Influence of sliding friction on the dynamic characteristics of a planetary gear set with the improved time-varying mesh stiffness

Acting as an important internal excitation, sliding friction can cause the vibration and noise of the planetary gear set. In this paper, a dynamic model is developed to study the influence of sliding friction on the dynamic characteristics of the planetary gear set by including the time-varying mesh stiffness (TVMS), sliding friction forces and torques. An improved analytical model is proposed to calculate the TVMS with sliding friction. The explicit analytical expressions of the sliding friction forces and torques are also derived. Three kinds of different models are applied to investigate the influence of sliding friction: (1) the basic model: sliding friction is neglected in the dynamic model; (2) the improved model I: only the sliding friction forces and torques are considered in the dynamic model; and (3) the improved model II: both the influence of sliding friction on the TVMS and the sliding friction forces and torques are introduced into the dynamic model. The planetary gear set with three equally spaced planet gears is applied to analyze the dynamic characteristics under sliding friction. The simulation results show that the dynamic characteristics can be enhanced or disturbed by sliding friction. In the end, the dynamic model is validated by the experiments. Therefore, the influence of sliding friction is non-negligible when investigating the dynamic characteristics of the planetary gear set. The developed dynamic model provides a feasible dynamic research scheme for the planetary gear set with sliding friction.