Multi-tooth contact analysis of rough-flank hypoid gears based on non-uniform rational B-splines

Abstract

In this study, a tooth flank modelling and contact analysis method for hypoid bevel gears is introduced using the non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS) surface-fitting technique. Based on the effect of weighting factor variations on NURBS geometry, the local tooth-fitting accuracy is optimised while maintaining acceptable computational complexity. The simulations of meshing characteristic and flank micro-modification is conducted. The computational model for the loaded tooth contact analysis (LTCA) of a gear pair incorporates tangential friction at the contact point, and the influence of the friction one simulation results is thoroughly examined. Additionally, an iterative method is employed to extend the single-tooth LTCA to multi-tooth scenarios, which enables the calculation of tooth load distribution at a lower computational cost. The transmission error, meshing stiffness, and contact area obtained using the proposed rough-flank LTCA (R-LTCA) model agree better with experimental measurements than the results of finite-element simulation. The findings indicate that proposed R-LTCA method outperforms the finite-element method in terms of simulation accuracy and computation cost.