Analysis of Gear Train Structure of Electric Traction Train Using Finite Element Method
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2014-08
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
gear trains are the critical components in a railway traction system as they transmit and
withstand very high loads. Their primary function is to transmit power from one shaft to the
other. In the railway traction system, there are several arrangements for the drives system. In
this particular case the unit that takes power, from motor assembled to drives system through
pinion on the shaft to the final spur or wheels by means of single stage or compound stage on
the axle of the train, in such a way that power is transmitted. During the transmission of
power from one shaft to another, for rail vehicles moving in high speed, torque is also
transmitted. In this phenomenon, different kinds of stresses and deformations will occur on
the structure of the gear train. FEM (Finite Element Method) is used to determine and analyze
different kinds of stresses and deformations in the complex geometry. This thesis investigates
the characteristics of gear trains under different kinds of loading, including bending and shear
stresses, stresses due to vibration, contact stresses and deformations by FEM and proposes a
better optimization for the gear units.
Two or three spur gear trains with and without idler gears are modeled in both solid works
and ANSYS work bench for drives system to distinguish the behaviors of the stresses and
vibration for the system, and optimization will be proposed for the design of the gears. Then
the result obtained will be compared with the analytical method. Contact stresses are also
analyzed and compared with the current method which is known as Hertzian contact stress; if
both value agree very well, FEM is then the accurate method to analyze the effect of the
contact stress for the gear units in the drives system. American Gear Manufactures
Association (AGMA) is used for stress analysis but it is limited and many assumptions to be
taken into account. Lewis equation is also used to determine the bending stress. After
different kinds of analysis, the parameters which may affect the overall efficiency of the
system will be optimized, by proper treatment and design of the gear structure for the drives
system. These treatments will also include improving tribological property of the gears,
profile modification of the gear tooth and so on. Therefore, FEM will predict the different
kinds of stresses and deformations on the gear train structures of electric traction train .
Description
Keywords
Electric Traction Train, Finite Element Method, Gear Train Structure