Effects of drive side pressure angle on gear fatigue crack propagation life for spur gears with symmetric and asymmetric teeth

Abstract

Today gears are one of the most crucial machine elements in the industry. They are used in every area of the industry. Due to the high performances of the gears, they are also used in aerospace and wind applications. In these areas due to the high torques, unstable conditions, high impact forces, etc. cracks can be seen on the gear surface. During the service life, these cracks can be propagated and gear damages can be seen due to the initial cracks. The aim of this study is to increase the fatigue crack propagation life of the spur gears by using asymmetric tooth profile. Nowadays asymmetric gears have a very important and huge usage area in the industry. In this study, the effects of drive side pressure angle on the fatigue crack propagation life are studied by using the finite element method. The initial starting points of the cracks are defined by static stress analysis. The starting angles of the cracks are defined constant at 45°. The crack propagation analyses are performed in ANSYS SMART Crack-Growth module by using Paris Law. Four different drive side pressure angles (20°-20°, 20°-25°, 20°-30° and 20°-35°) are investigated in this study. As a result of the study the fatigue crack propagation life of the gears is increased dramatically when the drive side pressure angle increase. This results show that the asymmetric tooth profile not only decrease the bending stress but also increase the fatigue crack propagation life strongly.