Theoretical and experimental investigation on the effect of teeth modification on the meshing stiffness of herringbone gear system

In order to accurately calculating the time varying meshing stiffness of a herringbone gear pair, a herringbone gear teeth contact model was established considering the axial floating of driving gear. On this basis, the meshing stiffness were considering installation errors was deduced, and the variation characteristics of meshing stiffness under different loads were analyzed. A three dimensional tooth profile optimization design considering the fluctuating magnitude of meshing stiffness as a target was carried out by using a genetic algorithm. Taking a ship herringbone gear transmission system as an example, the results consistently indicate that the herringbone gear meshing stiffness experiences a process of first increasing and then gradually tending to be constant with the increase of external load. A herringbone gear transmission experiment testing system with closed power flow was set up to verify the theoretical analysis, and the meshing stiffness was measured through high precision Heidenhain angle encoders. The results of numerical simulations and the experimental data are in good agreement, the maximum deviation is 8.8%, and the amplitude variation trend of the meshing stiffnesses before and after teeth modification is also consistent.