Modeling and Analysis of Unilateral Rigid Impacts in a Universal Joint with Clearance

This study presents the modeling and dynamic analysis of a universal joint (U-Joint) with radial clearance, focusing on the mod-eling of rigid unilateral frictional contacts at the cross-piece and yoke interfaces. Previous literature on the modeling and dynamic analysis of U-Joints neglect the crosspiece inertial characteristics and friction between yoke and cross-piece contact interface in the presence of mechanical clearances. While in studies without clearance the inertial and frictional dynamics can be neglected, they become essential for accurately capturing and understanding the non-smooth dynamics introduced by radial clearance between yoke and crosspiece. The impacts between yoke and crosspiece contact points are assumed to be rigid and characterized using a set-valued impact law based on Signorini’s condition combined with quasi-static LuGre friction law, capturing the complex contact interactions. The numerical simulations demonstrate the significant influence of clearance on the dynamic response of U-Joints, revealing phenomena such as symmetrical double walled impact-induced oscillations, quasi-periodic oscillations, grazing bifurcations, and chaos.