Forced Torsional Vibration of a Two Degrees of Freedom System with a Clearance : 1st Report, Experiment and Simulation

Using a pair of gears in mesh, an experiment is made on the forced torsional vibration of a two degrees of freedom system with a clearance between two rotating bodies. The experiment shows the existence of a phenomenon that two bodies collide with each other multi-times at one side of the clearance during a half cycle of the forced motion. It is suggested that this phenomenon does not occur in a single degree of freedom system but occurs in a system with at least two degrees of freedom. Effects of the dimension of the clearance and the average angular velocity on the strength of the impact force are investigated. A computer simulation is made. The results of the simulation show good qualitative agreements with those of the experiment.