Lateral Excitation of a Rotating Shaft Driven by a Universal Joint With Friction

Abstract

The relative angular motion between a cross-pin and yokes of a universal joint gives rise to viscous and Coulomb’s frictions. A driven rotating shaft resultingly undergoes a moment caused by these frictions. This moment about a joint center has a component perpendicular to the driven shaft, and might be responsible for introducing lateral vibrations of the driven shaft. Analysis of these excitation components, supplemented with experimental results, confirms that excitations due to viscous friction enlarge with an increase in the joint angle, but are extremely small in practice, and that the excitations due to Coulomb’s friction are independent of the joint angle.