On the determination of the meshing stiffness and the load sharing of spur gears

Abstract

Several models for the study of the meshing stiffness of spur gears have been recently developed, which have been applied to the determination of the load sharing among teeth, the dynamic behaviour, etc. Different geometries have been considered for different objectives: form the theoretical conjugate contact to consider tooth deflections, asymmetric profiles, tip relieves or frictional effects. The Minimum Elastic Potential Energy (MEPE) model was obtained from the simple involute geometry and theoretical conjugate contact, but provides results for the load sharing ratio accurate enough for strength calculations. In addition, a very simple, approximate, analytical equation for the meshing stiffness was obtained allowing calculations of the stresses or the efficiency by means of simple numerical methods. In this paper, the MEPE model is compared with other stiffness models to discuss its suitability of load sharing predictions, including its application to modified geometries.