An Analytical Study of the Effect of the Contact Ratio on the Spur Gear Dynamic Response

A model was used, where the total gear mesh stiffness was approximated by two constant stiffness levels, in order to analyze the influence of the contact ratio on the dynamic response of spur gears. Due to the stiffness variation there is parametric excitation of the transmission error, which generally causes tooth separation at certain critical rotational speeds. The present paper discloses a method to analytically calculate which contact ratio to use in order to avoid tooth separation near a specific critical rotational speed. [S1050-0472(00)02604-0]