Analysis of involute-curve geometry using position gradients: Application to gear-tooth profile

Abstract

This paper examines using non-rational polynomials to approximate the involute-curve geometry, which is fundamental in the design of gear systems. The parametric form of the involute curve in terms of an involute-angle parameter is first presented. To be able to compare the analytical geometry results and numerical results obtained using the finite-element (FE) method for describing the geometry, the relationship between the involute-angle parameter and the FE spatial coordinate is defined. A new relationship between the involute-curve arc length and the coordinate used in the FE parameterization is also developed. To this end, the involute-curve equation is used to determine the involute-angle parameter at the intersection with circles with arbitrary radii including the gear pitch, addendum, and base circles. The parameter relationship allows defining the nodal position-gradient vectors defined by differentiation with respect to the FE spatial coordinate from involute-curve tangent vector. Two procedures for determining the left involute curve from the right involute curve of the gear tooth are described. In the first procedure, a coordinate transformation based on Rodrigues transformation with axis of rotation defined by the tooth-center line is used; while in the second procedure, the analytical expression of the left involute curve is defined using the gear-tooth thickness at the base circle. A general procedure for determining the position gradients for a given geometry obtained from analytical curves or using imaging techniques is introduced. Such a procedure can be used in case of worn gear teeth that cannot be described by simple functions. A planar rectangular element based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation (ANCF) is used to approximate the gear-tooth geometry. While the involute geometry cannot be described exactly using non-rational polynomials, the analysis and results of this investigation demonstrate that the FE solution leads to accurate geometry results, demonstrating the potential of using the position gradients in future strength-calculation studies.