Experimental study of IERSFDs for vibration reduction of gear transmissions

Integral elastic ring squeeze film damper (IERSFD) is proposed to reduce and isolate the vibration of the gear transmissions. IERSFD offers the performance of a low radial stiffness and high squeeze film damping. This paper presents a mechanical model of an IERSFD elastic damping support and a single-degree-of-freedom vibration isolation system for the gear system. An open single-stage spur gear system was built to experimentally study the vibration characteristics of gear transmissions with rigid supports and with IERSFD elastic damping supports filled with damping fluids of different viscosities. The experimental results show that the IERSFD can effectively reduce the peak vibration acceleration of the gear shafts and can guarantee the smooth operation of the gear assembly over a range of speeds. This work shows that an IERSFD can reduce the shock and vibration of the gears' meshing. It effectively attenuates vibration for most of the gears' frequency components. Within a limited viscosity range, the vibration reduction is more effective with the higher-viscosity IERSFD damping fluids tested.