Abstract
The behaviour of multishaft machinery involving gears with clearances and operating on sliding bearings was investigated experimentally and analytically. The model used represents the gear tooth pair and constitutes the basis for the determination of the response of such mechanical systems. In many applications including turbomachinery, machine tools and diesel engines non-linearities are present due to gear backlash, tooth stiffness and impact damping and they are susceptible to micro-vibrations. The bearing coefficient of friction versus speed and lubricant viscosity was determined experimentally and used in the analysis. A design methodology is presented that can be used to predict the dynamic behaviour of mechanical systems and can be extended to other types of multi-degree of freedom systems with clearances.