Analysis of Composite Material Spur Gear Under Static Loading Condition

Abstract

Spur gears are the simplest and widely used in power transmission. In recent years it is required to operate machines at varying load and speed. Gear teeth normally fail when load is increased above certain limit. Therefore it is required to explore alternate materials for gear manufacturing. Composite materials provide adequate strength with weight reduction and they have emerged as a better alternative for replacing metallic gears. In this work metallic gears of steel alloy and Aluminium Silicon carbide composite have been manufactured. Composites provide much improved mechanical properties such as better strength to weight ratio, more hardness, and hence less chances of failure. So this work is concerned with replacing metallic gear with composite material so as to improve performance of machine and to have longer working life. Efforts have also been carried out for modeling and finite element analysis of gears using ANSYS 14.0. Composite gears have been manufactured by stir casting, which is economical method. Composite gears offer improved properties over steel alloys and these can be used as better alternative for replacing metallic gears.