Effect of shaft misalignment and friction force on time varying mesh stiffness of spur gear pair

•Gear mesh stiffness for misaligned shaft using potential energy method.•Effect of friction on gear mesh stiffness has been studied.•Effect of misalignment and friction on cracked gear pair has been discussed.

Shaft misalignment and sliding friction between meshing teeth are considered as primary excitation to generate vibrations and extra dynamic loads on transmitting gear teeth. Time varying mesh stiffness (TVMS) is an important parameter to understand the dynamics of meshing gear pair. Potential energy method is one of the most acceptable methods to calculate TVMS. This paper proposes a computer simulation based approach to study the effect of shaft misalignment and friction on total effective mesh stiffness for spur gear pair. The results showed clearly that misalignment and friction affect TVMS of gear pair. The effect of misalignment and friction has also been studied for cracked gear pair and results are discussed.