Dynamic modeling and contact analysis of a cycloid-pin gear mechanism with a turning arm cylindrical roller bearing

• An analysis method for multi-tooth contact in cycloidal-pin gear transmission is proposed.
• This method considers the influence of turning-arm cylindrical roller bearing.
• Load variations in cycloid-pin and bearing roller-raceway contacts are analysed.
• Analysis precision of theoretical model is higher than virtual prototype simulation.

A method for analyzing the contact dynamics of the multi-tooth meshing in a cycloidal-pin gear transmission was proposed considering the influences of the turning-arm cylindrical roller bearing. The dynamic model of the cycloidal-pin gear transmission was established within the framework of the dynamic theory of multi-body system. As for the contact model of the multi-tooth meshing in the cycloidal-pin gear transmission, the tooth profile curve of the cycloid gear was dispersed as a series of points firstly. Then, by cyclically judging whether these points and each pin tooth meet the contact condition, the contact region, the maximum contact depth and the contact load were calculated in sequence. Additionally, the turning-arm cylindrical roller bearing with multi-point contact was modeled using a non-linear contact force system, with consideration of the influence of the bearing kinetic characteristics. The results show that the fluctuations in the kinematic response, the cycloidal-pin teeth contact forces and the bearing roller-raceway contact forces are mainly affected by the multi-tooth meshing characteristics of the cycloidal-pin wheel transmission system. The theoretical model and the analytical results were verified through numerical example and a virtual prototype simulation based on multi-body dynamics theory.