Analytical modeling of spur gear corner contact effects

Abstract

Corner contact, which happens due to the tooth flexibility when subjected to a heavy load, is normally neglected in the dynamic analysis of gear transmission systems with profile modifications when using analytical methods. To fill this gap, an analytical method to study corner contact effects on the mesh stiffness, static transmission error and the dynamic response of a spur gear pair with tip relief is introduced. In order to stress the significance of corner contact effects on gear dynamic analysis two types of gear mesh stiffness model are differentiated, and three types of commonly used single degree of freedom (SDOF) models are generalized. Comparisons with experimentally measured results presented in the literature shows that corner contact effects should not be neglected in the gear dynamic analysis when no or an insufficient amount of profile modification is applied. Detailed comparisons of the steady state responses predicted by the proposed models are made by introducing different amounts of linear tip relief into the analysis, and the advantages and disadvantages of each model are stated.