STATIC AND DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF SPUR AND BEVEL

GEARS USING FEM

V. RAMAMURTI, NAYAK H. VIJAYENDRA and C. SUJATHA
Department of Applied Mechanics, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras 600 036, India
AbstractThis paper presents the ndings of three-dimensional stress analysis of spur and bevel gear
teeth by nite element method using cyclic symmetry concept. The displacement of a tooth is computed
for each Fourier harmonic component of the contact line load and all the components are added to
obtain the total displacement. This displacement is used in the calculation of static stress in the teeth.
The natural frequencies and mode shapes are obtained using the submatrices elimination scheme. #
1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
NOMENCLATURE
a
jk
force acting on the kth degree of freedom of jth substructure
f
pk
pth Fourier harmonic of forces
m number of degrees of freedom in each substructure
N number of sectors
[K] stiness matrix
{d} displacement vector
{d
j
} displacement vector of jth substructure
{d
'
p
} displacement of the rst substructure of pth harmonic
INTRODUCTION
Many studies on the stress analysis of spur gear teeth have been reported in the past. In the
conventional analytical approach, the spur gear tooth is treated as a cantilever beam and stress
distribution at the root is found out using Lewis' equation.
The average tangential load, applied at midpoint along its face width, is considered for the
calculation of bending stress. Thus Lewis' equation gives only an approximate value of bending
stress induced at the root section of the tooth. Also, the inuence of the axial and radial loads
on the bending stress is not considered in Lewis' formula. In the face of these limitations of
Lewis' formula, nite element method oers itself as a powerful numerical tool for the stress
analysis of bevel gear teeth. A survey of available literature does not show any prior work on
the stress analysis of bevel gear teeth by FEM.
Ramamurti and Gupta [1] studied the application of nite element method to spur gear tooth
stress analysis. The tooth was treated as a plane stress model. The study was conned to one
tooth with xed boundaries. In reality, this is not correct, since the eect of the adjacent teeth
was not considered.
Oda et al. [2] studied the root stress distribution in a thin rim spur gear using two-dimensional
nite element method. Triangular elements were used in the analysis. The eects of boundary
constraints of adjacent teeth on the root stress distribution were studied.
The eects of the shape of the tooth, the partitions and the constraint conditions of gear
models on the root stresses and tooth deection of a thin rimmed gear with ribs and webs were
studied by Sayama et al. [3] using three-dimensional FEM. It was reported that the root stress
and deection computed by FEM agreed very well with those measured experimentally.
The inuence of radius of curvature of root llet, the width of the bottom of the tooth space,
the pressure angle and the loading position on root stress distribution was investigated by
Chong et al. [4]. Root stresses in the loaded and unloaded teeth under a single and double tooth
pair meshing were calculated.
Mech. Mach. Theory Vol. 33, No. 8, pp. 11771193, 1998
# 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain
0094-114X/98 $19.00 +0.00
PII: S0094-114X(97)00112-2
1177
Andrews [5] described the use of nite element method for predicting the llet stress distri-
bution in spur gears. He also compared the predicted results with the results of photo elastic ex-
periments.
Ramamurti and Ananda Rao [6] proposed a method for the stress analysis of spur gear tooth
by nite element method using cyclic symmetry concept. Each tooth was treated as a two-
dimensional plane stress problem. Triangular elements were used in the analysis. The stress dis-
tribution of a loaded tooth and its inuence on adjacent teeth were studied.
A survey of available literature does not show any prior work on the stress analysis of bevel gear
tooth by FEM. The present paper deals with three-dimensional stress analysis of spur and bevel
gear wheels as a whole by FEM. Cyclic symmetry concept has been employed in the analysis. The
stress distribution in the loaded tooth and its eects on the neighbouring teeth are also studied.
Here the gear tooth is not treated as an isolated structure with xed boundries but as a repeatable
substructure. This aspect of the approach imposes complex boundary constraints between two suc-
cessive teeth since each tooth is considered an identical substructure connected to the next in the
circumferential direction. This realistic assumption is in sharp contrast to the conventional nite el-
ement approach wherein xed boundaries are assumed as each tooth is considered an isolated
structure. The stress distribution in the teeth adjacent to the ones under contact is also computed.
Dynamic analysis is also carried out using cyclic symmetry concept. The rst 10 natural fre-
quencies and the rst three mode shapes of the teeth have been computed.
STATIC ANALYSIS
A gear wheel is made of substructures which have identical geometry and material properties
and are connected to each other in the circumferential direction. Thus, a gear may be considered
a rotationally periodic structure. If cyclic symmetry concept is used in the analysis of such struc-
tures, a signicant reduction in computational eort can be eected.
In the present analysis, only one substructure (tooth) is assumed to have a contact line load.
A line load on one substructure and zero load on all other substructures give rise to an asym-
metric loading system. A cyclic symmetric structure subjected to asymmetric loading can be ana-
lysed as discussed by Ramamurti [7]. This loading system is decomposed into nite Fourier
series with the number of harmonics being equal to the number of teeth.
One substructure of spur and bevel gear teeth are discretised as shown in Figs 1 and 2, re-
spectively. The details of the spur and bevel gear wheel are given in Tables 1 and 2. One sub-
structure is treated as a three-dimensional stress problem with 570 nodes and 84 twenty-noded
elements (Fig. 1). Due to computer core limitations a ner mesh could not be used in the llet
area. The material is assumed to be isotropic and homogeneous. Element stiness and load
matrices are assembled to obtain the matrices of one repeatable substructure.
Fourier expansion of forces
The gear wheel is a rotationally periodic structure with N identical substructures, where N is
the number of teeth of the wheel as mentioned earlier. The force is assumed to act in one sub-
structure. In general, the force acting on the kth DOF of the jth substructure of a rotationally
periodic structure can be expanded in the form of a nite Fourier series [7] given by
a
jk
=

N
p=1
f
pk
e
i(j1)pc
where c = 2paN (1)
and f
pk
is the pth Fourier harmonic of the force corresponding to a spatial phase dierence of
2pp/N between adjacent substructures and may be complex. Equation (1) is applicable to any
arbitrary distribution of forces acting on the structure.
Expanding Equation (1) one can write
a
1k
a
2k
F F F
a
Nk
V
b
b
`
b
b
X
W
b
b
a
b
b
Y
=
1 1 F F F 1
e
ic
e
2ic
F F F 1
e
2ic
e
4ic
F F F 1
e
i(N1)c
F F F F F F 1
P
T
T
R
Q
U
U
S
f
1k
F F F
F F F
f
Nk
V
b
b
`
b
b
X
W
b
b
a
b
b
Y
(2)
V. Ramamurti et al. 1178
Hence the Fourier harmonic of the force on the kth degree of freedom will be given by
f
1k
f
2k
F F F
f
NK
V
b
b
`
b
b
X
W
b
b
a
b
b
Y
=
1
N
e
ic
e
2ic
e
i(N1)c
1
e
i2c
e
4ic
e
i2(N1)c
1
1 1 1 1
P
T
T
R
Q
U
U
S
a
1k
a
2k
a
NK
V
b
b
`
b
b
X
W
b
b
a
b
b
Y
(3)
As a special case, when only one substructure experiences the force (as in the case of gear
Fig. 1. Discretisation of spur gear tooth (20 noded element).
Fig. 2. Discretisation of bevel gear tooth (20 noded element).
Analysis of spur and bevel gears 1179
Table 1. Details of spur gear wheel
No. of teeth 20
Module 10 mm
Pressure angle 208
Face width 5 modules
Addendum 1 module
Dedendum 1.157 module
Material properties: Young's modulus 2.1 10
5
MPa
Poisson's ratio 0.3
Table 2. Details of bevel gear wheel
No. of teeth 10
Module 8 mm
Addendum 5.572 mm
Dedendum 7.146 mm
Face width 26.43 mm
Pressure angle 208
Root angle 248
Pitch cone angle 298
Face angle 348
Back cone angle 458
Cone width 80.33 mm
wheel) and all other substructures experience no forces, Equation (1) can be written as
a
1k
0
F F F
F F F
0
V
b
b
b
b
`
b
b
b
b
X
W
b
b
b
b
a
b
b
b
b
Y
=
1 1 1
e
ic
e
i2c
1
F F F F F F 1
F F F F F F 1
e
i(N1)c
F F F 1
P
T
T
T
T
R
Q
U
U
U
U
S
f
1k
f
2k
F F F
F F F
f
Nk
V
b
b
b
b
`
b
b
b
b
X
W
b
b
b
b
a
b
b
b
b
Y
(4)
Hence
f
1k
= f
2k
= F F F = f
Nk
= a
1kaN
(5)
The equation of equilibrium of the full structure obtained from nite element analysis is given
by
[K]{d] = {f ] (6)
[K] is of size (Nm, Nm) and {d} and {f} are of size (Nm, 1) where N is the number of substruc-
tures and m the number of degrees of freedom per substructure.
The resulting system of equations is to be solved by expressing the force system in terms of N
nite Fourier components. In other words, each term in {f} of Equation (6) is a nite series hav-
ing N terms. Let each one of these terms be given by {d
p
} of size (Nm, 1).
Since all the substructures are identical and are subjected to forces which dier from those on
the next substructure by the same phase multiplier exp(i2pp/N), the eect on the neighbouring
substructures must be related in the same way.
Thus {d} can be expressed as
{d] =
d
/
p
d
/
p
e
i(2ppaN)
F F F
F F F
d
/
p
e
i(N1)(2ppaN)
V
b
b
b
b
b
`
b
b
b
b
b
X
W
b
b
b
b
b
a
b
b
b
b
b
Y
(7)
where {d
'
p
} is the deformation of the rst substructure. Hence for the rst substructure the
matrix equation can be simplied and can be written in the form
[K
/
]{d
/
1p
] = {f
/
p
] (8)
for any Fourier index p. Here [ K'} will be of size (m, m) and {d
'
p
} and {f
'
p
} of size (m, 1).
Let us assume that we have solved Equation (8) for each Fourier harmonic p; the resultant
displacement vector of the rst substructure is then given by
{d
1
] =

n
p=1
{d
/
p
] (9)
The deection of any other substructure j is therefore given by
V. Ramamurti et al. 1180
{d
j
] =

n
p=1
{d
/
p
]e
i(j1)(2ppaN)
(10)
The submatrices elimination scheme and Potters' scheme [7] are modied to solve Equation (8).
FREQUENCY ANALYSIS
The mathematical approach to the concept of cyclic symmetry used in the frequency analysis
of rotationally periodic structures has been discussed in [7]. The use of cyclic symmetry concept
eects a large saving in memory and reduction in computational eort. The method proposed
by Balasubramanian and Ramamurti [8] is extended to the free vibration of the spur gear tooth.
The simultaneous iteration scheme is modied to compute the Hermitian eigen value problem.
An out of core technique is adopted. Lumped mass approach is used in the analysis. This
approach not only results in faster convergence of eigen values, but also reduces the compu-
tational eort. The element mass is assumed to be lumped at the nodes of the brick elements.
The rotary inertia terms are neglected. Thus, a diagonal mass matrix is obtained for the entire
substructure.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Static problem
Spur gear. A load of 500 N per mm width is applied rst at the tip of the tooth and then at
two other points along the prole. The stress distribution along the prole of the tooth for the
three load cases is shown in Fig. 3. The points M and N indicate the stress concentration at the
point of application of load. The stress distribution along the root section is shown in Fig. 4. As
can be seen the nature of radial stress changes from tension on the loaded side to compression
on the unloaded side along the root section. This is conrmed by the cantilever beam theory
also. The circumferential and radial displacements of the loaded tooth and the rst adjacent
tooth are compared in Fig. 5.
Stress contours for the load positions at the tip, 0.20 module above the llet and 0.25 module
above the pitch are shown in Fig. 6(a), (b) and (c), respectively. Concentration of stress at the
Fig. 3. Stress distribution along the prole.
Analysis of spur and bevel gears 1181
Fig. 4. Stress distribution along root section.
Fig. 5. Displacement along the prole.
V. Ramamurti et al. 1182
F
i
g
.
6
.
R
a
d
i
a
l
s
t
r
e
s
s
c
o
n
t
o
u
r
s
w
h
e
n
l
o
a
d
i
s
(
a
)
a
t
t
h
e
t
i
p
;
(
b
)
a
t
0
.
2
m
o
d
u
l
e
s
a
b
o
v
e
t
h
e

l
l
e
t
;
(
c
)
0
.
2
5
m
o
d
u
l
e
a
b
o
v
e
t
h
e
p
i
t
c
h
p
o
i
n
t
(
i
n
M
P
a

1
0
)
.
Analysis of spur and bevel gears 1183
Fig. 7. Radial stress contours in the (a) AGT1 for the load at the tip (in MPa10); (b) AGT2 for the
load at the tip (in MPa10).
Fig. 8. Load applied along face width.
Fig. 9. Stress distribution along root section of big end.
V. Ramamurti et al. 1184
root section is observed in these gures. The compressive stress at the root on the unloaded side
of the prole is higher than the root tensile stress on the loaded side. This is also conrmed by
the cantilever beam theory. Stress contour plots for the two adjacent teeth are shown in Fig. 7(a)
and (b).
Bevel gear. The load variation along the face width of the bevel gear tooth is assumed to be
trapezoidal in nature with a load of 600 N at the big end and 420 N at the small end as shown
in Fig. 8. This load is applied rst at the tip and then at two other points along the prole.
Fig. 10. Displacement along the prole of big end.
Fig. 11. Displacement and stress distribution along facewidth.
Analysis of spur and bevel gears 1185
F
i
g
.
1
2
.
R
a
d
i
a
l
s
t
r
e
s
s
c
o
n
t
o
u
r
s
w
h
e
n
l
o
a
d
i
s
(
a
)
a
t
t
h
e
t
i
p
;
(
b
)
1
0
m
m
a
b
o
v
e
t
h
e

l
l
e
t
;
(
c
)
5
m
m
a
b
o
v
e
t
h
e

l
l
e
t
(
i
n
M
P
a

1
0
)
.
V. Ramamurti et al. 1186
F
i
g
.
1
3
.
R
a
d
i
a
l
s
t
r
e
s
s
c
o
n
t
o
u
r
s
i
n
t
h
e
(
a
)
A
G
T
1
f
o
r
l
o
a
d
a
t
t
h
e
t
i
p
;
(
b
)
A
G
T
2
f
o
r
l
o
a
d
a
t
t
h
e
t
i
p
;
(
c
)
A
G
T
3
f
o
r
l
o
a
d
a
t
t
h
e
t
i
p
(
i
n
M
P
a

1
0
)
.
Analysis of spur and bevel gears 1187
The stress distribution along the root section of the big end of the tooth experiencing load at
the tip and at two other positions is shown in Fig. 9. As predicted by the cantilever beam the-
ory, the stress varies from tensile to compressive across the root section.
Table 3. Natural frequencies of spur gear teeth in radians/s
First mode Second mode Third mode
Present Ref. Present Ref. Present Ref.
P analysis [6] analysis [6] analysis [6]
0 0.921410
5
0.7462710
5
0.2031410
6
0.1880710
6
0.2611410
6
0.1979810
6
1 0.9733310
5
0.8271610
5
0.2200410
6
0.1782110
6
0.2997810
6
0.2122510
6
2 0.1022110
6
0.9989110
5
0.2311210
6
0.1705710
6
0.3413310
6
0.2336610
6
3 0.1163410
6
0.1143910
6
0.2434510
6
0.1715610
6
0.3761610
6
0.2576110
6
4 0.1188110
6
0.1206810
6
0.2684110
6
0.1819710
6
0.4041410
6
0.2831410
6
5 0.1231210
6
0.1220410
6
0.2792210
6
0.1969310
6
0.4148410
6
0.3079410
6
6 0.1261410
6
0.1221410
6
0.2801410
6
0.2120910
6
0.4323510
6
0.3297310
6
7 0.1283110
6
0.1221110
6
0.2911610
6
0.2255810
6
0.4522210
6
0.3471010
6
8 0.1343910
6
0.1221510
6
0.3005610
6
0.2362610
6
0.4621410
6
0.3594410
6
9 0.1373910
6
0.1222210
6
0.3111310
6
0.2431610
6
0.4755110
6
0.3667010
6
Fig. 14. (a) First mode (p = 0); (b) Second mode (p = 0); (c) Third mode (p = 0).
V. Ramamurti et al. 1188
Figure 10 shows the radial and circumferential displacements of the tooth experiencing load
at the tip and of the rst adjacent tooth. The circumferential displacement of the adjacent tooth
is about 10% that of the loaded tooth. But the radial displacement of the adjacent tooth is
about 35% that of the loaded tooth. Figure 11 shows the circumferential displacement of the tip
and radial stress at the root along the face width of the tooth experiencing the load at the tip.
The stress and displacement variation are trapezoidal in nature.
Radial stress contours for the load positions at the tip, 10 mm above the llet and 5 mm
above the llet are shown in Fig. 12(ac). The stress concentration at the root and at the point
of application of load is observed in these gures. The stress distribution in the rst three teeth
adjacent to the tooth experiencing load at the tip is shown in Fig. 13(ac). As is seen in these
gures, stress induced in the adjacent teeth is much smaller than that in the loaded tooth.
Dynamic problem
Spur gear. Natural frequencies obtained by FEM for harmonics up to 10 are given in Table 3.
Mode shapes for the rst three modes are shown in Figs 1416 for p = 0, 1 and 2. It is seen in
these gures that the mode of vibration of a spur gear tooth is predominantly bending in
nature.
Fig. 15. (a) First mode (p = 1); (b) Second mode (p = 1); (c) Third mode (p = 1).
Analysis of spur and bevel gears 1189
Bevel gear. Natural frequencies obtained in the present analysis are shown in Table 4. Moxde
shapes for the rst three modes are shown in Figs 1719 for p = 0, 1 and 2. While a predomi-
nantly bending mode of vibration is observed in the rst mode for all three harmonics, the sec-
ond and third modes of vibration exhibit a coupling between bending and torsion.
Fig. 16. (a) First mode (p = 2); (b) Second mode (p = 2); (c) Third mode (p = 2).
Table 4. Natural frequencies of bevel gear teeth in radians/s
P First mode Second mode Third mode
0 0.3155910
6
0.3319210
6
0.3445410
6
1 0.4788610
6
0.4882910
6
0.4989110
6
2 0.5074310
6
0.5086310
6
0.5234110
6
3 0.8221110
6
0.8441610
6
0.8732810
6
4 0.8527910
6
0.9402810
6
0.1022610
7
5 0.9420810
6
0.1040510
7
0.1086410
7
6 0.1102910
7
0.1140510
7
0.1195210
7
7 0.1114710
7
0.1151610
7
0.1401410
7
8 0.1401310
3
0.1380810
7
0.1466410
7
9 0.1433310
3
0.1445210
7
0.1451810
7
V. Ramamurti et al. 1190
Fig. 17. (a) First mode (p = 0); (b) Second mode (p = 0); (c) Third mode (p = 0).
Analysis of spur and bevel gears 1191
Fig. 18. (a) First mode (p = 1); (b) Second mode (p = 1); (c) Third mode (p = 1).
V. Ramamurti et al. 1192
CONCLUSION
This analysis demonstrates the use of cyclic symmetry concept in the nite element analysis of
a rotationally periodic structure like spur gear. Application of this approach results in large sav-
ing in computer memory and reduction of computational eort. This ecient approach can also
be used in the dynamic analysis of gear tooth utilising the geometrical periodicity and the sub-
matrices elimination scheme.
REFERENCES
1. Ramamurti, V. and Gupta, L. S. ASME Conference 38, 1979 DET.
2. Oda, S., Nagamura, K. and Aoki, K., Bull. JSME, 1981, 24, 1273.
3. Sayama, T., Oda, S., Umezawa, K. and Makuta, H., Bull. JSME, 1984, 27, 1763.
4. Chong, T. H., Suzuki, T., Kubo, A. and Fujio, H., Bull. JSME, 1983, 26, 1799.
5. Andrews, J. D., J. Strain Analysis, 1991, 26(3), 153.
6. Ramamurti, V. and Ananda, Rao M., Computers & Structures, 1988, 29(5), 831.
7. Ramamurti, V., Computer Aided Design in Mechanical Engineering, Tata-McGraw Hill, New Delhi, 1989.
8. Ramamurti, V. and Balasubramanian, P., J. Sound Vibration, 1987, 116, 1.
ZusammenfassungDieser Bericht stellt die Ergebnisse dreiachsiger Spannungsanalyse der Spur- und
Tellerradza hne durch die Begrenztelementenmethode mittels des zyklischen Symmetriekonzepts dar. Die
Verschiebung eines Zahnes wird fu r jede der Fourier-harmonischen-Teilschwingungen der Fahrleis-
tungsbelastung berechnet, und alle Teilschwingungen werden summiert, um die gesamte Verschiebung
zu erhalten. Diese Verschiebung wird dann zur Berechnung der Ruhepunktspannung der Zahnung
benutzt. Die Eigenschwingungszahl und die Modenformen werden mittels des Eliminationsschemas der
Submatrizen erhalten. # 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Fig. 19. (a) First mode (p = 2); (b) Second mode (p = 2); (c) Third mode (p = 2).
Analysis of spur and bevel gears 1193