spinning_gear.

book Page 1 Wednesday, December 3, 2008 2:24 PM

Spinning Gear
SOLVED WITH COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS 3.5a

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Spinning Gear
Introduction
One way to fasten a gear to a shaft is by thermal interference. In preparation of the
assembly, the shaft diameter is oversized and the gear thermally expanded in a heat
treating oven. At an appropriate expansion state, the gear is removed from the oven,
slid onto the shaft, and allowed to cool. As the gear temperature drops, the gear shrinks
and comes into contact with the shaft before it reaches its original shape. From this
point on, additional gear shrinkage results in hoop stresses in the gear as well as normal
compression of the shaft. At thermal equilibrium, an intimate bond between the two
components is reached.
Such an assembly can operate safely in many situations. However, there are operating
conditions under which the fastening stresses become insufficientfor instance, when
spinning the assembly at high rpm.
The goal of this analysis is to determine the critical spinning frequency at which gear
and shaft separate.

Note: This model requires the Structural Mechanics Module.

Model Definition
The model computations consist of two steps:
1 Thermal interference fit

- Import the gear geometry from a given CAD file and draw the shaft using
COMSOL Multiphysics solid modeling tools.
- Fasten the gear to the shaft by thermal interference: Initially, both shaft and gear
reside at room temperature (23 C). Then, the gear is heated to 700 C,
positioned on the shaft, and allowed to cool.
2 Spinning the shaft-gear assembly

- Spin the shaft-gear assembly and determine the separation frequency.

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For performing Step 2, the model is available in two versions that demonstrate
different ways of determining the separation frequency:
Doing a parametric sweep over a frequency range containing the separation
frequency.
Solving an inverse problem using the Optimization application mode. Note that this
version requires the Optimization Lab.
In the modeling instructions that follow, the two approaches are described in turn.
Assume plane stress conditions for all computations and neglect contact phenomena
during separation.
GEOMETRY

The geometry in Figure 1 consists of a shaft and a gear.

Shaft specifications:
Material: Steel AISI 4340
Radius: 0.015 m
Length: 0.1 m
Gear specifications:
CAD file: gear.dxf. This file is included in the model folder and was taken from
Ref. 1.
Material: Steel AISI 4340

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Thickness: 0.01 m

Figure 1: Gear geometry.

DOMAIN EQUATIONS

The given problems are solved by computing the stress and deflection fields of the
steady thermal interference and critical separation states. Starting with the stress-strain
relation
x

= D y

xy

xy

el

and the thermal strain relation

x

y
xy

=
el

t
y t ( T T ref )
xy

(1)

where the subscript el stands for elastic and t is the coefficient of thermal
expansion, you can state that

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x
y
xy

x
t
x

= D y ( T T ref ) + y

xy
0
xy

res

where
1 0
E
D = --------------2- 1 0
1
1
0 0 -----------2
For more information about the underlying equations for the Plane Stress application
mode, see the Structural Mechanics Module Users Guide.
In the second part of the analysis, the forcing term, F, represents the centripetal body
force:
F ( ) = F cos ( ) ,
F sin ( )

2 2

F = r = 4 f x + y

where is the angle from the positive x-axis and f denotes the rotation frequency.
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

To prevent rigid body translation and rotation, you must impose some constraints
(Dirichlet conditions): For computational efficiency, the analysis only includes a
symmetric quarter of the geometry. By setting the normal displacements on the
symmetry boundaries to zero, it is easy to constrain the model.

Modeling in COMSOL Multiphysics

Because the analysis neglects contact phenomena, the gear geometry is modeled at the
thermal expansion of 700 C, at which it fits precisely on the shaft. The model assumes
that the gear expands freely in the heat-treating oven and that the heating profile
removes all internal stresses. When the assembly is spun, the gear expands more quickly
than the shaft and reaches a critical separation point.

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Results
INTERFERENCE

In the first analysis step, you obtain the stress distribution of the thermal interference.
Figure 2 illustrates the hoop stresses in the gear, which increase gradually toward the
interface between shaft and gear. As a result, the shaft is exposed to normal
compression.

Figure 2: von Mises stresses superimposed on shaft and gear. Note the hoop stresses.
SEPARATION

The parametric analysis spins the prestressed assembly at various frequencies, and you
can plot the displacement between the shaft and the gear. Figure 3 and Figure 4
illustrate an advanced displacement state at 1600 Hz and a displacement versus
frequency plot, respectively. The separation frequency occurs at the minimum of about

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1550 Hz (Figure 4). This result agrees is confirmed by the solution of the inverse
problem, which gives the value 1550.1886 Hz.

Figure 3: von Mises stresses and displacement at 1600 Hz.

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Figure 4: Displacement vs. frequency; separation occurs at 1550 Hz.

Reference
1. http://claymore.engineer.gvsu.edu/~schmitte/assign5.html.

SPINNING GEAR