Time-varying Reliability Analysis of Contact Fatigue Strength for Nutation Face Gear Transmission

Abstract

Background: Nutation face gear transmission is a patent about a new type of transmission based on meshing between two face gears. It replaces spur gear with internal face gear to form a “faceface” meshing gear pair and actualizes its deceleration function by combining the nutation principle, which has the advantages of both face gear and nutation drive. Objective: The purpose of this paper is to establish the time-varying reliability calculation model of contact fatigue strength based on fractal contact theory, so as to improve the reliability, safe service and further optimization design of the nutation face gear transmission. Methods: The time-varying uncertainties of the contact stress and the allowable contact stress of the face gear teeth are analyzed respectively, and then the time-varying reliability model of the contact fatigue strength is established. Finally, the drift rate and fluctuation rate of each random variable are simulated using the Monte Carlo simulation method to obtain the time-varying reliability of the contact fatigue strength for the nutation face gear drive. Results: The results show that the general trend of geometric Brownian motion locus of each random variable is consistent with the actual situation. Conclusion: For the given example of the nutation face gear transmission device, the reliability of the contact fatigue strength of the planetary face gear meshing with the fixed face gear and the rotating face gear within one year is calculated to be 0.9912 and 0.9856 respectively, and the maximum vibration noise is about 68dB, which meets the expected value.