International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology

ISSN 2277 - 4106

2013 INPRESSCO. All Rights Reserved.
Available at http://inpressco.com/category/ijcet

Research Article

Modeling and Finite Element Analysis of Spur Gear

Vivek Karaveer*, Ashish Mogrekar and T. Preman Reynold Joseph

SMBS Department, VIT University, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India

Accepted 25 December 2013, Available online 30 December 2013, Vol.3, No.5 (December 2013)

Abstract
The contact stress in the mating gears is the key parameter in gear design. This paper presents the stress analysis of
mating teeth of spur gear to find maximum contact stress in the gear teeth. The results obtained from Finite Element
Analysis (FEA) are compared with theoretical Hertzian equation values. For the analysis, steel and grey cast iron are
used as the materials of spur gear. The spur gears are sketched, modeled and assembled in ANSYS DesignModeler. As
Finite Element Method (FEM) is the easy and accurate technique for stress analysis, FEA is done in finite element
software ANSYS 14.5. Also deformation for steel and grey cast iron is obtained as efficiency of the gear depends on its
deformation. The results show that the difference between maximum contact stresses obtained from Hertz equation and
Finite Element Analysis is very less and it is acceptable. The deformation patterns of steel and grey cast iron gears depict
that the difference in their deformation is negligible.
Keywords: ANSYS, Contact Stress, Finite Element Analysis, Spur Gear.
1. Introduction
1

Gear is a rotating cylindrical wheel having teeth cut on it

and which meshes with another toothed part to transmit
the torque or power. Spur gear is a simplest type of gear
having its teeth cut parallel to the axis of shaft on which
the gear is mounted. Spur gears are used to transmit the
power between parallel shafts. The spur gear has 98-99%
operating efficiency (T. Shoba Rani et al 2013). They are
usually employed to achieve constant drive ratio. There
are several stresses present in the teeth of rotating gears
but out of all the stresses, root bending stress and surface
contact stress calculation is the basic of stress analysis
(Sushil Kumar Tiwari et al 2012). Theoretically, for the
calculation of contact stress at the surface of mating teeth,
Hertz equation is used and for determining bending stress
at the root of meshing gears, Lewis formula is used. In
detail study of the contact stress produced in the mating
gears is the most important task in design of gears as it is
the deciding parameter in finding the dimensions of gear
(Mr. Bharat Gupta et al 2012). Also the module of a gear
plays an important role in transmitting the power between
two shafts. The spur gear with higher module is the best
choice for transmitting large power between the parallel
shafts (Mr. Bharat Gupta et al 2012).
T. Shoba Rani et al. (T. Shoba Rani et al 2013) have
used cast iron, nylon and polycarbonate as the materials of
spur gear for finite element analysis. They concluded that
the deflection of cast iron is more as compared to nylon
and

Polycarbonate. Therefore cast iron spur gear can be

replaced with nylon gear whenever necessary to get the
good efficiency, life and less noise. Sushil Kumar Tiwari
et al. (Sushil Kumar Tiwari et al 2012) found out the
contact stress and bending stress for involute spur gear
teeth in meshing by finite element method and the results
are compared with those obtained by Lewis formula, Hurtz
equation and AGMA/ANSI equations. They concluded
that Hertz theory is the basic theory of contact stress
calculation and for determining bending stress in a pair of
gear, Lewis formula is used. Mr. Bharat Gupta et al. (Mr.
Bharat Gupta et al 2012) have done the finite element
analysis of spur gear using ANSYS 13 to obtain contact
stress between two spur gears and compared with the
results from Hertzian theoretical equation. Based on the
obtained results, they came to the conclusion that the
hardness of the gear tooth profile can be improved to resist
pitting failure. Also the maximum contact stress decreases
with increase in module. If contact stress minimization is
the basic concern and if the large power has to be
transmitted then a spur gear with higher module is
preferred. Ali Raad Hassan (Ali Raad Hassan 2009) has
developed a program to plot paired teeth in contact. This
program was run each 30 of rotation of pinion from the
first location of contact to the last one to create 10 cases.
The program gave graphic results for the teeth of different
finite element models and stress analysis was carried out
in ANSYS. The results obtained from the finite element
analysis were compared with the results determined from
the theoretical calculations, wherever available. Mrs.
Shinde S.P. et al. have performed the bending stress

*Corresponding author: vivek karaveer

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Vivek Karaveer et al

International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol3., No.5 (December 2013)

analysis of spur gear in ANSYS software and the results

are compared with the calculated theoretical values. They
found that the values of stress obtained numerically were
in good agreement with theoretical results. Vera NikolicStanojevic et al. (Vera Nikolic-Stanojevic et al 2003)
described the procedure which is used to determine the
maximum value of active stress and stress fields on tooth
flanks during the period of meshing. Finite Element
Method (FEM) was used for modeling the contact of tooth
flanks. From the results of equivalent stress fields in
contact areas, they concluded that FEM is the suitable
numerical method for different analyses of contact stresses
on mating tooth flanks. The standard model of gear
without the modification of linear tip relief profile has
been meshed and analyzed by Kristina Markovic et al.
(Kristina Markovic et al 2011) using Finite Element
Method to compare the stresses obtained from Hertz
theory on tooth profile.
In this paper, steel and grey cast iron are used as the
spur gear materials. The material properties of steel and
grey cast iron are given in Table 1.

the mating teeth of gear. Hertzian equation for contact

stress in the teeth of mating gears is given by,

(1)

Fig. 1 2D Sketch in ANSYS DesignModeler

Table 1 Material Property of Steel and Grey Cast Iron

Material Property
Density
Coefficient of
Thermal
Expansion
Poisson
Ratio
Youngs Modulus
Tensile Yield
Strength
Tensile
Ultimate
Strength

Unit
Kg/m3
K-1
MPa
MPa
MPa

Steel
7850
1.2e-5
0.3
2e5
250
460

Grey Cast Iron

7100
10.5e-6
0.26
165e3
250
350

2. Modeling of Spur Gear

Fig. 2 Assembly of Spur Gears

In this study, maximum contact stress is determined,

during the transmission of torque of 15000 lb-in or
1694.7725 Nm (Huei-Huang Lee 2012) by steel and grey
cast iron spur gears, using finite element analysis. The
spur gear is sketched and modeled in the ANSYS
DesignModeler. The dimensions of the gears (Huei-Huang
Lee 2012) are given in Table 2.

Where is the contact stress in mating teeth of spur gear,

is the force,
and
are pitch radii of two mating
gears, is the face width of gears, is the pressure angle,
,
are the Poisson ratios and ,
are the modulii of
elasticity of two gears in mesh.
Allowable maximum stress is given by,

Table 2 Dimensions of Spur Gear

Dimension

Unit

Symbol

Number of Teeth
Pitch Circle
Diameter
Pressure Angle
Addendum Radius
Dedendum Radius
Face Width
Shaft Radius

Value (For
both gears in
assembly)
20

Mm

127

0
Mm
Mm
Mm
Mm

RA
RD
B
Rs

20
69.85
55.88
25.4
31.75

(2)

Here
is the factor of safety which can be taken from
the ANSYS results or other
tables. Equation (2) gives
the allowable maximum contact stress in the mating gears.
In this paper, factor of safety is taken from ANSYS
results. But minimum factor of safety from the ANSYS
results is preferred in order to get accurate allowable
maximum contact stress at the point of contact of gear
teeth (Mr. Bharat Gupta et al 2012).
Now, Torque is given by,

3. Theoretical Calculation of Contact Stresses by

Analytical Method (Hertz equation)

Torque = Force ( ) * Shaft Radius (Rs)

Hertz equation is used to determine the contact stresses in

1694.7725e3 (N-mm) =

* 31.75 (mm)
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Vivek Karaveer et al

International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol3., No.5 (December 2013)

grey cast iron gears. Also the deformation is found out for
both the gears.

= 53378.6614 N
Case I- Steel Spur Gear:

4.1 Meshing
For steel gear, equation (1) becomes,

Fine meshing is done to get the accurate results of contact

stress.

4.2 Boundary Condition

= 2601.7984 MPa
From Fig. 6, factor of safety for steel gear is 1.1538.
From (2),

Fixed support is applied on inner rim of the lower gear.

Frictionless support is applied on the inner rim of upper
gear to allow its tangential rotation but restrict from radial
translation. Moment of 15000 lb-in or 1694.7725 N-m is
applied on the inner rim of upper gear in clockwise
direction as a driving torque.

=
= 2254.9821 MPa
Case II- Grey Cast Iron Spur Gear:
For grey cast iron gear, equation (1) becomes,

= 2334.6414 MPa
From Fig. 9, factor of safety for grey cast gear is 1.

Fig. 4 Boundary Condition

5. Results and Discussion

From (2),
=
= 2334.6414 MPa
4. Finite Element Analysis

Fig. 5 Stress distribution in Steel gear

Fig. 3 Meshing
Finite Element Method is the easy technique as compared
to the theoretical methods to find out the stress developed
in a pair of gears. Therefore FEM is widely used for the
stress analysis of mating gears. In this paper, finite
element analysis is carried out in ANSYS Workbench 14.5
to determine the maximum contact stresses for steel and

Fig. 6 Safety Factor for Steel Gear

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Vivek Karaveer et al

International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol3., No.5 (December 2013)

Table 3 Comparison of maximum contact stress obtained

from Hertz equation and ANSYS 14.5
Gear
Steel
Grey CI

(Hertz)
(MPa)
2254.9821
2334.6414

(ANSYS)
(MPa)
2261.2052
2365.1782

Difference
(%)
0.28
1.29

Conclusions

Fig. 7 Deformation pattern for Steel gear

Here the theoretical maximum contact stress is calculated

by Hertz equation. Also the finite element analysis of spur
gear is done to determine the maximum contact stress by
ANSYS 14.5. It was found that the results from both Hertz
equation and Finite Element Analysis are comparable.
From the deformation pattern of steel and grey cast iron, it
could be concluded that difference between the maximum
values of steel and grey CI gear deformation is very less.
Acknowledgements

Fig. 8 Stress distribution in Grey Cast Iron gear

The authors wish to acknowledge the technical advice of

Mr. Sumedh Suryawanshi. This work was carried out at
Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai, PG students of
School of Mechanical and Building Sciences (SMBS)
Department, VIT University, Tamilnadu, India.
References

Fig. 9 Safety Factor for Grey Cast Iron Gear

Fig. 10 Deformation pattern for Grey Cast Iron gear

Comparison of maximum contact stresses, for both steel
and grey cast iron, obtained from Hertz equation and
ANSYS 14.5 is given in Table 3.

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