Abstract
KEYWORDS – TRANSMISSION GEARS, GEAR MISALIGNMENTS, SYSTEM-LEVEL OPTIMIZATION, DFSS, POWER DENSITY
ABSTRACT –
Gear mesh misalignments that result of deformations, local and system-level, are critical and significantly affect both the durability and noise behavior of transmission systems. Since misalignments are operating conditions dependent (drive mode, gear-state, temperature, etc.), it is necessary to first accurately predict deformations for a given architecture; and second design a gear-system that withstands the deflections and is robust to inherent variations. This paper proposes a system-level approach through which gear blank design is optimized targeting lower misalignments; and capturing the interaction between multiple gears in mesh and the surrounding structure, in terms of loads and deflections. An advanced contact simulation tool for gear systems, GSAM, is utilized. The design for six sigma (DFSS) methodology is applied with Taguchi’s orthogonal arrays for the simulation matrix. A two gear mesh system is considered as a test case to illustrate the proposed methodology. The paper highlights the significance of gear blank design variables on the effective mesh misalignment. It is also shown that intelligent use of deflections can in effect lower gear mesh misalignment without the need of stiffening the sub-system; hence increase the power density.