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QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
CLASS/YEAR: 3 MAIN FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENT(s): Distribute power from car transmission shaft to a pair of Left-Right wheels (1ST FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENT) while allowing wheels to rotate at different speeds (SECOND FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENT). DESIGN PARAMETER: Differential
HISTORY: The differential was first invented in China, in the third century, A.D.
GEOMETRY/STRUCTURE:
EXPLANATION OF HOW IT WORKS/ IS USED: Why use a Differential?: When a car turns a corner, one wheel is on the "inside" of a turning arc, and the other wheel is on the "outside." Consequently, the outside wheel has to turn faster than the inside one in order to cover the greater distance in the same amount of time. Thus, because the two wheels are not driven with the same speed, a differential is necessary. A car differential is placed halfway between the driving wheels, on either the front, rear, or both axes (depending on whether its a front-, rear-, or 4-wheel-drive car). In rear-wheel drive cars, the differential converts rotational motion of the transmission shaft which lies parallel to the cars motion to rotational motion of the half-shafts (on the ends of which are the wheels), which lie perpendicular to the cars motion.
How it works: Assuming the wheels do no slip and spin out of control, the following two examples of car motion describe how the differential works when the car is going forward and when it is turning. (see Limited Slip Differential section for wheel slipping).
DOMINANT PHYSICS: Variable v win w1 w2 Description Velocity at contact point between gears Angular Velocity of Crown gear Angular Velocity of one gear/wheel Angular Velocity of other gear/wheel Metric Units m/sec rad/sec rad/sec rad/sec English Units in/sec rev/min rev/min rev/min
Pitch radius of one gear Pitch radius of other gear Power in, from transmission Power out to Left half-shaft Power out to Right half-shaft Torque transmitted to Left wheel Torque transmitted to Right wheel Number of teeth on one gear Number of teeth on other gear
Power: Typically, each gear mesh will have 1%-2% loss in efficiency, so with three different meshes from the transmission shaft to each of the half shafts, the system will actually be 94% to 97% efficient. In order to simplify things, let us assume that the system is 100% efficient; then Pin = Pout1 + Pout2, or Pin = (T1 x w1) + (T2 x w2), where Pin is the power input from the transmission to the differential, and Pout is the power output from the differential to the wheels. T is the torque supplied to each half-shaft, respectively.
LIMITING PHYSICS: Things that might limit or disrupt the behavior of the differential include contact stresses between the gears, which limits the torque transmission, as well as fatigue and losses due to friction between the gears.
LIMITED SLIP DIFFERENTIAL: If one of the wheels attached to a differential decides to hit some ice, for example, it slips and spins with all of the speed the differential has to distribute. Thus, a locking mechanism, or "limited slip differential" allows one wheel to slip or spin freely while some torque is delivered to the other wheel (hopefully on dry land!).
WHERE TO FIND DIFFERENTIALS: In the rear axles of most cars and trucks.
REFERENCES/MORE INFORMATION: http://www.srl.gatech.edu/education/ME3110/design-reports/RSVP/DR4/catalog/gearbas.htm http://www.ul.ie/~gordons/lavelles/diflimed.html Macaulay, David. The Way Things Work, pg. 49