A Finite-Element-Based Study of the Load Distribution of a Heavily Loaded Spur Gear System With Effects of Transmission Shafts and Gear Blanks

Spur gears were typically analyzed in the past using two-dimensional (2-D) Finite Element (FE) models. This is not adequate in many cases. A three-dimensional (3-D) FE model of a spur gear system, which accommodates all the gear teeth, the gear bodies, and the two transmission shafts, is developed in this paper using a sub-structuring method. The load between pinion and gear wheel is delivered by elastic frictional contact. The contact problem is solved according to the FE parametric quadratic programming method. The paper presents the shape of the contact region as well as the load distribution along the tooth width and profile. The results show that the transmission shafts have significant effects on the contact conditions including load distribution, contact region, and load deviation. The proposed method also applies to other types of gearing.