THE MECHANICAL EFFICIENCY OF EPICYCLIC GEAR TRAINS

The analysis of mechanical efficiency constitutes an important phase i n the design analysis of gear drives. The objective of this investigat ion has been the development of a general algorithm for the determinat ion of efficiency in split-power spur-gear trains. The model includes meshing losses only; for a more realistic estimation other sources can be considered separately. The systematic nature of the formulation, b ased on the dual correspondence between the kinematic structure of the gear drive and a labelled graph, allows a ready coding of the efficie ncy analysis in a general computer program. The numerical results are in line with those given by other authors using different methodologie s.