normal extension and the tooth mid-plane Second,
calculate the unloaded distance between these two points. Then, apply the load and
calculate the loaded distance between the same points. Finally, the contact deformation is
obtained from the difference between the contact point and intersection point distance
before and after load application

3.4 COMBINED MESH STIFFNESS

As described in previous sections, the mesh stiffness is a combined stifthess. There are
two types of nonlinearity involved in the stifthess, one is the nonlinear stifthess of the
Hertzian component of the local compliance, and the other is the distribution of the load
over a varying number of teeth. The gross tooth body deformation component of the
compliance matrix is the linear part of the combined mesh stiffness.

The additional nonlinear local deformation component is localised to the point of

application of the force, therefore, a valid estimate of the deformed geometry is
provided. In this study, the local deformation component is less than 20% of the linear
component.

37
 2.6

-e 2.4 '
' ',
F~
• • • • ·PALMGREN

~
2.2
cCl) 2
•
.
•• ' ,
.. - .. _JOHNSON
...........................
...... _
ECl)
1.s
uftS 1.6 -- .•.........•
··---:-.:-•-------
Q.
.~ 1.4
"0
1.2
1 +-------~------~-------,------~

1 2 3 4 5

position from tip to root

Fig. 3. II Gear pair contact deformation results

I
I
Q

Mid-Plane

Fig. 3.I2 Tooth with mid-plane

38
3.5 CONCLUSION

Two finite element models for the gear-mesh stiffiless analysis have been introduced in
this chapter. The tooth body stiffiless matrix and the tooth local contact stiffiless vector
were derived from these two models. The validity of the models were discussed in
connection with the modelling. Generally, for any load distribution across a tooth face,
the tooth gross body deflection can be calculated using matrix CBm ; and the tooth local

contact deformation component or Hertzian deformation component can be calculated

using vector Ccm The modelling methods investigated in this chapter may be applied to

general thick plate deflection calculation and non-linear solid contact deformation
analysis.

A further development of these FE models which would enable calculation of CBm and

Ccm for helical gears is possible. For the tooth bending deflection, the FE model of the

tooth body would be created using helical geometry. For the tooth local contact
deformation, the 2D FE model could be adjusted for the inclination of the contact lines.

39
CHAPTER4

MODELLING OF OVERALL GEARBOX

FOR DYNAMIC ANALYSIS

4.1 INTRODUCTION

The vibration of a gearbox is generated at the gear mesh and is transmitted to the
gearbox casing through the shafts and the bearings, and the casing vibration then will
affect the transmission error reversely. That is, the geometric error caused by the
manufacturing and the load in meshing gears will cause a dynamic load, and the dynamic
load will cause more significant geometric error. The gearbox casing radiates this
structure-borne noise The establishment of an overall gearbox model by employing the
finite element method will be helpful for the dynamic transmission error modelling and
prediction of noise radiation. For example, the basic gearbox natural frequencies should
be calculated so that the coincidence with the gear tooth mesh frequencies will be

40
avoided; the gearbox mode shape could be used for predicting the change of the
transmission error (eg. the shaft bending vibration in gearbox can increase the
transmission error which could change the noise level of the gearbox); the bearing
support stiflhess could be investigated in the overall gearbox model and then can be
considered in the dynamic transmission error model. The investigation of the noise
radiation due to the transmission error of the gearbox would be the future work
mentioned in Chapter 8.

The overall gearbox model may include one or more gear pairs, shafts, rolling element
bearings, gearbox casing and flexible or rigid mounts. Traditional analysis approaches
(Ozguven and Houser, 1988a; Houser, 1990; Zakrajsek, et a/, 1990) in the gear
dynamics area were concentrated on the internal rotating system in a gearbox and have
excluded the dynamic effects of the gearbox casing and the flexible mounts In 1991, Lim
and Singh presented a detailed study of the vibration analysis of overall gearboxes (Lim
and Singh, 1991). Their research was based on their previous studies: bearing stiflhess
formulation (Lim and Singh, 1990a) and system studies (Lim and Singh, 1990b). They
developed linear time-invariant, discrete dynamic models of an overall gearbox by using
lumped parameter and dynamic finite element techniques. Later, F K Choy, eta/ (Choy,
eta/, 1991, Choy, eta/, 1992, Choy, eta/, 1993) presented a vibration analysis of multi-
stage gear systems coupled with the gearbox casing. In their study, the modal equations
of motion were developed for each rotor-bearing-gear stage using the transfer matrix
method to evaluate the modal parameters, and the modal characteristics of the gearbox
casing were evaluated using a finite element model in NAST~.

A recent investigation of an overall gearbox model was carried out by Kato, et a/ (Kato,
eta/, 1994). They developed a simulation method by integrating finite element vibration
analysis and boundary element acoustic analysis for the purpose of evaluating the sound
power radiated from a gearbox and got a good agreement with the experimental results.
In their model, each shaft was modelled by beam elements, the mass and rotating inertia
of the gear were lumped and added to the shaft, each rolling bearing was represented by

41
a spring and damper and the casing of the gearbox was modelled by using thin shell
elements in the finite element package program ISAP-6.

The aim of this chapter is to establish an overall gearbox model including the gearbox
casing and the flexible mounts by employing the finite element method to get the
parameters needed in the dynamic TE model. The modelling of the internals of the
gearbox and the bearing stiffness will be discussed in Section 4.2. Then the casing
modelling including the simulation of the discontinuous welding between casing
components and the calculation of the effects of the flexible mounts on the casing have
been investigated in Section 4.3. Finally, the model validity was tested in several ways,
including gearbox vibration measurement, experimental modal analysis using the STAR®
package (STAR®, 1991) and measurement data processing using the Signal analyser
B&K 2032 and is reported in Section 4.4.

4.2 CONSIDERATIONS FOR GEARBOX INTERNALS

The gearbox internals including gears, bearings and shafts should be considered carefully
in the overall gearbox modelling. The gear mesh stiffness will be implemented by using a
special element in the overall gearbox model.

4.2.1 Gears and shafts

The shafts are modelled by using two-noded beam elements in which the degrees of
freedom are three displacements and three rotations. The connection of the bearing and
the shaft is implemented by applying the Pin Flag technique (Schaeffer, 1984) in which
the rotational degrees of freedom at one end of the element are released. That is, no
moment is transmitted from the shaft to the bearing (which is self-aligning and rotates
freely about the shaft axis).

42
The gears in the casing are considered as two lumped masses. The inertia properties of
the gears are modelled by means of mass elements. Figure 4.1 shows the coordinate
system of the mass element for a gear. The form of the mass matrix associated with the
six degrees of freedom at grid point G for the Msc/NAS~ specification (Schaeffer,
1984) is as follows:

m
0 m Sym
0 0 m
M= (4 I)
0 0 0 I:rx
0 0 0 -I )IX
Iyy
0 0 0 -Izx -1zy Izz

where m is the mass of the gear.

Ixx is the mass moment of inertia of the gear about the axis x.
Iyy is the mass moment of inertia of the gear about the axis y.
Izz is the mass moment of inertia of the gear about the axis z.
Iyx is the product of inertia ofthe gear about the y-x axes.
Izx is the product of inertia ofthe gear about the z-x axes.
Izy is the product of inertia of the gear about the z-y axes.

Fig. 4.1 Mass element of a gear

43
The gyroscopic effects of the gears are not included in this model because the shaft speed
is less than II Hz.

4.2.2 Gear mesh stiffness

The total torsional compliance of two shafts with meshing gears may be considered as
the sum of:
• local contact compliance
• gross compliance of the teeth and gear bodies relative to the gear centre
• compliance of the gear centre due to shaft bending and torsion.

Chapter 3 discussed the modelling of the tooth for gear mesh stiffuess analysis and
calculated the tooth body compliance and the tooth contact compliance. The total
compliance of these two components has been combined and converted into a stiffness
matrix using a specific "ern" file in MATLAB® (MATLAB®, 1994).

In the overall gearbox model, the gears are modelled as two lumped masses in the
foregoing statement, so the only linkage between the two shafts is the stiffuess matrix of
the gear mesh In order to consider the effect of the gear mesh stiffuess in the model, the
stiffuess matrix element or so-called General element in Msc/NAST~

(Msc/NAST~, 1995) is employed to simulate the stiffuess matrix ofthe gear mesh.

According to the Msc/NAST~ specification, the stiffness matrix of the gear mesh is
projected to the element local coordinate system. The expression is given as:

(4.2)

where [Ke] is the matrix of the General element input data.

[Km] is the original mesh stiffuess matrix.
{q} is the direction cosine vector for the matrix projection.

44
4.2.3 Bearing stiffness

The bearing stiflhesses of a gearbox were investigated by Lim and Singh (Lim and Singh,
1990a). A symmetric bearing stiflhess matrix [K]bm of dimension six is defined (Lim and
Singh, 1990a) as follows:

kbxx

kbyx kbyy Sym

kbzr kbzy kbzz
[K]bm = (4.3)
kb8x kbB,y kb(J z k bB,B,
• •
kb8yX kbByy kb(JyZ k k bByBy
b8y8•

kb8zX kb(JzY kb(J z z k b8,8, k b8,8y k b8,8,

where kby is the bearing stiflhess coefficient, i, j=x, y, z, Ox Oy 0: which can be

determined according to a specific rolling element bearing (Lim and Singh, 1990a).

In order to simplify the problem to an extent which allows an expedient solution, eight
rolling elements in a bearing are assumed. Consequently, in the overall gearbox model,
eight General elements of Msc/NAST~ are used for each bearing in the gearbox
casing to simulate the eight directional connections between the shaft and the gearbox
casing plate. Figure 4.2 depicts the modelling of the stiffitess for a bearing. In this Figure,
point A is a grid point on the shaft and point B is a grid point on the casing plate and the
line AB is a General element

4.3 CASING AND FLEXIBLE MOUNT MODELLING

In this study, the casing is the main part of the overall gearbox model. The details of the
casing modelling will be discussed in this section. The characteristics of the flexible

45
mounts of the gearbox are also investigated and simulated by using specific elements in
Msc/NAST~.

Model of a beanng Casmg

Fig. 4.2 Modelling of the stiffuess for a bearing

4.3.1 Casing modelling

The original casing designed by Sweeney (Sweeney, 1994) was not appropriate for the
dynamic analysis of a typical gearbox because the casing plates were chosen too thick to
simulate most practical situations A new casing was designed and built in this study so
that the new casing can demonstrate the interactive effects in the gearbox vibration due
to the transmission error and has the resonances which can not be excited by gear mesh
frequencies at certain shaft speeds. The details of the casing design drawings are shown
in Appendix B

46
Three-noded isoperimetric triangular elements, TRIAJ, with shear deformation and
rotary inertia effects are used to construct the flexible casing. This FE model was
generated using the automatic mesh generator in Pro/ENGINEER® (Pro/ENGINEER®,
1996). In this model, the discontinuous welding between the casing plate and the
reinforcing plate is simulated using special techniques. Figure 4.3 is an example of this
structure. Figure 4.4 demonstrates the special techniques used to simulate this structure
in the finite element method.

In Figure 4.4, the line 11-12-13 represents the discontinuous welding along an edge of
the reinforcing plate; grid points 9 and 10 have the same coordinates and grid points 14
and 15 have the same coordinates. In order to simulate the discontinuous welding, the
eight-grid quadrilateral element <D on the base plate is established by the grids 1, 3, 12,
9, 2, 7, 11, 6 while element (Z) on the reinforcing plate is established by the grids: 10, 12,
21, 19, 11, 17, 20, 16. Using the same principle, element (3) on the base plate is
established by the grids: 3, 5, 15, 12, 4, 8, 13, 7 while element@ on the reinforcing plate
is established by the grids: 12, 14, 23, 21, 13, 18, 22, 17. In this case, the base plate and
the reinforcing plate are connected or "welded" along the line 11-12-13 and separated
along the lines 9-11 (or 10-11) and 13-14 (or 13-15).

4.3.2 Flexible mount modelling

In order to isolate the vibration of the bed plate of the test rig from the gearbox, rubber
pads are used for the gearbox mounting. The size of each rubber pad is
5 mm x 15 mm x 50 mm . The stiffness of the rubber is nonlinear with the supported
weight. The calculations of the compression stiffness and the shear stiffness are carried
out in terms of the rubber size and the supported load (Crede, 1965).The detailed design
of the mounts is discussed in Appendix F. In the overall gearbox model, the rubber pads
are considered as scalar elastic elements The scalar element defines a single elastic
constant that relates the displacements of two degrees of freedom. One rubber pad can

47
be modelled as three scalar elements, one representing the compression stiflhess, the
other two representing the shear stiflhess in the two lateral directions.

Reinforcing plate Casing

/ Bearing hole

00
Discontinuous welding

Fig. 4.3 Casing with a patch structure

Base plate
2 3 4 5

19
21 22 23

Remforced plate

Fig 4.4 Simulation ofthe discontinuous welding

48
4.4 MODEL VALIDITY WITH GEARBOX VIBRATION MEASUREMENT

In the foregoing statement, the modelling of the gearbox casing, flexible mounts and
gearbox internals has been discussed. The overall gearbox model with 1071 elements is
shown in Figure 4.5. This model is a combination of shell elements, beam elements, mass
elements, stiffuess matrix elements and scalar elastic elements.

Fig. 4. 5 FE model of the overall gearbox

49
4.4.1 Overview

Theoretically, a multi-degree of freedom system can be described by a mass matrix [m], a

damping matrix [c] and a stiffuess matrix [k] and its responses can be obtained in terms
ofthe modal parameters. To provide experimental data to validate the theoretical model
or FE model, the problem becomes the inverse, that is, to deduce these matrices from the
vibration. However, the [m], [c] and [k] matrices are not directly measurable, and have
to be deduced from measurable quantities, such as the natural frequencies, dampings of
the system and the mode shapes (Zaveri and Phil, 1985).

Consider a dynamic system such as that shown in Figure 4.6, which is excited at m input
locations and whose response is measured at n locations. Thus the frequency response
function matrix to be measured is given by:

x(t)=input y(t)=output

Dynamic
System ..
. ..
f---+ Yn(t)

Fig. 4.6 Dynamic system with input and output

50
 h/J(f) h/2(!)
h2/(f) h22(f)

[H(f)]= (4.4)

where f is the frequency and hu{f) is the frequency response function for excitation at
point} and response measurement at point i. For the single excitation input, the matrix
[H(f)] can be written to one column. In this study, the measurement system used for
modal analysis had single excitation input and multiple-point response output, as shown
below.

4.4.2 Gearbox vibration measurement setup

In order to validate the FE model of the overall gearbox, vibration measurement in the
test rig was carried out in this study. Figure 4 7 is a photograph of the measurement
setup. Figure 4.8 is a detail setup ofthe excitation point on the meshing gears figure 4.9
is a schematic diagram of the measurement system.

In this measurement, the signal analyser B&K 2032 was used as a signal generator where
the random signal was generated. This random signal was amplified by the measuring
amplifier B&K 2610, in which different gains can be obtained, and a special power
amplifier The amplified random signal was used for driving the shaker VP2 to produce a
excitation force on to the meshing tooth of the driving gear. The impedance head B&K
8001 was used for picking up the excitation force signal and the acceleration signal at the
same position. The vibration responses of the excited gearbox were measured using
accelerometers which were distributed around the gearbox. The vibration response
signals from the accelerometers were amplified by the charge amplifiers B&K 263 5 All
the signals were recorded on a digital tape recorder SONY PC208A from which the
signals can be replayed for future data processing

51
Fig 4.7 Photograph ofthe measurement setup

Fig 4 8 Detail setup of the excitation point

52
 Signal Analyser & Signal Morutoring
Signal Generator
B&K2032

t ~

' ~
»
"
<
~ Accelerometer Charge Amplifier ~
Measuring Amplifier ' B&K 2635
B&K 2610 ·G
E J Accelerometer Charge Amplifier ~
i
Power
~
A
.
B&K2635

J:l
Amplifier
0 ..
X : Accelerometer Charge Amplifier ~
+ B&K2635
Shaker
VP2

~
lmpedance Head Dtgital Tape Recorder
B&K8001 SONYPC208A

Fig. 4.9 Gearbox vibration measurement system

Figure 4.10 depicts the distribution of the measurement points around the gearbox
Three directional vibration signals are measured at the points on the gearbox comers
The excitation point or driving point is assigned on the meshing tooth of the driving gear
(shown in Figure 4.8). The excitation force can be exerted by a shaker or an impact
hammer and the direction of the force is along the normal direction of the conjugate
tooth faces. In this case, the transfer function from the mesh to the external measurement
point is different from that of the actual case where the forces produced by the
transmission error are in opposite directions, instead of in one direction. I

53
 Fig. 4 10 Measurement points on the gearbox

4.4.3 Modal analysis with the measured data

Most of the modal analysis software packages which are available today, estimate
experimental mode shapes by using measured frequency response functions. When
resonance frequencies are not closely spaced, quite accurate results are obtained by using
SDOF (Single Degree Of Freedom) methods, for example, the polynomial method
described below (SMS, 1990). If, however, the frequencies are closely spaced,
difficulties arise in locating the frequencies at which to identify the mode shapes and
MDOF (Multi-Degree OfFreedom) curve-fitting techniques should be employed.

54
Each modal analysis is defined in the STAR<!l System (STAR<!l, 1991) by a set of
measurements and data tables. The major steps used to carry out a modal analysis in this
study are:
• Define the structural geometry of the gearbox in the STAR System. That is, define
the coordinates of the measurement points and the non-measurement points; define
the constraints between the measurement points and the non-measurement points.
Figure 4.9 demonstrates the details of these points.
• Set up the test rig and record the measured excitation signal and the response signals
on to a tape.
• Replay the measured data from the digital tape recorder using the analyser B&K
2032; transfer the Frequency Response Functions (FRFs) to the STAR System.
• Identify the modal parameters. That is, cutve fit each measurement with the MDOF
method because of the heavily coupled modes of the gearbox; display the mode
shapes.

The general cutve fitting technique with the MDOF method can be described as follows
(Ewins, 1985):

The individual FRF measured data can be denoted as:

(4.5)

while the corresponding 'theoretical' values are denoted by:

(4.6)

where j is for excitation point.

k is for response measurement point.
A;k is the modal constant of modes in FRFJk·

55
 m is the frequency of vibration
17s hysteretic damping loss factor for mode s.

K~ is the residual stiffiless for that particular FRFJk·

M~ is the residual mass for that particular FRFJk·

The coefficients A;k, A;k, ... , mI' (t) 2 , ••. , 17 1 , 172 , ••. , K~, and M~ are all to be

determined. The individual error can be defined as:

(4.7)

and expression of this can be as a scalar quantity:

(4.8)

Then, the curve fitting process has to determine the values of the unknown coefficients in
Equation (4.6) such that the total error EL is minimised. This is achieved by the global
polynomial curve fitting method in STAR® (SMS, 1990). This method is an extension of
the RFLS (Rational Fraction Least Squares) polynomial method. In the first step, the
global fitter identifies only the modal frequencies and damping for a chosen range of
modes These estimates are truly "global", since all ofthe measurements (or a range of
measurements) in the measurement data set can be used in the fitting process. In the
second step, the complex modal residues are identified by again using all of the
measurements, together with the values of the global frequency and damping which have
already been identified. The advantage of this method over the local polynomial method
is that only two unknown parameters per mode are estimated at a time, instead of four
(frequency, damping, real part and imaginary part of the complex residue).

56
4.4.4 Comparison of measured and FE model results

The parameters of the gear set which were used in the overall gearbox FE model and in
the measurement are discussed in Appendix A. The geometric parameters of the casing
can be referred to in Appendix B.

Figures 4. 11-4.13 are some selected overall gearbox vibration mode shapes obtained
from the FE model. Figure 4.11 is a shaft vibration mode shape lightly coupled with the
casing vibration. Figure 4.12 shows a casing plate vibration mode shape. Figure 4.13
shows gearbox twist vibration mode shape.

Compared with Figures 4.11-4. 13, Figures 4. 14-4.16 depict three mode shapes of the
gearbox, which were obtained from the global polynomial curve fitting method in
STAR® by using the measured frequency response functions. Table 4.1 is a comparison
of the FE model and the measurement results. Inspection of the Figures 4.11-4.13, 4.14-
4.16 and Table 4.1 shows a good correlation between the measured and the FE model
results. That is, the FE model of the overall gearbox may be considered to be
successfully validated for the gearbox vibration mode shape prediction.

Table 4.1 Comparison of the FE model and the measurement results

Mode shape FE model (Hz) Measurement (Hz) Error(%)
Casing plates vibration 279 292 -4.7
Shaft vibration 325 339 -4.1
Gearbox twist vibration 387 376 2.9

57
 ll'l' la lleaulUDB
llnlllo4ea J.Dalyda
hbca••
•• 7
1
l Def.lube••• 1

Fig. 4.11 Casing plate vibration mode shape from FE analysis

Frequency f= 279Hz

58
 ll'l' 11 lleaalUDB
llaa1Mo4aa ADalyaia
Subcaae 1
lloda I
1
--- --------------------·-------------- Def. lube••• 1

Fig 4.12 Shaft vibration mode shape from FE analysis

Frequency f= 325Hz

59
 R'l' 1t a..ultaDB
Reallla4ea Aaal:rda
llubcaaa 1
llo4a 10
1 Def. lubcaae 1
----------------------·---------------'

Fig 4. 13 Gearbox twist vibration mode shape from FE analysis

Frequency f= 387Hz

60
 z

xAY
Fig. 4.14 Casing vibration mode shape from modal analysis
Frequency f = 292 Hz

xAY
Fig. 4.15 Shaft vibration mode shape from modal analysis
Frequency f= 339Hz

61
 z

xAY
Fig. 4.16 Gearbox twist vibration mode shape from modal analysis
Frequency J= 376Hz

4.5 CONCLUSION

Application of the finite element method in the study of the overall gearbox vibration has
been investigated in this chapter. Different modelling methods are used for simulating the
casing and the gearbox internals. The program of the validation of the overall gearbox
model is carried out in this chapter and it can be concluded that the modelling methods in
this model are valid and the model may be used for the general gearbox vibration
analysis.

In order to avoid the coincidence with the gear tooth-mesh frequencies, the overall
gearbox model can be used for predicting the basic gearbox natural frequencies The
bearing support stiffiless in the dynamic TE model will be obtained from this overall
gearbox model.

62
CHAPTERS

MEASUREMENT OF GEAR
TRANSMISSION ERROR

5.1 INTRODUCTION

The measurement of the transmission error of a gear patr ts very valuable for
development work and troubleshooting in gear drives when noise or vibration occurs and
is also useful for production control, especially in industries where high gear drive
accuracy is important. This measurement requires a combination of mechanical, optical
and electrical techniques. A typical early technique, documented by Harris (Harris,
1958), involves the accurate location of 'pitch discs' on each shaft combined with the
detection of differential linear movement of pre-tensioned steel tapes wound around
these discs.

63
The fundamental method of transmission error measurement, the so called optical
method, was described in (Scoles and Kirk, I969). This method is based on the analogue
phase comparison of two electrical phase modulated signals with a common carrier
frequency.

In the following years, this method has remained virtually unchanged; however, advances
in optical and electronic technology have enabled higher accuracy and the application of
more elaborate signal processing in current research and commercial activities Figure
5. I shows a standard transmission error measurement system based on this method
(Smith, I988). In this system, gear pairs of various ratios can be dealt with by
introducing electronic hatching counters into the output lines from the index heads.
These can be pre-set to count a selected number of pulses before giving output pulses to
the phasemeter. Thus the two pulse trains finally reaching the phasemeter will have the
same nominal frequency even though the gear ratio itself may be very different from
unity.

Gear I Gear 2
N1 teeth N2 teeth

Rotary
-" encoders ~'. . ,

h pulses/sec

(NJ/Nz)Ji(=h)
pulses/sec

Fig. 5.I Diagram of standard transmission error measurement system

64
A new system for transmission error measurement and the accompanying signal
processing was represented by Sweeney (Sweeney, 1994). This system is based on pulse
timing and the data processing is entirely digital. A PC 110 board for processing the
encoder signals (pulse trains) and a PC software for controlling the measurement
parameters were specially designed and constructed for this system. Sweeney compared
this technique with digital phase demodulation, getting identical results (Sweeney and
Randall, 1996).

In this chapter, the experimental rig set-up used in this study will be discussed including
the selection of optical encoders. Some modifications for the measurement system were
made in this study. A phase demodulation technique, zoom analysis, was used in the gear
transmission error measurement The encoder error analysis in gear TE measurement is
investigated, and a new method proposed to estimate it, as well as to subtract it out.
Methods of estimating the range of encoder error also are described in this chapter

5.2 EXPERIMENTAL RIG SETUP

The experimental rig used in this thesis was designed by Sweeney (Sweeney, 1994) and
is described in Appendix A. The purpose of the rig is two fold. Firstly, it can be used for
validating the proposed mathematical transmission error model and the overall gearbox
finite element model. Secondly, it can be used for measuring the static and dynamic
transmission error, gear casing vibration signal and gearbox noise emission

5.2.1 General arrangement

The general arrangement ofthe rig is shown in Figure 5.2 which demonstrates the main
components in the rig. The flywheels in the rig are adjustable for the weight, to attenuate
the torsional vibrations induced by the loading. The speed controller is a semiconductor
based frequency converter, connected between electric motor and control console, and

65
providing a capability of changing the speed of the rig for different cases of TE
measurement.

Flywheel

ii} = Coupling

Speed
controller Power Recirculation

Fig 5.2 Schematic diagram ofthe experimental rig.

5.2.2 Characteristics of the drive and loading

There are two types of loaded TE test rig. direct drive and recirculating power drive
The major advantage of recirculating power is to generate a high shaft torque with a
relatively low system power input. That is, only the power dissipated as losses in the gear
set, drive train and power recirculation elements needs to be provided.

66
The power, furthermore, may be recirculated within a test rig through mechanical or
hydraulic means. The most common type is the purely mechanical or back-to-hack rig
which both sets of gears have the same gear ratio and which gives the problem of
coincidence of tooth mesh frequencies. Another type is a hydraulic power recirculating
test rig which has been used in this thesis. The hydraulic recirculating power system used
in this thesis is shown in Figure 5.2. The two hydraulic pumps mounted at the right end
of the driven shaft get their mechanical power from the rotating motion. The mechanical
power is transformed into hydraulic power by the two pumps which act as the load for
the driven shaft. Then the high pressure hydraulic oil from the pumps can be provided to
the hydraulic motor. The left end of the rig has two input power sources, one from the
electric motor, and the other from the hydraulic motor. Therefore, the recirculating
power system is closed by means ofthe hydraulic pumps and hydraulic motor.

The power system is able to operate at shaft speeds from 2 Hz to about 12 Hz with
steady drive torque according to the electric motor specifications and the motor
controller limitations

5.2.3 Gearbox assembly

The gearbox assembly is mounted to the rig bedplate through rubber pads. To improve
the isolation of general rig vibration from the gear box, the rubber pads were calculated
and designed (see Appendix F). As discussed in Chapter 4, the gearbox casing was
redesigned (see Appendix B) to improve the dynamic transmission error modelling and
predict noise radiation.

In the gearbox, the gear shafts are supported by deep groove ball bearings which are
fitted in eccentric mounting disks. These disks are designed for two purposes. The first is
to allow for the shafts' alignment adjustment The second is to allow for the shafts' centre
distance variation for both misalignment setup (small variations) and ratio change (gross
variation). The gear ratios used in this thesis are 1:1 and 1.53:1.

67
Two types of gears have been used in this thesis. One is of steel material and the other is
of nylon material. The details of the gears are described in Appendix A.

5.2.4 Encoders

There are two types of rotary optical encoders, incremental optical encoders and
absolute optical encoders. Generally, absolute optical encoders are used for position
control in servo applications because this type of encoder produces more position
information (signals) than incremental encoders, however incremental optical encoders
are used for the measurement of gear-set transmission error because this type of encoder
provides higher resolution than absolute encoders.

Figure 5.3(a) is a structural drawing of an incremental encoder relative angular position

detector with outputs A and B type having reference signal Z. The light emitted from the
LED goes through the slits of the rotary disc and each of the slits A, B and Z of the fixed
board with slits. Then the light is detected by the light-sensing devices A, B and Z. Slits
A and B on the fixed board have a phase difference of 90°. The electrical output is a
rectangular wave form with the same 90° phase difference. Figure 5.3(b) shows the
condition of the final output corresponding to each of the light-sensing devices.

Two older incremental optical encoders, type Heidenhain ROD 260 with 16384 lines/rev,
were damaged and had to be replaced by cheaper incremental optical encoders, type
Heidenhain ROD 426 with 3600 lines/rev, which are used in this thesis for the gear
transmission error measurement. These encoders are connected to the input shaft and
output shaft, respectively, using high-precision diaphragm couplings. They convert rotary
motion into electrical pulse signals which can be processed in numerical devices (eg
computers).

68
 Slit
Slit of
phaseA
I
Fixed board with slits

Slit of phase B

I
A
/B
~c:1)}::: Light-sensing
~ device

z
Slit of phase z

(a) Structure of an incremental encoder

(b) Output waveform of incremental encoders

Fig. 5.3 Incremental encoder (Dote and Kinoshita, 1990)

69
5.3 GEAR TRANSMISSION ERROR MEASUREMENT SYSTEM

Figure 5 4a is the photograph of the transmission error measurement set up Figure 5.4b
shows a schematic diagram of the digital transmission error measurement system. The
electrical signals generated by a pair of optical encoders are first passed through a signal
1
control box to get into the PC computer in which an interface board is embedded After
the signals are received by this interface board, they are passed through a trigger circuit
to convert the signals to phase modulated TTL level pulse trains The pulse trains are
then passed through digital dividers which are controlled by a software program in the
computer (Sweeney, 1994) and divided to optimise the carrier frequencies which will be

Fig 5 4a Photograph of gear transmission error

measurement system setup in this study

1
Tlus board was destgned by P Sweeney

70
 I~ri-l...___
~..'F"" ...- Control Box ::_r--------~
-ttL..:;:S:.:Jgna:::..;l
B&K
Signal Analyser
2032

0 0 0 oQ

Gears
Encoder

Couplmg

Fig. 5 4b Gear transmission error measurement system in this study

discussed in the following section. The divided pulse trains are sent back to the signal
control box again from the interface board and readily output to the B&K signal analyser
2032 through the auxiliary output channels built into the signal control box.

A synchronous trigger and a computer program have been designed for the TE
measurement data collection of this system (shown in Figure 5.4b) in the non-unity gear
ratio case (which will be referred in the following section). The details of this trigger
design are described in Appendix C.

71
In the signal analyser, the pulse trains (raw measurement data) and the once per
revolution pulse train which is directly from one encoder (trigger data) are used as
follows:
• the trigger data is used as the external trigger to start the measurement data
processmg,
• the raw measurement data are demodulated using the zoom demodulation technique
with different zoom centre frequencies and bandwidths determined according to the
shaft speed.

After the zoom analysis, the measurement data are complex time history signals.

It is shown in Figure 5.4b that the signal analyser and the PC computer can communicate
with each other by means of an IECIIEEE interface board. A specific program written in
BASIC code is used to transfer the measurement data from the analyser to the computer,
and then all the measurement data can be stored on the hard disk or floppy disks for
further data processing. The data processing in this study is carried out by using
MATLAB® (MATLAB 00 , 1994).

5.4 MEASUREMENT DATA PROCESSING--

PHASE DEMODULATION

Gear transmission error is a differential torsional vibration which in tum can be

considered as a phase modulation of a shaft mean-speed If incremental shaft encoders
are used for gear transmission error measurement, the encoder signals are phase
modulated signals. These signals should be demodulated so that only the instantaneous
deviation in true shaft position relative to the instantaneous mean-speed shaft position
remams

72
5.4.1 Theoretical Background

In general, carrier signals can be sinusoidal or pulse trains in signal modulation. The
technique corresponding to the use of a pulse train as a carrier signal is referred to as
pulse modulation (Black, 1953; Oppenheim and Willsky, 1993). Figure 5.5 shows pulse
amplitude modulation and pulse phase modulation, where:

y(t)=x(t)p(t) (S.la)

is the pulse amplitude modulation formula and

y(t)=p( m t+x(t)) (5.1b)

is the pulse phase modulation formula, where:

x(t) is the original signal or modulating signal.
p(t) is the pulse train carrier signal.
y(t) is the modulated signal

Now, consider a shaft rotating at constant speed but undergoing a torsional vibration
which is periodic with the shaft rotation frequency, driving a shaft encoder which gives
M pulses per revolution In this case the torsional vibration signal x(t) is a phase
modulating signal, the encoder pulse signal p(t) plays the role of a carrier. Since one
shaft revolution represents nM*21t radians of phase angle for the nth harmonic of the
carrier, the same torsional fluctuation represents a proportionally greater relative
modulation for higher values of n. Thus, the modulated encoder pulse signal can be
expressed as (Randall and Luo, 1990):

N
y(t) = L An cos(2.nnA{fst +an +nMx(t)) (5.2)
n=l

73
x(t)
modulating signal

0 t

p(t) pulse carrier

-
- 2T_..,
,...

0 t

y(t)
amplitude modulation

0 t

y(t)
phase modulation

0 t

Fig. 5. 5 Phase modulated signal

74
where:
n is the harmonic order, n= 1, 2, ...... N.
An is the magnitude of the nth harmonic of the pulse signal.
an is the initial phase of the nth harmonic.

Is is the shaft rotation frequency.

the term nMx(t) accounts for the proportionally larger phase deviation of higher order
harmonics. The spectrum of the modulation signal y(t) consists not only of the harmonics
of the carrier frequency nMfs, but also modulation sidebands. For pure small amplitude
phase modulation with square wave pulse carrier, the modulated signal should have the
same sidebands for each harmonic (Randall and Luo, 1990). Figure 5.6 illustrates the
spectrum of the measured encoder signal. In this figure, the harmonics of the encoder
signal frequency are 900 Hz, 2700 Hz, etc. and the modulation sidebands of all
harmonics keep the same level, but the level of the carrier harmonics varies inversely as
the frequency. Therefore, the relative level of the sidebands is greater at higher
frequency, in accordance with the theory given above.

5.4.2 Technique of the demodulation in this study

In order to extract the torsional vibration signal from an incremental rotary encoder
signal, one of several possible phase demodulation techniques must be employed
1 Carrier tracking
2. Pulse timing
3. Frequency domain block-shift transforms
4 frequency domain zoom-demodulation
5. Hilbert transform

In the reference (Sweeney and Randall, 1996), Sweeney and Randall discussed different
phase demodulation techniques and their applications. In this study, the zoom-
demodulation technique has been used.

75
 dB (ref 1 mV)
60.------.-------r------~-----,.-----~-------r--~

50

40

30

20

10

-10

-20

3000 4000 5000 6000

Hz

Fig. 5.6 Spectrum of the measured encoder signal

Input shaft speed: 4 Hz

The zoom-demodulation technique used here utilises the built-in real-time zoom
processor available in the B&K 2032 analyser. The zoom centre frequency is set at a
divided carrier frequency of the raw signal produced by the encoder for the unity ratio
gears and set at the average frequency of the two carrier frequencies of the raw encoder
signals for non unity ratios. The carrier frequency of the frequency divided signal used in
this study is:

(5.2a)

where
.fc is the carrier frequency.

76
 fp is the frequency of the raw pulse train produced by the encoder
d is a divider which is used for optimising the carrier frequencies in different
shaft speeds.

The zoom bandwidth is set to twice the required demodulated signal bandwidth. From a
demodulation perspective, the vital parameter to be considered is this bandwidth For
successful full bandwidth demodulation of a neutrae carrier the one-sided bandwidth of
modulated signal must not exceed the carrier frequency. If the carrier is not neutral, even
harmonics of the carrier will be generated, thus limiting the one-sided demodulation
bandwidth to half the carrier frequency (Sweeney and Randall, 1996).

After the processing in the zoom processor, the resulting complex time signal can be
transferred to a PC computer using a specially written program. With the MATLAB 00
software in the PC computer, the phase information of this signal can be extracted by
using the phase unwrapping method. Figure 5.7 is an example to show the unwrapping
method. In this figure, the detrend function has been used to remove the residual carrier
frequency. Figure 5.8 is a transmission error signal and spectrum based on six driving
gear revolutions of a 29:44 helical gear set using zoom-demodulation method. For 1: I
gear sets, the TE signal has a variation period per revolution of driving shaft or driven
shaft as shown in Figure 5.10a. For non 1:1 gear sets, like Figure 5.8, the TE signal has a
fundamental period of m driving shaft revolutions or n driven shaft revolutions where m
is the number of the driven gear teeth, in this case is 49, and n is the number of the
driving gear teeth, in this case is 29.

An advantage of the zoom-demodulation method is that a large buffer is not required to

record a long time record since the signal is low-pass filtered and resampled initially in
the zoom processor For the non 1:1 ratio case, if identical demodulation centre
frequencies cannot be arranged, each channel may be post-processed separately at a
different demodulation centre frequency before subtracting the demodulated signals

2
The term neutral here means that the unmodulated waveform may be expressed as either an odd or
even function by altering the datum phase by 90°. Examples of neutral waveforms are symmetric square
waves, pure sinusoids, and symmetric triangular waves.

77
 2 r-------------------~--------~--------~
1

0
-1

-2~----------------------------------------~
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 t(s)
(a) time signal of phase modulation

radian

4 ...................
•
·- ......................................................... 0
0 • • •
0 •• 0 .. .

0
-4 ....................................
0 • 0
0 ••••••••••••••••

I 0
0 ........ !-: ................. .
I I
• 0 • • • • •

0 0 0 I e 0 0

-8~----·-----·------·-----·-----·------·-----·----~
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 t(s)
(b) phase signal of phase modulation

radian

20 ········:·········!·········:·········!········~·······;.:.:·;...·
.. .. .. ..
• 0 • • • ..-_

• 0 • •

10 • •
0

• • • • "0
•
•••••
•

0., ...................
•
•

•
,
•

0
0 ••• 0 0 ••

.. ..
• • 0 •

I I
..
I
.. o

0 we~------------------·------·-----·------·--~
e 0.5 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 t(s)
(c) unwrapped phase signal

radian
:
4 - ........;........ -:· ........ , ......... ;......... ; .........;........ ·:· ....... .
0 • 0 • • • •

• • 0 0 • 0 •

0 6-~--~~~~~~~~~~~~~~--~~~;~~~~~~~.~~~--~~~
-4 ....... ~ ........ -~ ........ ~· ........ ~......... ~ ........ ~ ........ -~ .........
: : : : : : : .
-8~----·-----·------·-----·-----·------·-----·----~
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 t(s)
(d) detrended phase signal

Fig. 5. 7 Phase modulated signal and unwrapped phase signal

solid line is modulated signal; dashed line is carrier signal

78
 Measured Gear Transmission Error

400 ............ . ...........................................

.. .. ..
. .

·····:···············=···············:········
.. .. ..
-600~------~----------------._------~------~~----~
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Revolutions (driving gear)

.. . . . . .
(j' 40 ............ ~ ............. ~· ............ ·=- ............. : ............. ~ ............. ·=· .. .
Cl) • • • • • •
~ ........... ; .............:.............. :. ............. : ...............................:.... .
eca :• :. :• :. :. :.
! ............. ·: .........
..... •••••••••• ~..... •

.
••••• ·:·

•
•••••

. 0 ••••••

.
·:· • • • • • • •

•
0

. •• 0

.
••

• 0
0 •• 0 ·:·

•
•••

~ ·······=············
. •
·=··············i··············=··············=····
..,. ......................................
..
•

.. . • • 0

ID
"'C ... ... .

0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Driving shaft order

Fig. 5. 8 Transmission error signal and spectrum of steel gear

Helical gear: 29:44 Input shaft speed: 2Hz
Input shaft torque: 30 Nm Shaft misalignment: 1/500 (mm/mm)

5.5 ENCODER ERROR ANALYSIS IN GEAR

TRANSMISSION ERROR MEASUREMENT

5.5.1 Introduction

The transducer used for measuring TE in this thesis is the incremental optical encoder.
Previously, only higher quality encoders, with documented error, have been used for the
measurement of TE In this case it was necessary to use lower cost and lower quality
encoders, with undocumented error, for the TE measurement.

79
If lower quality encoders are used, the effect of the encoder error on the TE could be
significant. In order to reduce this effect, the encoder measurement error has been
investigated and a theoretical analysis is developed in this section. Finally, a method of
reducing the effect of encoder error is introduced in this section.

5.5.2 Theoretical development of encoder error analysis

For torsional vibration measurement, or TE measurement purposes with high accuracy,

we can use the following method to carry out this measurement with virtually any type of
encoders. The method is based on two encoders being used in the measurement system,
these encoders being swapped with each other from input shaft to output shaft in two
measurements. The assumption is that:
• each of the two measurements should have the same initial conditions
• each measurement should be at the same speed and load.
• the encoder measurement error should be the same in these two measurements
• the encoder measurement error should be repeatable in every gear mesh cycle

The method, introduced to reduce the effect of encoder error in this thesis, makes use of
the fact that when the encoders are swapped, their combined errors remain the same in
magnitude and phase, but reverse in direction. The difference in the transmission error
data for the two cases is therefore equal to twice the combined encoder errors.

The combined angular deviation data F( <p) obtained from the encoders can be expressed

as:

is the order ofthe driving (driven) shaft rotation

80
 is the actual angular deviation with respect to uniform

speed of encoder 1 (encoder 2).on shaft i (i=l means input

shaft; i=2 means output shaft)
Be It (<p 1)(Be ll,(<p 2 )) is the encoder measurement error of encoder I (encoder

2). on shaft i (i=l means input shaft; i=2 means output

shaft)

Letting <p = q> 1 = R<p 2 , the measured transmission error for the gear set based on the
driving gear is given by:

TE12( Q> )= R(e 112 (<p I R) +Be 112 (Q> I R))-(e n (<p) +Ben (<p)) (5 4)

(55)

where:
TE12( Q>) is the measured transmission error with encoder 1 on the input

shaft and encoder 2 on the output shaft.

is the measured transmission error with encoder 2 on the input

shaft and encoder I on the output shaft.

R is the ratio of the number of teeth in the output gear to that in the
input gear.

If the two measured transmission errors are added together, the expression is:

TE21( Q> )+ TE12( Q> )= (Re m(Q> I R)- en (Q> )) + (Re 12 (Q> I R) -em (Q>))
+RBe 12 ( Q> I R) + RBe 112 (<pI R)- Be Ill ( Q>)- Ben (Q>) (5.6)

According to the above definitions, the following expression should be true:

(Rem (<pI R)- en (<p))=(Re 12 (Q> I R)- em (q>))=TE( Q>) (5.7)

(true transmission error)

8I
If the ratio R=1: 1, we get the expression (for any length of the measured data)

(5 8)

Then the true transmission error is:

TE( <p) = ( TE21( <p) + TE12( <p ))12 (5 9)

And, the combined error of the encoders can be developed as.

TE21( <p)- TEt2( <p) = (Rem(<p I R)- e11 (<p)) -(Re 12 (<p I R)- e 111 (<p))

+oe 11 {<p) - oe m {<p) - Roe m (<p I R) + Roe 12 ( <p I R)

= 2(oe 11 <cp) - oe 111 ( cp))
=2R(oe 12 (<piR)-oe 112 (cpiR)) (510)

That is, the combined error of the encoders oe ( <p) is:

If 8811 (rp) is given by the manufacturer, eg. the high quality encoder Heidenhain ROD

260, the cheaper encoder error 88111 (rp) can be obtained from equation (5.11).

If the gear ratio R::t= 1:1, the expression (5.8) is not true. That is, the true transmission

error could not be obtained from the expression (5.9). For further investigation, the
equation (5.10) can be developed as:

TE21( <p)- TE12( <p) = (Re 112 (<p I R)- e11 (<p )) - (Re 12 (<pI R)- 8 m (<p ))

+oe 11 ( <p) - oe m (<p)- Roe 112 ( <p I R) + Roe 12 ( <p I R)

=(oe 11 (cp)- oe m (cp)) + R(oe 12 (cp I R)- oe m (<pI R)) (5.12)

82
Equation (5.12) shows that the terms (89 11 ( <p)- 89 III ( <p )) and

(89 12 ( <p I R) - 89 112 ( <p I R)) are the combined encoder errors respectively even though

they have a different period. If we use the synchronous averaging method (Nakamura, et
al, 1991) to separate these two parts we can get the same combined encoder error as the
results from 1: 1 ratio data. The principle of the synchronous averaging method can be
expressed as:

,. } M
80(n) =-Lg,(n) (5 13)
M •=I

where is the synchronously averaged combined encoder error

n is the data index number, 1<n<N. In the 49:32 ratio case,
N=nl *49 for the driving shaft and N=nl *32 for the driven
shaft, n 1 is the number of samples per tooth spacing in the
signal, N is the number of data for averaging
M is the number of averages. In the 49:32 ratio case, M=49
for the driving shaft and M=32 for the driven shaft (for one
complete meshing cycle).
g,(n) is the function from equation (5.12).

5.5.3 Experimental set-up and implementation

Figure 5 .4b shows a sketch of the test rig. In the experiment, the gear ratios used were
32:32, 29:29, 44:29 and 49:32; the input shaft speed was varied from 120 rpm to 480
rpm, and the load was varied from 20 Nm to 80 Nm. The encoders under test were a pair
of Heidenhain ROD 426 encoders giving 3600 pulses per revolution, these being an
order of magnitude cheaper than the ROD 260 encoders used by Sweeney (Sweeney,
1994).

In order to make sure every measurement is at the same initial condition, the following
procedures should be carried out:

83
• Rotate the two gears to a marked position with a specially designed jig.
• Before installing the encoders, rotate the shafts of the two encoders to the marked
position and set the pulse counter to zero
• Use the one-pulse per mesh cycle trigger to start the data collection as described
below.

The measurement data collection system has been shown in Figure 5.4b. In order to
make a synchronous trigger to collect the data, a specially designed pulse counter
(mentioned previously) and a computer program were used to identifY the start of each
complete meshing cycle. If a I : I ratio gear set is being measured, the trigger value of the
pulse counter is set to 1. If a non I·I ratio gear set (eg 49·32) is being measured, the
trigger value of the pulse counter is set to 49 (where the input of the pulse counter is
from the input shaft encoder and the number of teeth of the input shaft gear is 32) While
the rig is running, the pulse counter counts the once-per-revolution pulses from the
encoder. Once the number of the pulses is equal to the trigger value, the pulse counter
sends a pulse to the computer to trigger the data collection.

In practice, the two measurements are not exactly at the same initial condition. If the
phase error is ~<p, for example, as shown in Figure 5.9, the combined encoder error in

~9(q>)

Fig. 5.9 Analysis of the phase error.

84
equation (5 10) is .18(q>), not o8(q>) In order to remove the initial phase error, the
phase data of the first measurement is subtracted from the phase data of the second
measurement and then the subtracted data is unwrapped. Because the initial phase error
is a linear function in the subtracted data, the regression method can be used to regress
the data and then remove the resultant regressed function from the data. Thus, the initial
phase error has been removed.

5.5.4 Test Results

Figure 5. 1Oa shows raw TE time signals obtained from the two separate measurements
by swapping the two encoders with each other. Figure 5. 1Ob is the true (average) TE
time signal and the combined encoder error signal processed by using the method
developed in the previous section It is evident that the true TE time signal has been
"filtered" to some extent due to the subtraction of the encoder error and the encoder
error is repeatable in two cycles.

Figures 5.11-5.14 show the true TE and the combined encoder error signals obtained
from different measurements with different speeds and gear sets. Inspection of these
figures shows that the combined encoder errors have only small changes with the
different measurement conditions except for some sensitivity to speed.

Figures 5.15-5.19 show the results of frequency analysis of the combined encoder error
which indicates a good agreement with the theory in this study. Table 5.1 compares the
results of frequency analysis from Figure 5 .lOb, 5.11, 5.12, 5. 13, and 5.14. The bottom
part of the Table 5.1 gives the average value and the standard deviation of the combined
encoder error over the different measurement cases These results will be discussed in
next section.

For the non 1:1 gear set, the measurement data of equation (5.12) were separated by
using the method of equation (5.13) and then the combined encoder error has been

85
obtained using MATLAB®. Figure 5 20 is the raw TE measurement data. Figure 5 21
and Figure 5.22 show the combined encoder error results obtained by the procedure
mentioned above when M=49 for the driving shaft and M=32 for the driven shaft
respectively.

arc-sec
. .
. -................ .
200 .
............................. .
0

-200

0 10 20 30 40 50
P1n1on tooth number
arc-sec
I I I I

200 ....................... _.______________

I I I
------·--------
I

..
•

. ..
I

..
I

..
I

..
0 .. . . . . . .. ......... -.............. .

-200 . ·.· ......... -:- .......... -:- ..... .

.. .. ..
0 10 20 30 40 50
Pm1on tooth number

Fig. 5.10a Raw TE data (upper graph is TE12, lower graph is TE21 )
Helical gear: 29:29 Input shaft speed: 8 Hz
Input shaft torque: 30 Nm 1/500 shaft misalignment

86
 arc-serc---,.....----.------r----r-----,---.,
200 . .
-···r··-······-·=···········r·•·

-200

0 10 20 30 40 50
P1n1on tooth number
arc·s;.::e~c--........----r----~----.-----r----r
20

-20

0 10 20 30 40 50
P1mon tooth number

Fig. 5 I Ob Processed data from Fig. 5 I Oa

Upper graph: true TE, Lower graph: combined encoder error

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Pin1on tooth number
arc-sre~c--~--~---~--~----..----~--.
• 0 • • •

... .. ..
20 ·········~·-··••""""~---·····-~····"'""""":---······-~----·--······
... ...
•
. • •
. 0
.

..... ·:- . .. .. . . .. -. -.... -.. . .. .. -

-20
.. ~

.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Pm1on tooth number

Fig. 5.11 Processed data

(upper graph is true TE, lower graph is combined encoder error)
Spur gear: 32:32 Input shaft speed: 8 Hz
Input shaft torque: 30 Nm Standard alignment

87
 a rc-se;.:c~---r-----.----....-----...-----r------.
. . . ... ..
200 ... . . . ..
• .. • • • .. • .. • • •,• • • • • • .. • .... • r .. • • • .. • • .. • • .. • • • • • • ...... • .. , • • • • • • • • .. • .., .. • .... • • ....
I 0
.
o 0 I

-200 . .
........................................
0 10 20 30 40 50
Pm1on tooth number

arc-s;.=.e.;;..c----...----~----..---~-----..,.---------,
20

-20 ..... 0000~00000

. 00 00:00

.
0 10 20 30 40 50
Pm1on tooth number

Fig. 5.12 Processed data

(upper graph is true TE, lower graph is combined encoder error)
Helical gear: 29:29 Input shaft speed 8Hz
Input shaft torque: 30 Nm Standard alignment

a rc-secr-----.---.-----r----r-------,.-------,
200
..
.................................... ..
100
0
-100
-200 .
. ...
....................................... --
.
-300~--~---._--~---~---~-~
0 10 20 30 40 50
Pm1on tooth number
arc-se;;-;c;;.___ _~----.-----.-----r-----.----.
20 00 0000000 ................................................
.
-:
0
Ooooo.oo•:--·

. . OoOOOo-:OO

. .. .
10 •• . . . . . . . ~-... . . . . :. . . . . . . • . ~-. . • . . • • • • :. . . . . . . .. ·:· . . . ..
0
.. .. . ..
-1 0 -- .. - .......... ·... .. .. .. .. .... : .. -.. .. ........ ~- .. .. - ........ ~ .. .. .. - ...... -:- ............ ..
. .. .. .. .
-20 OoOoooOOO ~- OoOOOOOO : ..... 00 .~ . . OOOOOoOOO:Oo OOOoO ·:00000000

0 • • •

-30~--~·---~·----~--~·----~·~-~
0 10 20 30 40 50
Pm1on tooth number

Fig. 5.13 Processed data

(upper graph is true TE, lower graph is combined encoder error)
Helical gear: 29:29 Input shaft speed: 4Hz
Input shaft torque: 30 Nm 1/500 shaft misalignment

88
arc-seF-c---~-----r---.,.------.----.----,
200

. .
-200 ·-------- -:--- -- . ----~-----------:------
.
0 10 20 30 40 50
P1n1on tooth number
a rc·s;:.ec;:___ _, . - - - - - - - r - - - . , . - - - - - , . - - - - . - - - - ,
20 ..
. ......... ............ ,. ..... ..
.. ........................ -....................... .
. ~

..
0

-20 ---------

0 10 20 30 40 50
P1n1on tooth number

Fig. 5.14 Processed data

(upper graph is true TE, lower graph is combined encoder error)
Helical gear: 29:29 Input shaft speed: 4 Hz
Input shaft torque: 70 Nm 11500 shaft misalignment

phase (radian)
4~--~-~~----.-----r-----r-----r-----r

... ..
... -- ..····--·-·-;······
-2 ---- ----:------------- -----:---------:---
...
-4~--~-~~-~--~--~--~--~
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
P1n1on shaft order
dB(re 1 arc-sec)
40r------.,.----r-----r--~~--.,.---......,-,

20 -- - -- • - -- -- -- --. -- -- - • -- -- -- ... --

-20

-40
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
P1n10n shaft order

Fig. 5.15 Frequency analysis of combined encoder error of Fig. 5.10b

Upper graph: zoomed phase of combined encoder error
Lower graph: magnitude of combined encoder error
Helical gear: 29:29 Input shaft speed: 8 Hz
Input shaft torque: 30 Nm 1/500 shaft misalignment

89
 phase (rad1an)
4~----~--~~--~----~----~----~----~

-2

Pm1on shaft order

dB(re 1 arc-sec)
40~----~----~----~----~~----~----~-,

20

-20

-40
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Pm1on shaft order

Fig. 5.16 Frequency analysis of combined encoder error of Fig 5 11

Upper graph: zoomed phase of combined encoder error
Lower graph: magnitude of combined encoder error
Spur gear: 32.32 Input shaft speed· 8Hz
Input shaft torque: 30 Nm Standard alignment

phase (radian)
4~----r---~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~

-2 - ... --.--.- .• -.--

-4~----~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
P1mon shaft order
dB(re 1 arc-sec)
40~----~----~----~------r-----~----~~

--·----·~---- --~--·------··--
.. ..
....................
20
.. .. -
.. .. ··-----·
.. ..
0

-20

-40
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
P1n1on shaft order

Fig. 5.17 Frequency analysis of combined encoder error of Fig. 5.12

Upper graph: zoomed phase of combined encoder error.
Lower graph: magnitude of combined encoder error.
Helical gear: 29:29 Input shaft speed: 8Hz
Input shaft torque: 30 Nm Standard alignment

90
 phase (radtan)
4.-----.---~~--~~--~~--~~--~~---.

-4~----~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Ptnton shaft order
dB(re 1 arc-sec)
40.-----~-----r----~------r-----~----~-.

20 . . . . . . . •. . . . .• .. . . . •. . ... . . . . . ....•

20 40 eo 80 100 120
Ptnton shaft order

Fig. 5.18 Frequency analysis of combined encoder error of Fig 5 13

Upper graph: zoomed phase of combined encoder error
Lower graph: magnitude of combined encoder error
Helical gear: 29 29 Input shaft speed: 4Hz
Input shaft torque: 30 Nm 1/500 shaft misalignment

phase (radtan)
4.---~~--~~--~----~----~----~-----.

-2

-4~--~~--~----~----~----~----~----~
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Ptnton shaft order
dB(re 1 arc-sec)
40.-----~----~----~----~~----~-----r-,

20 ........ :· ..•.... -~ ......... :· ..... .

.. .. .
... ...
...
0 ..........................................................
.
.. .

-40
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Ptnton shaft order

Fig. 5.19 Frequency analysis of combined encoder error ofFig. 5.14

Upper graph: zoomed phase of combined encoder error.
Lower graph: magnitude of combined encoder error.
Helical gear: 29:29 Input shaft speed: 4Hz
Input shaft torque: 70 Nm 1/500 shaft misalignment

91
Table 5.1. Phases and amplitudes of main components in the combined encoder errors

Measurement condition Shaft order Phase Amplitude

(radian} .(arc-sec)
helical gear, 29:29 1 2.1615 5.069
driving shaft speed: 8 Hz 2 0.9775 1.950
input shaft torque: 30 Nm 3 1.0820 1.361
11500 (mm/mm) 29 2.6618 0 624
shaft misalignment 32 0.7758 0.434
spur gear, 32:32 1 2.2814 5 098
driving shaft speed: 8Hz 2 1.0790 2.122
input shaft torque: 30 Nm 3 1.2431 0.985
standard alignment 29 2.8678 0 494
32 0.7733 0 641
helical, 29:29 1 2.0534 3 890
driving shaft speed: 8Hz 2 0.7387 2 635
input shaft torque: 30 Nm 3 1.2077 0 592
standard alignment 29 2.0596 0.601
32 0.4110 0.497
helical gear, 29:29 1 2.1982 2.338
driving shaft speed: 4Hz 2 0.7243 1.203
input shaft torque: 30 Nm 3 0.9134 0.760
1/500 (mm/mm) 29 2.3932 0.782
shaft misalignment 32 0.5980 0.462
helical gear, 29:29 1 2.1492 2.301
driving shaft speed: 4Hz 2 0.9239 1.303
input shaft torque: 70 Nm 3 1.0321 1.002
1/500 (mm/mm) 29 2.7326 0.756
shaft misalignment 32 0.5758 0.393
Avg. STD Avg. STD
Average & STD value 1 2.169 0.082 3.840 1.282
of the combined 2 0.889 0.154 1 843 0.595
encoder errors 3 1.096 0.134 0.891 0.291
29 2.548 0.325 0.651 0.117
32 0.628 0.151 0.486 0.095

92
 arc-ser-c--~---r-----r----r---~---r---,
. .. .
200 ...
... .... . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. ...................................................
.. ...
I

.
f

. I 0

..
-200 .. -. . . . . . . . . . . . ... ; . . . . . . .. ; . . . -. . .·. . -. - -- !
.. .. --- - - -- - -:-.. - -
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
P1n1on tooth number
arc-se;-;;c--~---r-----r----r---~---r--..,

-200 --- -----.- .- - -'-- -- - ' -

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
P1n1on tooth number

Fig. 5.20 Raw TE data (upper graph is TE 12, lower graph is TE21 )
Spur gear: 49:32 Input shaft speed: 8Hz
Input shaft torque: 30 Nm Standard alignment

a rc-se;:.c--~---r-----.----"""T""-----.----.---.
. .
20 -- ------.
.
...
. ............................................. .. ....
.. ..
0 ............... .-!'-~ ..~-~--...:·>1!\.........~~-.....
••r:-:

-20 ------.-. :·-------- ·:-

. - ...
.............................. ...
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
P1n1on tooth number
dB(re 1 arc-sec)
40.----r----r--~---.---.----.-..,

...
.............. i· ................. ;. ................. i .... - ....... - -:- ................. ; .. - ................... ..
...
-. - ~ ........

100 120
P1n10n shaft order

Fig. 5.21 Non 1: 1 TE processing data (M=49)

Upper graph is the combined TE in time domain
Lower graph is the combined TE in frequency domain
Spur gear: 49:32 Input shaft speed: 8Hz
Input shaft torque: 30 Nm Standard alignment

93
 arc-sec

20 -········· .......•... , ...••.....•......

-20 ···•••••••·············•·······••• •

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Gear tooth number
dB(re 1 arc-sec)
40.-----~----~----.------r-----~------~

20 .••.•..••..........•........

-20

120
Pmton shaft order

Fig. 5.22 Non I: I TE processing data (M=32)

Upper graph is the combined TE in time domain
Lower graph is the combined TE in frequency domain
Spur gear: 49:32 Input shaft speed: 8Hz
Input shaft torque: 30 Nm Standard alignment

5.5.5 Discussion

Comparison of Figure 5. 1Ob and Figure 5. 12 illustrates that the true TE signals are very
different due to the shaft misalignment (angular misalignment, mrn/mm). However, the
combined encoder error signals still maintain a high degree of similarity.

Figure 5.11 and Figure 5.12 compare the true TE and combined encoder error signals
with two gear sets. One is a helical gear set, the other is a spur gear set. The combined
encoder error signals are similar though the true TE signals have very different shapes
and amplitudes of the once per tooth component.

94
Figure 5. 13 and Figure 5. 14 show that the combined encoder error signals under
different load conditions are quite similar in the time domain

Table 5.1 and Figures 5.15-5.19 give information on the combined encoder error signals
in the frequency domain. It is noted that the phases in particular of three of the shaft
orders of encoder error (1, 29 and 32) show very small differences with the different gear
sets, different shaft speeds and different shaft alignment cases This confirms that every
measurement was set at the same initial conditions (after correction as discussed m
conjunction with Figure 5.9).

The amplitudes of the once per revolution component (shaft order=!) in the combined
encoder error with different measurement cases have some changes due to the wide
range of amplitude variation of the once per revolution component in the TE signal
Since the once per revolution component is controlled mainly by gear eccentricity which
does not normally give noise problems and most commonly noise problems are due to
once per tooth components and their harmonics (Smith, 1987), the once per revolution
component in the TE signal or the encoder error signal (and their low harmonics) can be
filtered by a high-pass digital filter. Note that the combined encoder error, except for the
first few harmonics of shaft speed, is less than 1 arcsecond, even for the cheaper
encoders studied, and could thus most often be neglected and has been for most later
measurements in this thesis.

The amplitudes of the once per tooth component (shaft order=29 or 32) in the combined
encoder error with different measurement cases have very small values which vary over a
very small range. Comparing the helical gear set and the spur gear set (Figure 5 16 and
Figure 5.17), the values of amplitude at shaft orders 29 and 32 (0.601 and 0.497) of the
helical gear set are very close to the values of amplitude at shaft orders 29 and 32 (0.494
and 0.641) of the spur gear set. It means that the encoder error is very little influenced by
the number of teeth on the gear (which could be recognised as an artefact).

95
It is assumed that the encoder error signal is a random signal (or pseudo-random since it
is assumed to repeat every revolution). Thus equation (5.11) can be rewritten as·

(5 14)

where
y= oe ( q> ), combined encoder error, also a random signal
x1 = t58n(rp), x1 eRn, error ofthe encoder I

x 2 = t58JJ 1 ( rp ), x 2 E Rn, error of the encoder II

Rn is a real space of order n.

Ifx1 and x2 are independent random variables, the standard deviation ofy can be obtained
from (Johnson and Tetley, 1951):

(5 15)

where

aY is the standard deviation ofy.

a"'' is the standard deviation ofx 1•

a "'2 is the standard deviation of x2.

With random phase difference of the two encoder error signals, we can state:

(5.16)

Thus the maximum amplitude of one encoder error should be less than the maximum
amplitude of the combined encoder error. That is, the range of individual encoder error
will be estimated by the combined encoder error analysis of this study.

96
Figure 5.21 shows that the combined encoder error of a non 1: I ratio gear set obtained
from the synchronous averaging method is similar to that of a 1: 1 ratio gear set, except
that higher frequency noise has been averaged away. Comparison of Figure 5.21 and
Figure 5.22 illustrates that these two combined encoder error curves are quite similar
That is, the synchronous averaging method used in this study is valid These figures also
show that the encoder error analysis method of this study can be applied to a non 1 1
ratio gear set.

5.5.6 Conclusion

The time domain and frequency domain analysis of the combined encoder error signals
has shown that the method introduced in this thesis is valid for gear transmission error
measurement to reduce or cancel the encoder error from the gear transmission error
signal for 1: I ratio gear sets and also non I : I ratio gear sets. This method can be used
where:
• there is limited space in the test site and only a smaller and less accurate encoder can
fit.
• lower cost encoders are used for temporary measurement in the field
• smaller and cheaper encoders are used for higher running speed
• the lower inertia of a smaller encoder will give a higher mechanical frequency limit.
• As in this case where means were not available to replace damaged expensive
encoders.

The range of the encoder error can be estimated by calculating the average and STD of
the combined encoder error which is introduced in this thesis. If a high quality encoder is
used as a reference with known error, the error of a cheaper encoder can be obtained by
the method introduced in this thesis.

The error of the encoders used was established as being negligible for the later results.

97
CHAPTER6

STATIC MODEL OF GEAR TRANSMISSION

ERROR---EFFECT OF TOOTH AND CONTACT
STIFFNESS VARIATION

6.1 OVERVIEW

It is generally accepted that the noise generated by a pair of gears is mainly related to the
gear transmission error. In service, the transmission error is mainly caused by:
• Tooth geometry errors: including profile, spacing, and runout errors from the
manufacturing process.
• Elastic deformation: local contact deformation from each meshing tooth pair and
the deflections of teeth and gear bodies due to the transmitted load through and
transverse to the gear rotational axis.

98
• Imperfect mounting: geometric errors in alignment, which may be introduced by
static and dynamic elastic deflections in the supporting bearings and shafts

The prediction of gear dynamic loads and gear noise is always a major concern in gear
design. Errichello (Errichello, 1979) and Ozguven & Houser (Ozguven & Houser,
1988a) present a great deal of literature on the development of a variety of simulation
models for both static and dynamic analysis of different types of gears. The first study of
transmission error was done by Harris (Harris, 1958) He considered three internal
sources of vibration: manufacturing errors, variation in the tooth stiffness and non-
linearity in tooth stiffness due to the loss of contact. He showed that the behaviour of
spur gears at low speeds can be summarised in a set of static transmission error curves

In the following years, Mark (Mark, 1978, Mark, 1979) analysed the vibratory excitation
of gear systems theoretically. He derived an expression for static transmission error and
applied it to predict the various components of the static transmission error spectrum
from a set of measurements made on a mating pair of spur gears. Kohler and Regan
(Kohler and Regan, 1985) discussed the derivation of gear transmission error from pitch
error records transformed to the frequency domain Kubo, et a/ (Kubo, et a/, 1991)
estimated the transmission error of cylindrical involute gears by tooth contact pattern

Recently, Sweeney (Sweeney, 1994) developed a systematic method of calculating the

static transmission error of a gear-set, based on the effects of geometric parameter
variation on the transmission error. He assumed that the tooth (pair) stiffuess is constant
along the line of action (thin slice model) and that the contact radius for calculation of
Hertzian deformation is the average radius of the two profiles in contact. Sweeney's
model is applicable to cases where the dominant source of transmission error is
geometric imperfections, and is particularly suited to automotive quality gear analysis.
The results of his model gave very good agreement with measurements on automotive
quality gears.

99
In this chapter, modifications have been made to Sweeney's basic model to extend it to
higher quality gears where the tooth deflection component is more important. The tooth
deflection compliance matrix and the contact compliance vector have been used in the
modified model. (the tooth deflection compliance matrix and the contact compliance
vector were derived using finite element (FE) models in Chapter 3). The effects on the
transmission error of variation of tooth body stiffhess with load application point have
been investigated and a simulation program for transmission error computation with
varying stiffhess has been developed. In order to get the case where the tooth deflection
component is the dominant source of the TE, nylon gears were used in this study The
effect on the TE of misalignment is discussed All the simulation results are compared
with the measured transmission errors from a single-stage gearbox.

6.2 MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF THE TRANSMISSION ERROR

6.2.1 Theoretical development

In a single-stage gearbox, the total torsional compliance of two shafts with meshing
gears may be considered as the sum of:
• local contact compliance
• gross compliance of the teeth and gear bodies relative to the gear centre
• compliance of the gear centre due to shaft bending and torsion. This is here assumed
constant, and the resulting deflections constant for constant load.

For a precision elastic model, all compliance terms must be included. As mentioned in
Chapter 3, the general transmission error can be expressed as:

(6.1)

100
The first two terms in the equation, the effect of the tooth body compliance over the
tooth surface ( Cc,. Pm) and the effect of the tooth contact compliance across the tooth

surface ( C 8 ,. Pm ), have been discussed in Chapter 3 and thus can be directly used in the

modified TE model to simulate the elastic error from the gears.

6.2.2. Linearity of the Combined Mesh Compliance

As described in Chapter 3, the mesh compliance is a combination of Ccm and C8 m

There are two types of nonlinearity involved in the compliance, one is the nonlinear
component of the Hertzian local compliance, and the other is the distribution of the load
over a varying number of teeth. The gross tooth body deformation component of the
compliance matrix is the linear part of the combined mesh stiffuess.

The additional nonlinear local deformation component is localised to the point of

application of the force, therefore, a valid estimate of the deformed geometry is
provided. In this study, the local deformation component is less than 20% of the linear
component.

The total deflection of two springs in series, linear or nonlinear, is the sum of the
deflections of the individual springs when subjected to a given force. In the iteration
procedure in this study, a quasi-linear inversion from calculated deflections to an updated
estimate of the force distribution has been made, but the iteration is continued until
compatibility is achieved, including the distribution of force over the current number of
teeth in mesh.

6.2.3 Geometric error simulation

(1) r( 2 ) and r
The geometric error simulation (or calculation of the terms r~g,. m
'~g,. ~s

equation (6.1)) can be carried out as follows (Sweeney, 1994):

• Establish a pre-processor document with basic gear geometric data input and gear
geometric error data input.

101
• Make local calculations for active profile roll distances, contact ratio and other
parameters which are necessary in geometric error simulation.
• Run a solver in MATHCAD® (MATHCAD®, 1994) to get the pitch error, tooth
profile error and lead error, in terms of mean value and deviations from the mean of
low order errors, such as slope, curvature and fullness (see Appendix G).
• Use the calculated geometric error in the simulation of the unloaded or loaded
geometric transmission error.

6.2.4 Iteration method--optimal method

After determining the matrix of tooth gross body compliance and vector of tooth local
contact compliance, the TE model can be implemented by using an iteration method The
geometric errors of the steel gear set were directly employed from Sweeney (Sweeney,
1994}, but those for the nylon gears were based on a reduced set of measurements at
four points around the gear rather than for each tooth (see Appendix G).

In the iteration of the model, an optimal method, the simplex method of direct search,
has been used. The general principle of the method is described as follows·

The simplex method is a direct search strategy for unconstrained optimisation using local
explorations. The term simplex refers to the mathematical form used and is not related to
the simplex method of linear programming (Siddall, 1982).

The simplex form is shown in Figure 6.1 and consists of points /, s and h plus n-2
additional points for n-dimensional problems. The point I is identified as that one in the
simplex having the lowest value of the objective function (in this study, it is the value of
LJF which is the difference of the 'truce' distribution force and the estimated one during
the iterations), s represents the second least and h represents the largest value.

102
 x.

Fig. 6.1 Simplex form in 2-dimensional problen.

Different objective functions will need different search strategies. The specific strategy of
the 2-dimensional problem in this study is as follows:

• At first, establishing an initial equilateral triangle using the start point 'P' which is
defined as the centroid of the triangle as shown in Figure 6.1 and part A of Figure
6.2:

xi'' = x}0' + b, d (6.2)

(6.3)

103
X1

Lines of constant ~

Fig. 6.2 Strategy of modified simplex method

where
x[' J coordinate x1 of point i in a simplex form, i= 1,2,3 for 2-dimensional

problems.

x~·J coordinate x2 of point i in a simplex form, i=l,2,3 for 2-dimensional

problems.

x[ 0J coordinate x1 of the initial start point P.

x~ 0 J coordinate x2 of the initial start point P.

a is the initial simplex size.

104
 d the distance between the points s and m in Figure 6.1
b, is the parameter for the simplex form establishing:
2
b3 =+-
3
c, is the parameter for the simplex form establishing:
c2 = -1,

• Evaluate the values of the objective function for all points of the simplex form and
determine points x<J1>, x<s>
J
and x<h>
J

• Along the direction from the centroid to the lowest value point, movmg the triangle
to find the relative optimal value as shown in part B of Figure 6.2. The move to r is
defined by:

x<r>
J
= x< 0>+ a (x<0>-
J J
x<l))
J
(6.4)

where a is an arbitrary parameter controlling the step size.

• Calculating the side-centroids of the triangle and then make a turning to find the
better direction of the iteration as shown in part C of Figure 6.2. In this case, a new
point can be found by:

x<c>
J
= x<O) + fi(x<'> -
J J
x<o>)
J
(6.5)

where p is 2 for the new centroid and 3 for the new vertex of the simplex form.

• If the moving and turning strategies fail, shrinking the triangle to find the lowest
value as shown in part D of Figure 6.2. Here, the centroid and the vertices of the
shrunk triangle can be defined as:

105
 X(d)
1
= X(O)
1
+ y (X(t)- X(O))
1 1
(6.6)

x<o> + x<'>)
x<n) = ( 1 1 (6.7)
1 2

where y is an arbitrary parameter between zero and one.

• If the size of the triangle is smaller than the given value or the following is true, stop
the iteration and output the result.

(6.8)

where & is a small stopping tolerance.

6.2.5 Implementation in TE model algorithm

Figure 6.3 is a flow chart of the TE model algorithm. In the TE model algorithm, five
input files are needed. Two of them are the gear geometric errors which were calculated
in MATHCAD® (MATHCAD®, 1994). Another two files are the tooth body bending
compliance matrix and the tooth contact compliance vector. The fifth file contains
iteration control parameters which can control the start mesh angle, the resolution of the
TE signal and the output data length.

The original body of the model algorithm was written with C code by Sweeney
(Sweeney, 1994) and the optimal iteration method has been embedded in the program by
the author of this thesis. The output of the simulation results of the model can be directly
used in MATLAB® (MATLAB®, 1994) for the further data post-processing.

106
 m

K=l :N, Start calculating TE

Calculate theoretic number of teeth in mesh

Defme initial parameters: a,, i = 1: rr, F

Start iteration with optimal method

a"' = a,k + &a,k

n
TEk = pztcherrk + profk + ~)cb, + CCJ)a,kF
j=l

n
LJF=Ftrue -"'F
~ 1

Yes

No

Fig. 6.3 Flow chart of the algorithm of the TE simulation

107
Because real power transmission gear-sets are subject to torque fluctuations of some
degree, the TE model should be able to include the effects of torque fluctuation. In this
chapter the torque has been assumed constant, but the torque fluctuations can be
included and have been based on measurements in the dynamic TE model which is
discussed in Chapter 7.

6.3 MODEL VALIDATION-- A COMPARISON OF TEST RIG AND

SIMULATION RESULTS

As mentioned in previous section, the major objective of the TE model is to allow a

better simulation of the tooth mesh stiffness to assist in understanding the relative
importance of this stiffness with respect to transmission error generation, in particular, at
the tooth-meshing frequency and its harmonics.

In order to demonstrate the contribution of the tooth-meshing stiffness m the

transmission error, two types of gear were used in the validation program:
• Type I. Hobbed, shaved, heat-treated and ground spur steel gears.
• Type 2. Hobbed, shaved, spur nylon gears.
Both types of gear contain geometric errors of such a degree that they may be
considered as below automotive production standards. The parameters of the gear sets
which were used in the FE models and the simulation are shown in table 6.1. The details
of the geometric errors of the steel gears and nylon gears are discussed in Appendix G.

Since the Young's modulus for the type of nylon used can vary over a range of 2:1, the
actual value was determined from measurements of the deflection of two discs cut from
the same stock material as the actual gears and these deflections were benchmarked
against analytical and finite element models. The mean value of Young's modulus of the
two discs was used and the standard deviation of these moduli is only 3 .4%. The details
of the determination of the properties ofthe nylon material are discussed in Appendix D.

108
 Table 6.1 Gear Set Parameters
Steel Pinion Steel Gear Nylon Nylon Gear
Pinion
Module(mm) 3.0788 3.0788 3.0788 3 0788
Tooth Number 32 32 32 32
Young's modulus (GPa) 210 210 3.19 3 19
Poisson's ratio 0.3 03 0 35 0 35
Tooth facewidth (mm) 23 5 23.5 23.5 23 5

Figure 6.4 shows the gear mesh stiflhesses for a steel gear set and a nylon gear set for
standard alignment and angular misalignment of 1/500. The upper graph is for the steel
gear set from which the difference of the mesh stiflhess between the standard alignment
case and misalignment case can be seen. This difference with only a minor effect on the
TE signals was also found by Sweeney (Sweeney, 1994). In contrast, the lower graph
depicts a much greater difference for the nylon gears because of the considerably lower
stiflhess near the edges. That means that for th~ type of gears where the tooth deflection
component is the dominant source of the TE, the mesh stiflhess will be affected
significantly by misalignment. Consequently, this misalignment will affect the gear
transmission error, as seen in the following results.

The test rig measurement results and the corresponding simulation results are given in
Figures 6.5-6.15. Figures 6.5-6.10 are the results for the steel gears, which show that the
effect of both load and alignment variations is small (the misalignment effect is less than
1%}. Figures 6.11 and 6.12 show the above mentioned effect of misalignment on the
nylon gears. The estimated 33% stiflhess variation results in a change in the simulation
TEat the tooth-mesh frequency of 13.8%, confirmed by a measured change of 12.3%.

109
 Figures 6.13 and 6.14 show the increase in TEat a load of 70 Nm, with predicted and
measured results agreeing very well, in particular at the tooth-mesh frequency

Figure 6.15 shows the TE amplitudes of the gear-mesh component under different load
cases but standard alignment for the two types of gear. This demonstrates that for steel
gears, both the simplified method (Sweeney, 1994) and the modified method in this study
agree well with the measurements, but for nylon gears the modified method, in which the
more complicated optimisation and iteration procedure was used, agrees much better
than the simplified method. Note that even with the plastic gears the geometric errors

still constitute a signi ficant part of the TE.

x1d
.E
z 8
m
Q) 6
~
u;
s:.
II) -------- ------- -
Q)
E
....
ca
Q)
0) 0
0 5 10 15 20
angle of rotation (degree)
x1d
.E
z
II)
II)
Q)

e
;
II)
s:.
II)
Q)
E ----- ---- ---
....
ca
J

Q)
0) 0
0 5 10 15 20
angle of rotation (degree)

Fig. 6.4 Gear mesh stiffuess

Upper graph is for steel gear; Lower graph is for nylon gear
Solid line is for standard alignment; Dashed line is for misalignment

110
 arc-sec Measured Gear Transm1ss1on Error

..
I I

200 ...........................................................
. I
.. -.......................
I

.' ..............................
.
. .
. ... ...
0
. . .
-200 .................................,................ ,................................................ ., .... .
I I I
. I
. I
. I

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
P1n1on tooth number
dB(re 1

40
20
0
-20
-400 20 40 60 80 100 120
P1n1on shaft order

Fig. 6. 5 Measured TE of steel gear (standard alignment)

Upper graph is in time domain; Lower graph is in frequency domain
Spur gear: 32:32; Input shaft speed· 4Hz; Input shaft torque: 30 Nm

arc-sec Simulated Gear Transmission Error

r-----~----~----~----~----~----~~

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Pinion tooth number
dB(re 1 arc-se

4
2

-4
150
Pinion shaft order

Fig. 6.6 Simulated TE of steel gear (standard alignment)

Upper graph is in time domain ; Lower graph is in frequency domain
Spur gear: 32:32; Input shaft speed: 4Hz; Input shaft torque: 30 Nm

111
 arc-sec Measured Gear Transmission Error
~----r-----r-----r-----~----T-----~~
I I I I I

200 ·········:-- .........................

I

I
I I
~-.........................

I I
. ......................... .
I

I
I

I
I J I I I
I I I I

' ' '

-200 ........ -:- ....... -~ ........ ~-- ...... -~ ........ ~- ..... ·--~ ..
I I 0 I I I

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Pinion tooth number

20 40 60 80 100 120
Pinion shaft order

Fig. 6.7 Measured TE of steel gear (standard alignment)

Upper graph is in time domain ; Lower graph is in frequency domain
Spur gear· 32:32; Input shaft speed: 4 Hz; Input shaft torque: 70 Nm

arc _5 erc'-------.---S_I_m_u.-la_t_e_d_G--.-e_a_r_T_ra_n,s_m
__l s_s_1o,...n_E_r_ro_r~~

200 ........... .

-20

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
P1n1on tooth number
dB(re 1 arc-sec

4 ............ ····· ................................... .

-2
-4
P1n1on shaft order

Fig. 6.8 Simulated TE of steel gear (standard alignment)

Upper graph is in time domain ; Lower graph is in frequency domain
Spur gear: 32:32; Input shaft speed: 4Hz; Input shaft torque: 70 Nm

112
 Measured Gear TransmiSSIOn Error

200
100

-200 ..
o o o o o o o o o o o 1 o o o o o o o o o o o o
...
~·

..
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
...
o~
.. .
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o •• o o o

-300 L-.--......L.---'------'----.L------'----..1.---1
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
P1n1on tooth number

60r----r---r----r---r----r---~-,
.. ..
.... 40 ........... ; ............ ~ .......................... ~ ...... ..

~
Ill

20 40 60 80 100 120
Pin1on shaft order

Fig. 6.9 Measured TE of steel gear (misalignment 1/500))

Upper graph is in time domain ; Lower graph is in frequency domain
Spur gear: 32:32; Input shaft speed: 4Hz; Input shaft torque: 70 Nm

Simulated Gear Transrnss10n Error

-200 ............

0 30
P1n1on tooth number

60r--------.--------r-------.
40
i
~ 20
Ill
..... 0
!
1g -20
50 100 150
P1n1on shaft order

Fig. 6.10 Simulated TE of steel gear (misalignment 1/500)

Upper graph is in time domain ; Lower graph is in frequency domain
Spur gear: 32:32; Input shaft speed: 4Hz; Input shaft torque: 70 Nm

113
 Measured Gear Transm1ss1on Error

30 40 50 60
P1mon tooth number

I Ill

(a) measured TE

Simulated Gear TransmiSSIOn Error

!
Ill

Pinion tooth number

P1mon shaft order

(b) simulated TE

Fig. 6.11 TE signals of nylon gears (standard alignment)

Input shaft speed: 4 Hz; Input shaft torque: 40 Nm

114
 Measured Gear Transm1ss1on Error

200
u 100
3!
201
·100

10 20 40 50 60
P1mon tooth number

60

'U 40

~
-
~
!D
01

"CC
·20

20 40 60 60 100 120
Plmon shaft order

(a) measured TE

Simulated Gear TransmisSIOn Error

!
Ill

Pimon tooth number

60r-..............................- ....................................,_.............................._,
040
~
Ill 20

Pm1on shaft order

(b) simulated TE

Fig. 6.12 TE signals of nylon gears (misalignment 1/500)

Input shaft speed: 4 Hz; Input shaft torque: 40 Nm

115
 Measured Gear Transmission Error

200

-200
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Pinion tooth number

40
20
0
-20
-40
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Pm1on shaft order

Fig. 6.13 Measured TE of nylon gear (standard alignment)

Upper graph is in time domain ; Lower graph is in frequency domain
Spur gear: 32:32; Input shaft speed: 4 Hz; Input shaft torque 70 Nm

arc-sec Simulated Gear Transmission Error

.-----.-----~-----r-----.-----.------r-o

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Pinion tooth number
dB (re 1 a rc-se

40
2

-2
-4
100 150
Pinion shaft order

Fig. 6.14 Simulated TE of nylon gear (standard alignment)

Upper graph is in time domain ; Lower graph is in frequency domain
Spur gear: 32:32; Input shaft speed: 4 Hz; Input shaft torque: 70 Nm

116
arcsec SteeiGecH
200~------~------~------~------~-------.

180 ·········· ... ···············:······· ·······!· . . . . ··············· ...

160 .. . . . .. . .. . . . .. .. ..... -- ... -. .. -: . .. . .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. ~ ...

140 ... . · ··Stmpirfi'e'din·odel ·· ···

120 ········ .
M odifted mode I
100 .......... .

80 -~.. ~-·
······)±···· ... -~~~-s-~r~~~n_t
.. ... ... ; .....

6 0 ········ ..
. .. 1... .......
.
......... :... .
··~··
... ... .
40 ····· ..... .
20 ········ ·····~ ···········

~0 30 40 50 60 70
Nm
arcsec Nylon Gear
200~------~------~~----~--------r-------~
Simplified ~odel
180 ········· . .. -......... -.......... --:-. . --
.............. -.. - .. . -
~

·········· ··········:···· ··· ····~·easnremvnt ·

14 0 ············ ..... ·········~·· .....

120 ··········· .... ······· . ;. ·············!····
.
............................ ---
M odtfte~ model
80 ············· ···············+·· ···········~·····
... ...
6 0 ........................... .............. ......... .
--~ ~
.. ..

....................................... ---. .. --- ................ --- ...... --- .............. -.. ..

20 ·····
... .....
~0 30 40 50 60 70
Nm

Fig. 6.15 Tooth-mesh fundamental amplitude ofTE (standard alignment)

117
There are noticeable differences in the low shaft order component amplitudes and the
degree of signal amplitude modulation. There are several possible sources for these
discrepancies:
• The speed controller's open loop control limitations could result in torque fluctuation
which could affect the TE amplitude modull'l.tion
• Different load cases will affect the degree of lateral shaft support offered by the shaft
coupling. This in tum will introduce some degree of gear spacing fluctuation which
could affect the amplitude of the low shaft order component. Measurement results in
Figures 6.5 and 6. 7, and Figure 6.11(a) and Figure 6 13 support this.
• The actual geometric deviations of the profiles were not known in every detail, in
particular for the nylon gears, where measurements were made at only four positions
around the gears.

A further development of this TE model which would enable simulation of the TE of

helical gears is possible. For the tooth bending deflection, the FE model of the tooth
body would be created using helical geometry. For the tooth local contact deformation,
the results ofthe 2-D FE model could be adjusted for the inclination of the contact lines
In the optimal iteration program, the contact lines could still be calculated as in
Sweeney's simplified method (Sweeney, 1994).

6.4 CONCLUSION

From the foregoing results, the model in this study may be considered to be successfully
validated for its intended purpose. That is, the model focuses on the variation of the
tooth body stiflhess and the tooth local contact stiflhess. Even though carried out on low
precision gears, the validity of the model for the more flexible nylon gears indicates that
it could be used for analysing the transmission error of high precision gear sets.

118
Misalignment only had a minor effect on the TE signals for the steel spur gears tested,
but for the nylon spur gears, in contrast, there was quite a large difference in the TE
signals. This model can thus be used for predicting the TE variation with alignment, and
the principles should extend to all cases where tooth deflection is dominant (eg. high
precision gears).

In addition to the extension to helical gears, discussed above, a further improvement of

the model would be to consider the effects of sreed and inertia on the TE low shaft order
components and tooth-mesh component. That is, the model should be developed to a
dynamic model. This will be the focus of the next chapter.

119
CHAPTER 7

DYNAMIC MODEL OF GEAR TRANSMISSION

ERROR---EFFECT OF SHAFT SPEED AND
INERTIA VARIATION

7.1 OVERVIEW

There are many published studies on gear dynamic models and transmission error. As
discussed in Chapter 2 and 6, Ozguven & Houser (Ozguven & Houser, 1988a) reviewed
a variety of simulation models for dynamic analysis of different types of gears.
Subsequently, they developed a single degree of freedom non-linear model which is used
for the dynamic analysis of a gear pair and derived an expression for the dynamic
transmission error in terms of the loaded static transmission error (Ozguven & Houser,
1988b). At the same time, Lin, Huston and Coy (Lin, Huston and Coy, 1988) presented
a model of a simple parallel-shaft, spur-gear transmission system. The simulation
procedure for determining the dynamic characteristics was outlined.

120
In Reference (Tanaka and Maezawa, 1989), Tanaka and Maezawa introduced a coupled
vibration model of a gear pair Dynamic tooth load and bearing load in helical gears were
discussed in their study. An alternative linear coupled dynamic model of a gear pair was
developed by Kahraman (Kahraman, 1993). The forced response due only to the static
transmission error was predicted in this paper. Velex and Maatar (Velex and Maatar,
1996) proposed a gear system model including the influence of the motor and load They
investigated static and dynamic load distributions, transmission errors and mesh
stiffnesses in their study

In this chapter, an original lumped parameter model with 12 coupled vibration degrees of
freedom is introduced. The object of this study is to use this dynamic model to predict
the dynamic transmission error of a gear pair in a given situation. In this model, the
loaded static transmission error is used as the input, rather than the individual gear
errors. The loaded static transmission error is calculated by using the modified static
transmission error model introduced in Chapter 6 or Reference (Du, Randall and Kelly,
1997b). The input in the model can also be the measured loaded static transmission error
The shaft torque and its fluctuation and the bearing support stiffness are also considered
in the model. All the simulation results of dynamic transmission error have been
compared with the measured dynamic transmission errors from the single stage gearbox
which was modelled. For the further validation of the model, extra inertias have been
added to the gear shafts to change system natural frequencies and the corresponding
measured results and the simulated results are discussed in this chapter.

7.2 DYNAMIC MATHEMATICAL MODEL

7.2.1 Theoretical development

Figure 7.1 shows the gear transmission system investigated in this study. It consists of a
spur gear pair mounted on flexible shafts which are supported by rolling element

121
Fig. 7. I Model of the gear transmission system

122
bearings. A 12-degree-of-freedom dynamic model ofthis system is shown also in Figure
7.1. In this model, the torsional vibrations and bending vibrations in the system have been
coupled; the bending moment of the bearing is negligible; the results of the bearing
support stiffitess in the overall gearbox model which was modelled in Chapter 4 have
been used. As discussed in Chapter 4, the resonances of the gearbox casing will not be
excited by the gear mesh frequencies, thus the gearbox casing is not included in this
dynamic TE model. The equations of motion of this system are as follows:

mx, +cbi1 +kbx, +ksh(x1 -x5 )=0 (7 1)

mx2 +cbi2 +kbx2 +ksh(x2 -x5 )=0 (7 2)

mx3 + cbi3 + kbx3 + ksh(x3- x6) = 0 (7 3)

mx4 + cbi4 + kbx4 + ksh (x4 - x6) = 0 (7 4)

mpx5 +cm(i5 -i6 +r/J 1 -rzfJ 2)+km(x5 -x6 +r/) 1 -r/} 2)

(7.5)
+ksh(x5 -Xr-X2)-(krer +k2e2)=0

m0 x 6 -cm(i5 -i6 +r/) 1 -r/J2)-km(x5 -x6 +r1B1 -r20 2)

(7 6)
+ksh(x6 - x 3 - x 4 ) +(k1e1 + k 2e2) = 0

JpOr +rrcm(r/Jr -riJ2 +i5 -i6)+rrkm(rrBr -r202 +x5 -x6)

(7.7)
+k13 (0 1 - 0 3 ) - r1k 1e1 - r1 k 2e2 = 0

Ja02 +r2cm(riJ2 -r/Jr -i5 +i6)+r2km(r202 -rrBr -x5 +x6)

(7.8)
+k25 (0 2 - 0 5) +r2k 1e1 +r2k 2e2 = 0

J FI 0 3 + k 3A B3 - B4) + k 13 ( B3 - B1) = 0 (7.9)

JMfJ4 -k34(83 -84)= Ji (7.10)

J F2(J5 + ks6(Bs- 06) + k2s(Bs- 82) = 0 (7.11)

J H(J6 - ks6(Bs - 06) =- 7; (7.12)

Where
m: mass of the bearing and part of the shaft
mp: mass of the pinion and part of the shaft

123
ma: mass of the gear and part of the shaft
Jp: polar moment of inertia of the pinion, pinion shaft and the inner race of bearings
Ja: polar moment of inertia of the gear, gear shaft and the inner race of bearings
JM: polar moment of inertia of the electrical motor and the hydraulic motor
JH: polar moment of inertia ofthe hydraulic pumps
Jn: polar moment of inertia of the input flywheel
JF2: polar moment ofinertia of the output flywheel
x, displacement. i=l-4: bearings displacements, i=5-6: pinion and gear
displacements, the direction of x, is parallel to the direction of the mesh load Wo
B, : rotation angles of gears, flywheels, drive and load

cb viscous damping coefficient of bearing

em: viscous damping coefficient of the gear mesh (total)
kb: combined stiflhess ofbearing and the support
km: stiflhess of the gear mesh (total)
ksh: bending stiflhess of pinion shaft or gear shaft
k9 : torsional stiflhess of couplings from 8, to 81

Wo static mesh load

T1 : input torque
T2: output torque
r1: base circle radius of pinion
r2 : base circle radius of gear
k1, k2 the stitlhess of the ith tooth pair in mesh
e1, e2: displacement excitations representing the relative gear errors of the meshing

teeth, (it is assumed that low contact ratio gears are used).

In equations (7.7) and (7.8), if only torsional vibration is considered, we can introduce
the variable y as

(7.13)

124
then the loaded static transmission error, Ys, can be obtained from equations (7 7) and
(7.8) by deleting the dynamic terms and solving them for y, as (Ozguven & Houser,
1988b):

(7 14)

from which equations (7.5) and (7.6) can be rewritten as:

mpx5 +cm(.i5 -x6 +r/J 1 -riJ2 )+km(x5 -x6 +r/) 1 -r2 0 2 )

(7 15)
+ksh(x5- X1- X2) =kmYs- Wo
m0 x6 -cm(i5 -i6 +r1B1 -r2B2)-km(x5 -x6 +r/} 1 -r20 2)
(7 16)
+ksh(x6 -XJ -x4) =-kmYs +fro

Therefore equations (7.7) and (7.8) can also be written as

JPOI +ricm(r/JI -ri}2 +is -i6)+rikm(r/JI -r/}2 +x5 -x6)

(7 17)
+kriBI-B3)=rl(kmYs -J.-Yo)

J 0 02 +r2cm(r/J2 -r/}1 -i5 +i6 )+r2km(r2B2 -r1B1 -x5 +x6 )

(7 18)
+k25(82- 85) = -r2(kmYs- Jrfo)

7.2.2. Dynamic transmission error model implementation

In order to get the solution of the governing differential equations (Equation (7. 1)-
(7.12)), a simulation software SIMNQN® (SIMNQN®, 1993) is employed. SIMNQN® is
a special computer program for solving ordinary differential and difference equations and
for simulating a dynamic system that may be described as an interconnection of
subsystems. The behaviours of the subsystems are characterised by differential equations

125
or by difference equations specified by the user to describe the physical processes All the
system descriptions are thus in state space form Each subsystem is described using one
subprogram. The relations of variables in the various subprograms are specified in a
special subprogram known as the connecting system.

In SIMNON®, the solutions of the differential equations are obtained by numerical

integration and the method used is the automatic step size Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg
integration method. Before the solution, each second order differential equation must be
written in the form of two first order differential equations. For instance, the Equation
(7.1) can be rewritten in the form:

(7 19, 7.20)

The dynamic system in this study is divided into two subsystems. One is used for
describing the translational vibrations (variables x 1 , x 2 . . x 6 }, another one is used for
describing the rotational vibrations (variables (}" (} 2 ... (} 6 ) . The two subsystems are

coupled by the variables x5 , x 6 , 8 1 and 8 2 Figure 7.2 demonstrates the simulation

procedures in this study. The description and programming of the system model in
SIMNQN® are detailed in Appendix E.

In the simulation, the loaded static transmission error Ys and the shaft torque are the
excitations of the dynamic system. (} 1 and (} 2 are the dynamic responses of the two

gears in the system. The final dynamic transmission error results can be obtained by
employing Equation (7.13).

The simulation in this study has taken into account the time-varying stiffiless of the gear
mesh, km(t), and the time-varying loaded static transmission error Ys(t). In the simulation
software SIMNQN®, km(t) and Ys(t) can be implemented as the 'input functions'. The
format of the input function is a time-function value table in which the time length is
determined by the shaft speed. These instantaneous stiffiless and transmission error

126
functions were calculated as in Chapter 6 or in Reference (Du, Randall and Kelly,
1997b). If measured static transmission error is used in this dynamic model input, the
average value of the tooth-mesh stiffuess can be employed.

SIMULATION

Translated
Subsystem
I~ I~ ~ DATA
PROCESSING
(}, INMATLAB
~ '~ '~
Torstonal
~

T Subsystem

Fig. 7.2 Sketch of the dynamic TE simulation

7.3 MODEL VALIDATION

Validation of the dynamic transmission error model has been carried out in this study
The recirculating power test rig discussed in Chapter 5, with two types of gear, the same
as those in Chapter 6, was used in the validation program.

The specific parameters of the gear sets which were used in the simulation are shown in
table 7. 1. The damping ratio of the gear mesh and the bearings was taken as 0. 10 and
0.02 respectively in the system simulation (Lin, Huston and Coy, 1988; Smith, 1983).
The effect of the torsional stiffuess of the two shafts has been neglected in comparison
with the low torsional stiffuess of the shaft couplings in the test rig.

127
 Table 7.1 Numerical Values of the Gear System
Symbol in Value
Equations Steel Gear Set Nylon Gear Set
r1(r2) (m) 0.0463 0.0463
m (kg) 0.127 0.127
mp(lllG) (kg) 1.334 0.198
Jp(Jo) (kg.m2) 0.0025 0.00037
JFI (kg.m2) 0.3726 0 3726
JM (kg.m2) 0 0746 0 0746
JF2 (kg.m2) 0.6023 0 6023
JH (kg.m2) 0.0113 0 0113
ksh (N/m) 0.143x10 8 0 143x108

7.3.1 A Comparison of Test Rig and Simulation Results

Figure 7.3 demonstrates a typical time history of 0 1 obtained from the simulation. In this

case, the gear set was steel and the shaft torque was constant.

In practice, real power transmission gear sets are subject to torque fluctuations of some
degree due to many physical phenomena including fluctuation in machine loading and
prime mover torque, shaft coupling, bearing and gear mounting misalignment. The test
rig in this study is subject to a torsional loading variation even though it was fitted with
low torsional stiflhess couplings. Figure 7.4 is a typical shaft torque fluctuation signal for
the test rig in this study. It shows that the main component of the fluctuation is at shaft
frequency and variations as high as 2-5% of the mean torque have been measured. The
component at 50 Hz is just a measurement error from the measurement system.

128
 Dynamic Response of S1mulat1on
1000

500 . . . . .
(.)
CD
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o0 o o o o o o o o , • o • o • o • 1 • o o •
..
o o • •o• o o o • o o "# o •
..
o o o o o 1 o o o o • o o o • • • o •

(/)
I

....
(.) ... ...
I'll . .
0

-500 •• "'• .................. ~ .................... 0 •• 0 • •' ... 0 •••••••• 0 .... , ............ 0 ••••
• • • 0 • • • • •

• • 0 • • • • 0 0

• .. • • • • • 0 •

. . . . .
• 0 • • • .. • • •
0

•
.
•

•
.
•

0
•

•
•

•
•

..
.
•

•
•

•
.
0

-1000
0 02 04 06 0.8 1 12 14 16 18 2
second

Fig. 7.3 Time history of dynamic response of 8 1

Input shaft speed: 4Hz; Input shaft torque 40 Nm

Nm Shaft Torque Fluctuation

55r---~--~----~---r--~r---,---~----.

50!!="·······:····-~- ·· ··········· ··· - ··-

45
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
Second
dB(ref 1 Nm
50. ....... . .. .. ......................

-5

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Hz

Fig. 7.4 Shaft torque fluctuation

Upper graph is in time domain; Lower graph is in frequency domain
Input shaft speed: 4 Hz; Input shaft torque: 50 Nm

129
In the simulation of the dynamic transmission error, the shaft torque fluctuation has been
considered under a range of load and speed conditions. All the shaft torque fluctuations
which occurred during the transmission error measurements were measured from the
torque transducer using the signal analyser B & K 2035. Figure 7.5 and Figure 7 6 are
the simulation results of the dynamic response of the steel gear system with shaft torque
fluctuations for two different shaft speeds Comparing Figure 7.3 and Figure 7 5 reveals
some degree of difference in dynamic response of the system with and without the shaft
torque fluctuations.

Figure 7.7 and Figure 7.8 are the simulation results ofthe dynamic transmission error for
the cases of Figures 7.5 & 7.6. For the validation of the dynamic TE model,
measurements of the dynamic TE were made in this study. Figures 7 9 and 7 I 0 are the
measurement results of the transmission error for the different shaft speeds Inspection of
the Figures 7. 7-7.10 shows a good correlation between the measured and simulated
results in terms of time history signals and spectra of the signals.

Figure 7.11 shows the dynamic TE amplitudes ofthe gear-mesh component for different
shaft speed cases for two types of gear material (steel and nylon). It demonstrates that
the simulation results for both steel and nylon gear sets agree well with the
measurements and illustrates that the speed and inertia effects on the TE have been well
represented in the model. The different slopes of the curves of the tooth-mesh
fundamental amplitude for steel and nylon gear sets in Figure 7.11 support this.

7.3.2 A Comparison of TE Results with Extra Shaft Inertia

In order to validate the model in general applications and explain the phenomenon of
increased amplitude of the tooth-mesh component of TE when the shaft speed increases,
shaft collars were added to the gear shafts to increase their inertias. In this case, the
natural frequency of the shafts can be decreased so that the bending resonance of the

130
 Dynamic Response of Simulation
1000

()
500
Q)

~IU
0

-500
. .
. .. .
. .. .. . . .
......................................................................................
.
..... ..... ..... ..
...
..
... ..... ..... ..... .....
-1000
. . . . . . . . .
0 02 04 06 08 12 14 16 18 2
second

Fig. 7.5 Time history of dynamic response of 8 1 with torque fluctuation

Input shaft speed. 4Hz; Input shaft torque. 40 Nm

Dynamic Response of Simulation

...~
I'll

0 0.1 02 0.3 04 0.5 0.6 0.7 08 0.9

second

Fig. 7. 6 Time history of dynamic response of (} 1 with torque fluctuation

Input shaft speed: 8 Hz; Input shaft torque: 40 Nm

131
 S11nulabon of Gear TransmiSsion Error

.. ..
......................
200 .. ..

. .
·····················=···········:··
. . .. ·····:·······
" 300o~----~1~0----~2~~----~3~~~----4~0~----~50~----~6~0__.
P1mon tooth number

60r-----~-----,------~----~------~----~~
.. .. . . . .
. .
............................... .. , .......... , .......................
•

, .. .
0 • •

.
• 0 • •

. . .
. .
• 0 • •

.................. .
. . .. .. .0 0 0 0 0 0 0 o •o 0 o o o 0 0 o 0 0 000 0 I 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0. 0 0 0

.. .. . . ..

P1mon shaft order

Fig. 7. 7 Simulated dynamic TE

Upper graph is in time domain; Lower graph is in frequency domain
Input shaft speed: 4 Hz; Input shaft torque: 40 Nm

S1mulat1on of Gear TransmiSsion Error

......................
•

.
0

., .................................
•

..
•

.., ..............
•

.. .
0

•
•

..
•

..

10 20 40 50 60
Pin10n tooth number

60~-----r------~-----,-------r------~----~~~
. . . . .
. . . . .
··········.······ ····.···········:···········.···········.···········"S,···
•

•
•
•

•
•
•

•
0
•

0
•
0

•
•

.. ..
• • • 0 •

.. .. ..
• • • ·- •••• 0 0 ••• 0 ........... 0 ••••••• 0 ................... 0.

Pimon shaft order

Fig. 7.8 Simulated dynamic TE

Upper graph is in time domain; Lower graph is in frequency domain
Input shaft speed: 8Hz; Input shaft torque: 40 Nm

132
 arc-serc~---rM
__ __e_a~r_T_r_a_ns_m~is_s_io_n__E_r_ro_r__~~
e_a_su_r,e_d_G

200· ... , •••• • •• r··· ....... , ...

..

10 20 30 40 50 60
Pinion tooth number
dB(re 1 arc-se

Pinion shaft order

Fig. 7. 9 Measured dynamic TE
Upper graph is in time domain; Lower graph is in frequency domain
Input shaft speed: 4 Hz; Input shaft torque 40 Nm

Measured Gear Transmission Error

arc-sre~c--~~---,----~----~----~----~~

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Pinion tooth number

Fig. 7.10 Measured dynamic TE

Upper graph is in time domain; Lower graph is in frequency domain
Input shaft speed: 8 Hz; Input shaft torque: 40 Nm

133
 Steel Gear Set
80~------~------~------~------~------~~----~

.
............................ .,.............................
. .
., ....................... .
"C
c .
..............................................................................
8 .. 0
.. I
.. . 0 0

Q)
.. .. ..
~
cu
Stmulatton
............. ·. . : ,.: '-"_."' ..... ·:· ........... .

30~------._------~------~------_.------~------~
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Pinion shaft speed (Hz)

Nylon Gear Set

150~------~------~------~------~------~------~

. . .
· · · · · · · · · · · · ~·. · · · · · · · · · · · · · .: · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·:·. · · · · · · · · · · · · ·:. · ·Suntdat.ton .:. · · · · · · · · ·
... ... ... ..
.•
"C • •
c . . .• .
8
Q)
············:··············:··············:··············:·············
• • • •
en : : :
ecu 12~~~~~=~~~~f===~~~·~~~~
..................
.. .. ........ . ~

... ....
.. . .
.., .............................
.. ., ...........................
.
110 ............................ . . .
.. ... . .. ..
. ... .. ....
.. .. . .
1001 ~------~------~-------L------~------~~----~
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Pinion shaft speed (Hz)

Fig. 7.11 Tooth-mesh component amplitude ofTE

shaft can be seen in a relatively low frequency range. Table 7.2 shows the shaft bending
frequencies and corresponding shaft speeds for all four cases obtained from the 12 DOF
model for a mode shape dominated by parallel motion of the two gears. This was the
only natural frequency which could be excited by the TE at mesh frequency. These

134
results are compatible with Fig 7 12 which demonstrates that there are peak responses
of TE in the vicinity of 8 Hz shaft speed for both steel and nylon gears. The shaft
bending frequencies (9 Hz shaft speed for steel gear and 17 Hz shaft speed for nylon
gear) for the shafts without extra inertia are beyond the scale of Fig. 7 .11. These results
are extracted from the tables in Appendix I
Table 7.2 Frequency of shaft bending
Gear set Steel gear Nylon gear Steel gear Nylon gear with
without collars Without collars with collars collars

Shaft bending 287 (tooth mesh) 551 (tooth mesh) 234 (tooth mesh) 267 (tooth mesh)
Frequency (Hz) 9 (shaft speed) 17 (shaft speed) 7.3 (shaft speed) 8.3 (shaft speed)

Figure 7.12 depicts the comparison of the measurement and simulation results of the
amplitude of the tooth-mesh component of the TE with the extra inertia for different
shaft speeds. When the tooth-mesh frequency is close to the shaft's bending frequency,
resonance of the system will occur and the amplitude of the tooth-mesh component of
the TE changes significantly. This comparison demonstrates that the dynamic TE model
in this thesis can investigate the effect of the shaft and/or gear inertia and simulate this
resonance.

For both the steel and nylon gear sets in Figure 7.12, two positions on either side of the
resonance with about the same amplitude are 5 Hz and 10 Hz. The actual shape of the
TE curves are shown in Figures 7.13 & 7.15 as well as Figures 7.14 & 7.16, respectively,
for simulation and measurement results. These figures demonstrate that the changes of
the TE on both sides of the resonance are very small, especially for the tooth-mesh
component. These figures also show a good agreement in time domain and frequency
domain between the measurement and the simulation results.

Inspection of Figures 7.13-7.16 shows a noticeable difference of the shaft speed

component of the TE between simulation and measurement results. Possible sources for
this difference are:
• Gear eccentricity in manufacture~
• Shaft or bearing eccentricity in manufacture.

135
Any unbalance forces due to these eccentricities will give a greater additional TE at the
shaft component. These (unknown) eccentricities are not considered in the simulation
model.

Steel Gear Set

. . . . . . . .
...............................................................................................
. . .•
. . . •
. .•
. • 0 • • • •

. . ...
• • 0 0 • 0

...
• • • 0 • •

"0
c ... .
8
Q)

~
cu

~~~~~····r·······-r········r······· ~
0

0
•

•
•

•
0

•
·
• • 0 •

0 • • •

• • • 0

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Pinion shaft speed (Hz)

Nylon Gear Set

••••••••••

. 0 •••••••••••

. 0

.
.............

. 0 •••••• 0 ••• 0

..
... 0. 0 0

..
•••••••••••••
..
-· •••••••

.... .... .... ....

0 • 0 •

0 0 0 I

. .
~~~~~·····~········~········~·················
... ... ...
100
•

0:.
•

·=· ·=·.0 0

·=· .. ·=· ....... ·=· ..

•

. .
• • • • • • • : 0 ••• 0 0 • • :· ••••••• 0. 0 0 •• 0 •• 0 ••• 0 ••• 0. 0 0 ••• 0 0 •••

•
.
•

•
.•

0
•

•
. •

•
.
•

•
.
0

•
.0

. . . .
• • • • • • 0 •

0
.
0 0
.
0
.
0 I
.
0 o

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Pinion shaft speed (Hz)

Fig. 7.12 Tooth-mesh component amplitude ofTE with extra inertia

136
 S1mulat1on of Gear Transm1ss1on Error

.. ..
200 ••••••••• ~ •••• 0 • • • • ... 0 0 0 .......... .

.
••••••••• : 0 •••• 0 •••• : ••••••••••
.
~ ••••••••• 0 ••• •••••••••
.
·:· 0 0 0 •• 0. 0 0 ·=·
.
0 0

• • 0 • •

-~0~----~10~·----~2~~----~~~----~~~----~~~----~~~·~
P1n10n tooth number

.. .. .. .. ..
........................................
.. ............................
.. .
... .
..
.
..
. .
...!
. . •
0 •••

. 0

.0 •••• ~

0
0 0 ••••• 0. 0 ••••••••••• ·:· • • • • • • • • •

•
:·

•
••

P1mon shaft order

Fig. 7. 13 Simulated dynamic TE with extra inertia

Upper graph is in time domain; Lower graph is in frequency domain
Input shaft speed: 5 Hz; Input shaft torque 40 Nm

Measured Gear TransmisSIOn Error

.. .. .. ..
··:···········:···········:
.. .. ..
10 20 40 50
P1n10n tooth number

.. .. .. .. .. ..
...........................................................................
.. .. .. . . .. .
.. . .. .. ..
. 0 0

.. 0 \0

..o o 0

..
0 o o
..
0 0 0 0 ~ 0 o 0 0 o o 0 0 0 I 00 0 0 0 0 o o o 0 0 0 0 \ o 0 o o o 0 o o o o ".!' o 0

..... . .
!
i

Fig. 7.14 Measured dynamic TE with extra inertia

Upper graph is in time domain; Lower graph is in frequency domain
Input shaft speed: 5Hz; Input shaft torque: 40 Nm

137
 SrmulatJon of Gear Transmrssron Error

.. ..
·················

.. ..
·········-:···········:·········
. .
. .
~ 00o~-----1~0~----~20~----~~~-----4~0------5~0~----~6~0~
Prnron tooth number

.. .. .. ..
'U' 40 ......... , ... .............. ·i···········:··· .... ·i .......... i •••

~
"'

20 40 60 80 100 120
Prnron snaft order

Fig. 7. 15 Simulated dynamic TE with extra inertia

Upper graph is in time domain; Lower graph is in frequency domain
Input shaft speed. lO Hz; Input shaft torque 40 Nm

Measured Gear Transmrssron Error

Prnron tooth number

Prnron shaft order

Fig. 7. 16 Measured dynamic TE with extra inertia

Upper graph is in time domain; Lower graph is in frequency domain
Input shaft speed: 10 Hz; Input shaft torque: 40 Nm

138
7.3.3 A Detailed Comparison of Demodulated TE Results

In addition to the general comparison of the TE, a detailed comparison of demodulated

TE signals is shown in Figures 7.17-7 20 (McFadden, 1986; Sweeney and Randall,
1995). The demodulation was carried out using the block-shift technique (Sweeney and
Randall, 1996; Randall and Gao, 1996) and the demodulation band was centred on the
fundamental Tooth-Mesh-Frequency (TMF) For the demodulation analysis in Figures
7.17-7.20, the simulation is reasonable even though the agreement is just qualitative

7.3.4 Discussion

Inspection of Figures 7.17-7.20 shows that the changes of the magnitudes of the phase
modulation and amplitude modulation of the TE signals at 5 Hz and 10 Hz are very
small. Vibration measurements of the gearbox have been made at 5 Hz and 10 Hz shaft
speeds. Figures 7.21-7.23 are the amplitude and phase demodulated vibration signals
Comparison ofFigures 7.21 and 7.22 demonstrates that at 5 Hz and 10Hz shaft speeds
the magnitudes and shapes of the phase modulation and amplitude modulation of the
vibration signals are significantly different. In comparing the demodulated TE signals and
the demodulated vibration signals, the conclusion can be drawn that running at the shaft
speeds (5Hz and 10Hz) on either side ofthe resonance has little effect on the TE signals
but has significant effect on the vibration signals. Thus, the uncritical use of
demodulation of vibration signals must be questioned.

Figure 7.21 and Figure 7.23 are the demodulated vibration signals on the input and
output sides of the gearbox, respectively, with the same shaft speed. These figures show
that the modulation of the vibration signals in different positions can be different due to
the different transfer functions, though the phase modulation signals are very similar.

139
 S1mulat1on of Gear Transm1ss1on Error
100~----~------,-----~~----~------,-------.-.

~ 80
0 •••• 0 0.. • ••••••••••••••••

.. 0 ••••••

.. 0 •••• 0

..
............. 0

..
•••••••••••••••••

..
E 60
~
.. . . ..
~ 40 • 0 ••••••• : •••••••••• ! ... 0 •• 0 •• 0 ~ ••• 0 0 0 •••• ·:· ••••••••• ·:· ••• 0 0 • 0 • 0 -:· 0 0

u.. 0 0 I 0 0 I

.................... , ................................................ .
• 0 • • • 0

I! 20 . .
0

•
. . .
•

•
.
•

•
•

•
•

•
•

0
0 • • • 0 0

0o~-----2~o~----~40~----~80~-----8~o~----~1o~o~--~1~2o~

P1n1on tooth number

2~----~----~------~----~------r------r~

i 1 1- ....•.... : •..•.....• : .•.....•.. : ..•....... :· ..........;...........;.. .

jg_ : : ...:. : - : •
:1: 0~ ..•. ~ .•..• :"':"'oo<• • • • ~•• , ••• ~ ••• • ./. •••••• ~ ••• ~
a.. . . . • .
u.. : : : : : :
I! -11- ....•..•. ~ ......•..• ~ ....•..... ~· ......... ·:· ......... ·:· ......... ·:· ..
w . . . . . .
I- . :
-2
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
P1n1on tooth number

Fig. 7.17 Demodulated TMF of simulated TE

Input shaft speed: 5Hz; Input shaft torque. 40 Nm

Measured Gear TransmisSion Error

100
u .. ..
·=· .......... : . ......... .
~
80 •••••••••

.
·:· ••••• 0 •••

.
·:· •••• 0 •••••

.
: •• 0 •••••••

. .
• 0 • • •

~ 60
:1:
<(
u..
I!w .. . .. . .. ..
20 • o • • • • • • • ._. • o • • o o o o o ,_. o o o • o o o o o o 1 o o o o o o o o o • o0 o o • o • o o o o o o' o o o o o o o o o • "o o •

I- .
•

•
.
•

•
.
•

•
.
•

0
0

•
. .
•

0
0 20 40 80 80 100 120
P1n1on tooth number

2
... ... ... ... .
..
fij
1:1
o • o •
..
• • • •
...
• -.,• •
.. o • •
..• • •
..
•
..
• "•" • • • • • • • • • • I • • • • • • • • • • "•" • • • • • • • • • • ' • • • • o • • • • • '1. • • •

~
:1:
.. . ..
a..
u..
I! -1
... .. .. .. .. ...
··········.···········.···········:···········.···········.···········-:.···
. . . .
w
I-
... ... ... ... ... ..
.
-2
0 20 40 80 80 100 120
P1n1on tooth number

Fig. 7.18 Demodulated TMF of measured TE

Input shaft speed: 5 Hz; Input shaft torque: 40 Nm

140
 S1mulabon of Gear Transm1ss1on Error
100r------r------r------r------~----~------,--,
.. .. ..
···········=···········:···········=···········
. .. .. ............ .
..
.................. .
.................. ...... .
. . .

0 0 0 • • •
• • o o o o • • • "•" • • o • o o • • o "•" • o o • o o o o o o 1 o o o o o o o o • o "•" o o o o o o o o o o ~ o o o o • o o o o o \ o o •
0 0 • • • 0
0 • • • 0 0

• • 0 • • •

0 o~-----2~o------~~~-----oo~----_.oo _______
1oo~-----1~2-o~

P1n1on tooth number

2r-----~------,-------r-----~------~------~-,

iii"
"'0 1 0 • • • • •

g_ ·······••'\···············································.!··········~~···

::E
.
•

•
•

.
•
.
•

0
.
0

•
..
•

•
..
•

D.. 0
LL.

~ -1 0. 0 0 •••••
0
•• • • • 0 •• 0 ••• •••
•
••••• 0. 0 •• :
•
••• 0 ••••••
0
••• ••• 0 ....... :
•
••• • 0 •••••
•
":. • • •

~ .. ... ... .. .. .
..
• • • • 0 •

~0~----~------~----~~----~~----~------._~
20 ~ 60 80 100 120
P1mon tooth number

Fig. 7 19 Demodulated Tl\1F of simulated TE

Input shaft speed: 10Hz; Input shaft torque: 40 Nm

Measured Gear TransmiSSion Error

100
u •

0
0

0
•

0
•

I
•

I
•

*e
80 0 o o I o o 0 o 0

..
o:o

.
0 0

...
I 0

..
0 o 0

..
0 0

..
o:o 0 I 0 0 0 0 0 0 I

..
0: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 o:o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 I 0 0:- 0 0 0 o o 0 0 o 0 o ~ 0 o o

.!!!.
::E
..............................
.... .. ..
c(
LL.

~ .
. . .
.
..........................................................
.
. .. .
w .. .. .. .. .., ...............
...
1-
0
. . . . .
0 20 ~ 00 00 100 120
Pinion tooth number

2
iii"
"'0
g_ ..........................................................
. . ... . ., .......... '... . ..
::E
D..
. ... ... .
. ...
. . .. .. .. ...
··········.···········.···········:···········.···········.···········,···
.. .. .. ... .. ...
.. .. .. .
-2~----~------~------~------._----~~----_.~
0 20 ~ 60 80 100 120
P1mon tooth number

Fig. 7.20 Demodulated Tl\1F of measured TE

Input shaft speed: 10 Hz; Input shaft torque: 40 Nm

141
 Unit Amplitude Demodulation of V1brat1on Signal
03~------~----~~----~------~------~------~--~ . . . .
0.2 ......•... .. .
.
.
..
.
. ...........................................................
. .
.. . . .
.
0.1 ..•......• ........... , ................................................ .

···········:············:············:············:············:····
.. .. .. .. ..
-0.1
............................
.. .. ·································"'····
.. .. ...
. . . .
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
P1mon tooth number
Rad1an Phase Demodulation ofV1brat1on Signal
1~------~----~~----~------~------~------~--~
. . . . . .
..
• • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • • • ·- 0. .. ..
••••••••••••••••• 0

...
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

.. ..
-· •••

.. .. . . ..

.... ........ .......... ·:·. .......... ·:·.. .......... ·:·.. .......... ·:·. .......... -:.... .
~

... ... ... .

..
.
..
.
...
-1~----_.------~----~------~------~----~~
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
P1n1on tooth number

Fig. 7.21 Demodulated TMF of measured vibration signal

Input shaft speed: 5 Hz; Measured position. input side

Unit Amplitude Demodulation of Vibration S1gnal

0.3~----~-------r------,-------~----~~----~~
0.2

. . . .
•••• 0 • 0 ••

.
·:·

•
•••• 0 •••••

.
~

•
•• 0 •••••••

.
0:-.

0
0 ••••••••

.
·:·

•
0 ••••••• 0 0

.
•
: •••• 0 •••••

.
·:·

0
•••

0 20 40 60 80 100 120
P1mon tooth number
Phase Demodulation of V1brat1on S1gnal

. .. .. .
.. ..
··········:···········!···········:············:···········!···········:··
. . .. ..
•

-1~----~~----~------~------~------_.
0 20 40
0

60 80 100
•

120
_______.__ •

Pimon tooth number

Fig. 7.22 Demodulated TMF ofmeasured vibration signal

Input shaft speed: 10 Hz; \1easured position: input side

142
 Unit
Amplitude Demodulation of VIbration S1gnal
03
. . . .
0.2 .........................................................................
.. .
•

. .
• 0 0

. 0.. 0........ 0........ 0.........

0

.. 0....... •0.. 0. 0... 0....... 0....•...... . .0

0 • 0

0.1
0
-0.1
. .
•

.
.
.
.

.......................................................... ······· ......... .

• 0
• 0

•
·-----
•

• •

• • 0 •

• • • • 0 •

• • 0 • 0 •

-02
. . .
••• 0 ....................... 0 0 ••• 0 0 0 0........... • ••• 0 •• 0 •• 0 •••••• 0 •••• 0 ••••••••
• • •

.•

.
0

0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Pm1on tooth number
Rad1an Phase Demodulation of VIbration S1gnal

05 ••••••••••
.
~- ••••••• 0
.
•• ·:- 0 ••• 0 0 0 0 •••
.
~ • • ••• 0 • 0 ••
.
·:· ••••••••••
.
~ 0 • • 0 0 • 0 •
.
~ •••

• • • • • 0

0
.
•

•
•

.
0
•

•
.•

•
0

.
•

-05 .......................................................................
. •

. . 0

. . . • • 0 •

. 0

. . •

. . . • • • •

-1
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
P1mon tooth number

Fig. 7.23 Demodulated TMF ofmeasured vibration signal

Input shaft speed: 5 Hz; Measured position. output side

Inspection of all TE spectra of measurement and simulation reveals that the base noise
level in the measured TE spectra is at about 0 dB re 1 arcsecond but in simulated TE
spectra is about 15 dB lower. The following possible factors which may cause the noise
in the measurement results have been considered:
• Encoder error
• Aliasing caused by too few encoder pulses per revolution.
• Shaft speed fluctuation

Appendix H discussed the effects of all these factors with different types of
measurements and shows that the white noise in measured TE spectra comes from the
shaft speed fluctuation due to the quality of the speed controller but the fluctuation
frequency is not once per revolution.

143
7.4 CONCLUSION

In this study, a dynamic lumped parameter model with 12 coupled vibration degrees of
freedom has been developed. In the dynamic TE model, measured or theoretically
determined loaded static transmission error is used as the input, rather than individual
gear errors. At the same time, the shaft torque fluctuations are also considered in the
model. If measured static TE is used, the average value of the tooth-mesh stiffness can
be employed.

A computer simulation program in SIMNON® was run to obtain the solutions of the
differential equations of the system.

The dynamic TE model in this study has been validated for two system conditions. one is
for the normal gear shafts and other is for the shafts with extra inertia added to change
the natural frequencies The conclusion is that the model may be used for predicting the
dynamic transmission error by using the loaded static transmission error as the input, in
particular, at speeds-which do not excite the system resonance. From the results of the
demodulation analysis in this chapter, the dynamic TE model in this study should be
improved, possibly by using a model with more DOF to predict more accurately TE in
the general case.

144
CHAPTERS

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

FOR FURTHER WORK

8.1. CONCLUSIONS

This thesis presents an investigation of the gear Transmission Error for a single-stage
gearbox. Two mathematical TE models have been developed and verified. One is the
loaded static TE model which is based on Sweeney's simplified model (Sweeney, 1994)
and modified to extend to higher quality gears where the tooth deflection component is
more important; Another is the dynamic TE model which is able to simulate effects of
the shaft speed and the shaft and/or gear inertia on the gear transmission error.

145
For the loaded static TE model, two significant modifications has been made based on
the simplified model (Sweeney, 1994):

• Two finite element models were employed to investigate the effects on the
transmission error of the variation of tooth stiffness with load application point The
tooth body deflection compliance matrix and the contact compliance vector can be
derived from these two finite element models respectively. The modelling methods
investigated in these two models may be applied to general thick plate deflection
calculation and non-linear solid contact deformation analysis

• The simplex optimisation method is employed in the iteration program to find the
operating point for each shaft angle for a specified load function

In order to achieve a situation where the tooth deflection component is the dominant
source of the TE, nylon gears were used in the measurement All the simulation results
are compared with measured transmission errors from a single-stage gearbox and the
conclusion is that the static TE model developed in this study may be used to predict
practical gear set transmission error, in particular for high precision gear sets The
modelling and measurements were done for spur gears, but a method is indicated to
extend it to helical gears.

To predict the overall gearbox basic vibrational modes and improve the dynamic TE
model, an overall gearbox FE model was developed. Three aspects are discussed in the
modelling: considerations of gearbox internals; simulation of the discontinuous welding
of the casing, and of the flexible mounts for the casing; and calculation of the bearing
stiffuess. The model validation is made by comparing experimental modal analysis results
and the results of the FE model. The bearing support stiffuesses are obtained from this
model for use in the dynamic model of the transmission error.

A dynamic TE model has been derived based on the dynamic characteristics of the gear
and shaft system. The gear inertia, shaft speed, shaft torque fluctuation and bearing

146
support stiffness are considered in the model. A simulation program was developed
applying the SIMNON® package (SIMNO~, 1993). Validation of the dynamic
transmission error model is carried out in this study by comparing measured TE data
with the simulated TE data. Extra inertias were added to the shafts to check the
simulation of the TE model with different natural frequencies

In the gear transmission error measurement, A method of reducing or cancelling the

effect of encoder error was introduced, and a method of estimating the range of encoder
error is given for both a 1:1 ratio case and a non 1: 1 ratio case. The verification of the
method was carried out using measurement results

The major achievements of this research are as follows:

( 1) A modified loaded static transmission error model has been developed using a
tooth deflection compliance matrix and contact compliance vector, and solving
for compatibility at each step using the simplex optimal iteration method. This
model may be used to predict practical gear set transmission error, in particular
for high precision gear sets. Nylon gear .iets were used in the measurement to
verity this by simulating a system where tooth deflection dominates over
geometric errors.

(2) A dynamic transmission error model was established by modelling the

dynamic characteristics of the gear and shaft system and writing a simulation
program using the SIMNO~ package (SIMNO~, 1993). The model can be
used for predicting the dynamic transmission error with the effects of the shaft
speed and the system resonances. The measurement of dynamic TE with
Different shaft inertia was carried out for the model verification, including
variation of the resonance frequencies.

(3) A method ofreducing or cancelling the effect of encoder error was introduced in
this study. The range of the encoder error can be estimated by calculating the

147
 average and STD of the combined encoder error which is introduced in this
study If a high quality encoder is used as a reference with known error, the error
of a cheaper encoder could be obtained by the method introduced in this study.

8.2. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER WORK

Although many aspects of the gear transmission error have been investigated by the
author, more research work is needed to further understand the mechanism of vibration
propagation from the gear mesh and the real relationship between the gear transmission
error and the gearbox noise. It is also needed to develop the TE model for multi-stage
gearboxes. Further research work is recommended as follows·

1. A further development of the TE model which would simulate the TE of helical

gears is possible and should be made in the future. For the tooth bending
deflection, the FE model of the tooth body would be created using helical
geometry, and for the tooth local contact deformation, the results of the 2D FE
model could be adjusted for the inclination of the contact lines. In the optimal
iteration program, the contact lines could still be calculated as in Sweeney's
simplified method (Sweeney, 1994).

2. Single-stage gearbox TE models have been developed in this thesis. Multi-stage

gearbox TE models should be investigated in the future.

3. Both the static TE model and the dynamic TE model can predict the tooth-mesh
component of the gear transmission error very well, but not so well the shaft
speed component. It would be beneficial if the simulation model can predict these
two components.

4. Steel gear sets and nylon gear sets have been used in the TE measurement in this
research. The noise level for the different gear set should be investigated to

148
 further understand the relationship between the TE level and the gear mesh noise
level. This is a future research to develop a model to predict the gearbox noise
levels with the different gear transmission error levels.

5. Use of simulation method to simulate gear faults for condition monitoring

purposes, eg. cracked tooth and local spalls etc

149
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162
APPENDIX A

EXPERIMENTAL RIG SETUP*

A.l INTRODUCTION

The experimental rig used in this thesis is described in this appendix. The purpose of the
rig is two fold. Firstly, it can be used for validating the proposed mathematical models.
Secondly, it can be used for measuring the static and dynamic transmission error, gear
casing vibration signal and gearbox noise emission which can be done in the future.

A.2 GENERAL ARRANGEMENT

The general arrangement of the rig is shown in Fig. A. I

·designed by Dr. P.Sweeney (Sweeney, 1994)

163
 Flywheel

ffi = Coupling

Flywheel

Power Recirculation

Fig. A. I Schematic diagram of the experimental rig.

The main components in the rig are:

• Electric motor 5.5 kw, 8 pole, AC induction motor, providing the necessary
power to balance the rig system losses.
• Hydraulic motor Fixed volume hydraulic motor connected to the same shaft as the
electric motor.
• PC & PT pumps Pressure compensating, variable volume pump and trunnion
controlled, variable volume pump, these pumps are connected to
the same shaft and operate in parallel hydraulically.
• Flywheel Adjustable in weight, to attenuate the torsional vibrations
induced by the loading.

164
• Torque transducer Connected to the input shaft and in series with a shear-pin
torsional-overload device, capable of linear measurement to over
200Nm.
• Gear box Mounted to the rig bedplate through rubber pads.
• Encoders Incremental rotary encoders, Heidenhain type ROD 426,
connected to the same shafts as the driving gear and driven gear,
respectively.
• Speed controller Semiconductor frequency converter, connected between electric
motor and control console, providing a capability of changing the
speed of the electric motor from 120 rpm to 720 rpm
• Control console Connected to speed controller, hydraulic pump and load control
valve( sequence valve), providing a remote operation to the rig
• Couplings Selected for their load capacity and high torsional flexibility

A.J CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DRIVE AND LOADING

A hydraulic power recirculating test rig has been used in this thesis.

A.3.1 Hydraulic recirculating power system

The hydraulic recirculating power system is shown in Fig. A. I. The two hydraulic pumps
mounted at the left end of the driven shaft take mechanical power from the rotating
motion and act as the load for the driven shaft. Then the high pressure hydraulic oil come
from the pumps is supplied to the hydraulic motor. The major advantage of this
recirculating power system is that the generation of the required high shaft torque needs
relatively low system power input. This means that only the power dissipated as losses in
the gear set, drive train and power recirculation elements needs to be provided by the
electric motor, rather than producing and dissipating all of the power transmitted by the
gear set.

165
A.3.2 Speed and Loading specifications

The maximum speed of this rig is 725 rpm, according to the electric motor specifications.
The maximum torque is 130 Nm which is limited by the pump volume and the maximum
pressure. The gear speed ratio range is up to 1. 9: 1 which is limited by the gearbox casing
space and the eccentric mounting disk. In this thesis, two ratios have been used: 1:1 and
1.53:1. The speed controller is a VFS 36 inverter which is a pulse width modulated
(PWM) inverter designed to operate with conventional squirrel cage induction motors

A.4 GEARBOX ASSEMBLY

The gearbox consists of:

• gear sets (pinion and gear).
• drive shafts (driving shaft and driven shaft).
• deep groove ball bearings.
• eccentric mounting disks in the casing.
• gearbox casing.

The gearbox assembly is mounted to the rig bedplate through the rubber pads. To
improve the isolation of general rig vibration from the gear box, the rubber pads and the
casing have been redesigned on the basis of calculations.

For the gearbox assembly itself, the gear sh.Jfts are supported by deep groove ball
bearings which are fitted in the eccentric mounting disks. These disks are designed for
two purposes. The first is to allow for the alignment adjustment of the shafts. The second
is to allow for the centre distance variation of the shafts for both misalignment conditions
(small variations) and ratio change (gross variation).

166
For the gear sets, two types of gear have been used in this thesis. One is of steel material
and the other is of nylon material. The details of the gears are shown in Table A. I and
Table A.2.

A new gearbox casing was designed and built in this thesis. The details of the casing
design drawings are described in Appendix B

A.5 ENCODERS

The type of encoder used in this thesis is the incremental rotary encoder Heidenhain
ROD 426 with 3600 lines. The maximum shaft speed for this type of encoder is I 0,000
rpm (the running speed in this thesis is only around 120-660 rpm) The two encoders are
connected to the input shaft and output shaft respectively with Heidenhain high-precision
diaphragm couplings type K03. The power supply for these encoders is 5 V

Table A. I Spur gear Set Parameters

Pinion Gear Pinion Gear
(steel) (steel) (nylon) (nylon)
Module(mm) 3.0788 3.0788 3.0788 3 0788
Tooth Number 32 49 32 49
Young's modulus (GPa) 210 210 3.19 3 19
Normal pressure angle (degree) 20.00 20.00 20 00 20.00
Poisson's ratio 0.3 0.3 0.35 0.35
Tooth facewidth (mm) 23.5 23.5 23.5 23.5
Gear treatment Hobbed, shaved, heat- Robbed, shaved
treated and grounded

167
 Table A.2 Helical gear Set Parameters
Pinion Gear Pinion Gear
(steel) (steel) (nylon) (nylon)
Module (mm) 3.0788 3 0788 3.0788 3 0788
Tooth Number 29 44 29 44
Young's modulus (GPa) 210 210 3 19 3 19
Normal pressure angle (degree) 20.00 20.00 20 00 20 00
Poisson's ratio 0.3 03 0.35 0 35
Helix angle (degree) 26.815 26 815 26.815 26 815
Tooth facewidth (mm) 23.5 23.5 23 5 23 5
Gear treatment Hobbed, shaved, heat- Hobbed, shaved
treated and grounded

168
APPENDIXB

GEARBOX CASING DESIGN DRAWINGS

The original casing designed by Sweeney (1994) was not appropriate for the dynamic
analysis of the overall gearbox because it was too rigid to simulate practical situations. A
new casing was designed and built in this thesis. The details of the casing design
drawings are given in this appendix.

Figure B.l is an assembly drawing ofthe whole gearbox casing. Figure B.2 shows the
top frame of the casing. Figure B.3 gives details of the two front plates of the gearbox.

Dimensional details of shafts, gears and the oringinal casing may be found in Sweeney
(1994)

169
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SCHO!L OF MECHAMCAL Am .... ,... • .... 111011020 Dll Ut Ot ORG 1\11111(1

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Fig. B. I Assembly drawing of the gearbox casing

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Fig. B.2 Top frame drawing of the gearbox casing
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THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES Ph 0 I h e s 1 s Ge a r b o x Ca s 1 ng
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Fig. B.3 Front Plate drawing of the gearbox casing
APPENDIXC

SYNCHRONOUS TRIGGER DESIGN

In order to make a synchronous trigger to collect the measured transmission error data, a
pulse counter was specially designed to identify the start of each complete meshing cycle
Figure C.l is the electronic circuit diagram of the pulse counter. If a 1: 1 ratio gear set is
being measured, the trigger value of the pulse counter is set to 1. If a non 1·I ratio gear
set (eg 49:32) is being measured, the trigger value of the pulse counter is set to 49
(where the input of the pulse counter is from the input shaft encoder and the number of
teeth on the input shaft gear is 32). While the rig is running, the pulse counter counts the
once-per-revolution pulses from the encoder. Once the number of the pulses is equal to
the trigger value, the pulse counter sends a pulse to the computer to trigger the data
collection, thus ensuring a complete mesh cycle between trigger pulses.

173
 output

Ql

MSD
"0" CD4522B ~'0"
CD4526B
DPI DP2 DP3 DP4 DPI DP2 DP3 DP4

!OK IOK

--o Voo

VDD
(5V)

Fig. C. I 2-stage programmable frequency divider

174
APPENDIXD

VERIFICATION OF YOUNG'S MODULUS

FOR THE NYLON MATERIAL

D.l OVERVIEW

For meaningful results from the loaded static transmission error model, the Young's
modulus of the material of the gear set must be specified. For the steel gear set, the value
of Young's modulus is quite certain and stable, eg., for mild steel the Young's modulus is
207 GPa. However, for nylon material, the relative range of Young's modulus is quite
large. In this study, the nylon gear set was manufactured from cast nylon bar for which
there is a possible range of Young's modulus from 1.8 to 3.2 GPa. In order to get the
correct loaded static TE, the accurate value of Young's modulus is very critical. This
appendix discusses the method of verifying the Young's modulus of the nylon and gives a

175
reasonably accurate value of Young's modulus for circular nylon plates cut from the bar
mentioned above (the same stock as used for the gears)

0.2 FE MODEL OF CIRCULAR NYLON PLATE

Figure 0.1 shows a 30 FE model of the circular nylon plate. There are 2800 nodes and
1980 solid elements in this model.

In order to check the validity of the model, the theoretical formula for the deformation of
a simply supported plate is used (Timoshenko and Woinowsky-Krieger, 1959, Hearn,
1989):

= _!__[ 3 + v (R2- R2)- R21n_B_] (0 1)

Ymax 87rlJ 2(1 + v) I I Rl

3
Et
where D =---.,..---
2
(0 2)
[12(1- v )]

F is the load distributed uniformly round a circle

R is the radius of the support ring, the outer edge being simply supported
R1 is the radius of the circle of the distributed load F
E is the Young's modulus of the nylon plate
v is the Poisson's ratio of the nylon plate
t is the thickness of the nylon plate

Table 0.1 lists the characteristics of the actual nylon plate used for the FE model
validation. Table 0.2 lists the results of FE models and the theoretical formula (0 1)
These results show that the FEM result with neutral plane support is very close to the
result of the theoretical formula. Therefore, the FE model is valid for verifying the
Young's modulus of the nylon material. Note that the theoretical formula is based on the
plate and shell theory (Timoshenko and Woinowsky-Krieger, 1959) and analysed at the
neutral plane, whereas in practice, the nylon plate is supported on a specially designed
steel ring, so the constraint for the final FE model should be corresponding to bottom

176
 support, not neutral plane support. Note also that the thin annulus between the support
ring and the outer diameter of the plate would provide some resistance to rotation but
this has been shown to be negligible.

Fig. D.l FE 3D model ofnylon plate

177
 Table D. I nylon plate data for model validation
Young's modulus (GPa) 3.0
Radius of plate (mm) 120
Radius of support ring ( mm) 110
Distributed load circle radius (mm) 20
Poisson's ratio 0 35
Thickness of plate (mm) 10
Total force (N) 1000

Table D.2 deflection at centre of the plate in neutral plane (mm)

FE model with neutral plane support 0.3999
FE model with plate bottom support 0.4093
theoretical formula 0 3983

0.3 MEASUREMENT OF THE DISPLACEMENT OF

THE CIRCULAR NYLON PLATE

Fig. 0.2 is the measurement set up. In order to let the Hertzian effects and other non-
linear effects on the plate be as small as possible in the measurement, the preload was set
to 1000 N before the deflections of the plate were measured.

178
 INSTRON
TESTER
LOAD
CELL
SUPPORT
RING
NYLON
PLATE

Fig. D.2 Measurement set-up

Two circular nylon plates were used in the measurement. Fig. D.3 and Fig. D 4 are the
measurement data and the regression curves produced by the curve fitting method

(m m)

~ ................... -.. -·..... -.. . . .. . . -........ :- -.. .. .. . .

.. - .. - " .
.
... .
.........................•........................ -

.................. .,:............................ .;. .............. ..

............ -.. -........ -........

.
•

•
--. ...................................................
•

0
0

•
. -...............
•

•
. ..

500 1000 1500 2000 2500

(N )

Fig. D.3 measurement results for plate No. 1

179
 (m m)
~------r-------r-------~------~------~

0 6

0 5 ............ .

0 4 ..... , ..... .

0 3

0 2

500 1000 1500 2000 2500

(N)

Fig. 0.4 measurement results for plate No 2

For plate No. 1, the equation of the regression curve is

YI=0.273lx+6.42 (D.3)

For plate No. 2, the equation of the regression curve is

y2=0. 2674x-5.13 (D.4)

where

x is the total load distributed uniformly round a circle (kN)

y, is the displacement on the circle of the distributed load (mm)

180
0.4 VERIFYING NYLON YOUNG'S MODULUS

According to the regression curves from the measurement data, the displacements on the
circle of the distributed load can be obtained

if x=l kN,
then y 1=0.2795 (mm)
y.r0.2623 (mm)

Using the FE model with Y1 and y2, the Young's modulus of the nylon material can be
calculated:

E.=3.07 (Gpa)

This range is much less than that provided by the manufacturer The average Young's
modulus of the nylon material E is given by:

E=(E.+E2)/2=3.19 (GPa)

and the standard deviation is only 3.4%.

181
APPENDIXE

SIMULATION MODEL IN SIMNON

A simulation software SIMNO~ (1994) is employed for the simulation of the dynamic
transmission error. This appendix first gives a brief description of SIMNO~. then the
subsystem models are introduced.

E.l OUTLINE OF SIMNON

SIMNO~ is a special computer program for solving ordinary differential and difference
equations and for simulating dynamic system that may be described as an interconnection
of subsystems. The behaviours of subsystems are characterised by first order differential
equations or by difference equations supplied by the user to describe physical processes.
The relations of variables in various subsystems are specified in a special subprogram
known as the connecting system.

182
In SIMNO~, the solutions of the differential equations are obtained by numerical
integration and the method used is the automatic step size Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg
integration method.

E.2 SYSTEM MODELS

The dynamic system in this thesis is divided into two subsystems One is used for
describing the translational vibrations (variables x~>x2 •• x 6 ); another one is used for
describing the rotational vibrations (variables eI 'e 2 e6 ) The two subsystems are
coupled by the variables x 5 , X6 , 8 1 and 8 2 Figure E. I demonstrates the general
simulation procedures in this thesis. In the simulation, the loaded static transmission error
Ys and the shaft torque are the excitations of the dynamic system, eI and e2 are the
rotational dynamic responses of the two gears in the system. The final dynamic
transmission error results can be obtained by employing Equation (7.13).

SIMULATION

Translatlonal
~s
Subsystem {}_l_ _....

~ I~ I
~ 'I' DATA y
PROCESSING
INMATLAB
~ ~ ' '
Torstonal
~ ,~ {},_ ...
T Subsystem

Fig. E.l Sketch of the dynamic TE simulation

183
Figure E.2 shows the details of the simulation in subsystems. For the translational
subsystem, the input consists of three parts: disturbances, parameters and the coupled
information from the torsional subsystem and the output is given directly to the torsional
subsystem. For the torsional subsystem, the input also consists of three parts
disturbances, parameters and the coupled information from the translational subsystem
and the output is given to the translational subsystem again until the final result is
obtained. Every input data can be a constant value or time function or time varying
tabular value. All the results can be stored in a specified file and then post-processed
later in MATLAB.

Parameters Parameters
Input Input

From From
Sub.2 Sub. 1
Subsystem 1 Subsystem 2
(Translational) (Torsional)
To To
Sub.2 Sub. 1

Ys T Ys
Disturbances Disturbances

Fig. E.2 Sketch ofthe subsystems in TE simulation

184
E.J ALGORITHM OF SYSTEM MODELS

This section contains samples of the algorithms for the subsystems and the simulation in
SIMNO~. The loaded static TE and the time-varying mesh stiffiless are the input files
which are output from MATLAB® (1994).

E.3.1 Subsystem 1: translational subsystem

CONTINUOUS SYSTEM DYTE " translational subsystem

"Version: 2.0
" Abstract: Dynamic TE Model AND SUB MODEL 1
" Description: This program is used for calculating the dynamic
" transmission error with static TE input
" Revision: 3.0
" Author: Shu Du
"Created: 10/4/97

" Inputs and outputs:

INPUT q 1 q2 dq I dq2
"OUTPUT

" States, derivates and time:

STATE xi dx1 x2 dx2 x3 dx3 x4 dx4 x5 dx5 x6 dx6
DER dyi ddxi dy2 ddx2 dy3 ddx3 dy4 ddx4 dy5 ddx5 dy6 ddx6
TIMEt

" Initializations:
xl:O
x2:0
x3:0.0

I85
x4:0.0
x5:0.0001
x6:-0.0001
dxl:O
dx2:0.0
dx3:0.0
dx4:0.0
dx5:0.0
dx6:0.0

"Equations:
dyl=dxi
ddx I =-a *x I-b*dx I +c*x5
dy2=dx2
ddx2=-a*x2-b*dx2+c*x5
dy3=dx3
ddx3=-a*x3-b*dx3+c*x6
dy4=dx4
ddx4=-a*x4-b*dx4+c*x6
dy5=dx5
ddx5=-ai *x5-a2*(dx5-dx6)+a3 *(x6+Y s)+temp I
"Km=FUNC(2,t) "for the time-varying mesh stiffness
Ys=FUNC(I,t) "this is for the table input
"Ys=AO*cos(6.28*wO*t+ID)+Ai*cos(6.28*WO*Zi*t+fi) "this is for the case analysis in
"which the static TE can not be obtained
temp I =a4 *(xI +x2)-a3 *(q I-q2)-a2 *(dq I-dq2)-P
dy6=dx6
ddx6=-a 1*x6-a2 *(dx6-dx5)+a3 *(x5-Y s)+temp2
temp2=a4*(x3+x4)+a3*(qi-q2)+a2*(dqi-dq2)+P

" Parameter values:

186
a:2.0e8 "(Kb+Ksh)/m " for the average mesh stiffness
b:2652 "Cb/m
c:2.5e7 "Ksh/m
a1:7.14e7 "(Km+Ksh)/mp
a2:826 "Cmlmp
a3 :6.49e7 "Kmlmp
a4:6.45e6 "Kshlmp
P:640 "WO/mp
AO:l.75e-3
W0:200.0
tu:0.4
Zi:32
Ai:9.0e-4
fi:O.O
END

E.3.2 Subsystem 2: torsional subsystem

CONTINUOUS SYSTEM DYTEI

" Version: 2.0
" Abstract: Dynamic TE Model AND SUB MODEL 2
" Description: This program is used for calculating the dynamic
" transmission error with static TE input
" Revision: 4.0
" Author: Shu Du
" Created: 13/4/97

" Inputs and outputs:

INPUT x5 x6 dx5 dx6
"OUTPUT

187
 11
States, derivates and time:
STATE ql dql q2 dq2 q3 dq3 q4 dq4 q5 dq5 q6 dq6
DER dqll ddql dq22 ddq2 dq33 ddq3 dq44 ddq4 dq55 ddq5 dq66 ddq6
TIMEt

11
Initializations:
ql:O.OOO
q2.0
q3·0
q4:0.0
q5:0.0
q6:0.0
dql:0.8
dq2:0.0
dq3:0.0
dq4:0.0
dq5:0.0
dq6:0.0

11
Equations:
dqll=dql
ddq I =-a*(dq l-dq2+dx5-dx6)+temp31
temp31 =-b*(q l-q2+x5-x6-Ys)+temp3
Ys=FUNC(l,t} 11 this is for the table input of the static TE
11 11
Ys=AO*cos(6.28*wO*t+ID)+Ai*cos(6.28*WO*Zi*t+fi) this is for the case analysis
"without the static TE signal
temp3=-c*(q l-q3)-d*PO
dq22=dq2
ddq2=a*( dq l-dq2+dx5-dx6)+temp41

188
temp41 =b*(q 1-q2+x5-x6-Ys)+temp4
temp4=-e*(q2-q5)+d*PO
dq33=dq3
ddq3=-al *(q3-q4)-a2*(q3-ql)
dq44=dq4
ddq4=a3*(q3-q4)+Tl *Sc
dq55=dq5
ddq5=-a4 *(q5-q6)-a5 *(q5-q2)
dq66=dq6
ddq6=a6*(q5-q6)-T2

" Parameter values:

a:1672 "{rl"2*Cm)/Jp
b: 1.314e8 "{rl"2*Km)/Jp
c:0.38e6 "Kl3/Jp
d:0.9123 "r1"2/Jp
e:0.296e6 "K25/Jp
P0:1421 "static mesh force
a1:7567.6 "K34/Jfl
a2:2567 "K13/Jfl
a3 :37840 "K34/Jm
a4:2500 "K56/Jt2
a5: 1233 "K25/Jt2
a6: 13640 "K56/Jh
T1:43.8 "T*r/Jm Tis the drive torque
T2:294. 7 "T*r/Jh
r:0.04629 "radius
A0:1.75e-3
W0:200.0
ID:0.4

189
Zi:32
Zj: 19.4
Ai:9.0e-4
ti:O.O
Sc:9.9999 "Scale factor
END

E.3.3 Simulation of the system

MACROSIMM
" Version: 2.0
" Abstract: simulation program for the dynamic te model
" Description: this macro is for dyte. t and dyte I t tiles
"Revision: 6.0
"Author: ShuDu
"Created: 20/4/1997

" Enter commands here:

syst DYTE DYTEI teconnet
axes h 0 2 v -3.0e2 3.0e2
plot ql[dytel]
store ql[dyte] q2[dyte] x5[dyte] x6[dyte]
"store q3[dytel] q4[dytel] q5[dytel] q6[dytel]-add
"store xl[dyte] x2[dyte]-add
"store x3[dytel] x4[dytel]-add
"simu 0 2 0.0005/data 0.0005//tefunc " for 8Hz
simu 0 2 0.001/data 0.001//tefunc" for 4Hz
"simu 0 2 0.0004/data 0.0004//tefunc" for 10Hz
"simu 0 2 2.e-3/data 2.e-3//tefunc " for 2 Hz
"simu 0 2 S.e-4/data S.e-4//tefunc " for 5 Hz
"simu 0 2 5.7143e-4/data 5.7143e-4//tefunc" 7Hz

190
11
Simu 0 2 1.3333e-3/data 1.3333e-3//tefunc II 3 Hz
11
Simu 0 2 6.6667e-4/data 6.6667e-4//tefunc 11 6Hz
11
simu 0 2 4 .4444e-4/data 4 .4444e-4//tefunc 11 9 Hz
END

E.3.4 Connection of the subsystems

CONNECTING SYSTEM DQCONNET

11
Version: 2.0
11
Abstract: this is a connection program for the dynamic TE model
11
description: Using this program to connect the two subsystems
11
Author: Shu Du
11
Created: 10/0l/I997

11
Time, ifneeded:
TIMEt

11
Connections:
x5[dytel]~5[dyte]

x6[dyte I ]~6[ dyte]

dx5 [dyte I ]=dx5 [dyte]
dx6[ dyte I ]=dx6[dyte]
q 1[dyte]=q 1[dyte 1]
q2[ dyte]=q2[dyte 1]
dq 1[dyte]=dq I [dyte 1]
dq2[ dyte ]=dq2[dyte 1]
END

191
APPENDIXF

GEARBOX MOUNT DESIGN

F.l INTRODUCTION

In order to isolate the vibration of the bed plate of the test rig from the gearbox, flexible
mounts were employed in this study. The design of the flexible mounts of the gearbox is
discussed in this appendix.

Rubber pads were selected as the isolators of the gearbox in this study because of the
ease of mounting and their light weight. Several typical methods of loading rubber pads
are illustrated in Figure F.l. In this study, the rubber pads may be loaded in both
compression and shear. That is, the method of loading rubber pads is a combination of
types (a) and (b).

192
 (a I (b) (c) (d)

Figure F.1 Typical rubber pads illustrating different types of stress

(a): compression; (b): shear; (c): tension; (d): flexure (Crede, 1965).

F.2 RUBBER PAD STIFFNESS

The stifthess of a rubber pad is a function generally of

• the rubber compound and method of curing
• the size and shape of the pad
The compound and method of curing determine a property that bears some similarity to
young's modulus for metals.

For a compression pad, the rubber may be considered an incompressible substance, since
its bulk modulus is very large compared with its compression and shear moduli. As a
consequence, a rubber pad may be deflected by a compressive force only if it is permitted
to expand laterally. Figure F.2 shows force-deflection curves for unbounded square
rubber pads loaded in compression. These curves refer to rubber pads in which the

193
interface between the rubber and the rigid loading member is unlubricated and non-
adhered.

250 --- ---

-~
cb
~

-
.E
§ 1OOt--~fT-.r-::;oooTi

5 10 15 5 10 15 20
DeflectiOn, per cent Deflection, per cent
40 durometer 50 durometer

250
..
:8
CQ

·;; 200
c.
cb

--
~
0

·:;:)c: 100

5 10 15 20
Deflection, per cent
70 durometer

Fig. F.2 Force-deflection curves for unbounded

square rubber pads loaded in compression.
Force is in pounds per square inch ofload-carrying area, and
deflection is in percent of pad thickness. Area ratio is the ratio
of load-carrying area to lateral area available for bulging. (Crede, 1965)

194
The hardness of the rubber pads used in this study is 60 durometer and the stiffness of
the rubber pads can be calculated using the curves ofFigure F.2:

K =PxLxD (F. I)
r tx8

where
Kr is the compression stitlhess of the square rubber pads (lb/in).
p is the compression force (psi)
L is the length of the rubber pad (in )
D is the width of the rubber pad (in.).
t is the thickness of the rubber pad (in.).
8 is the deflection of the per cent of the thickness of the rubber pad

For rectangular rubber pads, the stitlhess can be obtained·

(F 2)

where ~ is the decreasing factor which will vary due to the deviation of a rectangular

rubber pad from a square one(Crede, 1965).

Then the size of each rubber pad was designed to be 6.5 mm x 15 mm x 50 mm according
to the pad stiffness calculated from the gearbox FE model. The installation of the
gearbox results in a deflection of 12% of the thickness of the rubber pad in this study
The final value of the rubber pad stitlhess K"= 1177 N/mm.

For the shear stitlhess of the rubber pads, it can be obtained from the compression
stitlhess calculated above (Crede, 1965):

195
 (F 3)

and in this thesis, Ksrr=0.4K,, was used.

196
APPENDIXG

GEAR TOOTH GEOMETRIC FORM ERRORS

G.l INTRODUCTION

Gear tooth geometric form error is defined as the deviation in form of a real gear from
that of its ideal counterpart which theoretically has true involute tooth form and equi-
spaced teeth. The gear tooth geometric form error components which may be
incorporated into the simulations are:
• Tip relief
• Profile slope
• Profile curvature
• Profile curvature fullness
• Lead crowning
• Lead deviation
• Tooth spacing variation

197
These errors vary in magnitude from tooth to tooth on the gear considered and are used
in terms of mean of value and deviations from the mean of low order errors such as
slope, curvature and fullness.

G.2 STEEL GEAR TOOTH GEOMETRIC FORM ERRORSt

For the steel gears, the foJlowing measurements have been made:
• Measurement of adjacent pitch for all teeth and the accumulated pitch errors at
position @ (see Figure G.l) on both sides of all teeth Typical measurement results are
shown in Figure G.2
• Measurement of profiles on both sides of each tooth in 3 positions (see Figure G I)
Typical measurement results are shown in Figure G.3.
• Measurement ofleads on both sides of each tooth at about the pitch diameter Typical
measurement results are shown in Figure G.4.

G.3 NYLON GEAR TOOTH GEOMETRIC FORM ERRORS

For nylon gears, reduced sets of measurements were made:

• Measurement of the total accumulated pitch error.
• Measurement of profiles on both sides of only four teeth spaced at approximately 90°
intervals around the gear at position ® (see Figure G. I). The typical measurement
results are shown in Figure G.5(a).
• Measurement of leads on both sides of only four teeth spaced at approximately 90°
intervals around the gear at about the pitch diameter. Typical measurement results are
shown in Figure G.5(b).

' All the measurement results (steel and nylon) were obtained from BTR Engineering (Aust) LTD.

198
G.4 ERROR PARAMETERS USED IN THE SIMULATION

In the simulation of the TE model, the amplitude of the accumulated pitch error (once
per rev component) was used and it is assumed that the variation of the pitch error is
sinusoidal (see Figure G.2). The profile deviation slope (from the tip of tooth to the start
of active profile) and the amplitude of variation of tooth involute slope were obtained
from Figure G.3 or Figure G.Sa by fitting a straight line. The change of profile curvature,
called curvature fullness, was also obtained from Figure G.3 or Figure G.Sa. The lead
deviation slope (see Figures G.4 and G.Sb) and the amplitude of variation of tooth lead
(once per rev component) from that given by the constant lead slope were obtained by
fitting a straight line, and the crowning fullness (deviation of crowning) was obtained
from Figures G.4 and G.Sb

20

12

Fig. G. I Positions ofthe Gear Tooth Geometric Form Measurement

199
 Fig. G.2 A Typical Measurement Results of Pitch Errors
for A Steel Spur Gear (32 teeth)
Left: result ofleft tooth face • Right: result of right tooth face

• define the "right" and "left" from the marked side of the gear.

200
 i-

I•
I
1

II
1
I -

I I I t~:l =I -I

Fig. G.3 A Typical Measurement Result of Profile Errors

for A Steel Spur Gear (32 teeth)
Left: result of position CD at left tooth face
right: result of position ® at left tooth face

201
Fig. G.4 A Typical Measurement Result of Lead Errors
for A Steel Spur Gear (32 teeth)
Left: result of left tooth face
right: result of right tooth face

202
 (b)
(a)

Fig. G.5 A Typical Measurement Results of A Nylon Spur Gear (32 teeth)
(a): result of profile errors for both sides of the four teeth
(b): result of lead error for both sides of the four teeth

203
APPENDIXH

NOISE IN TE SPECTRA

H.l INTRODUCTION

The noise in the TE spectrum could be caused by the following factors:

• Encoder error
• Aliasing caused by too few encoder pulses/rev
• Shaft speed fluctuation
In order to find the source of the noise in the TE spectrum, the investigation of all three
phenomena is carried out in this appendix.

204
H. 2 ANALYSIS FOR THE FACTOR OF ENCODER ERROR

As discussed in Chapter 5, the encoder error can effectively be removed by swapping the
encoders. Figures H. I and H.2 are raw TE time signals and their spectra obtained from
the two separate measurements by swapping the two encoders with each other Figure
H.3 is the true (average) TE time signal and it spectrum In comparing these figures, it is
found that the noise in TE spectrum is not produced by the encoder error because the
noise levels in Figure H.3 are not lower than those in Figure H. I or Figure H.2.

H. 3 ANALYSIS FOR ALIASING (AFFECTED BY

ENCODER PULSE DIVISION FACTOR)

Different carrier frequencies may have different effects on the TE signals. The spread of
the sidebands is determined by the highest modulation frequency, but at higher carrier
frequencies the span between the two carrier frequency harmonics is larger As shown in
Figure 5.6,. the carrier frequency is 225/rev in this case and the adjacent sidebands have
a small overlap but only at a level 80 dB below the first harmonic. If the encoder
pulses/rev are too few, the sidebands of each harmonic will overlap each other and this
can not be prevented by using antialiasing filters. As described in Chapter 5, the carrier
frequency can be changed using the divider (Equation 5.2a). In order to investigate the
effect of carrier frequency on the noise of TE spectrum, TE measurements using different
carrier frequencies were carried out in this study. Figures H.4 and H.5 are the TE signals
and their spectra with carrier frequencies 900/rev and 225/rev respectively. It is noted
that in these two cases the white noise in the TE spectra is not changed. In this thesis, the
carrier frequency 225/rev was used in most measurement results.

205
H. 4 ANALYSIS FOR FACTOR OF SPEED FLUCTUATION

The carrier tracking technique (Sweeney and Randall, 1996) is used to eliminate the
"smearing" problem caused by the shaft speed fluctuation. This technique is implemented
digitally in analyser B&K 2035 used in this study (Bruel & Kjar, 1992). Figure H.6 is the
TE data without tracking and Figure H. 7 is the TE data with tracking. Figures H 6 and
H. 7 illustrate that the white noise of the TE spectrum has been reduced to some extent
but not significantly even though the peak around the tooth-mesh frequency has been
made somewhat narrower This indicates that the white noise in the TE spectrum comes
from the speed fluctuation but that the speed fluctuation is not linked to the shaft speed
and so is not greatly reduced by tracking. It would seem most likely that it is due to the
speed control unit.

Measured Gear Transm1ss1on Error

... .. .....
200 .. ..
.. . ...............................
.
100

-200 . ·········-··························
-~010~--------~--------~------------~--------~--------~--------~~
10 20 30 40 50 60
P1n1on tooth number

. .
•••••• 0 0

.
.................. 0

...
•••••••••• ; •••• 0 ••••••• 0 0 •••••••••• :

...
• • • • • • • ' •••

Fig. H. I Raw TE data

Helical gear: 29:29 Input shaft speed: 8 Hz
Input shaft torque: 30 Nm 11500 shaft misalignment

206
 Measured Gear Transm1ss1on Error

10 20 30 40 50 60
P1n1on tooth number

Fig. H 2 Raw TE data

Helical gear· 29:29 Input shaft speed: 8Hz
Input shaft torque: 30 Nm 1/500 shaft misalignment

Measured Gear TransmiSSIOn Error

200

.. .
. ..
-200 .
•••••••••••••••••••••••

0
.
"~>"

•
.
•
.
•••••••••••••••••••••••• ,

•
.
•••••••••••••

•
0

.
••••••• ,

•
••••

" 300 o~-----1~0------2~0------3·0------~40------~5~0------6~0~

P1n1on tooth number

60r------r------~----~------,-----~r------r~

40

I . . .
................................................................
. . . .

60

Fig. H.3 True (average) TE data

Helical gear: 29:29 Input shaft speed: 8 Hz
Input shaft torque: 30 Nm 1/500 shaft misalignment

207
 Measured Gear Transm1ss1on Error

10 20 30 40 50 60
Pin1o n tooth number

20 40 60 80 100 120
Pln1on shaft order

Fig. H.4 TE Time Signal and the Spectrum

Spur gear: 32:32 Input shaft speed· 4Hz
Input shaft torque: 40 Nm Carrier frequency: 900/rev

Measured Gear Transm1ss1on Error

~
Ill

P1n1on tooth number

60~----~------~----~------~-----r------~--,

~ 40 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
u
~ 20
Ill
.... 0
~
!g -20

P1n1on shaft order

Fig. H.5 TE Time Signal and the Spectrum

Spur gear: 32·32 Input shaft speed: 4Hz
Input shaft torque: 40 Nm Carrier frequency: 225/rev

208
 Measured Gear Transmss1on Error

10 20 30 40 50 60
P1n1on tooth number

0 20 40 60 80 100 120
P1n10n shaft order

Fig. H.6 TE Time Signal and the Spectrum (without tracking)

Spur gear: 32·32 Input shaft speed. 5 Hz
Input shaft torque: 40 Nm Extra shaft inertia

Measured Gear -ransm1ss1on Error

10 20 30 40 50 60
P1mon tooth number

..
.... .
.. ... ...
......... ,.. ...................................................
. . .. ············
.. .. .. .. .
I!!
m
...

Fig. H. 7 TE Time Signal and the Spectrum (with tracking)

Spur gear: 32:32 Input shaft speed: 5 Hz
Input shaft torque: 40 Nm Extra shaft inertia

209
APPENDIX I
12DOFMODEL

The following tables listed the natural frequencies and mode shapes for the 12 DOF
mode for the mean value of mesh stiffness (3*108 for steel gears, 5*106 for plastic
gears) for the 4 cases discussed in Chapter 7. (The stiflhess unit is N/m)

Table 1.1 Steel gears without collars

Frequency Linear mode shape Angular mode shape
(Hz) XI Xz x3 Xt Xs x6 e1 82 e3 e4 8s e6
0.00 -.07 -.07 .07 .07 .53 -.53 1.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
6.26 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 -.06 -.06 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
34.03 1.0 1.0 -1.0 -1.0 -.02 .02 .09 -.09 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
59.33 .12 .12 -.12 -.12 .98 -.98 -1.0 .98 0.0 0.0 -0.0 0.0
92.88 -.00 -.00 .00 .00 -.00 .00 -1.0 -1.0 .01 -.00 .00 -.00
287.18 .12 .12 .12 .12 1.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
348.49 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 .00 -.00 .01 .01 -.00 .00 .02 -1.0
2255 .00 .00 -.00 -.00 .00 -.00 -.13 -.12 -.21 1.0 .00 .01
2256 -.00 -.00 .00 .00 -.03 .03 .26 .20 .97 1.0 .70 .71
2258 1.0 -1.0 -.08 .08 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
2265 -.05 .05 -1.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
3102 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 -.00 .00 -.99 -.99 -.98 -.98 -1.0 -1.0

210
 Table 1.2 Steel gears with collars
Frequency Linear mode shape Angular mode shape
(Hz) xl x2 x3 X. Xs x6 e1 e2 e3 e4 9s e6
0.00 1.0 1.0 -1.0 -1.0 .39 -.39 .96 -.96 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
6.26 -1.0 -1.0 1.0 1.0 .19 -.19 .38 -.38 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
34.01 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 -.03 -.03 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
59.32 -.12 -.12 .12 .12 -.97 .97 1.0 -.96 -.00 0.0 .00 0.0
69.11 -.00 -.00 .00 .00 -.00 .00 -.99 -1.0 .01 -.00 .01 -.02
199.62 -.00 -.00 .00 .00 -.00 .00 -.03 -.03 .00 -.00 -.02 1.0
234.68 -.12 -.12 -.12 -.12 -1.0 -1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
2201 .00 .00 -.00 -.00 .00 -.00 -.14 -.13 -.19 1.0 .00 .01
2255 -.00 -.00 .00 .00 -.03 .03 .26 .20 .97 1.0 -.70 -.71
2256 1.0 -1.0 -.02 .02 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
2260 .00 -.00 1.0 -1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
2283 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 -.00 .00 -.99 -.99 -.98 -.98 -1.0 -1.0

Table 1.3 Nylon gears without collars

Frequency Linear mode shape Angular mode shape
(Hz) x. x2 x3 X. Xs x6 e. e2 e3 e4 9s e6
0.00 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 -.00 0.0 -1.0 .98 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
5.92 0.0 0.0 .00 .00 0.0 -.01 .97 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
34.03 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 -.14 -.14 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
59.33 .05 .05 -1.0 -1.0 -.01 .14 .06 -.08 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
496.84 .01 .01 -.13 -.13 .07 1.0 -.43 .55 .00 0.0 0.0 0.0
551.64 -.13 -.13 -.13 -.13 -1.0 -1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
2255 0.0 0.0 -.00 -.00 -.00 -.00 -.01 -.01 .00 -.00 -.02 1.0
2256 -.00 -.00 .00 .00 -.00 .04 .14 .08 .20 -1.0 -.00 -.00
2275 .00 .00 -.01 -.01 .03 -.07 -.33 -.11 -.96 -1.0 .68 .69
2275 1.0 -1.0 -.12 .12 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
4080 -.19 .19 -1.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
13930 0.0 0.0 -.04 -.04 -.00 -.28 -1.0 -.72 -.99 -.99 -.73 -.73

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 Table 1.4 Nylon gears with collars
Frequency Linear mode shape Angular mode shape
(Hz) xl x2 x3 ~ Xs x6 e1 ()2 ()3 ()4 Os ()6
0.00 1.0 1.0 -.98 -.98 -.04 .04 -.00 .00 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
5.92 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 -.04 -.04 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
34.01 -1.0 1.0 .04 -.04 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
59.32 .06 -.06 1.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
103.83 .06 .06 -.01 -.01 .44 -.09 1.0 -.98 -.00 0.0 .00 0.0
263.45 .13 .13 .11 .11 1.0 .86 -.15 .14 .00 0.0 0.0 0.0
267.53 -.13 -.13 -.13 -.13 -1.0 -1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
390.31 -.00 -.00 -.04 -.04 -.00 -.32 -1.0 -.70 -.01 -.00 .00 -.00
2255 0.0 0.0 -.00 -.00 -.00 -.00 -.00 -.00 .00 -.00 -.02 1.0
2256 -.00 -.00 .01 .01 -.00 .04 .15 .09 .20 -1.0 -.00 -.00
2261 -.00 -.00 .01 .01 -.03 .07 .33 .11 .96 1.0 -.69 -.69
2261 0.0 0.0 -.04 -.04 -.00 -.28 -1.0 -.72 -.99 -.99 -.73 -.73

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