International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology

ISSN 2277 - 4106

2013 INPRESSCO. All Rights Reserved.
Available at http://inpressco.com/category/ijcet

Research Article
Modeling and Finite Element Analysis of Spur Gear
Vivek Karaveer*, Ashish Mogrekar and T. Preman Reynold Joseph

SMBS Department, VIT University, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India

Accepted 25 December 2013, Available online 30 December 2013, Vol.3, No.5 (December 2013)

Abstract

The contact stress in the mating gears is the key parameter in gear design. This paper presents the stress analysis of
mating teeth of spur gear to find maximum contact stress in the gear teeth. The results obtained from Finite Element
Analysis (FEA) are compared with theoretical Hertzian equation values. For the analysis, steel and grey cast iron are
used as the materials of spur gear. The spur gears are sketched, modeled and assembled in ANSYS DesignModeler. As
Finite Element Method (FEM) is the easy and accurate technique for stress analysis, FEA is done in finite element
software ANSYS 14.5. Also deformation for steel and grey cast iron is obtained as efficiency of the gear depends on its
deformation. The results show that the difference between maximum contact stresses obtained from Hertz equation and
Finite Element Analysis is very less and it is acceptable. The deformation patterns of steel and grey cast iron gears depict
that the difference in their deformation is negligible.

Keywords: ANSYS, Contact Stress, Finite Element Analysis, Spur Gear.

1. Introduction Polycarbonate. Therefore cast iron spur gear can be

1
Gear is a rotating cylindrical wheel having teeth cut on it
and which meshes with another toothed part to transmit
the torque or power. Spur gear is a simplest type of gear
having its teeth cut parallel to the axis of shaft on which
the gear is mounted. Spur gears are used to transmit the
power between parallel shafts. The spur gear has 98-99%
operating efficiency (T. Shoba Rani et al 2013). They are
usually employed to achieve constant drive ratio. There
are several stresses present in the teeth of rotating gears
but out of all the stresses, root bending stress and surface
contact stress calculation is the basic of stress analysis
(Sushil Kumar Tiwari et al 2012). Theoretically, for the
calculation of contact stress at the surface of mating teeth,
Hertz equation is used and for determining bending stress
at the root of meshing gears, Lewis formula is used. In
detail study of the contact stress produced in the mating
gears is the most important task in design of gears as it is
the deciding parameter in finding the dimensions of gear
(Mr. Bharat Gupta et al 2012). Also the module of a gear
plays an important role in transmitting the power between
two shafts. The spur gear with higher module is the best
choice for transmitting large power between the parallel
shafts (Mr. Bharat Gupta et al 2012).
T. Shoba Rani et al. (T. Shoba Rani et al 2013) have
used cast iron, nylon and polycarbonate as the materials of
spur gear for finite element analysis. They concluded that
the deflection of cast iron is more as compared to nylon
and
*Corresponding author: vivek karaveer
replaced with nylon gear whenever necessary to get the
good efficiency, life and less noise. Sushil Kumar Tiwari
et al. (Sushil Kumar Tiwari et al 2012) found out the
contact stress and bending stress for involute spur gear
teeth in meshing by finite element method and the results
are compared with those obtained by Lewis formula, Hurtz
equation and AGMA/ANSI equations. They concluded
that Hertz theory is the basic theory of contact stress
calculation and for determining bending stress in a pair of
gear, Lewis formula is used. Mr. Bharat Gupta et al. (Mr.
Bharat Gupta et al 2012) have done the finite element
analysis of spur gear using ANSYS 13 to obtain contact
stress between two spur gears and compared with the
results from Hertzian theoretical equation. Based on the
obtained results, they came to the conclusion that the
hardness of the gear tooth profile can be improved to resist
pitting failure. Also the maximum contact stress decreases
with increase in module. If contact stress minimization is
the basic concern and if the large power has to be
transmitted then a spur gear with higher module is
preferred. Ali Raad Hassan (Ali Raad Hassan 2009) has
developed a program to plot paired teeth in contact. This
program was run each 30 of rotation of pinion from the
first location of contact to the last one to create 10 cases.
The program gave graphic results for the teeth of different
finite element models and stress analysis was carried out
in ANSYS. The results obtained from the finite element
analysis were compared with the results determined from
the theoretical calculations, wherever available. Mrs.
Shinde S.P. et al. have performed the bending stress

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analysis of spur gear in ANSYS software and the results the mating teeth of gear. Hertzian equation for contact
are compared with the calculated theoretical values. They stress in the teeth of mating gears is given by,
found that the values of stress obtained numerically were
in good agreement with theoretical results. Vera Nikolic-
Stanojevic et al. (Vera Nikolic-Stanojevic et al 2003) ( ) ( )
(1)
described the procedure which is used to determine the
maximum value of active stress and stress fields on tooth
flanks during the period of meshing. Finite Element
Method (FEM) was used for modeling the contact of tooth
flanks. From the results of equivalent stress fields in
contact areas, they concluded that FEM is the suitable
numerical method for different analyses of contact stresses
on mating tooth flanks. The standard model of gear
without the modification of linear tip relief profile has
been meshed and analyzed by Kristina Markovic et al.
(Kristina Markovic et al 2011) using Finite Element
Method to compare the stresses obtained from Hertz
theory on tooth profile.
In this paper, steel and grey cast iron are used as the Fig. 1 2D Sketch in ANSYS DesignModeler
spur gear materials. The material properties of steel and
grey cast iron are given in Table 1.

Table 1 Material Property of Steel and Grey Cast Iron

Material Property Unit Steel Grey Cast Iron

Density Kg/m3 7850 7100
Coefficient of K-1 1.2e-5 10.5e-6
Thermal
PoissonExpansion
Ratio - 0.3 0.26
Youngs Modulus MPa 2e5 165e3
Tensile Yield MPa 250 250
Strength
Tensile Ultimate MPa 460 350
Strength
2. Modeling of Spur Gear
Fig. 2 Assembly of Spur Gears
In this study, maximum contact stress is determined,
during the transmission of torque of 15000 lb-in or Where is the contact stress in mating teeth of spur gear,
1694.7725 Nm (Huei-Huang Lee 2012) by steel and grey is the force, and are pitch radii of two mating
cast iron spur gears, using finite element analysis. The gears, is the face width of gears, is the pressure angle,
spur gear is sketched and modeled in the ANSYS , are the Poisson ratios and , are the modulii of
DesignModeler. The dimensions of the gears (Huei-Huang elasticity of two gears in mesh.
Lee 2012) are given in Table 2.
Allowable maximum stress is given by,
Table 2 Dimensions of Spur Gear
= (2)
Value (For
Dimension Unit Symbol both gears in
assembly) Here is the factor of safety which can be taken from
Number of Teeth - Z 20 the ANSYS results or other tables. Equation (2) gives
Pitch Circle the allowable maximum contact stress in the mating gears.
Mm D 127 In this paper, factor of safety is taken from ANSYS
Diameter
Pressure Angle 0 20 results. But minimum factor of safety from the ANSYS
Addendum Radius Mm RA 69.85 results is preferred in order to get accurate allowable
Dedendum Radius Mm RD 55.88 maximum contact stress at the point of contact of gear
Face Width Mm B 25.4 teeth (Mr. Bharat Gupta et al 2012).
Shaft Radius Mm Rs 31.75
Now, Torque is given by,
3. Theoretical Calculation of Contact Stresses by
Analytical Method (Hertz equation) Torque = Force ( ) * Shaft Radius (Rs)

Hertz equation is used to determine the contact stresses in 1694.7725e3 (N-mm) = * 31.75 (mm)

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= 53378.6614 N grey cast iron gears. Also the deformation is found out for
both the gears.
Case I- Steel Spur Gear:
4.1 Meshing
For steel gear, equation (1) becomes,
Fine meshing is done to get the accurate results of contact
stress.



4.2 Boundary Condition

= 2601.7984 MPa Fixed support is applied on inner rim of the lower gear.
Frictionless support is applied on the inner rim of upper
From Fig. 6, factor of safety for steel gear is 1.1538. gear to allow its tangential rotation but restrict from radial
translation. Moment of 15000 lb-in or 1694.7725 N-m is
From (2), applied on the inner rim of upper gear in clockwise
direction as a driving torque.
=

= 2254.9821 MPa

Case II- Grey Cast Iron Spur Gear:

For grey cast iron gear, equation (1) becomes,

Fig. 4 Boundary Condition

= 2334.6414 MPa
5. Results and Discussion
From Fig. 9, factor of safety for grey cast gear is 1.

From (2),

= 2334.6414 MPa

4. Finite Element Analysis

Fig. 5 Stress distribution in Steel gear

Fig. 3 Meshing

Finite Element Method is the easy technique as compared

to the theoretical methods to find out the stress developed
in a pair of gears. Therefore FEM is widely used for the
stress analysis of mating gears. In this paper, finite
element analysis is carried out in ANSYS Workbench 14.5
to determine the maximum contact stresses for steel and Fig. 6 Safety Factor for Steel Gear

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Fig. 7 Deformation pattern for Steel gear
Fig. 8 Stress distribution in Grey Cast Iron gear
Fig. 9 Safety Factor for Grey Cast Iron Gear
Fig. 10 Deformation pattern for Grey Cast Iron gear
Comparison of maximum contact stresses, for both steel
and grey cast iron, obtained from Hertz equation and
ANSYS 14.5 is given in Table 3.
Table 3 Comparison of maximum contact stress obtained
from Hertz equation and ANSYS 14.5
Gear (Hertz) (ANSYS) Difference
(MPa) (MPa) (%)
Steel 2254.9821 2261.2052 0.28
Grey CI 2334.6414 2365.1782 1.29
Conclusions
Here the theoretical maximum contact stress is calculated
by Hertz equation. Also the finite element analysis of spur
gear is done to determine the maximum contact stress by
ANSYS 14.5. It was found that the results from both Hertz
equation and Finite Element Analysis are comparable.
From the deformation pattern of steel and grey cast iron, it
could be concluded that difference between the maximum
values of steel and grey CI gear deformation is very less.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the technical advice of
Mr. Sumedh Suryawanshi. This work was carried out at
Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai, PG students of
School of Mechanical and Building Sciences (SMBS)
Department, VIT University, Tamilnadu, India.
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