Tooth Surface Modification for Helical Gear Pairs considering Mesh Misalignment Tolerance

Mesh misalignment in mating the gear tooth surface is common and difficult to be determined accurately because of system deformation and bearing clearances, as well as manufacturing and assembly errors. It is not appropriate to consider the mesh misalignment as a constant value or even completely ignore it in the tooth surface modification design. Aiming to minimize the expectation and variance of static transmission error (STE) fluctuations in consideration of mesh misalignment tolerance, a multiobjective optimization model of tooth surface modification parameters is proposed through coupling the NSGA-II algorithm and an efficient loaded tooth contact analysis (LTCA) model. The modified tooth flank of helical gear pairs is defined using 6 design variables which are related to profile modification, lead modification, and bias modification. The influences of mesh misalignment on time-dependent meshing stiffness (TDMS) and STE of unmodified and modified helical gear pairs are investigated. Then, the dynamic transmission error (DTE) of modified helical gears in consideration of mesh misalignment is discussed. The results indicate that the designed modified tooth surface shows good robustness to mesh misalignment.