Experimental measurement and numerical validation of single tooth stiffness for involute spur gears

Dynamic characteristics of the spur gears have become a growing field in recent years, due to the high operating speeds and increased power and torque demands. Tooth stiffness is one of the most influential contributing factors of the dynamic behavior of the gear pairs, which varies continuously during the meshing operation. Therefore, the tooth stiffness of the spur gears must calculate accurately. Generally, to calculate the tooth and mesh stiffness of spur gears, analytical equations are used. In this study, single tooth stiffness of involute spur gear was measured experimentally. A special test rig for this purpose was designed, and an experimental technique was proposed to investigate the effects of drive side pressure angle on the stiffness. The validation process of this study was performed using the finite element method. The experiments were repeated in ANSYS Workbench, and the elastic deformations were calculated. Experimental and numerical results were found to be generally consistent. Results showed that, the single tooth stiffness increase nearly 38% with the increase in drive side pressure angle from 20° to 35°. Single tooth stiffness of gear types manufactured by non-traditional methods, including additive manufacturing and forged bimetallic gears, can be investigated experimentally with this technique. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd