Tooth modification of helical gears for minimization of vibration and noise

Abstract

Vibration and noise of gears is due to the transmission error and the vibration exciting force caused by the periodically alternating tooth stiffness. Transmission error is the rotation delay between driving and driven gear caused by manufacturing error, alignment error in assembly and so on. Tooth stiffness changes with the proceeding mesh of teeth. The purpose of this study is to develop how to calculate simultaneously the optimum amounts of tooth profile modification, end relief and crowning by minimizing the vibration exciting force of helical gears. We estimate the vibration exciting force by the meshing analysis of gears. Formulated constraints of this problem consist of contact ratio and strengths of gear teeth such as tooth bending strength, surface durability, and scoring. ADS(Automated Design Synthesis) is used as an optimization tool. We also investigate the relation between the aspect ratio and the optimum values of tooth modification. The proposed method can calculate the optimum amount of tooth modification automatically and is expected to be practically useful to resolve the problem of vibration of helical gears.