Gear Web Shape Optimization for Axial Load Deflection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Output gears in gas turbine engines face challenges due to their large diameter and exposure to axial and non-radial loads, which can cause tooth deflection and stress, particularly in turboprop engines with axially offset shafts, and existing web shapes may not adequately address these issues while accommodating nearby components like oil nozzles.
Innovation Solution
A gear design featuring an annular web with a specific geometry, including a load-direction inclined section and an opposite inclined section, which reduces radial deflection and stress by optimizing axial space usage and load distribution, and can be integrated with a shaft to form a monolithic component.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a frustoconical web shape is used to reduce tooth deflection, then gear strength is improved, but space availability is reduced due to accommodation requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The web is divided into different sections with different inclinations: a first web section with a first inclination angle and a second web section with a second inclination angle. This local variation in geometry allows optimization of strength in critical areas while maintaining compact overall dimensions, resolving the contradiction between gear strength and space availability.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the web is made thicker to reduce radial deflection under axial loads, then gear stiffness is improved, but the gear diameter increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of increasing web thickness uniformly, the invention uses inclined web sections that extend axially. This dimensional approach provides increased stiffness and reduced radial deflection through axial extension rather than radial thickening, maintaining compact gear diameter while improving stiffness.
3Reliability
If a complex web shape is designed to optimize load distribution, then gear performance is improved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The web is segmented into distinct sections (first web section and second web section) with different inclination angles. This segmentation allows each section to be optimized for specific load conditions while maintaining a relatively simple overall geometry that can be manufactured using conventional processes, balancing performance and manufacturability.
Data Source
AI summary
A gear comprises gear teeth. An annular web has the gear teeth on an external surface thereof and rotatable about a rotational axis of the gear. The web comprises a wall having at least a first axial surface and a second axial surface on the opposite side of the wall. The web defined by a first web section in which the first axial surface, in an inward direction, inclines away from a radial plane to which the rotational axis is normal, a second web section radially inward of the first web section, and in which the first axial surface, in the inward direction, inclines toward said radial plane.