Simulation of the distortion manipulation of gear wheel teeth by thermal pre‐stressing

Abstract

AbstractAn additional process step in the production process chain of steel components, the thermal induced pre‐stressing, has been developed. This new process step enables the manipulation of the distortion potential of the components before it is released in the hardening process at the end of the process chain. In order to predict the final distortion of the component in dependence on the process parameters of the thermal pre‐stressing a simulation model has been developed, which also includes the final heat treatment (hardening process). The model accounts for the stress and deformation due to the generation of thermal strain as well as those due to phase transformations. A first implementation was done using the geometry of an idealized gear wheel tooth (finger sample). After optimization, with special focus on the calculation time, the application for realistic gear wheel teeth has been implemented.