Gear drive

Gear drive link properties implement a toothed gear drive. Only the linear elastic behaviour is modelled, non-linearities are neglected. The simplifications are:

  • any kind of backlash is neglected

  • the force pushing the gears apart (due to the pressure angle of the teeth) is not modelled and has to be added as load in an analysis if desired

  • irregular transmission due to the teeth is not modelled

  • local deformation of the gears is not modelled

Definition

Source and target interfaces should be chosen as shown in following figure:

Gear drive link definition

Source interface

Type

Stationary interface (6dof)

Topologies

Peripheral face of the source gear

Location

Center of the source gear

u direction

Axial, along the axis of rotation of the source gear

v direction

Aligned with the v-direction of the target gear

w direction

Resulting direction

Target interface

Type

Stationary interface (6dof)

Topologies

Peripheral face of the target gear

Location

Center of the target gear

u direction

Axial, along the axis of rotation of the target gear

v direction

Aligned with the v-direction of the source gear, pointing from the target to the source gear

w direction

Parallel to the w-direction of the source gear

Parameters

Parameter

Unit

Symbol

Description

Source gear radius

m

\(r_S\)

Radius of the pitch line of the source gear

Target gear radius

m

\(r_T\)

Radius of the pitch line of the target gear

Contact stiffness

N/m

\(k\)

Stiffness of the contact between the gears including tooth compliance

Contact damping

Ns/m

\(d\)

Damping of the contact between the gears including tooth compliance