Modeling and Simulation of Dynamics of Differential Gear Train Mechanism using Bond Graph

In this paper, dynamics of the well-known differential gear train mechanism is presented in a systematic manner using the unified approach of bond graph. The approach offers an alternative to the conventional energy based methods. The dynamics of the mechanism is also quite significant from the point of view of design. Reaction forces and moments at different locations, which are of interest from the design perspective, have been presented. Rigid body dynamics is applied to model each link of the mechanism. The links are constrained suitably based on the nature of interaction between consecutive links. In this work, the code for simulation is directly written from the bond graph, without formally deriving system equations. Simulation results provide insight into the dynamics of the differential mechanism.