Engineering writing on Differential Usage and Working:

When a car makes a turn the outside wheel has to cover more distance than the inside wheel and hence a differential in the speed of these wheels should exist to cover the unequal distance in same time. This differential is placed halfway between the driving wheels, on the front, rear, or both axes. On a plane surface without any turns the free-wheeling planet pinions do not spin at all. At this time the transmission shaft turns the ring wheel, the rotary motion results in the halfshafts, and the angular velocity of the ring wheel drives the velocity of both the wheels (

While driving at the corner, the planet pinions spin with respect to the ring wheel as they turn around the side gears. It makes an unequal distribution of the speed of the ring gear among the two wheels ( Ratios: The speed ratio between the gears depends on the ratio of no. of teeth between the gears w1 x N1 = w2 x N2, w = angular velocity, N = the number of teeth on the gear.

Velocity: Assuming that the two gears are in contact and no slipping happens, v = w1 x r1 = w2 x r2, v = tangential velocity at contact point between the gears r = pitch radius of the gear In differential speed case the speed transmitted by the crown gear is shared by both wheels, thus win = (w1 + w2) / 2

Power: It has been found that each gear mesh has 1%-2% efficiency loss. Hence, we can say that the system will have 94% to 97% efficiency with the three transmission mesh setups. For a 100% efficient system, Pin = Pout1 + Pout2, or Pin = (T1 x w1) + (T2 x w2), Pin = power input from the transmission to the differential Pout = power output from the differential to the wheels. T = torque supplied to each half-shaft.

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