On the Influence of Force Distribution and Boundary Condition on Helical Gear Stiffness

The gear stiffness has a direct influence on the dynamic response of transmission systems that include a gear box, the stiffness also controls the load distribution among the teeth in mesh. The stiffness of a gear tooth varies non-linearly as the contact line with the meshing gear tooth moves along the surface of the tooth and the resulting meshing stiffness also includes discontinuities. The stiffness estimation for helical gears can only be done using full 3D analysis contrary to spur gears where 2D often suffice. Besides the usual gear geometry defined by standards two factors are found to have a large influence on the stiffness. These two factors are the rim thickness included in the stiffness calculation and the contact zone size. In the contact zone the distribution of the load is also shown to be important. Simple possible simplifications in relation to the contact load distribution are presented. The gear stiffness is found using the elastic energy of the loaded tooth. In the finite element calculation the true gear tooth root profile is applied