An investigation on dynamic characteristics of herringbone planetary gear system with torsional flexibility between the left and right teeth of the sun gear

Herringbone planetary gear system (HPGS) has high power density and complex structure. The torsional flexibility of the left and right teeth of the sun gear is closely related to the dynamic characteristics of the HPGS. In this research, considering the coordination conditions of both sides torsional stiffness and axial slide of the sun gear, a new dynamic model of the HPGS considering the meshing phase difference between left and right teeth of the sun gear is developed based on the lumped-parameter method, and the influence mechanism of torsional stiffness and axial sliding is studied. Moreover, the dynamic parameters and dynamic characteristics of the HPGS are analyzed in the case of varying torsoinal stiffness and axial slide. The results show that the torsional stiffness of left and right teeth and the axial slide of sun gear have significant impacts on the dynamic parameters and dynamic mesh force response. With the increase of the torsional flexibility (the decrease the torsional stiffness), the sun gear and planet gear meshing stiffness and the maximum tooth surface load are both increased on the left side (input side) and decreased on the right side, but the main peak values and peak frequencies of dynamic response on both sides of the s-p meshing pairs decrease significantly. In addition, when the sun gear slides toward the output side axially, meshing stiffness and dynamic mesh force response main peak values decreased on the left side (input side) and increased on the right side, but the main resonance peaks frequencies keep the same.