Effect of Mesh Phasing on the Transmission Efficiency and Dynamic Performance of Wheel Hub Planetary Gear Sets

Abstract

Transmission efficiency and refinement of planetary wheel hub gearing system are key design attributes for heavy and off-highway vehicles. Reduction of power loss, directly leading to the development of new generation ECO-axles requires analysis of gear contacting conditions for lubricated conjunctions to determine frictional performance. This is also affected by gear dynamics, which is a prerequisite for assessment of noise, vibration and harshness performance. Therefore, a combined tribo-dynamic analysis is essential. There is a dearth of such holistic analysis, particularly for the case of wheel hub planetary systems. The paper presents such an analysis, which has not hitherto been reported in literature. The inexorable interplay of transmission efficiency and noise, vibration and harshness refinement is demonstrated. The key attributes of noise, vibration and harshness refinement and transmission efficiency can pose contrary requirements and near-optimal conditions can be highlighted by mesh phasing of gearing contacts, thus alleviating the need for more complex gear teeth modifications entailing prohibitive manufacturing costs.