Improving bending stress in spur gears using asymmetric gears and shape optimization

Bending stress plays a significant role in gear design wherein its magnitude is controlled by the nominal bending stress and the stress concentration due to the geometrical shape. The bending stress is indirectly related to shape changes made to the cutting tool. This work shows that the bending stress can be reduced significantly by using asymmetric gear teeth and by shape optimizing the gear through changes made to the tool geometry. However, to obtain the largest possible stress reduction a custom tool must be designed depending on the number of teeth, but the stress reductions found are not very sensitive to small design changes. This observation suggests the use of two new standard cutting tools. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.