| The first and most important objective is the modelling of planetary gear trains and the formulation of their equations of motions using the Vector Network method. The modelling is facilitated by the gear mesh element which was developed during this research. The Vector Network method is applied to the analysis of four different planetary gear trains.;The third objective is to establish algorithms for the implementation of the Vector Network method in computer programs. Although this research proposes only basic algorithms, the problems which will arise in the real implementation have been identified and the methods for solving them have been described. Based on these algorithms, the development of computer codes for the Vector Network application to planetary gear systems can be carried out in a straightforward fashion. (Abstract shortened by UMI.);The second objective is to show the link between five independent graph representations of planetary gear trains. This result shows that the Ravisankar rotational graph, if expanded using certain schemes, produces other graph representations. This will, the author believes, provide the foundation of future research of linking, and possibly unifying, graph-theory-based design and analysis of various gear trains. |
