Power Losses and Mechanical Efficiency of Mechanical and Other Drives

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to submit papers to this Special Issue of Energies on “Power losses and mechanical efficiency of mechanical and other drives”.

In the process of designing many types of mechanical drives, the calculation stage of mechanical efficiency should be taken into account. Similarly, in the prototype-testing phase, the efficiency value should be confirmed experimentally. This especially applies to drives with a series-parallel structure, i.e. with closed circuits of energy streams. In such circuits, the overloading of elements may occur due to the summation of energy streams. The phenomenon of self-locking may also occur, consisting in complete blocking of the flow of power from the input to the output. These phenomena most often occur in complex and coupled planetary gear systems with a large ratio.

This Special Issue aims to present and disseminate the latest methods for determining the efficiency of all types of mechanical drives, especially planetary gear systems.

Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to:

1. Theoretical and/or experimental methods for determining power losses and the efficiency of the following drives:
   a) ordinary gears (cylindrical, bevel, worm) transmissions;
   b) planetary gear systems;
   c) harmonic drives (strain wave gear reducers);
   d) cycloidal (traditional), cycloidal-pin and cycloidal-ball planetary transmissions;
   e) nutating bevel planetary transmissions;
   f) continuous variable transmission (chain, pulley-belt, or toroidal (half or full variators));
   g) roller-screw planetary transmissions;
   h) nut-screw, nut–ball screw, nut-screw harmonic;
   i) others, such as magnetic gears and planetary gears;
2. Power stream flow in multi-flow planetary gear transmissions (e.g., in complex and coupled planetary gear systems).
3. Configuration optimization for improving the mechanical efficiency of mechanical drives.
4. Power split in powertrains with planetary gears and continuous variable transmission.
5. Self-locking planetary gears and other mechanisms (e.g., linkages (crank, yoke)).

Dr. Józef Drewniak
Dr. Tomasz Kądziołka
Dr. Algazy Zhauyt
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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