Planet carrier axial stiffness

This stiffness replaces the stiffness that occurs from the connection of both side plates via the struts in the actual planet carrier.

For the determination, the planet carrier should be fixed at the point labeled FIX in all 6 degrees of freedom and be loaded on the other side with a force F in the u-direction, as shown in the image below, in external FEM software:

The axial distance between fixing and application of the load must match the distance between (the center points of) both side plates in the FVA-Workbench model. The force should be chosen to approximately achieve linearization about the operating point in later application. The axial stiffness is then calculated from the quotients of the applied force (in N) and the resulting displacement in the axial direction (in mm).

Note: planetary pins/planetary shafts should not be included in the external FE calculation, as their stiffness is considered within the FVA-Workbench. If they are included in the calculation, the stiffness would be considered twice, thus leading to incorrect results.