Planetary Reduction Gearbox
Inigo Martinez Lopez
Mechanics of Airframes Study Project
June 10th, 2019
Introduction
Planetary gearboxes are widely used in different types of machines. They have an input
and an output, which depending on the configuration, the gearbox will be able to increase, reduce
or reverse the input motion. In this specific case the gearbox reduces the rotational speed. This is
done, by having the ring gear in a fixed position and the sun gear as the input.
In case that the rotational speed is too big or the space is reduce, a multi stage planetary
gearbox can be made. In this case the total reduction can be divided into several stages. This
would help to reduce the size of the gears so they can still handle the loads.
In the case of aircraft engines, reduction gearboxes are used in turboprop and in some
turbofan engines. In the case of the turboprop engines, the propellers need to rotate at a slower
speed in order to achieve a good efficiency. This is done by a reduction gearbox located in the
engine. For example, the TV7-117S turboprop engine has a two stage gearbox, which reduces the
input rotational speed of 17,500rpm to 1,200rpm.
Characteristics
For this project, a two stage planetary gearbox was designed. The gearbox was done
taking some parameters that are useful and recommended in order to create a planetary gearbox.
In both stages, the ring is held stationary in order to reduce the input motion. Both stages are
made up of: 1 ring gear, 1 sun gear, 3 planet gears and 1 planet carrier.
The material that was selected for this gears is SAE 4340. This is an alloy steel with
majority contents of nickel, chromium and molybdenum. This metal has a good ductility,
strength and can be machinable. This are some of the reasons it is commonly used to make gears.
Also, the chosen gears are helical gear with a helix angle of 20º. They were adopted because they
can support bigger loads than spur gears, and because for this type of application they reduce the
noise when the gearbox is operating.
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In the next table, the dimensions and number of teeth are listed. The table contains data
from both stages.
First Stage Second Stage
Ring Gear outside diameter 339.751mm 337.432mm
Ring Gear pitch diameter 347.530mm 342.381mm
Sun Gear outside diameter 76.666mm 53.567mm
Sun Gear pitch diameter 69.506mm 46.852mm
Planet Gear outside diameter 148.620mm 156.324mm
Planet Gear pitch diameter 139.012mm 147.765mm
Planet carrier center to center 104.259mm 97.3085mm
Sun gear teeth 18 13
Planet gear teeth 36 41
Ring gear teeth 90 95
Nr
From this data it can be shown that from the formula GR
! =1+ the gearbox
Ns
reduction ratio was obtained. Which in this case for the first stage is 6:1, and for the second stage
is 8.3:1. So if an input of 17,500rpm is considered, the output from the first stage will be
2916.66rpm. The output from the first stage becomes the input to the second stage, which will
generate an output of 350.98rpm.
From this it can be said that the overall reduction ratio is 49.8:1. This ratio can be
considered as a high reduction, because typically the engines requires a much lower reduction
ratio.
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Kinematic Calculations
In order to obtain the kinematic data for the gearbox, the parameters from the TV7-117S
turboprop engine were used. This means that the input speed to the first stage is 17,500rpm.
From this all the corresponding data can be obtained with the information from the previous
table.
According to the specifications of the TV7-117S turboprop engine the maximum output
torque produced would be 23,840N.m. In order to obtain the input torque to the first stage, the
calculations were done in a backwards way. First, the input torque to the second stage was
obtained, which is also the output torque for the first stage. This process was repeated in order to
obtain the input torque for the first stage.
FIRST STAGE
Sun radius rs =0.034753m, Planet radius rp =0.069506m, Carrier length rc =0.104259m
Sun input ωs =17,500rpm
• Sun gear speed
V
! s = ωs * rs → !Vs = (17500r pm)(0.034753m) = 608.1775r a d
• Train Value
Ns * Np 18 * 36
T
! value = = = 0.2
Np * Nr 36 * 90
• Planet gear rotational speed
Nr 90
!ωp = ωc = 2916.66r pm = 7291.65r pm
Np 36
• Carrier rotational speed
Nr − Tvalue * ωs 0 − 0.2 * 17500r pm
! c=
ω = = 2916.66r pm
1 − Tvalue 1 − (−0.2)
• Stage Ratio
Input 17500r pm
Rat
! io = = =6
Out put 2916.66r pm
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• Input Torque
Tout * ωout −2868.81N . m * 2916.66r pm
T
! in * ω1 + Tout * ω2 = 0 → Tin = − =− = 478.13N . m
ωin 17500r pm
SECOND STAGE
Sun radius rs =0.023426m, Planet radius rp =0.0738825m, Carrier length rp =0.0973085m
Sun input ωs =2,916.66rpm
• Sun gear speed
! s = ωs * rs →
V !Vs = (2916.66r pm)(0.023426m) = 68.32r a d
• Train Value
Ns * Np 13 * 41
T
! value = = = 0.1368
Np * Nr 41 * 95
• Planet gear rotational speed
Nr 95
! p = ωc
ω = 350.98r pm = 813.24r pm
Np 41
• Carrier rotational speed
Ns − Tvalue * ωs 0 − 0.1368 * 2916.66r pm
ω
! c= = = 350.98r pm
1 − Tvalue 1 − (−0.1368)
• Stage Ratio
Input 2916.66r pm
!Rat io = = = 8.3
Out put 350.98r pm
• Input Torque
Tout * ωout 23840N . m * 350.98r pm
T
! in * ω1 + Tout * ω2 = 0 → Tin = − =− = − 2868.81N . m
ωin 2916.66r pm
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Gearbox Drawings
The red gear is the input for the 1st stage and the grey carrier is the output of the 2nd stage.
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Conclusion
Planetary gearboxes have a big presence in machines due to the advantages and utilities
they offer. This is one of the reasons that planetary gearboxes are carefully designed and studied.
There is a significant amount of research done in order to get to know them and obtain the best
performance out of them. Which depending on the application they can become very complex to
understand.
After doing this project my knowledge about gearboxes and gears was significantly
increased. Although this is not a precise model as the ones used in real applications, the concept
still remains the same. Which still has its level of complexity, specially in the CAD design.
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References
• A. N. (2008, January). Application of Gears with Asymmetric Teeth in Turboprop Engine
Gearbox [PDF]. Gear Technology. URL: [Link]
[Link]
• AlloySteel 4340. (2018, February 28). Retrieved May, 2019, from [Link]
alloy-steel-4340/
• The Online Materials Information Resource. (n.d.). Retrieved May, 2019, from http://
w w w . m a t w e b . c o m / s e a r c h / D a t a S h e e t . a s p x ?
MatGUID=129aba095dd64413981fd979ed2ee6b1&ckck=1
• Myszka, D. H. (2012). Machines and mechanisms: Applied kinematic analysis. Upper Saddle
River: Pearson Prentice Hall.