Analysis of Bifurcations, Rattle and Chaos in a Gear Transmission System

This paper is concerned with the analysis of systems with gears. An experimental set-up is presented to study the complex behavior exhibited by this class of dynamical systems, focusing in particular on all those phenomena associated to noisy operation. Specifically, using an appropriate model of the experimental rig, the coexistence of several periodic orbits characterized by different numbers of impacts per period is shown to be a fundamental mechanism in organizing the system dynamics. The system of interest is characterized by helical involute tooth pairs. The presence of damping due to squeeze oil effects is taken explicitly into account. The aim is to uncover the effects of such damping on the complex behavior exhibited by the system. Preliminary two-parameter bifurcation diagrams will be presented together with phase space trajectories to support the analysis.