Nonlinear vibration characteristics of spur gear system subjected to multiple harmonic excitations

Due to the complicated working conditions, the gear systems are often subjected to multifrequency excitations in practical situations. This paper is concerned with the nonlinear vibration behaviors of a spur gear pair to excitations that involve multiple frequencies. The spur gear system is described by a typical single degree of freedom model, in which the nonlinear backlash, static transmission error, and multiple harmonic excitations are taken into consideration. With the help of the multi-scale method, the nonlinear frequency-response characteristics of the spur gear system are derived and analyzed. Further, the numerical simulation and the published experimental data are utilized to validate the developed dynamic model of gear pair and to prove the practicality of the analytical method. Results show that the multifrequency excitation-based gear model could be more reliable than the simplified gear model subjected to single-frequency excitation. Thus, the established model in this work would be capable of predicting the nonlinear vibration behaviors of spur gear systems under complicated excitations. The purpose of this study is to provide references that may be of interest to engineers and researchers attempting to handle the nonlinear dynamics of gear systems.