Effect of Machining Errors on the Gear Engagement Using Contact Finite Element Method

Machining errors have a significant effect on the gear engagement, so it is necessary to learn the mechanism of action for the reduction of vibration. The contact finite element method was utilized to study the effect of machining errors on the gear pair’s vibration. The 3D shape deviation caused by machining errors was decomposed into pitch error, profile error and helix error, the precise modeling method was first presented, on this basis the dynamic engagement process of one spur gear pairs was simulated continuously using contact finite element method as an example. The time-domain response of various dynamic parameters was obtained, and the angular velocity, dynamic meshing force and stress distribution showed significant differences between the ideal gear pairs and the gear pairs with machining errors. Then the influence mechanism of profile error, pitch error and helix error on the gear vibration was researched respectively, quantitative analysis of meshing characteristics including dynamic transmission error and angular acceleration was done using the FFT. The results show that the proposed modeling method can simulate arbitrary form of machining errors even if in small order and reflected in the contact finite element analysis. It is not only effective to investigate how the machining errors impact the meshing process, but also to study the influence mechanism of individual machining error. Furthermore, the conclusions can be used to guide the anti-vibration design and accuracy design.