Evaluation of the fatigue life of a tractor’s transmission spiral bevel gear

Abstract Conventional tractor transmission spiral bevel gears are designed and evaluated based on the engine rated load, which is significantly higher than the load conditions in the field. In this study, the fatigue life of a spiral bevel gear is evaluated to obtain data for design optimization. The equivalent load was calculated using the field load data, and the integrated equivalent load was calculated based on the annual usage of major field operations in Korea. The fatigue life of three spiral bevel gear samples was evaluated using the accelerated life test (ALT) under an engine rated load condition of 120%. It was also evaluated under engine rated, plow equivalent, and integrated equivalent load. Fatigue life was estimated using the ALT results and the fatigue damage exponent based on the ALT equation. We observed that the fatigue life of the spiral bevel gear under the plow equivalent and integrated equivalent loads is higher than that under the rated load by 214 and 9,400 times, respectively. The results of this study can provide useful information for the design optimization of tractor transmission spiral bevel gears considering the field equivalent load.