Analytical study of floating effects on load sharing characteristics of planetary gearbox for off-road vehicle

Uneven load sharing of a planetary gear set is the main cause of preventing the miniaturization and weight reduction of a planetary gearbox. Non-torque loads and carrier pinhole position errors are the main factors that worsen the load-sharing characteristics. However, their effects are seldom analyzed at a system level especially for an off-road vehicle. To make up this gap, some simulation models are proposed to investigate the effects of floating members on the load-sharing characteristics and the strength of a planetary gear set with non-torque load and carrier pinhole position error. When the error is not considered, the mesh load factor converges to unity irrespective of the type and number of floating members and the safety factors for pitting and bending are increased slightly. When the carrier pinhole position error is considered, the mesh load factor dramatically worsens. Although it is improved using the floating members, it does not converge to unity. However, the bending safety factor of the planet gear with the error is increased by 26%. This indicates that the design modification for the original planetary gearbox is needed to satisfy the safety factor requirement, but the problem is solved using only floating members.Y