The Rotation of Logarithmic-Spiral-Shaped Gears

Adam Jae March 8, 2013

Abstract This paper dissects the rotation of spiral-shaped gears, their interesting properties, their general rates of change, and their unique use in mechanical engineering.

The System

Two identical gears are placed tangent to one another, their centers separated by a constant distance. Each gear has a spiral curve, and for this investigation, we will assume the spiral to be logarithmic. This is an example of a gear with an uneven surface, often called a cam. An uneven surface gives a gear interesting properties, so cams are very common in mechanical engineering. This will be investigated more thoroughly later. A visualization of the system can be seen here. (Although the camerawork is shaky, the system still behaves normally.)

Representing the Gears

Before we can investigate the movement of this system, we need a compact, mathematical way to represent each gear. Because of the nature of gears and cams, we choose to represent this specic gear with a logarithmic spiral, of the polar equation: r() = h/2 (1) This polar equation describes a cam of a logarithmic spiral containing the points r(0) = 1 and r(2) = h. Note that we restrict rotation to that of 2 radians to ensure that the system can be represented physically with some key properties.

Gear Rotation

When two gears rotate, their tangent surface length displacement must be equal. (This is why rotating one large gear and one small gear results in a disparity of angular velocity.) Naturally, we now want to represent tangent surface length displacement as a function of the rotation of each cam. The general length of a polar function is given by:
b

r2 + (dr/d)2 d
a

(2)

For our previously determined polar equation, the total length is simply:
2

h/ +
0

h/2 ln h 2

(3)

However, we dont need the total length of the cam, but actually the tangent surface length displacement for an arbitrary amount of rotation. Since two tangent gears rotate in opposite directions, the integrals of displacement for both gears will be similar, but slightly dierent (Here we use and for the rotations of the two gears respectively):

h/
0 2

h/2 ln h 2 h/2 ln h 2

d
2

(4)

h/ +

(5)

It should now be very clear that since the two tangent gears rotate in opposite directions, they must sum to the total surface length of the gear when their amounts of rotation are equal. Evaluating the above integrals yields: (h/2 1) (h h/2 ) 4 1 + 2 2 ln h (6)

1 4 + 2 (7) 2 ln h Finally, we want to relate the rotations of the gears, and , in one concise equation. We know that tangent surface length displacement must be constant between the two gears, so:

1 1 4 4 + 2 = (h h/2 ) + 2 (8) 2 2 ln h ln h The radical factor is the same in both expressions, so the relationship is simply: (h/2 1) h/2 1 = h h/2 Or perhaps, the more convenient version: h/2 + h/2 = h + 1 (10) (9)

Angular Velocity

We have now established a relationship between the rotation of each gear. The natural follow-up question is of course that of the angular velocity of each gear. Simple implicit dierentiation yields (remember that h is a constant!): d /2 d /2 h + h =0 dt dt (11)

Uses in Mechanical Engineering

This system of gears has many interesting properties that are especially useful in mechanical engineering. The relationship we have determined can be graphed as a function, but there is one important restriction we must remember to enforce. We initially limited the gears rotation from 0 to 2 so that it would be physically representable without overlapping itself. However, this limitation also makes the gears periodic, of period 2. When we graph this function with the restriction, it is visible that every period ends with a sharp decline. This is an important quality because this system of gears can be used to create a periodic null in rotation. As long as one gear can maintain a constant angular velocity (They cannot both be constant!), the output of the other gear will have a periodic null. This mechanical device is important to creating this specic signal, used commonly in clocks and other repetitive machinery. In the previous .gif, it is evident that when one gear moves with constant angular velocity (Although it may not seem so, the bottom gear has constant rotation.) the other gear rotates in a pattern dictated by our previously discovered equations.