Effect of Back-side Contact on Mesh Stiffness of Spur Gear Pair by Finite Element Method

Time varying mesh stiffness is an important parameter in the study of gearbox vibration analysis. Mesh stiffness is affected by gear parameters (e.g. pressure angle, contact ratio, back-up ratio, module etc.) and due to presence of gear tooth faults (e.g. crack, pitting, spalling etc.). Back-side contact of gear tooth happens when tight meshing occurs or anti-backlash gears are used. So the effect of back-side contact becomes an important consideration for calculating mesh stiffness. In this paper, the effect of back-side contact on mesh stiffness of drive side of spur gear pair is analyzed. For this, a three dimensional model is investigated by finite element method (FEM). The results are discussed and it is found that the back-side contact affects the mesh stiffness significantly.