Numerical and Theoretical Analysis of a Spur Gear Using Composite and Conventional Materials

Abstract

A spur gear is one of the most common forms of precision cylindrical gear. In the industry, reducing the weight of gears while keeping their useful properties has become an even more pressing challenge. As a result, the investigators have made many attempts to reduce the weight of the gears. Despite these efforts, the problem still requires more research. This study presented a spur gear's modeling and finite element analysis using different materials. A three-dimensional spur gear was designed, modeled, and simulated using ANSYS software. Five different materials, including two conventional materials (stainless steel and copper alloy) and three different composite materials, including 50% carbon fibers reinforced in epoxy resin, 1.5% filler containing acetal, i.e., Graphene Reinforced Acetal, and glass-filled polyamide. Composites were fabricated by varying the graphene quantity in Acetal nanocomposites. The spur gear stress was calculated theoretically using the Hertzian equation, and FEM was analyzed using ANSYS 14.0 under limited loading conditions and rotational speed. Although the obtained results showed that both methods were comparable, there was a significant difference between the two methods when 50% carbon fibers reinforced in epoxy resin matrix were used, which is Hertzian analysis was 250.13 MPa. In contrast, this result was reduced up to 152.13 MPa in FEM. The study concluded that among the different presented materials, 50% carbon fibers reinforced in epoxy resin matrix were the optimal material for spur gear fabrication due to their high strength and low density. Hence, the spur gear material can be replaced by 50% carbon fibers reinforced in the epoxy resin matrix.