Effects of Tooth Breakage Size and Rotational Speed on the Vibration Response of a Planetary Gearbox

Abstract

A nonlinear dynamic model for a planetary gearbox with tooth breakage fault is built based on an improved rigid multibody model, and the effects of tooth breakage size and rotational speed on the vibration response of the planetary gearbox are investigated numerically and experimentally. A time-varying mesh stiffness model of planetary gears with tooth breakage fault is established. Dynamic simulations of a healthy planetary gear and seven fault gears with different breakage sizes under several rotational speeds are carried out. Experiments for healthy, half tooth breakage fault and whole tooth breakage fault planetary gears under several rotational speeds are performed. Amplitude analysis, spectrum analysis and envelope spectrum analysis are applied on the numerical and experimental vibration signals. The dynamic model is validated by experiment. The analysis results reveal the resonance and modulation characteristics in the vibration response, and the law of the vibration changes with breakage size and rotational speed.