Contact stresses and bending stresses analysis of curvilinear cylindrical gears generated by a face-milling cutter with parabolic profile

Abstract

Curvilinear cylindrical gear drives are a type of parallel-axis gear set, and the longitudinal geometrical shape of the gear teeth is a part of the circular arc. The main purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of modification amount and assembly error on con-tact stress and bending stress. This study proposes a curvilinear cylindrical gear drive with a parabolic profile. The gear tooth surfaces are generated by a face-milling cutter with a straight-line profile, and the matching gear tooth surfaces are generated by a face-milling cutter with the parabolic profile. Initially, mathematical models of the gear set are described based on the theory of gearing. The finite element method and tooth contact analysis algorithms were applied to contact and bending stress analyses. Finally, four numerical examples are provided to illustrate the mechanical performance of the curvilinear cylindrical gear drive with the parabolic profile. The study results show that curvilinear cylindrical gear drives have superior mechanical performance compared to those with a straight-line profile.