Optimal Stress and Strain of Helical Gear and Rack in the Steering System

Abstract

The steering system in the car assumes the task of navigating when the car is in motion. It not only plays a technical role but also performs a crucial role in vehicle safety. In this study, the model of a steering system with helical gear and incline rack was created by Solidworks. And the maximum principal stress, and maximum principal strain of helical gear and rack were determined by finite element analysis in ANSYS. The data of simulation were used to minimize the stress and the strain by the Taguchi method based on grey relational analysis. The results of finite element analysis indicated that input variables have significantly affected on stress and strain of gear and rack. And then the problems are verified by analysis of the signal to noise, analysis of variance, and regression analysis. All are in good agreement with the error of the predicted value and optimal value of GRG is 0.022%. The optimal results of the stress and strain of gear and rack achieved 0.1638 MPa and 0.0188 MPa, 7.676 x10-7mm and 3.5687x10-7 mm, respectively.