Engineering Failure Analysis 107 (2020) 104213

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Engineering Failure Analysis

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Automotive Transmission Gearbox Synchronizer Sintered Hub

T
Design
Barathiraja Ka,b, , Devaradjane Gb, Anup Bhattacharyaa, Sivakumar Va, Vivek Yadava
⁎

a
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, Mahindra Research Valley, Chennai, India
b
Department of Automobile Engineering, Madras Institute of Technology, Anna University, Chennai, India

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Sintered hubs are typically used in automotive transmission gearbox synchronizer due to its near
Synchronizer hub net shape. Sintered hubs have complex design due to their functional and packaging require-
Sintering ments. The required hardness and density are obtained using different grades of sintered pow-
Sinter-hardening ders, sintering temperature and the press load capacity. Many sintering materials with good
Sintering with induction hardening
mechanical properties are available with or without secondary heat treatment. However, there
Wear resistance
Fretting
are concerns of sintered hub failure in the vehicle validation or during the intended service of the
FEA vehicle. This paper describes the design of automotive gearbox synchronizer sintered hub to meet
the endurance life of the gearbox. The sintered hub wear on the synchronizer hub face and tooth
flank are studied experimentally in the gearbox rig level test. This study is done for materials such
as medium carbon sinter-hardened PM grade, sintered high carbon diffusion alloyed PM grade
and sintered high carbon diffusion alloyed PM grade along with induction hardening process. The
different gearbox loading conditions cause wear up to 70 µm on the synchronizer hubs. The hub
to gear interface as well as hub tooth to sleeve tooth interface contact pressures and wear are
studied based on the test results. The amount of hub digging is proportional to the applied load
and the test duration. The medium carbon sinter-hardened material can withstand less pressure
and less time when compared with the high carbon diffusion alloyed material with induction
hardening. The design considerations to avoid hub digging and or material changes with process
changes are analyzed. This paper also describes prediction methodology in FEA for the failure
modes of synchronizer hub spline tooth crack and strut detent slot crack. The physical validation
shows good trend matching correlation with the high-fidelity approach in CAE.

1. Introduction

Powder metal processing is one of the oldest and broadly used processing methods to make high quality and complex shape parts
to the near net shape or to its close tolerances economically. For the passenger car applications, generally the synchronizer hubs are
made of sintering process. The increased torque transfer requirements and compact gearbox require complex shapes and this can be
developed using multi-level compaction using multi-pattern adaptors with high capacity hydraulic press [1]. With Duplex method
two dis-similar materials can be combined. In this technique sinter hardening or induction hardening material was used in the teeth
and the core can be made up of low density and less cost material [2]. This process has its own cost disadvantages. Sinter hardening is

Abbreviations: CB ring, Clutch body ring; FEA, Finite Element Analysis; NRB, Needle roller bearing; PM, Powder metallurgy
⁎
Corresponding author at: Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, Mahindra Research Valley, Chennai, India.
E-mail address: raja.barathi@mahindra.com (K. Barathiraja).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engfailanal.2019.104213
Received 5 July 2019; Received in revised form 21 August 2019; Accepted 24 September 2019
Available online 20 October 2019
1350-6307/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
K. Barathiraja, et al. Engineering Failure Analysis 107 (2020) 104213

Nomenclature Ds Sleeve minor diameter, mm

Faxial Gear axial force on hub, N
Ateeth Teeth contact area, mm2 Lhs Length of contactHub Sleeve , mm
D Pitch circle diameter, mm Nh Number of hub tooth
D1 Outer diameter of the hub and gear interface, mm PAxial Axial pressure on hub, MPa
D2 Inner diameter of the hub and gear interface, mm T Torque, Nm
Dh Hub major diameter, mm

preferred to have uniform surface and core hardness. When comparing to sintering + induction hardening, the sinter hardening
requires a significantly higher Ni or Mo alloy content. This higher alloying has cost disadvantage, but the overall process yields low
costs with similar strength and controlled tolerances [3,4]. In FL5305 material 100% martensitic structure and tight dimensional
tolerance is achieved without the addition of Cu using sinter hardening. It has Cr, which gives high hardness and strength along with
less expensive alloying material such as Mo and Ni [5]. This makes FL5305 a preferred material and sinter hardening a preferred
process for automotive gearbox applications. Carburization or partial hardening was used to improve the strength and the durability
of the synchronizer hubs. The addition of Chromium and additional carburization were used to improve the wear resistance of the
synchronizer hubs. High strength sinter hardened hubs were developed without Ni by high temperature sintering and rapid cooling
using roller-hearth type sintering furnace [6]. The different sintering process are described as below [7]:
Sintering: Sintering is a heat treatment applied to a powder compact in order to impart strength and integrity. The temperature
used for sintering is below the melting point of the major constituent of the Powder Metallurgy material.
Induction Hardening: Induction Hardening is a process for hardening of surfaces by Induction heating followed by Quenching.
Sinter-hardening: Sinter hardening is the process which combines both sintering and hardening (quenching) in one process to
produce martensite as the major phase in the microstructure of the sintered components. It is generally achieved by a gas quenching
setup in the cooling zone of the sintering furnace.
The gearboxes have been used in automobiles for decades to vary the speed and the torque as per the demand to the drive wheel.
The gearboxes have gears and shaft to transfer the torque to the wheels. As shown in Fig. 1, the synchronizer sleeve, synchronizer
hub, synchronizer ring and dog teeth are used for smooth gear shifting. The sintered synchronizer hub is splined to the shaft and it is
positioned between two gears. The shift fork moves the synchronizer sleeve, and the synchronizer sleeve slides over the synchronizer
hub. In gear shifting, the sleeve slides and engages to the CB ring. During torque transfer, the engine power comes from the shaft to
hub to gear or from gear to hub to shaft and which is dependent upon the gearbox layout and the targeted gear shift. The gearbox is
designed to deliver the max torque without any troubles. The passenger car synchronizer hubs are generally manufactured by
sintering which is a cost-effective process or occasionally by machining from forged blanks which reduce the production rates and
increase the cost of the synchronizer hubs. The sinter hubs have the following advantages over the forged and machined hubs, such as
optimal material use, small dimensional fluctuations, high productivity, high surface quality and small tolerances, and can have a
wide range of designs and variants. The gearbox is validated for the max load condition on the bench level test rig. On vehicle, the
gearbox will experience driving and coasting. In the bench level test rig, the gearbox will be delivering torque continuously in the
driving condition.
Even though the gearbox technology and the design have improved considerably, the OEMs are continuing the research to
improve the gearbox robustness, increase the useful/service life and to overcome the market competitiveness. The sintering material

Fig. 1. Synchronizer pack assembly.

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and process are selected based on the application duty cycle. During operation, on the sintered synchronizer hub, digging happens in
the boss face and in the spline faces. When the gearbox is transferring the torque continuously the gear digs into the hub. The digging
of the gear in to the hub increases the gear float. The increased gear float may cause gear slip, gear jump out and other gearbox
failures. When the digging happens on the hub tooth, it increases the circular backlash between the synchronizer sleeve and syn-
chronizer hub. The increased backlash may cause spline failure and other gearbox failures. The hub digging is generally observed on
the bench level gearbox durability test rig and seldom observed on the vehicle. The hub digging is observed only on the higher gears.
The lower gears do not encounter hub digging. The hub digging needs to be avoided for increasing the gearbox life and performance.
In sintered parts, whenever there is a relative motion in sliding and or rolling, the wear was analyzed using roller test or pin-on-disc
[8–10]. Even though there is no relative motion between the parts, under varying normal load micro slip happens between two
surfaces which are in contact [11].
The sinter hardened hub design strut groove radius was optimized using FEA tools to increase the safety margin > 2 [12]. In this
study, only the hub and the sleeve were considered for the FEA analysis. This technical paper is aimed at understanding the fatigue
behavior of the sintered and sinter hardened steels under constant loading conditions which occur during the continuous torque
transfer between the synchronizer hub and the gear wheel or the synchronizer hub tooth and the sleeve tooth. The damage me-
chanism and failure analysis of sintering, sinter hardened and sintering with induction hardened hubs under continuous torque
transfer condition are discussed in this paper.
The hub outer spline failure and hub strut slot crack due to max torque was studied using FEA tools. In FEA, max torque at
engaged condition was applied on gear. All contacts had been modelled for tangential load transfer from gear to CB ring and from CB
ring to sleeve to hub as shown in Fig. 2. This is a low fidelity model. This model does not simulate the effect of axial load due to
helical gear meshing which causes tilting and its effect on load transfer.
From the detailed understanding of failure modes on hub, there was a need to improve the fidelity. In this research work, we have
discussed on this new approach to capture the load path accurately to frontload the failures. The improved FEA methodology shows
good trend correlation with the actual failure. The measures to be taken to avoid these failures in the design phase are also discussed
in this technical paper.

2. Experimental set-up

2.1. Max load test rig

The gearbox is mounted on the test rig as shown in Fig. 3. The gearbox input shaft is connected to the dynamometer with propeller
shaft and plumber block. The gearbox input shaft and output shaft speeds are measured using speed sensor. A pneumatic cylinder is
mounted to the gear shifter for the automatic gear shifting. A potentiometer load cell and a travel sensor are mounted on the gear
shift arm. The gear shift loads, and gear shift travel are measured using the above sensors. A thermocouple is mounted on the gearbox
drain plug which measures the gearbox oil temperature. A cooling fan is also provided to cool the gearbox and maintain the oil
temperature of the gearbox. The thermocouple monitors the gearbox oil temperature and helps to maintain constant temperature.
The total test duration is split into small duration cycles with in-between cooling cycles to cool the gearbox. The output shaft is
coupled to the dynamometer with propeller shaft and reduction gearbox. The test gearbox has a conventional two shaft layout as
shown in Fig. 4. In the gearbox, the test specimen is mounted on the counter shaft. Both sides of the synchronizer hub have 5th and
6th gears. The 5th and 6th gears have right/left hand helix. During torque transfer, due to the helix direction the 5th and 6th gear
exerts an axial force towards the hub. Using KissSoft software the axial force exerted by the gear in torque transfer could be predicted.
The gearbox was tested for pattern A, and pattern B condition. The gearbox shifter knob is moved to engage the target gear. Using a
dynamometer, the gearbox is driven through the input shaft. The dynamometer on the output shaft is used to load the output to
generate the required torque. The test rig controller controls the gear shift, motor speed, torque, test duration and the gearbox oil
temperature.

Fig. 2. Interface condition for max torque FEA.

Interfaces: - 1. Gear to CB ring weld, 2. Gear to CB ring, 3. Sleeve, 4. Sleeve to CB ring, 5. Sleeve to hub.

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Fig. 3. Experimental test set-up.

1. Output speed sensor, 2. Oil temperature sensor, 3. Input speed sensor, 4. Load and travel sensor, 5. Pneumatic piston, 6. Gear shift rod.

Fig. 4. Gearbox architecture.

2.2. Sample preparation

The synchronizer hubs were produced with conventional sinter hardening (1100 °C), sintering (1100 °C) and sintering (1100 °C)
with induction hardening for 1 mm case depth. The hubs were developed with a minimum density of 6.95 g/cm3. The mechanical
properties of hubs were as per the Table 1.
The test specimen chemical composition is as per the Table 2.

Table 1
Mechanical properties of synchronizer hubs.
Parameter Sample – 1 Sample – 2 Sample – 3

Material Name Grade A Grade B Grade B + Induction Hardening

Material Medium carbon sinter-harden PM grade High carbon diffusion alloyed PM grade High carbon diffusion alloyed PM grade
Process Sinter Hardened Sintering Sintering + Induction Hardening
Yield Strength (MPa) 830 380 380
Compressive Strength (MPa) 1000 470 470
Hardness 30HRC 89HRB (10HRC) Part: 89HRB (10HRC)
Face: 600 HV1
Density (g/cm3) 6.95 6.95 6.95

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2.3. FE analysis

In the vehicle validation and/or the intended service of the vehicle, there were instances where the cracks were observed on sintered
hubs and has further initiated to cause it to break in pieces. To understand the failure mechanism, the synchronizer hubs were analysed
using FEA software. The models were developed using Unigraphics software. The meshing was done in Hypermesh and the analysis was
done using ABAQUS non-linear solver. Linear properties have been considered for hub as it is a sintered part with considerably less
percentage of elongation. As shown in Fig. 5, The FEA model consists of shaft, bush, NRB, sleeve, hub, CB ring and gear. The bush is
press fitted on the shaft. The NRB is positioned between the gear and the bush. The CB ring is welded to the gear. To reduce the backlash
between the hub and the shaft during driving & coasting, press fit has been applied at teeth to teeth interference between the hub and
the shaft splines. The gear is positioned considering gear axial float and radial clearances. All components were modelled with second
order tetra elements with global element size of 3 mm and the critical features were modelled with element size of 0.5 mm. All interface
contacts have been modelled for capturing the load path. Contacts are modelled with finite sliding to allow contact condition updates as
the load ramps up in analysis. To simulate the influence of pitch error the load was applied on alternative teeth. The allowable tooth
pitch error was based on DIN5480 class-8. This high-fidelity model ensured that the gear tilt is captured.
The fidelity of the model was further improved to allow for the sleeve tilt. The fork had been modelled and fork to sleeve
clearances were considered. Gear loads were applied on the gear meshing face and has been uniformly distributed as per gear contact
ratio. For the boundary conditions, shaft is constrained in rotation and bearing faces have been constrained in radial direction.

3. Results & discussion

3.1. Spline digging

The gearbox was tested on the 5th and 6th gears as per the max torque duty cycle. On Grade A sinter hardened hub, the spline
digging happened when the sleeve engaged in to the dog teeth and the torque was getting transferred continuously. In this condition,
both hub and sleeve rotates with the same speed. The sleeve is made of case-hardened steel, with typically 680 HV1 surface hardness.
The spline digging occurs on the hub tooth flank. When the sleeve is engaged to the CB ring, the sleeve will have reduced overlap with
the hub. The hub to sleeve overlap can be improved by increasing the sleeve and the hub width. But in the passenger cars, due to
weight and space constraints the gearbox packaging size is getting reduced. This hampers the use of higher sleeve width. On the hub,
the spline digging will have the profile replica of the sleeve tooth as shown in Fig. 6. The current design of sleeve has 360° annular
strut detent groove as shown in Fig. 7. This strut detent groove reduces the interface contact area as shown in Fig. 8, thus increasing
the surface pressure on the hub tooth face during torque transfer.
The Grade B sintered material was tested with sleeve with strut detent groove at 3 locations as shown in Fig. 9. In this design the
surface pressure on the hub tooth face reduces by increasing the contact area on the sleeve to hub tooth face by using strut detent
groove in three locations as shown in Fig. 10.
The surface pressure on the hub to sleeve interface can be obtained using the following relations:
Dh Ds
Ateeth = ·Lhs
2 (1)

2· T
Wteeth =
D ·Nh· Ateeth (2)
The Grade B sintered material has less hardness compared with Grade A sinter-hardened material. In the 5th and 6th gear testing,
on the Grade B sintered hub, the reduced surface pressure avoids the tooth digging as shown in Fig. 11. On the Grade A sinter-
hardened hub, the increased hardness of 30HRC does not avoid the digging of sleeve tooth on the hub tooth. The hardness has lesser
impact than the interface contact area at the tooth interface. The strut detent groove at 3 locations, which are 120° appart, increases
the hub to sleeve contact area by 75% when compared with 360° annular detent groove. For the applied load case, the part with
annular strut detent groove had spline digging. For the same load case, the strut detent groove at 3 locations, which are 120° appart,
does not show spline digging.

3.2. Face digging

The gearbox was tested on the 5th and 6th gears as per the max. torque duty cycle. When a gear is selected, the hub and the gear
assembly get connected by the synchronizer sleeve. The hub, the sleeve, and the gear assembly are become a single member during
torque transfer. All the parts rotate with the same speed. And there is very negligible relative motion between these parts due to the

Table 2
Chemical composition of sintering material.
Material Name C (%) Mo (%) Mn (%) Cr Cu Ni Fe

Grade A 0.4–0.6 0.4–0.6 0.05–0.3 2.7–3.3 – – Balance

Grade B 0.6–0.9 0.4–0.6 0.05–0.3 – 1.3–1.7 3.6–4.4 Balance

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Fig. 5. (a) Isometric view of parts in FEA; b, c) Interface condition for the child parts.
Interfaces: - 1. Hub to gear, 2. Gear to CB ring, 3. Gear to CB ring weld, 4. Sleeve to CB ring, 5. Hub to sleeve, 6. Hub to bush, 7. Shaft to hub, 8. Shaft
to bush, 9. Fork to sleeve, 10. Gear to Shaft, 11. Gear to NRB, 12. Bush to NRB, 13. Hub teeth to sleeve teeth, 14. Sleeve teeth to CB ring teeth.

Fig. 6. Sleeve tooth digging on Grade A Sinter-hardened hub.

Fig. 7. Sleeve 360° annular strut detent groove.

torque transfer. When the torque is transferred through the gear, the gear helix generates the axial forces on the gear mesh point. The
gears are of case-hardened steel with typical hardness of 650HV1. The direction of gear axial force depends upon the helix direction.
The amount of gear axial force depends upon the helix angle of the gear and the amount of toque transfer. The gear axial force acts on
the hub. This axial force wipes off the oil film on the gear to hub interface. The continuous load and the rotation cause fretting on the
faces as shown in Fig. 12. The particles are detached due to micro slip and oxidized. The debris on the worn surfaces has dark
brownish red color. The gear axial forces generate compressive forces and cause digging due to wear on the hub face at the interface

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Fig. 8. Less interface contact between sleeve and hub due to 360° annular groove.

Fig. 9. Sleeve with strut detent groove at 3 places.

Fig. 10. High interface contact between sleeve and hub due to strut groove at 3 places.

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Fig. 11. Grade B sintered material without tooth digging.

of the hub to the gear. The failure occurs only when the high-speed gears are in engaged condition. In the gear non-engaged
condition, the oil goes in the interface of gear to hub. This creates an oil film between the running parts and avoids fretting.
The total axial load on the hub can be calculated using the following relations:
4·Faxial
Paxial =
·(D12 D2 2 ) (3)
The depth of digging depends upon the load as well as the test duration. The tests were conducted with different loads, contact
areas and different test durations. The test results were plotted as shown in Fig. 13.
The hub digging occurs when larger amount of pressure is applied on the hub face over a shorter period. The hub face digging can
occur when less pressure is applied on the hub face for longer period. The load application is cyclic in nature. It is minimum at
location away from gear mesh point. The load increases to maximum at the gear mesh point. In the test whenever the hub wear
accumulation is above the acceptable limit, Grade B material with induction hardening on the faces can be used. The induction
hardening has a hardness of 600HV1 with a case depth of 1 mm. The Grade B material can withstand higher pressure and high
duration when compared with the Grade A material. The higher hardness in the Grade B material withstands higher pressure and
time. To use Grade A material instead of Grade B material, the contact pressure is to be reduced by increasing the hub and gear
interface contact area. The reduction in pressure eliminates the high cost of secondary operation such as induction hardening for the
same service hours. If the interface annular contact area cannot be increased due to packaging constraints, induction hardening is to
be introduced on the face. The induction hardening increases the life of the hub as shown in Fig. 14.

3.3. External spline chip off

On the max torque test, while testing the 1st gear, a portion of the sintered hub tooth broke near the strut area. The Grade A material
was tested on the test bench as per the max. torque duty cycle. The crack was getting generated on the tooth root near strut detent slot as
shown in Fig. 15. When the load or test duration was increased, the crack extended and broke the hub tooth as shown in Fig. 16.
The fractography study as showed in Fig. 17a, revealed that the crack starts from the tooth base and propagated to the base
diameter. The sintering quality is good, and no abnormality found near the crack in spline root as shown in Fig. 17b. The FEA method
helped to predict the failure mode and to evaluate different design concepts.

Fig. 12. (a) Fretting interface on hub; (b) Fretting interface on gear; (c) digging on hub.

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Fig. 13. Hub face fatigue strength.

Fig. 14. Induction harden surface without face digging.

The hub and the gear are having axial clearance as per the gear float design calculation. When the force is applied to the gear
tooth, the gear simultaneously experiences the torque load and the axial forces due to gear meshing. This axial force tries to slide the
gear out of the assembled condition. Thus, the gear starts to slide axially closing the gear float and at the same time the gear start to
tilt on the available NRB clearances till clearances are resolved. The NRB clearance is inevitable for free rotation and lubrication of
the gear and the bush interface. The CB ring is rigidly connected to the gear by laser welding hence the CB ring also has the tendency
to tilt in same proportion. This pushes the engaged sleeve and in turn the sleeve loads the hub. The sleeve tilt results in non-uniform
contact area between the hub and the sleeve tooth and causes few sets of teeth to take higher meshing load. The peak load is observed
on hub teeth directly in the load path of gear meshing. As the gear rotates, the load on this tooth gradually reduces. The bending
stiffness of the hub tooth near the strut detent slots are less as compared to other locations, due to the material discontinuity and
hence, experiences relatively higher stresses which are aggravated by sleeve tilting. The max principal stresses (S11) on hub have
been shown in Fig. 18-a Stresses have been compared against the material allowable limit (yield or endurance depending on type of
load). The red locations are having stresses above this acceptable limit. These stresses are tensile in nature and hence critical for
failure initiation.
Life calculation is done after performing FEA using stress-life approach using Miner’s modified methodology for damage calcu-
lation. Fatigue life contour plot has been shown in Fig. 18-b. In the fatigue plot, the red locations are region with least life in fatigue
and below the acceptable limit. In the failed part, the hub crack had initiated from this location. Below the tooth as shown in Fig. 19,
the stress are typically compressive in nature which was within the acceptable limit. Thus, FEA correlates well with the spline crack
failure.

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Fig. 15. Microscopic inspection of cracked hub (Red arrow indicates crack). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the
reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 16. Spline chip off.

Fig. 17. Fractography study: a) Spline chip off, b) SEM near crack.

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Fig. 18. (a) Tensile stress on the spline tooth radius, (b) Fatigue life on the spline tooth radius.

Fig. 19. Compressive stresses underneath hub tooth near to detent slots.

From the study, following parameters are critical to cause stress increase on fillets of hub teeth.

1. NRB clearance
2. Gear float
3. Gear stiffness
4. Sleeve overlap with the hub
5. Tooth root radius of the hub spline
6. Stiffness of the wall under the hub tooth, hub flange and hub web thickness
7. Shaft stiffness

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Fig. 20. (a) Gear stiffness increase, (b) Relief between sleeve teeth and hub teeth in high stress region.

Fig. 21. (a) Reduced tensile stress on tooth, (b) Improved fatigue life on tooth.

Fig. 22. Crack in strut detent groove.

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Fig. 23. Fractography study - Crack propagation of strut detent groove.

Fig. 24. Tensile stress - High stress on strut detent groove.

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Fig. 25. Pot shape strut detent groove.

To address the failure, the gear stiffness was increased by increasing the gear flange thickness as shown in Fig. 20a. The increased
gear stiffness reduced the bending deformation at gear engaged condition. Reduction in gearwheel deflection decreases the de-
formation of the synchronizer sleeve and resulted in lesser loading on hub. In the simulation, the high stress was observed in the tooth
adjacent to the strut detent groove as per Fig. 18. To mitigate this, a local relief was provided on the tooth as shown in Fig. 20b. As the
relieved hub tooth is not transferring the torque in driving direction, load shifted to adjacent teeth near to the detent groove as shown
in Fig. 21a. The adjacent teeth would have higher bending stiffness perpendicular to loading direction. This resulted in considerable
reduction in tensile stresses at hub teeth. There was also significant improvement observed in fatigue life of hub tooth as shown in
Fig. 21b. The hub with the local tooth relief and the gear flange stiffness increase was tested on the bench level test rig as per the max.
torque duty cycle in 1st gear and did not observe tooth crack and or chip-off.

3.4. Strut detent groove crack

On the synchronizer hub, strut detent groove is provided to locate the strut. The strut is used for the pre-synchronization process
for oil wiping and to rotate the synchronizer ring to the index position. The strut detent groove creates a circumferential discontinuity
on the hub during rotation. Hence, during torque transfer high stress is getting generated in the strut detent slot. Due to the high
stress at the bottom of the strut detent groove during torque transfer, crack generated in the base of the strut detent groove as shown
in Fig. 22. In this trial, the crack initiated from the hub slot and propagated to the internal spline.
The fractography study revealed that the crack was initiated at the strut detent groove. The fracture started at one strut detent
groove and propagated through the hub and finally failed the hub as shown in Fig. 23.
The FEA analysis with high fidelity modelling showed high stress in the strut detent groove which was higher than the material
limits as shown in Fig. 24. The crack also initiated from the corner radius.

Fig. 26. Pot shape strut groove (a) Tensile stress, (b) Fatigue stress.

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Typically, the design is improved by increasing the strut groove corner radius to reduce the stresses. In situations, where the
corner radius is not possible to increase due to the packaging constraints, an alternative design solution is implemented with a pot
shape of strut detent groove as shown in Fig. 25 to reduce the stress concentration. The FEA analysis on the pot shape design shows
significantly lower tensile stress as shown in Fig. 26a.
The pot shape design has significantly high fatigue life as shown in Fig. 26b. Bench test shows no failure for this design.

4. Conclusions

The following conclusions are made based on the test results.

1. Hub teeth digging is influenced by contact area between the hub to the sleeve interface. Annular groove on the sleeve reduces the
contact overlap. Local groove under struts increase overlap area and leads to reduction in contact stress and digging.
2. Hub face digging is dependent on contact pressure and test duration. The increased surface hardness or reduction of surface
pressure by increase in flange contact area and/or improving both avoids face digging.
3. The high carbon diffusion alloy sinter material with induction hardening withstands higher surface pressure for a given test
duration than the medium carbon sinter-hardened material.
4. The high-fidelity structural analysis simulates the gear and sleeve tilt due to bearing clearances and gear axial float. This si-
mulation approach correlates well with test for durability failure modes. The NRB radial clearance plays a vital role in the gear tilt
and it’s one of the major contributors for hub outer spline failure.
5. The pot shape strut design reduces the stress concentration and avoids the hub durability failures from strut detent grooves.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declared that there is no conflict of interest.

Appendix A. Supplementary material

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engfailanal.2019.104213.

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