Analysis of manufacturing variability on the transmission error of an internal gear pair using a multibody framework

Widely used in industrial applications, gears are still among the most popular components of transmission systems and drivelines. Despite the technological advances in the precision of machining tools, manufactured gears exiting in the production line do not fully satisfy the intended design due to the manufacturing and assembly variabilities. Tooth geometry including profile and lead modification may differ from the nominal design values among teeth of the same gear. The prediction of gearbox vibrations caused by non-uniform gear motion requires accurate numerical models that can deal with these manufacturing variabilities. In this paper, we evaluate the effect of manufacturing tolerances and assembly variabilities on the transmission error (TE) of an internal gear pair. TE curves are obtained by a numerical simulation based on different measured tooth flank topologies provided by the manufacturer. The simulated TE will be compared to the ones experimentally measured. The system components are modeled by following several fidelity levels starting from entirely rigid to flexible, on which several misalignment configurations are applied. The statistical analysis performed on the obtained TE emphasizes the nonlinear influence of manufacturing and assembly variabilities at different loading conditions.