Study on the loading capacity of the tripod type couplings with external contacts

Abstract

The paper presents the study of the contact pressure of the tripod couplings with external contacts, in order to identify the geometries of the contact elements which assure higher loading capacities. The article starts with the study of the literature; there are identified the main conclusions regarding the loading capacity, the life time and the forces which are acting between the elements. For the geometrical modelling of the tripod coupling with external contacts there are considered three variants for the shape of the elements which are in contact: cylinder on cylinder, parabolic on parabolic and hyperbolic on hyperbolic. The pressure contacts are determined by achieving a finite element analysis for all the geometric variants. The finite element analyses is performed for a set of values for the contact force as 100 N, 200 N, 300 N, 400 N and a set of values for the angle between the input and the output shaft as 0°, 10°, 20°, 30°. Finally there are identified conclusions regarding the variation of the contact pressure with the applied normal force and with the angle between shafts; it is identified the variant of the contact geometry which assure the highest loading capacity.