A method for the optimal design of split ring dampers for aviation gears

In order to reduce the resonance of aviation bevel gears, designing frictional interfaces for gear systems is an important approach through dissipate vibration energy. One emerging technology uses ring dampers, which are ring-like substructures constrained to move inside a groove at the rim of the gear. Ring dampers are in contact with the rim of the gear due to centrifugal force, and they create nonlinear dissipation by relative motion between the ring and the gear. The analysis of the dynamic response of nonlinear structures is commonly done by numerical integration of the equations of motion, which is computationally inefficient, especially for steady-state responses. In this paper an efficient methodology to predict the effect of the ring damper based on energy method, predicting the dissipated energy by friction force, converting into equivalent damping and to identify the main design parameters affecting the damper performance is proposed. The approach is based on expressing the vibration energy dissipated by nonlinear forces per vibration cycle as equivalent nonlinear damping ratio. This method avoids computing the forced response of the gear with ring damper in the frequency domain, that can increase the efficiency of the ring damper design. The methodology is applied to an aviation bevel gear. The effect of the principal design parameters of the ring damper is identified.