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Tooth modification for optimizing gear contact of a wind-turbine gearbox

Article  in  ARCHIVE Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part C Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science 1989-1996 (vols 203-210) · December 2015
DOI: 10.1177/0954406215622656

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Original Article

Proc IMechE Part C:

J Mechanical Engineering Science
Tooth modification for optimizing gear 0(0) 1–13
! IMechE 2015

contact of a wind-turbine gearbox Reprints and permissions:

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DOI: 10.1177/0954406215622656
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JeongSu Kim1, NoGill Park1 and HyoungWoo Lee2

Abstract
This study investigates a method of calculating tooth modification amount of a wind-turbine gearbox. The requirements
of high reliability and a service life of 20 years or longer for wind power gearboxes necessitate appropriate gear meshes,
which require elaborate tooth modification. The interference between teeth caused by deformation of the gear body and
the shaft alignment error, which is caused by deformation of system components such as the housing, the bearings, and
the shaft, was calculated, and the result was used to determine the tooth modification parameters. Thus, a method of
calculating tooth modification amount was developed that can be performed without trial and error; its reliability was
confirmed by an evaluation through simulation. Contact was evenly distributed over the tooth surfaces after the tooth
profile was corrected, thus improving the edge contact pattern relative to the situation before correction.

Keywords
Wind-turbine gearbox, angle deformation, torsional deformation, tooth deflection, tooth modification

Date received: 7 October 2015; accepted: 20 November 2015

Introduction
This study investigates a method of calculating tooth
modification amount of a wind-turbine gearbox. In a
wind power generation system, low-speed and high-
torque power is input from the blade to the gearbox,
which transfers high-speed and low-torque power to
the power generator. An important feature of this
system is that as the blade rotates at a high horse-
power and low speed, a very high torque and bending
moment are applied as the input of the gearbox. The
speed of the rotor blade of a wind power generator
ranges between 15 and 40 r/min, the input speed of the
power generator ranges between 1000 and 1800 r/min,
and the range of speed increase ratio is 50–200. High
reliability along with a service life of 20 years is
required for the wind-turbine gearbox. Since the
wind-turbine gearbox is fixed to the nacelle using
torque arms, the shaft and case are severely distorted,
causing more severe torsional vibration than is seen in
industrial reducers and automobile transmissions.
Accordingly, not only the strength and durability
but also the noise and vibration of the gearbox of a
wind power generator need to be evaluated. To reduce
the vibration and noise of a gearbox, the contact pat-
tern of the gear must be improved by tooth modifica-
tion. Therefore, technology is required that can
accurately calculate the deformation generated by
the load and reflect it in the tooth modification in
the lead direction. The following studies of
tooth modification were previously carried out.
Kubo et al.1 measured gear transmission errors by
modularizing the tooth profile of a vehicle transmis-
sion and examined its correlation with gear noise.
Tavakoli and Houser2 conducted research on the opti-
mization of tooth modification in the profile direction
to minimize the static transmission errors of internal
and external spur gears. Lin et al.3,4 investigated the
dynamic response characteristics produced when tip
relief and parabolic tooth modification were applied
to the spur gear profile direction to determine the
amount of tooth modification when a minimum
dynamic load was applied. Choi and David5 examined
the relationship between the mesh stiffness and tooth
deformation of a spur gear and helical gear and the
applied load. Bonori et al.6 conducted research on
tooth profile modification to reduce vibration of a
spur gear pair using genetic algorithms. Li7,8 studied
the transmission error, load distribution, and mesh
stiffness of spur gears that underwent tooth profile
modification due to assembling errors. Most of these
studies were carried out on the gear transmission
error, optimization of load distribution, and
1
School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, Korea
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, JungWon University, Korea
Corresponding author:
NoGill Park, Pusan National University, Jangjeon-Dong, Geumjeong-
Gu, Busan, Korea.
Email: parkng@pusan.ac.kr

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2 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)
technology for correcting the tooth profile in the dir-
ection of the profile to avoid edge contact. This paper
presents a reliable method for calculating tooth modi-
fication in the lead direction, taking into account the
deformation caused by the distortion of shaft, case,
and other components. The instant screw axis (ISA)
was obtained by determining the deformation of the
front and rear ends of the gear when the gearbox
deformed under load. The tooth interference in the
lead direction was accurately calculated by determin-
ing the deformation angle of the central shaft of the
gear distorted relative to the ISA and the distance to
the ISA. The interference in the lead direction result-
ing from the distortion of the gear body was also
calculated and added to the tooth interference.
Thus, the ideal tooth modification was determined
without trial and error. The validity of the tooth
modification obtained through this method was ver-
ified by an analysis of tooth contact.
Calculation of tooth modification
amounts for a wind-turbine gearbox
The amount of tooth deformation of a gearbox for
wind power generation can be calculated by perform-
ing a structural analysis of the system. The structural
analysis was conducted by predicting the angle
deformation of a gear support shaft and gear-body
torsional deformation, thereby calculating the tooth
modification amount in the lead direction. For the
profile direction, the amount of tooth modification
was determined by considering the tooth deformation
needed to prevent edge contact in the profile direction.
Table 1 shows incorrect tooth contact patterns as well
as the tooth contact patterns after tooth modification.
Table 1. Tooth contact patterns.
Causes Tooth contact patterns
Deformations
of the gear tooth
Lead errors due to torsional
deformation of both
the shaft and transmission case
Modification of the
objective tooth
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Between the tooth tip and the root, an edge contact is
made due to pitch errors caused by process or assem-
bly errors or tooth deformation. In the tooth width
direction, an edge contact is made due to the torsional
deformation of the shaft, deformation of the bearings
and housing, etc. due to the applied load. The amount
of tooth modification for ensuring that the contact
occurs at the center of the tooth was calculated.
Deformation analysis of the wind-turbine gearbox
The gearbox was modeled using MASTA (the gear
analysis program) and a finite-element method.
More specifically, the gear, shaft, and bearing were
modeled using MASTA, while the housing was mod-
eled based on the finite-element method. The
substructure synthesis method was applied to com-
bine the MASTA model and the finite-element
model. The accelerating unit examined in this study
was a combination of planetary gears and helical
gears. Figure 1 shows the schematization of a gearbox
where S, P, and R signify sun gears, planetary gears,
and ring gears, respectively. The motive power
applied to the input shaft is distributed to the carrier
of stage 1 and the ring gear of stage 2, and the carrier
of stage 2 is connected to the housing as one unit. The
sun gear of stage 1 is linked to the helical gear of stage
3. The gear train is fixed to the housing and nacelle,
and the nacelle is assumed to be the ground surface.
Table 2 shows the specification of a gear.
The housing is supported by the nacelle through
the torque-arm mount. As the mount has a significant
impact on system deformation, it should be con-
sidered at the time of modeling. Between the torque
arm and the ground surface, a spring was used for the
stiffness of the mount. Table 3 shows the mount stiff-
ness values.
The structural analysis of a housing model based
on the finite-element method has disadvantages in
terms of analysis time and memory. Therefore, the
analysis was combined with a gear train model
based on MASTA using the substructure synthesis
method. In this study, component mode synthesis
was applied, which is a method developed by
Hurty.9 The rigid-body-motion mode and boundary-
deformation mode proposed by Hurty were general-
ized to a constraint mode by Craig and Bampton; this
method is called the Craig–Bampton method.10 The
load conditions for the structural analysis were deter-
mined by considering the moment generated at the
blades and the deflection due to blade weight. When
a blade makes a rotary motion, the moment is
produced in the rotary, horizontal, and vertical direc-
tions. Heier11 explained the moment conditions of a
blade caused by wind loads, and Kim et al.12 per-
formed a simulation analysis on the torque and
bending moments at an input shaft in response to
variations in the incident angle of the wind. This
study applied a condition where a gust of wind,
Kim et al. 3

Figure 1. Gearbox schematization.

Table 2. Gear information.

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3

S P R S P R I O

Module 13 17.5 11
Pressure angle 20
Center distance 420 mm 525 mm 550 mm
Helix angle – – 20
Face width 220 mm 280 mm 220 mm
Number of tooth 26 37 103 27 32 93 74 19
Profile shift 0.2 0.5 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.2 0.03 0.5
Addendum 1
Dedendum 1.25

modeled by Kim, has an incident angle of 22.5 . The

maximum wind speed was assumed to be 25 m/s, and
Table 3. Mount stiffness. the center of the gust was set to be 10 m above the
blade center. Figure 2 shows the blade moment
Stiffness (kN/mm) changes in the horizontal, vertical, and rotary direc-
Radial direction 150 tions. Table 4 shows the average values of the blade
moments. The average values were treated as loads
Axial direction 2
during the structural analysis. Also, the deflection

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4 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

Figure 2. Blade moment.

Calculation of tooth interference amount due to angle

Table 4. Blade average moment. deformation. To calculate the amount of angle deform-
Moment (MNm) ation, the conditions before and after the deformation
of the central shaft of the gear must be checked.
Horizontal 0.748 Figure 4 shows a schematic of the changes to the cen-
Vertical 0.333 tral shaft due to deformation. A1 , B1 , A2 , and B2
Rotational 1.944 show the node points of the front and rear ends of
the pinion and gear before deformation, and A01 , B01 ,
A02 , and B02 show the locations of node points of the
due to weight was considered by applying a force cor- front and rear ends after deformation. ! n1 and !
n2 are
responding to the weight of a blade (26,000 kg) to the the central shaft vectors of the gear and pinion to
blade near the input shaft. which the front and ! rear! ends are connected before
A structural analysis was conducted to determine the deformation, and n01 and n02 are the central shaft vec-
amounts of translational and torsional displacements at tors where the front and rear ends are connected after
the front and rear ends of the gear support shaft, as deformation.
! !
shown in Tables 5 and 6. For the planetary gears, the The n01 and n02 after deformation can be defined by
one with the largest displacement value among the con- equations (1) and (2) below
tacts of the planetary gears is shown.
ƒ! ƒ!
!0 B01  A01
n1 ¼   ð1Þ
Tooth modification in the lead direction ƒ! ƒ!
 B0  A0 
 1 1 
The amount of tooth modification in the lead
direction is calculated based on the amount of inter- ƒ! ƒ!
ference in the tooth width direction caused by angle !0 B02  A02

n2 ¼   ð2Þ
deformation and gear-body torsional deformation. ƒ! ƒ!
 B0  A0 
Figure 3(a) shows the ideal status of gear contact
and Figure 3(b) shows an edge contact in the tooth
width direction due to angle deformation and tor-
sional deformation. Since involute tooth gears have
the characteristic of absorbing parallel misalignment,
the impacts due to parallel misalignment were not
considered in the tooth modification in the lead
direction.
 2 2 
To consider just the interference in the lead direc-
tion without taking into account the impacts due to
the profile direction, as shown in Figure 5, the central
shaft vector after deformation was projected onto the
xy-plane, and the amount of angle deformation in
the tooth width direction was obtained. When the

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Kim et al. 5

Table 5. Node translational displacement value.

Front node/rear node

Stage Type x (m) y (m) z (m)

1st Sun 144.779/116.032 63.7795/63.7803 126.095/209.897

Planet 175.027/182.520 109.758/109.759 159.814/188.885
Ring 94.641/84.405 135.687/135.686 241.009/325.139
2nd Sun 68.432/52.483 135.682/135.68 491.56/600.88
Planet 49.433/49.826 72.337/72.376 50.416/94.548
Ring 13.106/17.859 38.294/38.295 303.534/365.74
3rd Driving 19.879/43.338 74.868/75.010 9.136/10.413
Driven 101.241/70.427 98.784/97.789 31.617/27.248

Table 6. Node torsional displacement value.

Front node/rear node

Stage Type  (mrad)

1st Sun 0/0.09638

Planet 0/0.00076
Ring 0/0.00271
2nd Sun 1.03082/1.11749
Planet 0/0.003591
Ring 0.1128/0.1194
3rd Driving 0.04157/0.004402
Driven 0.00019/0.125995

! !
projection of n01 and n02 on the xy-plane is assumed to
!00
! 00
be n1 and n2 , respectively, the amount of angle
deformation in the xy-plane can be calculated by
applying equation (3)
!00
!00
cosð
Þ ¼ n1
n2 ð3Þ

On the xy-plane, each gear is tilted by
 toward

ƒƒƒ!
the crossed axis from the ISA (H1 H2 ). In order to
obtain the ISA value, we suppose that the points
H1 , H2 exist apart from points B1 00 , B2 00 along the dir-
!!
ection vectors n001 , n002 , the distance between the two
Figure 3. Comparison of ideal contact and edge contact
locations being  1,  2. The direction vector to
patterns.
H1 , H2 can then be expressed using equations (4) to
(6). In addition, since the ISA satisfies the condition of
!! ! ƒƒƒ!
being vertical to n001 , n002 , the internal relations n001
H1 H2 ¼ 0 ð7Þ
expressed in equations (7) and (8) are also satisfied,
which become the basis to obtain  1,  2 ƒ!00 ƒƒƒ!
n2
H1 H2 ¼ 0 ð8Þ
ƒƒ! ƒƒƒ! ƒ!
OH1 ¼ OB1 00 þ r1 n1 00 ð4Þ Even though the amount of angle deformation is
ƒƒ! ƒƒƒ! ƒ! very small, it causes a change in the arrangement of
OH2 ¼ OB2 00 þ r2 n2 00 ð5Þ the parallel shaft gear system relative to the cross
shaft gear system. Even though the teeth were not
ƒƒƒ! ƒƒ! ƒƒ! affected, the change gave rise to tooth interference.
H1 H2 ¼ OH1 þ OH2 ð6Þ
The central shaft of the gear became rotating, starting

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6 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

Figure 6. Tooth interference by angle deformation 1.

Figure 4. Central shaft of a pair of gears after deformation.

Figure 7. Tooth interference by angle deformation 2.

according to the angle error gear ratio (g). k is an

index for distinguishing the drive gear from the
driven gear
Figure 5. Shaft angle deformation in the xy-plane.  
1 gsin


1 ¼ tan ð9Þ
g þ cos


from an instantaneous center on the xy-plane.
2 ¼
 
1 ð10Þ

Figure 6 displays the torsion of the rotation angle
from the instantaneous rotation axis. The rotation
angles (
k ) of the driving gear and driven gear
were obtained based on the theory that determines
the axis angle (
) according to the gear ratio in the
crossed-axis gear system.13 As shown in equations (9)
and (10), the crossing was done by distributing the
rotation angle (
k , k ¼ 1or 2) to each gear
As the rotation angle (
k ) is formed by the rota-
tion from the z axis, the amount of interference for a
gear positioned in an ideal location can be deter-
mined. The total amount of tooth interference due
to angle deformation is the same regardless of the
value of the rotation angle applied to the drive gear

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Kim et al. 7

and driven gear. Equations (9) and (10) distribute the

amount of tooth interference to the drive and driven
gears appropriately. Referring to Figure 7, a small
amount of linear displacement due to distributed rota-
tion angles is observed on the edge of the tooth. If the
displacement of A00k from the rotation angle is
obtained at the rotation center point (Hk ), it becomes
possible to determine the amount of interference at
the ideal location of Ak .When this is rotated by the
rotation angle (
k ), the interference amount (m,k )
can be calculated using equation (11). The drive gear
and driven gear each have their own tooth interfer-
ence amounts

m,k ¼ Hk Ak 00 
k ð11Þ

Calculation of tooth interference amount due to torsional

deformation. When the amounts of torsional deform-
Figure 8. Gear body torsional deformation.
ation at the front and rear ends of the gear caused by
the applied load differ from each other, an additional
phenomenon involving a helix angle is observed. In
such a case, the gear and pinion behave as if they are
gears whose helix angles differ from each other
depending on the torsional deformation amounts.
Figure 8 shows the torsional deformation of the
Table 7. Lead tooth modification value. gear body.
The changes due to the torsion of the front and
m,k ( ) t,k (m) L,k (m)
rear ends of the gear are k,A and k,B , respectively,
Stage1 Sun 21 – 8.4 29.4 and as shown in equation (12), the amount of torsion
Planet 19 19 0.09 19.09 of the gear body is
k . The amount of tooth inter-
(s  p) (p  r) ference due to torsional deformation can be calculated
Ring – 54 0.8 54.8 using equation (13), by evenly distributing the tor-
Stage2 Sun 50 – 10.4 60.4 sional amount to the front and rear ends of the gear
Planet 47 54 0.5 54.57
(rk : pitch radius of k index gear).
(s  p) (p  r)  
Ring – 19 2.7 21.7
k ¼ k,A  k,B  ð12Þ
Stage3 Driving 22 8.1 30.1

k
Driven 28 7.1 35.1 t,k ¼ rk ð13Þ
2

Figure 9. Lead tooth modification diagram.

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8 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

Total amount of tooth interference in the lead
direction. The total amount of tooth interference in
the lead direction can be determined by adding the
tooth interference due to angle deformation and the
tooth interference due to torsional deformation.
Equation (14) shows the amount of tooth interference
in the lead direction. The same method for calculating
the interference amount on the pitch circle is applied
to both the internal and the external gears
L,k  m,k þ t,k
Table 7 shows the prediction of tooth interference
amounts based on Tables 4 and 5. In the case of a
planetary gear, the amount of tooth interference (m,k )
depends on the contact of the sun gear with the
planetary gear (s  p) and the contact of the planetary
Figure 10. Contact path of external and internal gear.
gear with the ring gear (p  r). The amount of inter-
ference of a planetary gear in the lead direction is a
larger value between the s  p contact and the p  r
contact. Figure 9 shows a diagram of the tooth modi-
fication in the lead direction. To specify the tooth
modification, based on the calculated amounts of
tooth modification interference, bilateral symmetric
crowning is performed. This prevents edge contacts
caused by the lean to one side, considering the tooth
interferences when the system is deformed under load.
ð14Þ
Tooth modification in the profile direction
For the profile direction, tooth modification is done to
ensure smooth contact and rotation, by preventing
edge contacts that occur when a tooth approaches
or moves away due to tooth deformation. Figure 10
shows the contact path of internal and external
gears.14 The gear contact takes place between
T1 and T2 , causing the contact length to change. A
spur gear makes a two-point contact between the
highest point of single tooth contact (HPSTC) and
the lowest point of single tooth contact (LPSTC),
and it makes a one-point contact in other parts.
Likewise, a helical gear makes a three-point contact
between the highest point of double tooth contact
(HPDTC) and the lowest point of double tooth con-
tact (LPDTC), and it makes a two-point contact in
other parts. The number of contacts changes and an
edge contact takes place as new teeth make contact
and come in. Therefore, tooth modification is needed
to prevent edge contact by predicting the tooth deflec-
tion amount at this point.15
The amount of tooth deformation can be obtained
by calculating the transfer load and mesh stiffness.
Mesh stiffness was calculated based on methods
reported in the following studies. Lewis16 used the
tooth profile factor for the first time to calculate the
stress of gears. Based on the results of this study,
Weber,17 O’Donnell,18 and Cornell19 conducted
research on the compliance and stress of gear teeth
by considering a cantilever-shaped beam, the tooth’s
root shape, support flexibility, local deformation, etc.
Rincon et al.20 studied the mesh stiffness characteris-
tics of gears using finite-element analysis. In this
study, the mesh stiffness was estimated using the

Table 8. Mesh stiffness information.

Contact ratio Single stiffness (c0) Mesh stiffness (c ) Mean value of time-varying
(transverse/axial) (N/m/mm) (N/m/mm) mesh stiffness (k) (N/m)

Stage1 S & P mesh 1.461/0 12.830 17.262 3797.64

P & R mesh 1.664/0 14.630 21.913 4821.03
Stage2 S & P mesh 1.517/0 12.328 17.106 4789.68
P & R mesh 1.827/0 13.988 22.659 6344.52
Stage3 I & O mesh 1.361/2.177 13.302 16.903 3719.27

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Kim et al. 9

Figure 11. Mesh stiffness (
k).

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10 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

following method. First, the average mesh stiffness dimensionless contact length curve, which is calcu-
(c ) was obtained; then, the time-varying mesh stiff- lated from the contact length curve (LðxÞ) and the
ness (
kðxÞÞ was calculated using the relationship average contact length (Laverage ). The change of stiff-
between this average value and lðxÞ.21,22 lðxÞ is a ness exhibited by the contact point of a gear is
expressed in terms of dimensionless contact length
Table 9. Profile tooth modification value. change (refer to equations (15) and (17))
p (m) c ¼ ð0:75 þ 0:25Þc0 ð15Þ
Stage1 Sun 78.09 –
Planet 68.60 lðxÞ ¼ LðxÞ=Laverage ð16Þ
Ring –

kðxÞ ¼ c  B  lðxÞ ð17Þ
Stage2 Sun 123.91 –
Planet 108.96
In equation (15), c0 is the single stiffness, B is the tooth
Ring –
width, and is a transverse contact ratio. c0 is calcu-
Stage3 Driving 59.42 lated based on ISO to obtain the values of the
Driven spur gear, helical gear, internal gear, and external
gear. Table 8 shows the mesh stiffness calculation
data. The graph in Figure 11 shows the calculated
mesh stiffness for stages 1 to 3. The mesh stiffness
changes depending on the location and time of
contacts.
In this study, the transfer loads applied to the tooth
surface of stages 1 to 3 are 226.16 kN, 418.14 kN, and
214.61 kN, respectively. Table 9 shows the tooth
deflection amounts at the HPSTC/HPDTC of each
gear. The tooth modification starts at the HPSTC/
HPDTC. In the case of a planetary gear, the larger
tooth deformation value is chosen from the contacts
of the sun gear and ring gear. As shown in Figure 12,
tip relief was applied for the tooth modification in the
Figure 12. Profile tooth modification diagram. profile direction.

Figure 13. Stage 1 TCA: sun and planet meshing.

Figure 14. Stage 1 TCA: planet and ring meshing.

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Kim et al.
Figure 15. Stage 2 TCA: sun and planet meshing.
Figure 16. Stage 2 TCA: planet and ring meshing.
Figure 17. Stage 3 TCA: driving and driven meshing.
Simulation analysis
To review the validity of the calculated tooth modifi-
cation amounts, tooth contact analysis and peak-to-
peak transmission error analysis were performed
through simulation. The simulation was conducted
using the MASTA program. The contact pattern
was examined before and after tooth modification,
and the contact stress was reviewed. An ideal gear
contact requires an even distribution of contacts on
the tooth surface. In such cases, quality performance
is achieved in terms of strength and vibration.23
Figures 13 through 17 show the contact patterns
before and after tooth modification based on the
tooth modification values in Tables 6 and 7.
Before tooth modification, due to gear deflection
under load, gear contacts were made on the tooth
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11
edge for stages 1 to 3. More specifically, the contacts
of the tooth surface were concentrated on the sides of
the teeth, and the contacts were also concentrated on
the tooth roots of the planetary gear and ring gear of
stage 2 and the drive gear and driven gear of stage 3.
The edge contact toward the sides of the teeth is
mainly caused by the angle deformation and body
torsional deformation of the gear; the edge contact
toward the tooth roots is generally caused as the
tooth comes inside due to tooth deflection when the
teeth mesh. To correct these phenomena, tooth modi-
fication was performed, and the conditions before and
after the tooth modification were compared. For stage
1, the tooth contacts took place at the center of the
tooth surface after tooth modification. For stages 2
and 3, the problem of the concentration of tooth con-
tacts on the sides was improved after tooth modifica-
tion. As for the comparison of contact stress before and
12 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

Table 10. Contact pressure.

Contact pressure (MPa)

Stage/location Before tooth modification After tooth modification Reduction ratio (%)

1st S&P mesh 1186 1103 7.07

P&R mesh 929 920 0.755
2nd S&P mesh 1302 1236 5.06
P&R mesh 1133 1026 9.44
3rd I&O mesh 1295 1079 16.67

Table 11. Peak-to-peak transmission error.

Peak-to-peak transmission error (mm)z

Stage/location Before tooth modification After tooth modification Reduction ratio (%)

1st S&P mesh 50.89 45.85 9.90

P&R mesh 51.49 48.69 5.43
2nd S&P mesh 74.78 67.25 10.06
P&R mesh 73.20 69.21 5.45
3rd I&O mesh 5.6662 1.3142 76.8

after tooth modification, as shown in Table 10, the con-
tact pressure decreased by a minimum of 0.755% and a
maximum of 16.67%. Table 11 shows the peak-to-peak
value of the gear transmission error. As this is a source
of vibrations, a smaller value is better. After tooth modi-
fication, its value decreased by 5.43–76.8%.
Conclusion
This study examined tooth modification to optimize
the contacts between gears used for a wind power
generation system.
1. A system-structural analysis was conducted to
determine the amounts of tooth modification.
Structural analysis was done by modeling, con-
sidering the elastic effects of the housing of a
wind power generation system based on the sub-
structure synthesis method. Also, a static analysis
was performed by taking into account the hori-
zontal, vertical, and rotary moments at blades as
well as deflection due to weight. Deformation
amounts were calculated through a structural ana-
lysis; based on the results, the tooth modification
amounts were calculated.
2. A calculating amount of tooth modification in the
lead direction was proposed. When deformation
occurred under load, the deformation angle was
determined to predict the amount of tooth inter-
ference in the lead direction at the point of pitch
radius. This was distributed to the pinion and gear
according to the gear ratio to determine the tooth
modification amounts. Further, the amount of
tooth modification was calculated by additionally
considering the tooth interference at the pitch point
caused by torsional deformation of the gear body.
3. To prevent edge contact when the number of con-
tacts changes (HPTSC, HPTDC), the amount of
tooth deformation was obtained and used as a
basis for calculating the amounts of profile tooth
modification.
4. The gear contact conditions were compared before
and after tooth modification in the lead and profile
directions through a tooth contact analysis. Before
tooth modification, a concentration of contacts on
the sides was observed. This phenomenon was
improved significantly after the modification. Also,
after tooth modification, the contact stress was
reduced by as much as 16.67%, and the peak-to-
peak value of gear transmission errors dropped by
a maximum of 76.8%, proving the validity of the
amounts of tooth modification. Thus, the validity
of the tooth modification proposed by this study
was reviewed and confirmed through simulation.
For stage 1, the problem of edge contact to the
sides was solved, and for stages 2 and 3, this problem
was found to be alleviated by considering only angle
deformation and torsional deformation.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial
support for the research, authorship, and/or publication

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 Kim et al. 13

of this article: This work was supported by the Human manufacturers association fall technical meeting, 17–19
Resources Development program (No. 20134030200290) October 2010, pp.112–126.
of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation 16. Lewis W. Investigation of the strength of gear teeth.
and Planning (KETEP) grant funded by the Korea Eng Club Philadelphia 1893(10): 16–23.
Government Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy. 17. Weber C. The deformations of loaded gears and the
effect on their load-carrying capacity. Sponsored
Research, British Department of Scientific and
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