Measurement of FRFs of coupled geared rotor system and the development of an accurate finite element model

An experimental study has been attempted to find out the effect of gear pair contact on the modal behaviour of an actual geared rotor system mounted on rolling element bearings. This is important as gear pair contact considerably affects the dynamic characteristics of the system. Frequency response functions of the uncoupled and coupled geared rotor systems have been measured to find out the effect of gear pair contact on the natural frequencies of the system. Moreover, a finite element model of the geared rotor system has been developed by modelling the shaft continuum, bearing coefficients and gear pair contact (using mesh stiffness and damping). Non-proportional viscous damping has been considered in modelling bearing and mesh damping coefficients. The results obtained after numerical simulation of finite element model are validated with the experimental results to check the accuracy of the developed finite element model.