Steady-State Rigid-Body Dynamic Response of Cam-Follower Mechanisms

Abstract The camshaft of a cam-follower mechanism experiences a position-dependent moment due to the force exerted on the cam by the follower, causing the angular speed of the camshaft to fluctuate. In this work, a method to expediently predict the camshaft speed fluctuation is developed. The governing equation of motion is derived assuming that the cam-follower system is an ideal one wherein all members are treated as rigid. An existing closed-form numerical algorithm is used to obtain the steady-state rigid-body dynamic response of a machine system. The solution considers a velocity-dependent moment; specifically, a resisting moment is modeled as a velocity-squared damping. The effects of flywheel size and resisting moment on camshaft speed fluctuation are studied. The results compare favorably with those obtained from transient response using a direct integration scheme. The analytical result also shows excellent agreement with the camshaft speed variation of an experimental cam-follower mechanism. The steady-state rigid-body dynamic response obtained herein also serves as a first approximation to the input camshaft speed variation in the dynamic analysis of flexible cam-follower mechanisms in a subsequent research.