MBS Gear-tooth Stiffness Model - Implementation of a new coupling model for fast and accurate simulation of gear pairs using stiffness characteristic arrays

Abstract The simulation of gear trains is important to understand the behavior of systems and their components in many industrial applications, especially in regards to acoustics, fatigue, and wear. However, there is a visible mismatch in the degree of detail between the existing gear simulation models. On one hand, most MBS models use rigid tooth-bodies with constant stiffness that is independent of the contact point and the load case. This results in simulation inaccuracies, especially regarding proper load application and stiffness distribution which leads to imprecise acoustic and fatigue estimations. On the other hand, most of the current elastic tooth stiffness models use in-depth contact and impact calculations which result in a slow and computationally-intensive simulation process that cannot be applied to large multibody dynamic systems.