Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics | 2021
Investigation of fracture behaviour of asymmetric spur gear
Abstract
Abstract As a high power transmission capacity and long durability constitute an essential requirement for mechanical machinery, the mechanical transmission gears need to be modified to improve the performance. The increasing drive side pressure angle is one of the methods for enhancing load-carrying capacity of the spur gear. The fracture characteristics of asymmetric gears need to be investigated to estimate the fatigue life. The location and magnitude of stress intensity factors mainly depend on gear tooth geometry, gear parameters, crack tip location, and applied force. Most of the literature study of fracture analysis carried out for the symmetric gears and the majority of them are two-dimensional analysis. In this study, a parametric analysis carried out for asymmetric spur gears to examine the fracture behaviour under mixed-mode fracture condition and explore the significance of each gear parameters. The maximum bending stress location for each gear pair is determined and the crack is introduced at that region. The stress intensity factor (SIF) for each mode is estimated and the effective stress intensity factor at each node along the face width is determined. In addition, the effect of opening mode, sliding mode and tearing mode on effective stress intensity factor for fillet crack is examined. This analysis inferred that the effect of opening mode fracture is predominant in the effective stress intensity factor irrespective of gear parameters.