EAT203 Engineering Mechanics

Dynamics of Geared Systems

Summary
■ Torque transmission
■ Referred inertia
■ Dynamic analysis
■ Referred friction
■ Examples
Dynamics of Geared Systems

■ Although geared systems may be of various types, the basic dynamics are
common.
■ All of the gear trains already studied comprise an input (or driving) gear, an
output (or driven) gear and a number of intermediate gears.
■ To design a gear train it is necessary to know or determine:
■ The load torque on the driven gear.
■ The maximum acceleration of the driven gear.
■ The input power at the driving gear.
■ The angular velocities and accelerations of all the gears.
■ The following analysis does not extend to design of the gear teeth or the
loading on individual teeth, though this would be a necessary part of the
complete design of a gear train.
■ It is concerned only with the dynamics of a gear train, the torque and power
which must be transmitted to overcome the load torque and accelerate all
the components of a gear train.
Torque Transmission (free body analysis)

■ Consider a typical three gear train, comprising gears 1,2 and 3, with inertias I1,
I2, and I3 respectively:
2 TL
TD 3
F2
1

I1 I2 I3

1
F1 2
3
■ TD is the Driving Torque applied to gear wheel (1), the driving gear.
■ TL is the Load Torque on the driven wheel (3).
■ F1 and F2 are the mean forces applied to the driven gears (note that there will
be a reaction force of equal but opposite magnitude applied by the driven
gear on the driving gear).
Torque Transmission contd.

■ If R1, R2, and R3 are the effective radii, i.e. pitch circle radii, for each gear
wheel then:
R11  R2 2 R2 2  R3 3
■ … since, the pitch point velocities must be the same.
■ Similarly for the tangential accelerations:

R1 1  R2 2 R2 2  R3 3

■ Also, the transmitted torques are given by:

T1  F1 R1 T2  F1 R2
T2  F2 R2 T3  F2 R3
■ Hence:
T 1 T2 T3 T 1 T2 T3
  or  
R1 R2 R3 N1 N 2 N 3

(since number of teeth is proportional to pitch circle diameter)

 Referred Inertia

■ It is common practice when analysing geared systems to determine the effective

inertia of all the rotating components of the gear train about a convenient
reference axis or wheel.
■ This may be done by considering the kinetic energy of all the gears in the
system, i.e.
KE  1 2 I 112  1 2 I 2 22  1 2 I 3 32
■ If the effective inertia of the system is Is, it must have the same kinetic energy
when rotating at the angular velocity of the gear to which it is referred, say I1.
Hence:
KE  1 2 I s12  1 2 I 112  1 2 I 2 22  1 2 I 3 32
2 2
1 2  2   3 
 1  I s  I1  I 2    I 3  
2  1   1 
■ Hence, the general solution for the referred inertia of a system with n gears,
referred to gear 1, is:
Is 
 I n n
2
(1)
 12
Dynamic Analysis

■ Consider the transmitted forces F1 and F2 below. The dotted arrows indicate
the reaction forces applied to the driving gears, by the driven gears.

2 TL
TD 3
F2
1

I1 I2 I3

1
F1 2
3
■ Applying Newton’s 2nd Law:
Wheel 1 : TD  F1R1  I11
Wheel 2 : F1R2  F2 R2  I 2 2 (2)
Wheel 3 : F2 R3  TL  I 33
Dynamic Analysis contd.

■ Neglecting any friction loss, the power transmitted by wheel 1 is the power
received by wheel 2 and the power transmitted by wheel 2 is the power
received by wheel 3. Hence:

F1R11  F1R22 and F2 R22  F2 R33 (3)

■ Multiplying equations (2) by 1, 2 and 3 respectively yields::

TD  F1 R1 1  I 111

F1 R2  F2 R2  2  I 2 2 2
F2 R3  TL 3  I 333

■ Summing and substituting from equation (3) for the FR terms gives:

TD1  TL 3  I 1 11  I 2 2 2  I 3 3 3

Dynamic Analysis contd.

(Previous slide) : TD1  TL3  I111  I 2 22  I 3 33

■ From the earlier slide about torque analysis, we know that:
R1  2  2 R 2 3 3 R1  3  3
     
R 2 1 1 R3 2 2 R 3 1 1
22 32
Hence : TD1  TL3  I111  I 2 1  I 3 1
1 1
2 2
3  2   3 
 1  TD  TL  I11  I 2   1  I 3   1
1  1   1 

 TD  TL 3  I s1
 1
3
TL = effective load torque referred to gear 1.
1
n  I  2

In general, for a train of n gears: T  T  I s 1  Is  n n

1
D L
 12 
 
 Examples

■ For the gear pair shown (not drawn to scale!), gear 1

1 2
is the input and gear 2 the output.

1) Gear 1 has 20 teeth and moment of inertia 0.1 kg m2 and gear 2 has 40 teeth
and moment of inertia 0.5 kg m2. It is required to accelerate a load torque of 8
Nm at 2 rad/s2. Calculate the required input torque.
[4.9 Nm]
2) Gear 1 has 100 teeth and moment of inertia 0.8 kg m2 and gear 2 has 25 teeth
and moment of inertia 0.25 kg m2. If the input torque and acceleration are 20
Nm and 2 rad/s2 respectively, calculate the magnitude of the load torque.
[2.6 Nm]


TD  TL n  I s 1 Is 
n n
I  2

1 12
Example

■ A simple gear train consists of three gears A, B and C. Gear A is the input gear,
gear B the idler and gear C the output gear. Data for all three gears is
summarised below:

Gear Number of teeth Moment of inertia (kg m2)

A 20 2
B 40 10
C 80 25

Determine:
a) The magnitude and direction of the output gear velocity when the input
gear velocity is 500 rev/min clockwise.
[125 rev/min CW]
b) The input torque required to accelerate the output at 5 rad/s2,
assuming that the output drives an external load of 6 Nm and there are
no losses. [122.75 Nm]
Example

■ A 5:1 reduction gearbox is to be used to provide an output torque of 60 Nm.

Determine the input driving torque required to accelerate the gear train if the
output shaft is to have an angular acceleration of 150 rad/s2.
[12.23 Nm]
■ The gear train comprises a driving, intermediate and driven wheel that have
the following parameters:

Wheel Radius (mm) Mass (kg) Rad Gyr (mm) I - (kg m2x10-
6)

Driving 10 0.5 7 24.5

Intermediate 20 1.5 13 253.5

Driven 50 6.0 30 5400

Referred Friction Losses

■ All gear trains will have an energy loss, which is used in overcoming friction.
■ The sources of frictional loss include friction in the bearings, friction between
the gear teeth, and churning of the oil used to lubricate both gears and
bearings.
■ If the friction torque acting at each rotating assembly (gear & shaft) is f1, f2,
and f3 etc.

Power loss  f11  f 22  f 33

■ If, as previously, this is referred to input or driving wheel, then the effective
referred friction loss for the system is:

f s1  f 11  f 2 2  f 3 3 You will meet

friction when you
2 3 do the gear lab
 f s  f1  f 2  f3  etc. experiment
1 1
Final question

■ A simple gear train comprises a driving, intermediate and driven gear wheel. It
is to be used to provide an output torque of 50 Nm.
■ Determine the input driving torque required to accelerate the gear train if the
output shaft is to have an angular acceleration of 120 rad/s2. The gear
parameters are given in the table below.

Wheel Radius (mm) Mass (kg) Radius of Gyration

(mm)
Driving 10 0.5 5
Intermediate 20 1.5 12
Driven 50 6.0 30

■ Note: To calculate the inertia I from the mass m and radius of gyration k, use
the following formula:
Be consistent
[Answer: 10.16 Nm]
I  mk 2 with your units!