Planetary Gear Train Dynamics

A model to simulate the dynamic behavior of a single-stage planetary gear train

A. Kahraman
Senior Project Engineer.
General Motors Powertrain Division,
Romulus Engineering Center,
37350 Ecorse Road,
Romulus, Ml 48174-1376
with helical gears is developed. The three-dimensional dynamic model includes all
six rigid body motions of the gears and the carrier. The generic nature of the
formulation allows the analysis of a planetary gear set with any number of planets.
Planets can be arbitrarily spaced (equally or unequally) around the sun gear. The
model is also capable of handling different planet meshing conditions which are
functions of number of gear teeth and planet positions. The linear time-invariant
equations of motion are solved to obtain the natural modes and the forced vibration
response due to static transmission errors. The proposed model is employed to
describe the effects of the planet mesh phasing conditions on the dynamic behavior
of a four-planet system.

Introduction
In aerospace and automotive applications, transmissions
which include planetary gear sets may have undesirable dy-
namic behavior resulting in noise and unacceptable perform-
ance characteristics. The structure-borne housing vibrations
and noise are known to occur since the housing is excited
primarily by the dynamic bearing forces which are created by
the planetary gear train (PGT). The prediction of dynamic
mesh forces and stresses is required in the design stage in order
to satisfy durability conditions while maximizing the power
density of the gears and reducing noise radiation. Therefore,
a dynamic model of the PGT, which can predict the dynamic
bearing and gear mesh forces, is essential in designing better
transmissions.
The literature on PGT dynamics is quite sparse. Published
experiments on PGT dynamics which include Cunliffe et al.
(1974), Hidaka et al. (1976a,b, 1979) and Hayashi et al. (1986)
investigated several issues concerning three-planet PGT with
spur gears. Meanwhile, the analytical studies of the dynamic
PGT modeling can be considered in three groups. The first
group includes studies which emphasize prediction of the nat-
ural modes and frequencies as a function of the system flex-
ibilities (Cunliffe et al., 1974; Botman, 1976; Antony, 1984).
The second group of studies examined the excitation mecha-
nism, and aimed at finding design rules to minimize the ex-
citations by properly phasing the planets (Seager, 1970; Palmer
and Fuehler, 1977; Toda and Botman, 1979). These two-di-
mensional (2D), mostly torsional or transverse/torsional for-
mulations suggested that some cancellation of excitations acting
on the sun and ring gears in transverse or torsional direction
is possible. Finally, the third group of models investigated the
forced vibration response and the dynamic loads on the gear
meshes of the PGT (Seager, 1970; Balasubramanian, 1983;
Hidaka et al., 1980; Kos, 1981; August and Kasuba, 1986;
Kahraman, 1993 a).
All of the PGT models mentioned above employed 2D for-
mulations which can only consider spur gears. However, es-
Contributed by the Power Transmission and Gearing Committee for publi-
cation in the JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL DESIGN. Manuscript received Sept. 1992;
revised Oct. 1993. Associate Technical Editor: D. R. Houser.
pecially in automotive applications, helical gears, which are
shown to be quite different dynamically from the spur gears
(Kahraman, 1993b), are generally preferred since they are quie-
ter. To the author's best knowledge, only one dynamic model
of a PGT with helical gears available in the literature is given
in a recent paper by Saada and Velex (1992). They used a three-
dimensional (3D) model to investigate mostly the free modal
characteristics as a function of system flexibilities. However,
the excitation cancellation issue is yet to be addressed by using
a 3D formulation for helical gear systems, and many of the
phenomena observed experimentally need to be described
quantitatively. Therefore, the primary objectives of this study
are to develop a generic dynamic model of a planetary gear
train with helical gears, and to perform a parametric study on
the effects of the planet mesh phasing on the dynamic behavior.
Formulation
Physical Model And Assumptions. The single-stage PGT
considered in this study consists of a sun gear and a ring
(internal) gear which are coupled to each other by n planets.
Figure 1 illustrates a PGT with four planets, n = 4. The planets
are mounted on a rigid carrier through bearings and pins, and
the carrier is flexibly supported in all directions. The dynamic
model of the system shown in Fig. 1 employs following as-
sumptions:
(i) Main components of the PGT are considered to be rigid,
assuming that the gear body and carrier elastic deformations
are negligible.
(/;') The gear tooth flexibilities are modeled as linear gear
mesh springs acting on the plane of action (the plane which is
tangent to the base cylinders of the meshing gears) normal to
the tooth surface. Time-varying components of the gear mesh
stiffnesses due to the fluctuation of the number of tooth pairs
in contact are neglected. This was shown to be a good as-
sumption for helical gears (Seager, 1975) as long as peak-to-
peak amplitude of the response is concerned. However, one
should note that force modulation effects of the shaft- and
mesh-frequency components of the excitation, which result in

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 planet-2 (p2)
planet-3 (p3) planet-1 (pi)
1 mesh displacements as
ring (r)
carrier(c)
)lanet
pin
planet-4 (p4)
Fig. 1 A typical PGT with four equally-spaced planets
so-called side bands in vibration and noise spectra, would
require inclusion of the mesh stiffness in a time-varying form.
(Hi) Although the system is subject to the gear backlash
and radial bearing clearances, it is assumed that tooth sepa-
rations do not occur, so that a linear time-invariant model is
sufficient to describe the dynamic behavior of the PGT. This
appears to be the case for the majority of moderately to heavily
loaded helical PGTs.
(iv) Frictional forces arising from tooth sliding motions
are considered to be negligible.
(v) The gear tooth spacing errors and misalignments of
the gears are not included in this study in order to be able to
limit the model and the analysis which follows it to a man-
ageable number of system parameters. However, these types
of errors, which can very well be significant depending on the
application, can easily be incorporated into the proposed for-
mulation.
rately, and then assemble them to obtain the overall system
matrices of a «-planet helical PGT. Dynamic models shown
in Fig. 2 allow each gear or carrier to translate in y, x and z
rP (axial) directions, and rotate, py, px and 6, about these trans-
lation axes. For the sake of convenience, the rotations py, pv
and 8 are replaced by their corresponding translational gear
s
w
yJ = rjPyJ<
z,
'jPxj, j = s, r, c, pi, pn
s-JL where /)• is the base circle radius for a gear and the radius of
the circle passing through planet centers for the carrier. Here,
the variation of ry- is assumed to be negligible so that wyJ and
wXj can be defined as above. A displacement vector qy and a
mass matrix m, corresponding to q, are then defined for each
body j as
<lj=b>jXjZjWyjWxjUj]T,
mj = Diag[mj irij mj I/rj I/rj J/rj]
where mj, Ij and Jj are the mass, the diametral and polar mass
moments of inertia, respectively.
A Sun/Planet Pair, Figure 2(a) illustrates an external hel-
ical gear pair which represents the sun gear (subscript s) mesh-
ing with the planet-/ (subscript pi) located at an arbitrary angle
ipi. The undamped equations of motion of 12 degree-of-free-
dom (DOF) model of the s/pi pair shown in Fig. 2(a) are given
in Kahraman (1993c) in matrix form as (s = sin, c = cos)
0 f/
m9
(1)
0 m„ ks;

c 2 /3cV« - c 2 /3c^,sfc - c/3s/3c^ c/Ss/Jc2^,- - c/3s/3c\k,«\k/ c2/3c^,- '

- c 2 |8si^
cWfc, CiSs/^, - cj8s/3c^,-sik,- c,Ss/3s2^,-
s2/3 - s 2 /3cfe s 2 /3sfc -c/3s/3
k •= k
2
- s /3ci/'s,si/'s/ c/3s|3ci/<Si
symmetric s 2 j8s 2 fe - cj3sj3sfe
c2£ .

(vi) Carrier related errors, namely pinion pin hole position

errors, and gear run-out errors have also been excluded from
this study. Inclusion of such errors requires a nonlinear for-
mulation, which accounts for the gear backlash and the mean -S(3
hi ~~ ^sp^spi \ *) - KSp6Spj\ I)
load, in order to be able to distinguish between the gear mesh - s/3c^,- - s/3c^sj
displacements and the rigid body motions of the gears. We
refer to Kahraman (1993 a) on the effects of gear run-out and s/3s^,-
pin hole position errors. -c/3 \ -c|8
(vii) The effects of the inertias connected to the PGT at
the input and output sides are excluded here considering that Here, /3 is the helix angle, and \j/si = i/-,- - as where as is the
these can only cause resonances at very low frequencies. transverse operating pressure angle. The static transmission
(viii) All n planets are assumed to be identical with the error espj(t), which acts normal to tooth surface together with
same values of mass, inertia, gear profile errors and time- the mesh stiffness ksp, will be defined later.
averaged mean gear mesh stiffnesses. A Ring/Planet Pair. Next, we consider the same planet,
The model is formulated for the most general case so that which is located at i/<;, meshing with the ring gear as shown in
a PGT with any number of planets, which are spaced equally Fig. 2(b). Here, the plane of action of the ring/planet-/
to unequally around the sun gear at any phasing relationship, (r/pi) mesh makes an angle </-„• = i/-,- + ar with the v axis where
can be analyzed. The model is also capable of simulating the ar is the transverse operating pressure angle. The 12-DOF model
case of floating (i.e. not supported radially) sun and ring gears of the r/pi pair shown in Fig. 2(b) is used to describe the
and carrier. coupling between the ring and planet-/ motions. The undamped
The PGT of Fig. 1 is considered as a combination of three equations of motion are derived in matrix form as
sub-systems: (i) a sun/planet pair [Fig. 2(a)], (ii) a ring/planet mr
pair [Fig. 2(b)], and (Hi) a carrier/planet pair [Fig. 2(c)]. First,
0"
W+ in
(2)
we derive the equations of motion for each subsystem sepa- l_ ° nipj 1<W -in

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 c2/3c2i/v; - c2j3c\l/ris\pri c(3sPc\l/ri c/3s/3c ij/ri - c/3s/3ci/<ris\pri — c /3c^„- c/Sci/v;
2 - C|8s(3si/v; - c/3sl3cil/sis\pri
c (3sVri c/3s/3s \/v; c /3si/v,- - c/3s^„-
„2o
s2Pci*ri - s2/3si/v; — c/Ssj8 sjS
Ir/ H-rp€rpi\*)
- s2/3ci/v,si/v, - c/3s/3c^„-
symmetric s2/3sVw c/3sf5s\l/ri - s/3si/v/
-c|3

Here £ rp is the average /•//?;' mesh stiffness and erp,-(0 is the
static transmission error, which will be defined later.
A Carrier/Planet Pair. Each planet is attached to the car-
rier through a pin (shaft) and a bearing. The flexibility of this
pin-bearing assembly defines the coupling between the carrier
and planet motions. Any force on the planet is transmitted to
the carrier through the pin-bearing assembly. Figure 2(c) shows
the model of the carrier/planet-/ (c/pi) pair. The planet is
attached to the carrier in such a way that the zp axis passes
through a circle with radius rc and a center on the zc axis.
Therefore, a transverse motion of the planet can cause both
translations and rotations of the carrier. For instance, in Fig.
2(c), if the planet is moved in the zp direction, the carrier will
move in zc, Pxc and pyc directions. Accordingly, the undamped
equations of motion of the c/pi pair are given in matrix form
as
0 ~ k c 12/
(3)
0 • kci2/ kc22/
in Fig. 2(c), is represented by a diagonal stiffness matrix Kpc
0]. The stiffness sub-matrix kcl2,'
in Eq. (3) is not symmetric since the theoretical rotational
centers of planets and carrier, zPi and Zc, do not coincide as
shown in Fig. 2(c).
The Overall System. Equations (1-3) which define the dy-
namics of individual pairs without including the support flex-
ibilities are combined systematically to obtain the equations
of motion of the overall PGT which consists of a sun gear, a
ring gear, a carrier and n planets (;' = 1 to «). The 3D dynamic
model of the overall PGT system for n = 4 is illustrated in
Fig. 3. Here, the support and planet pin stiffnesses in z, u and
w directions are not shown for clarity purposes. The undamped
equations of motion of the (18 + 6«) DOF model of the helical
PGT are given in matrix form as
MX+[K + Kj]X = F. (4)

/Cyy U 0 0 0 - kyyC^i

kxx 0 0 0 kxxs\pi
&zz - kzzs^; 0
kcii; — )
kw w + kzzc y/j - kzzc\l/jS\l/j 0
symmetric w w
x x ~*~ zzS
V> 0
2 2
- kx>tS >]/j+ kyyC \l/j_

_ If 0 0 0 0 The displacement vector X, and the mass and mesh stiffness

Kyy matrices, M and K, are given respectively as follows
~ kx, 0 0 0
0
0 0 ~kzz 0 o
0 0 - kzzc\pi -ykw o
0 kzzsyjjj 0 -yk„
0
kyyC^i - kxMi 0 0 0
X= M = Diag[ms m„ mp„m, m j , (5a,b)
kc22i = Diag[kyy kxx kzz y ^wyWy y Kwxwx 0]
~y~y /r1 c, k^ V x = kPxPx/rc a n d y = rc/rp. H e r e ,
*PyPy'•
the torsional m o t i o n of the planet-;', upi, is uncoupled from .q c
the carrier motions since the pinion is free to rotate. T h e
stiffness of the planet pin-bearing assembly, which is not shown

Ek- -kji ksn 0 0

( X + k,. + kC22)i • 0 -krl k c i2i

K= (ks + k r + kc22)„ —
*^rn k c i2n (5c)

Ek--
i=i
0

k
symmetric 2 cUi

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 Fig. 3 Three-dimensional dynamic model of a four-planet helical PGT

Solution Methodology. The homogeneous part of Eq. (4)

is considered for the free vibration analysis of the PGT. The
governing eigenvalue problem yields the natural frequencies
ur and the corresponding mode shapes. The displacement vec-
tor X as the response to F is obtained by using the Modal
Summation Technique with modal damping. Once X is com-
puted, the dynamic force created in a j/pi mesh (j = s and
(c) r) normal to the tooth surfaces is defined to be Fjpj(t) ~
Fig. 2 Dynamic models of (a) a sun/planet pair, (b) a ring/planet pair, kjP\PjPi(t) - ejPj(t)] wherePjpi(t) (j = sandr) are the relative
and (c) a carrier/planet pair. gear mesh displacement given as
PsPi(t) = [(y,-yP,) cos \psi+(xPi-xs) sin fai+Us-UpA cos /3
+ l(wxpi-wxs) sin i/si+(wys-wyPj) cos \l/si-zs + zp,] sin /3,
According to Eq. (4), the PGT system no longer has free-free i
support conditions. The sun, ring and carrier bearing stiffness (7a)
matrices KbJ = Diag[kjy kjx kjz kjWy kjWj( kJu], j = s, r and c, Prpi(t) = [(ypi-yr) COS tri+{Xr-Xpj) s i n \j/ri + Ur- Upi] COS 0
form the overall bearing stiffness matrix
+ [(wxr-wxpi) sin ipn+(WyPi-Wyr) cos \l/ri-zr + zpi\ sin 0.
Kb = Diag[Kbs0...0KbrKbc]. (5d) n
(7*)
Finally, the forcing vector F which is given as a function of
sub-vectors f defined in earlier sections as A Parametric Study: Effects Of Planet Mesh Phasing
In previous studies by Seager (1975), Palmer and Fuehrer
(1977) and Toda and Botman (1979), it was reported that the
excitation mechanism of a PGT due to gear profile errors can
Ispl" -frl
differ significantly as a function of the number of gear teeth.
Under static conditions, a cancellation of some components
F=1 (5e) of the total excitations acting on the gears were shown to be
*spn *rn possible by phasing the planet meshes properly. However, these
studies considered two-dimensional formulations under mostly
IX static conditions. The influence of planet mesh phasing on a
3D system (helical PGT) under dynamic operational conditions
0 is yet to be described. Therefore, in addition to demonstrating
several features of the proposed dynamic model, the objectives
Excitations. The forcing vector F, defined by Eq. (5e), is of this parametric study are (/) to derive all possible phasing
a function of the static transmission errors espi(t)and erpi(t) conditions of a four-planet (equally-spaced) PGT with helical
where i = 1 to n. They are represented by the periodic functions gears, (/;') to compare these phasing conditions under both
static and dynamic conditions, and (iii) to identify the natural
s
espiU) = 2 wi smUo>,„t + lZs\l/i+(t>spi) modes' which contribute the forced response as a function of
/=i the phasing relationship of the planet meshes.
N
(6)
The terms lZs\p, and lZr\pj in Eq. (6) define the phase dif-
erp/(t) = X) Grpi sin(/o)mr + /Z^, + <prp/ + l<j>sr) ferences among the meshes of n planets with the sun and ring
gear where Zs and Zr are the number of sun and ring gear teeth
where I4>sr is the phase difference between the /-th harmonics and 1/7 is the planet-/ position angle. Here, \p, = (/ - l)ir/2,
of espi(t) and erpi(t). The terms IZ^/j and iZrrpi define the phase /' = 1 to 4, for an equally-spaced, 4-planet PGT (n = 4). For
relationship among the meshes of the sun and ring gears, re- a given harmonic component /, IZrf, = «/(/ - l)ir {j = s or j
spectively. r). Depending on the value of the phasing index K/, the /-th

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 Table 1 Table 2 Phasing cases for PGT with four equally-spaced planets
(a) Phasing conditions for e j,i(0. i = 1 to 4, j = s and r; m and (: are integers.
IP: in phase; CP: counter-phased; SP: sequentially phased. Case Conditions Numerical Example
si p-rl p-Zp Z,-Zr-Z„
Case *=2*-l e=a{2k-\) i=4k
A I-I-even 28-68-20
I Zj/4 =m IP IP IP
B I-I-odd 28-68-19
n (Z; + 3)/4 = m SP CP IP
C III-m-even 30-70-20
in (Z y + 2 ) / 4 = m CP IP IP D III-in-odd 30-70-19
rv (Z;+l)/4 =m SP CP IP E II-IV-even 29-71-20
F. n-rv-odd 29-71-21
G IV-H-even 31-69-20
(ft) Total excitations acting on gear j (j = s and r) for cases I to TV; H IV-n- odd 31-69-19
e — ejpi (sssin, cscos, wx = rpx, wy = rp , u = r6 )

e Case y or x z wy or Wj u

I 0 4esj3 4ecP Table 3 Example planetary gear train parameters, Zp = 20, Z s = 30 and
2/fc-l 0
Z, = 70
DorlV 2ecP 0 2e%P 0
ID. 0 0 0 0 planet ring
2(2*-l) I 0 4es^ 0 4ecP
Mm] 0.024 0.016 0.056
Hor IV 0 0 0 0
a [degrees] 21.34 21.34
in 0 4esp 0 4ecP
P [degrees] 20 20 20
4fe 1 0 4e&P 0 4ecp
m [Kg] 0.460 0.177 0.588 3.000
HorrV 0 4esp 0 4ecP
Jlr* [Kg] 0.272 0.100 0.759 1.500
m 0 4esp 0 4ecP
11* [Kg] 0.136 0.050 0.389 0.750
ksp=Kp [N/um] 20C1 200
jtal excitations acting on a planet; itjp=*r P . «j ~ a r = a , a n d e spl (r) = .

I Z, y X r w, »>x u

odd even 0 2ec/?sa 2esP are summarized in Table 1(b). If a neutralization of the tor-
0 2espsa 2ecP
odd 2«c/3ca 0 0 sional excitations is used as a design criterion, then case-II or
2e s/3ca 0 0
case-IV appears to be the best since all harmonics except / =
even even 0 2ec/3sa 2esP 0 2espsa leap 4k are canceled out torsionally. The second best torsional neu-
odd 0 2ecpsa 2esP 0 2espsa 2ecp tralization condition occurs in case-Ill where all odd harmonics
are canceled. No torsional neutralization takes place in case-
I since all eJPj(t) are in phase. However, these design guidelines
are valid only for the special case when the PGT is assumed
harmonic terms of eJpi{t) can have one of the three phase to be a purely torsional which is not the case here. Although
relationships: cases II and IV are superior to cases I and HI in terms of the
cancellation of the excitations in torsional direction, at the
same time, they cause large transverse and rotational excita-
(/) In-phase: K( = 2. The /-th harmonics of periodic func- tions for / = 1, as it is evident from Table 1(b). Therefore, it
tions ejpi(t) are in phase. is not possible to decide which one of the cases I to IV is the
(;7) Sequentially phased: KI = 1/2. Adjacent planet meshes best design for a 4-planet PGT with helical gears by simply
are ±7r/2 radians out-of-phase. looking at the excitations under static conditions. The dynamic
(Hi) Counter-phased: K/ = 1. Diametrically opposed meshes behavior of the PGT must also be investigated for each mesh
are in phase, but adjacent planet meshes are ir radians out-of- phasing case.
phase. In addition, since there are (Zp + l)/2 tooth pitches between
The definitions sequentially phased, counter-phased and in- the s/pi and r/pi meshes, where Zp is the number of planet
phase have been adapted from prior researchers in their attempt teeth, the /-th harmonics of espi(t) and erp!(t) will be either in
to describe the phasing relationships which exist among various phase (I4>sr = 0) or -K radians out-of-phase (l<f>sr = ir) depending
PGT configurations. However, it must be pointed out that on / and the number of planet teeth Zp. The total excitations
these definitions, which are used here primarily for compati- acting on the planet are summarized in Table 1(c) for both Zp
bility purposes, are meaningful when only the torsional com- = odd and Zp = even.
ponents of the excitations are taken into account, and may be In summary, the sun and ring gear meshes satisfy one of
misleading when a 3D formulation is considered. the cases I to IV and Zp is either even or odd. Hence, 24
For the equally-spaced, 4-planet PGT considered here, four combinations of PGT phasing are mathematically possible.
different phasing cases for the sun or ring gear meshes exist However, only eight of these combinations satisfy the con-
depending on the value of Z,- 0' = s or r) as listed in Table dition for equally-spaced planets: (Zs + Zr)/4 = m,m integer,
1(a). In case-I, Z / 4 = in, m integer, and ejpj(t), i = 1 to 4; as listed in Table 2 for a specific example PGT configuration
are in phase regardless of /. In case-II and case-IV, (Zy + having a speed ratio range from 3.22 to 3.45. We also note
3)/4 = m and (Zj + l)/4 = m, respectively. Accordingly, the that four of these eight conditions are physically possible only
/-th harmonics of ejpi(t) are sequentially phased for / = odd, if the operating pitch circles of the planets are not the same
counter-phased for / = 2 (2fc - 1), and in phase for / = 4/c, for the s/pi and r/pi meshes since they do not satisfy the
where k = 1,2, 3 Finally, in case-Ill where (Zy + 2)/4 condition: (Zr - Zs)/2 = Zp. Hence, the nominal transverse
= m, the even /-th harmonics are in phase and odd /-th har- operating pressure angles of the s/pi and r/pi meshes must
monics are counter-phased. necessarily be unequal; i.e., as jt- ar.
The total excitations acting on the sun gear in cases I to IV The example PGT given in Table 3 with four equally-spaced

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Fig. 4 Maximum dynamic gear mesh forces Fsp/(kspeap) for the phasing
cases listed in Table 2; (a) cases A to D, (6) cases E and F
planets will be used in order to compare the phasing cases listed
in Table 1 under dynamic conditions. The following values are
assumed for bearing stiffnesses: kry = krx = 10000 N//mr, kcy
= kcx = 100 N/ftm, kyy = kxx = 100 N/^m, and ksy = ksx
= 0.0001 N//xm (floating sun gear). All axial and rotational
support stiffnesses are assumed equal to 1000 N/^m. Gears
are assumed to be concentric (no run-out errors). Profile errors
are taken to be identical at s/pi and r/pi meshes; i.e., espl =
erpt. Further, the average mesh stiffnesses and the loaded static
transmission error excitation, which is a function of kinematic
profile errors and the elastic tooth deflections, are assumed to
remain the same for each phasing condition. Only the first
four harmonics of s/pi and r/pi are included here (/ < 4) with
all espi = esp a n d erpt = erp (esp = erp a n d (j>spl = <prpi). In Fig.
4, the dimensionless dynamic gear mesh forces, Fspi/(kspesp),
i = 1 to 4, are plotted against the mesh frequency wm for the
phasing cases A to F of Table 2. These curves were obtained
by solving Eq. (4) with five percent modal damping and unity
valued transmission error excitation for all four harmonics.
Cases G and H are not included in Fig. 4 since they are very
similar to cases E and F. The following observations are worth
noting from Fig. 4.
(;') The maximum dynamic gear mesh forces are quite dif-
ferent for each phasing case. The frequencies and the ampli-
tudes of the resonance peaks in Fig. 4 are significantly altered.
This phenomenon can be explained as follows. In each phasing
case, only a few distinct natural modes of the system contribute
to the forced response. For instance, in Figs. 4(a), the natural
modes having frequencies at wm = 12032, 7900 and 3116 Hz
are the only ones excited for phasing case A. One of these
modes is illustrated in Fig. 5(a). These are axisymmetric (in-
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(c) 7895 Hz
Fig. 5 Different types of mode shapes; (a) an in-phase mode, (b) a
counter-phased mode, (c) a sequentially phased mode.
phase) modes which can only be excited by in-phase harmonics
of the excitations. Similarly, in case C of Table 2, odd har-
monics of the excitations, both being counter-phased (/ = 1
and 3), bring the system to resonance at ajm = 9840 Hz. As
illustrated in Fig. 4(b), this corresponds to a counter-phased
mode in which planet pairs p\/p3 and p2/p4 have identical
displacement amplitudes, but the phase varies depending on
position with respect to the sun gear (sun gear does not move
torsionally). Finally, the second and fourth harmonics of espi{t)
and erpi(t) excite the in-phase modes, since the phasing rela-
tionship for / = 2 and 4 is in-phase type for case C. This
relationship between the phasing condition of the /-th har-
monics and the particular modes excited becomes more clear
when each harmonic term of espi(t) and erpi(t) (I = 1 to 4)
are considered separately as shown in Fig. 6(a) for case C.
Here, it is evident that odd transmission error harmonics excite
the counter-phased modes while even harmonics excite the in-
phase modes. As a final example, we consider the response
due to loading of the type provided by case F, as shown in
Fig. 4(b). Here, sequentially phased modes, like the one shown
in Fig. 5(c), contribute to the forced response, as illustrated
in Fig. 6(b). At these repeated modes (i.e. two modes at the
same frequency), the motions of one diametrically opposed
planet pair (pl-pi orp2-p4) dominates the response. In general,
the l-th harmonics of the periodic transmission errors of a
PGT, which are in-phase, counter-phased or sequentially
phased, excite only the respective natural modes of same type.
In Table 4, natural frequencies below w,„ = 15000 Hz cor-
responding to the example system are listed and classified ac-
cording to their mode shapes. One reasonable question is why
only a few of these modes contributed significantly to the mesh
force response spectra of Fig. 4. The reason is that the relative
gear mesh displacements at these unexcited modes are of neg-
ligible amplitude and consequently transmission errors cannot
adequately excite mesh force peaks at these frequencies. The
same phenomenon has been reported by Kahraman et al. (1991,
1993) on spur and helical gear pairs with fixed centers.
It is also concluded from Fig. 4 that the benefit of phasing
the planets properly is the greatest at higher frequencies, say
w,„ > 6000 Hz for the example system presented here. There-
fore, the issue of planet mesh phasing appears to be especially
critical for PGTs which operate at very high speeds such as
Transactions of the ASME

8 T :
- (b) ,-7685/2
" 12032/4 :'|
7895/3 1 J)
: 7685
Fig. 6 Individual contributions of the first four harmonic terms of the
profile errors to the dynamic mesh force plot for (a) Case C and (b) case
F bers on the dynamic load sharing of the planet meshes, and
Table 4 Natural modes of the example PGT. IP: in phase; CP: counter-
phased; SP: sequentially phased
Mode Type wr [Hz]
Repeated, SP modes 643, 1832, 3902, 7895,10228, 14712
IP modes 3116, 3704,7900, 8407, 12032
CP modes 3627, 7625, 9840
aircraft turbine engines (Botman, 1980). Meanwhile, in some
applications, gears and the carrier can have their own structural
resonances at such high frequencies. If such resonances exist,
validity of the fundamental assumption of "rigid bodies" be-
comes questionable within such frequency ranges. Ultimately,
a deformable body formulation, which is included in our future
work, should solve such potential problems.
(<7) The maximum dynamic gear mesh forces at the meshes
of the sun gear (and also ring gear), / = 1 to 4, are equal for
cases A to D as shown in Fig. 4(a). Alternatively, the sun (and
ring) meshes act in pairs s/pl-s/p3 and s/p2-s/p4 (r/pl-r/p3
and r/p2-r/p4) for cases E and F. Further, the dynamic forces
acting on a given pair are different than forces acting on the
other respective pair, as shown in Fig. 4(b) for the sun and
ring meshes, respectively. Therefore, one planet pair is subject
to larger dynamic loads than the other, suggesting that cases
E and F might be inferior to cases A to D in terms of dynamic
load sharing characteristic. However, the overall maximum
Journal of Mechanical Design
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dynamic loads can still be lower for cases E and F than for
cases A to D.
As a final observation from Fig. 4, axial and rotational
(about x or y axis) motions of gears are not involved signifi-
cantly for the range of uim considered. This provides an ex-
planation for the mode shapes listed in Table 4 and illustrated
in Fig. 5 which are all presented in the transverse plane of
gears. The support stiffnesses in z, wy and wx directions were
intentionally chosen to be nearly 100 times larger than the
mesh and radial support stiffnesses in the example case in order
to simplify the analysis of the results. In general, motions of
the PGT components in all directions are coupled to each other,
and should contribute to the overall dynamics at different levels
depending on the values of respective support stiffnesses.
In summary, a complete cancellation of gear profile error
excitations of a PGT with helical gears is not possible under
either static or dynamic conditions, and therefore, no unique
phasing condition is absolutely superior to others regardless
of the gear and structural properties of the system.
Concluding Remarks
In this study, a three-dimensional, generic model to simulate
the dynamics of a single-stage helical planetary gear set has
been developed. The periodic excitation functions have also
been derived in terms of functional mesh stiffness and static
transmission error parameters which are assumed to be known
from a static-elastic analysis. This model has been employed
in the present study to investigate the effects of the planet mesh
phasing on the overall dynamic behavior of a four-planet PGT
system quantitatively. It has been shown that a complete can-
cellation of the transmission error excitations is not possible
under either static or dynamic conditions when higher har-
monics of the excitations are also considered.
Ongoing research includes the investigation of unequally-
spaced planets, determination of optimum number of planets
for the best dynamic behavior, effects of floating central mem-
formulation of a deformable body model. An experimental
study in order for the validation of the dynamic model is also
underway.
References
Antony, G., 1984, "Untersuchung des Dynamiches Verhaltens von Planeten-
getrieben," Ph.D. Dissertation, RWTH, Aachen, Germany.
August, R., and Kasuba, R., 1986, "Torsional Vibrations and Dynamic Loads
in Basic Planetary Gear Systems," ASME Journal of Vibration, Acoustics,
Stress, and Reliability in Design, Vol. 108, pp. 348-353.
Balasubramanian, B., 1983, "DynamischeLastverteilunginPlanetensatzen,"
Ph.D. Dissertation, Universitat Karlsruhe, Germany.
Botman, M., 1976, "Epicyclic Gear Vibrations," ASME Journal of Engi-
neering for Industry, pp. 811-815.
Botman, M., 1980, "Vibration Measurements on Planetary Gears of Aircraft
Turbine Engines," Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 17, pp. 351-357.
Cunliffe, F„ Smith, J. D., and Welbourn, D. B., 1974, "Dynamic Tooth
Loads in Epicyclic Gears," ASME Journal of Engineering for Industry, pp.
578-584.
Hayashi, Y., Li, X., Hayashi, I., Endou, K., and Watanabe, W., 1986,
"Measurement and Some Discussions on the Dynamic Load Sharing in Planetary
Gears," Bulletin of the JSME, Vol. 29, pp. 2290-2297.
Hidaka, T., andTerauchi, Y., 1976a, "Dynamic Behavior of Planetary Gear—
1st Report, Load Distribution in Planetary Gear," Bulletin of the JSME, Vol.
19, pp. 690-698.
Hidaka, T., Terauchi, Y., and Ishioka, K., 1976b, "Dynamic Behavior of
Planetary Gear-2nd Report, Displacement of Sun Gear and Ring Gear," Bulletm
of the JSME, Vol. 19, pp. 1563-1570.
Hidaka, T., Terauchi, Y., and Nagamura, K., 1979, "Dynamic Behavior of
Planetary Gear-6th Report, Influence of Meshing-Phase," Bulletm of the JSME,
Vol. 22, pp. 1026-1033.
Hidaka, T., Terauchi, Y., and Fujii, M., 1980, "Analysis of Dynamic Tooth
Load on Planetary Gear," Bulletin of the JSME, Vol. 23, pp. 315-323.
Kahraman, A., and Singh, R., 1991, "Error Associated with a Reduced Order
Model of a Spur Gear Pair," Journal of Sound and Vibration, Vol. 149, pp.
495-498.
SEPTEMBER 1994, Vol. 116 / 719
 Kahraman, A., Ozguven, H. N., Houser, D. R., and Zakrajsek, J., 1992,
"Dynamic Analysis of Geared Rotors by Finite Elements," ASME JOURNAL OF
MECHANICAL DESIGN, Vol. 114, pp. 507-514.
Kahraman, A., 1993a, "Load Sharing Characteristics of Planetary Trans-
missions," Mechanisms and Machine Theory, in press.
Kahraman, A., 1993b, "Effect of Axial Vibrations on the Dynamics of a
Helical Gear Pair," ASME Journal of Vibration and Acoustics, Vol. 115, pp.
33-39.
Kahraman, A., 1993c, "Dynamics of a Multi-Mesh- Helical. Gear Train,"
ASME JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL DESIGN, in press.
Kos, M., 1981, "Bewertung der Ausgleichssysteme in Planetengetrieben mit
Dynamischen Kraftbeiwerden," Konstruction, Vol. 33, pp. 91-96.
Palmer, W. E., and Fuehrer, R. R., 1977, "Noise Control in Planetary Trans-
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Contents
Quality and Productivity
• Product Planning and Quality
• The Duties of Design Engineers and Production
Technicians
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