Loaded contact pressure distribution prediction for spiral bevel gear

Contact pressure and load distribution are key indices used in the performance evaluation of spiral bevel gears, and their calculation accuracy and efficiency continue to be the focus of active research. An accurate and effi-cient numerical approach for predicting the contact pressure and load distribution of a spiral bevel gear is presented based on multi-tooth deformation compatibility. First, an improved discrete tooth surface contact analysis (DTCA) method is developed to obtain the contact characteristics of the gear set under the no-load condition. This method is a geometric approach that avoids numerical instability. A local triangular mesh refinement algorithm is proposed to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the DTCA method. Subsequently, the deformation compatibility relationships of a spiral bevel gear set are derived for single-tooth and multi-tooth meshing. By combining the deformation compatibility relationship and the influence coefficient method, a multi-tooth loaded contact analysis (MLTCA) model of the spiral bevel gear set is established. Moreover, an iterative algorithm based on the conjugate gradient and fast Fourier transform method is proposed to determine the mesh force and contact pressure distribution. Finally, the proposed method is tested using numerical ex-amples to demonstrate its accuracy and efficiency by comparison with finite element simulations and experiment results.

Automated summary

An accurate and efficient numerical approach based on multi-tooth deformation compatibility is proposed for predicting the contact pressure and load distribution of spiral bevel gears. The approach includes the development of an improved discrete tooth surface contact analysis method and the derivation of deformation compatibility relationships for single-tooth and multi-tooth meshing. The proposed method is tested and validated using numerical examples.