COUPLED LATERAL-TORSIONAL VIBRATION OF A GEAR-PAIR SYSTEM SUPPORTED BY A SQUEEZE FILM DAMPER

This paper presents a model and analysis of the coupled lateral-torsio nal vibration of a gear-pair system supported by a squeeze film damper (SFD). Steady state dynamic characteristics of the system are conside red First, insight is gained into the dynamics of the system and the m odel is partially verified by investigating the linear characteristics of a specific configuration. Then, the response of the nonlinear syst em is examined for rotating unbalance excitation. The trigonometric co llocation method (TCM) is employed to obtain steady-state responses, w hile direct integration is used to verify these results. The sensitivi ty of the system to lateral-torsional coupling is examined by comparin g steady response with and, without this effect. The response sensitiv ity to various system parameters, e.g., gear mesh stiffness and dampin g, SFD clearance to diameter ratio, and gear mass unbalance, is also s tudied. As expected, the numerical results reveal that the lateral mot ion dominant modes may be significantly attenuated by using an SFD, wh ile the torsional motion dominant modes are sensitive to gear mesh dam ping. The strong nonlinearity of the SFD is responsible for complex dy namic response in some frequency ranges.