Gearbox analysis
Gearboxes are used in a wide range of products, whether stationary or mobile. Vehicles and machine tools are two examples.
The individual parts of a gearbox see various loads over the product life cycle, for example:
- gear mesh forces
- moments
- bearing loads
- thermal loads
- acceleration loads where applicable
- transport and assembly loads
All these loads have to be verified by analysis. Finite element analysis is well suited to this, allowing even complex housing geometries to be analysed and assessed.
Calculated stresses in the housing
Graphical presentation of the available safety factors
The stresses that arise can be assessed to the FKM guideline, for example. The amplitude and mean stresses are determined and a calculated safety factor derived. This is then compared against a required safety factor, which depends on various parameters such as:
- material
- temperature
- consequence of failure
- non-destructive testing
Safety factors can be determined analytically or with software support using FEMFAT, a fatigue life package. Alongside the stresses, the assessment takes influencing factors into account such as notch support effect through stress redistribution, surface roughness, mean stress effect, technological size effect and survival probability. The results are the safety factors or utilisation levels for the analysed load cases, presented as colour plots; where necessary, the number of load cycles that can be sustained is determined by comparison with synthetic S-N curves.
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