Verification of the Dynamic Characteristics of an Epicyclic Gear Train Using Epicyclic Gear Train and Torque Apparatus

An epicyclic gear train consists of two gears, mounted so that the center of one gear revolved around the center of the other. A carrier connects the centers of the two gears and it rotates to carry one gear, called the planet gear or planet pinion, around the other, called the sun gear or sun wheel. The planet and sun gears were meshed so that their pitch circles rolled without slipping. A point on the pitch circle of the planet gear traced an epicycloid curve. This paper deals with analysis and verification of dynamic characteristics of an epicyclic gear train using the gear train and torque apparatus. The apparatus was installed in the Engineering lab while taking adequate safety precautions to ensure accurate collection of data. A record of the input, holding and output at various speed of the gear system were taken. At the end of the experiment, gear ratio, speed ratio and torque relationship of the epicyclic gear train were obtained. The experimental results were compared to the analytical data from various calculations using respective governing equations. It was observed that the experimental results were similar to the analytical data obtained for the speed ratio and torque relationship with a maximum 1.11% deviation between the two methods for torque relationship and 1.6% for the speed ratios, which were due to some frictional and mechanical losses in the belt and gear system. This paper provided further evidence that a gear train and torque apparatus is capable of determining and verifying the dynamic characteristics of the epicyclic gear rain.