The article numerically simulates the vibration reduction of a spur gear transmission by using damping particles placed in technological holes designed on the gear itself. The vibration of the gear transmission is reduced based on friction and inelastic collision which eliminates the vibrational energy by the loss during the motion of the damping particles within the technological holes. The kinematic processing of the gear system is analyzed using The Adams software. The displacement acceleration data at the survey site is obtained from the Adams instrument which is valuable for evaluating the vibration level of the gear transmission. The interaction between the damping particles as well as the interaction between the particles with the gear model is simulated using the EDEM software based on the discrete element method. The vibration of the gear transmission is assessed by the acceleration of the driven gear’s center of mass and the acceleration of the ball bearing’s center of mass mounted on the pinion shaft. The results show that the center of mass acceleration is remarkably reduced when particles are used at the rotation speed of 500 rpm and of 700 rpm. However, at the rotation speed of 1000 rpm, the vibration reduction is not much. This can be explained by the high speed and high inertia which cause the damping particles to rotate along with the gear, resulting in almost no collision between damping particles. The study also assesses the vibration reduction efficiency of the gear transmission according to the number of damping particles in each cavity and found that the number of particles accounting for 45.5% to 47.2% of the fill volume would reduce vibration most effectively. The three-millimeter diameter damper particles provide the most effective damping effect, at second place are the particles in four-millimeter diameter, and the least effective are those with two-millimeter diameter.
Keyword
Gear transmission, vibration, particle, discrete element method, multi-body
