Computer-Aided Design and Analysis and Experimental Investigation of Cylindrical Involute Worm Gear Drives

摘要

This paper deals with cylindrical involute worm gear drives with localized tooth contact. The research is focused on three aspects: advanced 3-D modeling, finite element analysis (FEA), and experimental investigation. The 3-D modeling is conducted using virtual manufacturing approach, which avoids complicated numerical calculations required in traditional CAD modeling of worm and wheel. Different from the traditional FEA for worm gears, this research applies full models and does not requires the pre-specification of initial contact location on the tooth surfaces. The experimental investigation is conducted for measuring the temperature and transmission efficiency.