EFFECT OF GEAR TEETH CROWNING ON THE PERFORMANCE OF A GEAR COUPLING USING FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

The present project investigated the effect of gear tooth crowning on the performance of a gear coupling using Finite Element Analysis. The test was carried out using SolidWorks for 3D modeling and ANSYS Workbench for numerical analysis. Consideration of four crowning configurations of 0 mm, 0.06 mm, 0.08 mm and 0.10 mm. Evaluation of each configuration at input torques of 100 Nm, 200 Nm, 300 Nm and 400 Nm under angular misalignment of 0.5° and 1.5°. The recorded output parameters included the reaction torque, contact pressure and tooth stress. The following conclusions can be drawn from the recorded results: 1.   Effect of crowning: The results demonstrate the differences in the recorded output torque, contact pressure and tooth stress for the four crowning configurations. This indicates that the selected crowning value is an important parameter to investigate when evaluating gear coupling performance. 2.   Performance at 0.5° misalignment: At an input torque of 400 Nm, the 0.10 mm configuration recorded an output torque of 308.09 Nm and a contact pressure of 0.72 MPa. These represent the highest reported output torque and the lowest reported contact pressure, respectively, among the four configurations for this condition. 3.   Performance at 1.5° misalignment: At an input torque of 400 Nm, the 0.06 mm configuration recorded an output torque of 317.75 Nm and a contact pressure of 0.76 MPa. These correspond to the highest reported output torque and the lowest reported contact pressure, respectively, among the four configurations for this condition. 4.   Comparison of tooth stress: At 400 Nm input torque and 0.5° misalignment, the lowest reported tooth stress was 0.10 MPa for the 0.08 mm configuration. At 1.5° misalignment, the lowest reported tooth stress was 0.44 MPa for the 0.10 mm configuration. Consequently, the configuration with the highest reported output torque is not necessarily the one with the lowest reported tooth stress. 5.   Influence of misalignment: The comparison indicates the change in the ranking of the crowning configurations with angular misalignment. The results therefore suggest evaluating crowning under more than one operating condition rather than selecting a design from a single case. 6.   Selection of a suitable crowning value: Based on the current data, the 0.10 mm configuration is a promising candidate for the 0.5° misalignment condition, whereas the 0.06 mm configuration is promising for the 1.5° condition when output torque and contact pressure are considered together. Overall, the study presents a comparative numerical assessment of different gear tooth crowning values. However, the verification of the reaction torque extraction method and stress results must be completed before a final design recommendation can be made. In particular, some reported output torque values exceed the applied input torque, so the reaction location, constraints and sign convention should be checked. The precise ANSYS stress output used in the comparison should also be confirmed. Consequently, the present results do not determine one universally optimum crowning value but instead indicate that the preferred configuration depends upon the misalignment condition and the performance criteria being considered.  

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