International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE)

ISSN: 2278-3075, Volume-8, Issue- 9S2, July 2019

Determination of Natural Frequencies of

Spur Gear in Portal Axle Gearbox
Devan P D, V.R. Muruganantham

Abstract— Portal axle is introduced to avoid damage of the test, analytical calculation and FEM analysis. Natural
vehicle bottom portion while it is running on off-road condition frequencies are inherent properties of an object. Vibration is
by providing additional ground clearance to the vehicle. Since the depending upon mechanical properties and boundary
ground clearance is achieved through gear train arrangement,
conditions of the structure. Resonance occurs when
the operating frequency of the gear shouldn’t match with its
natural frequency. This work aims to predict the natural operating frequency is matches with anyone of the natural
frequencies and modes shapes of the gear train with three types frequencies of a structure. ANSYS Workbench software is
of gear arrangements. The effect of natural frequency also well known FEM package used to find natural frequencies,
studied with three different gear materials such as steel, CI and mode shapes of a structure.
Al alloy. Gear trains are modeled in Solidworks 2017 and This work attempts the prediction of natural frequencies
analyzed in well-known FEM software ANSYS workbench 16.0.
of a gearbox on three different spur gear configurations such
First six natural frequencies and corresponding mode shapes are
also obtained. FEM results are compared with operating as gear train having no idler gear, gear train having one idler
frequency of the gear. gear and gear train having two idler gear. Influence of
Keywords — ANSYS Workbench, FEM, Portal axle, Spur material properties over its natural frequencies are also
Gear, Modal Analysis studied and compared. Steel, Cast Iron are taken as
materials.
I. INTRODUCTION
In most four wheel-drive vehicles, the rear wheels are II. LITERATURE SURVEY
connected by a straight axle tube. But in case of larger Portal axle is a better replacement for normal rear wheel
wheeled vehicles that carries heavy load would develop axle in off-road driving environments. It is designed to give
more stress on the axle. Especially in off-road vehicle, more ground clearance to the differential unit. Spur gears
ground clearance is a major issue since it runs on an uneven are modeled and simulated to find out its dynamic behavior.
pavement. The differential casing of the axle would hit the Modal analysis was carried out on three different
obstacles which is on the road and gets damaged. To combination of gear trains in the gearbox using FEM under
encounter these two issues portal axle is introduced in the both pre-stress and free stress conditions. Through modal
off-road military vehicles. Portal axle is having a gearbox at analysis resonance characteristics of a structure can be
its both ends that allows the wheel axis below the axle tube predicted. Mass and stiffness of a system influences the
centerline. Portal axle receives power from the differential overall dynamic response of a system. First six mode shapes
unit and sends to the gearbox. Gearbox transfers the power and eight natural frequencies were found. No one natural
to wheel with appropriate speed reduction if needed. Since frequency did match with operating frequency [1]. Modal
the force acting on the gears are distributed, minimal stress analysis of mechanical system allows prediction of natural
will be developed in the axle. At the same time the frequencies and corresponding mode shapes. Stiffness of a
differential unit gains additional ground clearance and the structure varies according to the load variation. Modal
underneath components are protected from damage. In analysis was carried out in impact hammer under different
general, most of the mechanical systems are operated in loading conditions with varying mesh stiffness.
dynamic loading conditions which results crack, fatigue, Natural frequency increases with increase in load [2].
noise and vibration. Hence the total working environment Ankur Saxena [3] et al have investigated the influence of
get disturbed. Modal analysis is one form of vibration mesh stiffness on mode shapes and natural frequencies of
testing method in which the natural frequencies, modal geared rotor system. Modal analysis involves estimation of
shapes, damping ratios and damping factor of an object can modal damping factors, natural frequencies, critical speeds,
be find out. Most of the heat transfer and mechanical mode shapes and frequency response functions etc. Over a
problems are primarily attempted through theoretical period, tooth breakage, cracks may develop in gear tooth
method. This method gives an accurate result for simple which alters the mesh stiffness. Isa Yesilyurt [4] et.al have
geometry only. But, the problems are complex and it takes measured the reduction of gear tooth stiffness using modal
lots of time and cost. An alternate method to solve complex analysis. Modal analysis also serves to find the damage
problems with less expensive and time is FEM. Modal detection of gear tooth and wear damage. Experiment has
analysis can be done in three methods such as experimental been carried out to obtain FRF of the gear tooth. Steel tipped
impact hammer used as exciter and accelerometer act as a
Revised Manuscript Received on July 18, 2019.
Devan P D, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kumaraguru
College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. (E-mail:
[email protected])
V.R. Muruganantham, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.

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Retrieval Number: I10900789S219/19©BEIESP Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
DOI : 10.35940/ijitee.I1090.0789S219 422 & Sciences Publication
 DETERMINATION OF NATURAL FREQUENCIES OF SPUR GEAR IN PORTAL AXLE GEARBOX

response detector. Peter Weis [5] et.al was aimed to boundary conditions and load. Involute, full depth spur gear
compute first 20 natural frequencies and its corresponding is chosen for analysis.
mode shapes of gearbox housing under pre-stressed
TABLE 2 GEAR SPECIFICATIONS
condition in ANSYS workbench.Ashwani kumar [6] et.al
has performed the modal analysis of heavy truck gearbox Parameters Formula Values
with four different materials. Gear defects, transmission Face Width, b (mm) 10M 60
error and load fluctuations are the foremost cause for Pitch Circle 2M
120
vibration. First twenty mode shapes are obtained and better Diameter, pc (mm)
material has been selected. Not only the material properties, Diametrical Pitch, 1/M
0.166
the structure of the gear is also influence the natural pd (mm-1)
frequencies. Greater the young’s modulus causes greater the Addendum, a (mm) M 6
natural frequency and life with less noise. It is possible to Dedendum, d (mm) 1.25M 7.5
avoid resonance without modifying properties but by Tooth Thickness, T 1.5708M2
9.42
altering structure [7]. (mm)
In gears, dynamic faults can be diagnosed by two Centre distance, C 2b
120
methods such as traditional spectrum analysis and wavelet (mm)
transform. Fourier Transform is a widely used vibration
analyzer. FT can be used at when signal is non-stationary. IV. MODELING OF GEAR TRAINS
To overcome this problem by introducing Wavelet All the three gear trains are modeled and assembled in
Transform. Combination of Time and Frequency domains Solidworks 2017 software. Uniform power transmission is
can be processed in WT [8]. Aditendra Jaiswal et.al have ensured between input and output using motion study tool
studied different modes of gear failure under dynamic which is inbuilt in the same software. Assembly model of
condition using FFT analyzer. Spectrum of a fault in the the gear trains are shown in fig.1
defective gear is compared with new gear [9]. Dynamic
analysis is an efficient method for condition monitoring in
day today life. The rise in vibration pattern reveals the
defects in rotating components. In vibration analysis
acceleration, velocity and displacement are measured based
on our choice [10]. Vibration analysis not only used to
detect fault, are also used find load fluctuations. Time-
frequency domain analysis is an efficient method to
diagnose the vibration signals [11].

III. SELECTION OF GEAR PARAMETERS [12]

Gear parameters are selected based on the power
requirement. Vehicle specification is given in the below
table. Gears are designed to the maximum torque value.
TABLE 1 TATRA VEHICLE SPECIFICATIONS
Vehicle Tatra T810
Power 177 KW Fig.1. Assembly model of the gear trains
Max Torque 820 N-m
Speed Range 1220 to 2300 rpm V. MESHING AND BOUNDARY CONDTIONS
Pay Load 4500 Kg After importing the gear trains in to ANSYS Workbench,
Ground Clearance 460 mm ‘tangential constraint’ is given to the surfaces of the gears.
Input gear is treated as contact and output gear is treated as
Initially, number of teeth in gear is 20 and pressure angle target. Both are set to ‘No separation’ contact. In this stage,
is 20° has taken to avoid interference. the corresponding material is also assigned to the gears. All
the three gears trains are meshed with tetrahedral element as
Velocity V= = = 2.4 M m/sec (1) shown in fig.2.

Tangential Force Ft = = =
(2)
Ft = * Cv *b*M*y*π (3)
Module M = 6 mm
All other parameters are calculated based on the module.
Both gear and pinion are rotating at the same speed. Hence
the speed ratio is 1. Number of teeth on gear and pinion are
equal. Shaft hole diameter has taken as 30 mm to apply the

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Retrieval Number: I10900789S219/19©BEIESP Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
DOI : 10.35940/ijitee.I1090.0789S219 423 & Sciences Publication
 International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE)
ISSN: 2278-3075, Volume-8, Issue- 9S2, July 2019

Fig.4. Mode shapes of gear train with no idler gear

(Steel)

Fig. 2. Meshed view of the gear trains

Boundary conditions are applied at shaft hole free -stress

state. Fig.3. shows the constraints applied to the gear trains.
In free stress state, fixed support is applied to the gears
which doesn’t allow any motion.

Fig.5. Mode shapes of gear train with no idler gear (CI)

Fig.3. Boundary Condition

VI. MODAL ANALYSIS OF GEARS & RESULTS

First four mode shapes and its corresponding natural
frequencies are determined in FEM modal analysis. The
results are compared with operating frequency.

Fig.6. Mode shapes of gear train with one idler gear

(Steel)

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Retrieval Number: I10900789S219/19©BEIESP Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
DOI : 10.35940/ijitee.I1090.0789S219 424 & Sciences Publication
 DETERMINATION OF NATURAL FREQUENCIES OF SPUR GEAR IN PORTAL AXLE GEARBOX

Figure 4,6,8 shows the mode shape of the gear trains

having no ideal gear, with one ideal gear and with two ideal
gears respectively assigned with steel as material.
Figure 5,7,9 shows the mode shape of the gear trains
having no ideal gear, with one ideal gear and with two ideal
gears respectively assigned with cast iron as material.
FEM natural frequencies are shown in table 3.
TABLE.3 FEM NATURAL FREQUENCIES

Frequency (Hz) for without Idle Gear

Mode SS CI
1 6661.9 5194.8
2 8153.4 6344.0
3 10091.0 7837.5
4 10337.0 8028.8

Frequency (Hz) for without one Idle Gear

Fig.7. Mode shapes of gear train with one idler gear (CI)
Mode SS CI
1 6614.4 5158.7
2 7276.5 5666.6
3 8499.0 6609.7
4 10337.0 7882.5

Frequency (Hz) for without two Idle Gears

Mode SS CI
1 6693.6 5219.3
2 7913.1 6156.4
3 8102.8 6300.7
4 9274.4 7208.2

To know the behaviour of gear train at resonance

frequency, the natural frequencies of the gear train is
compared with operating frequency. Operating speed of the
vehicle is 1200 to 1700 rpm.
Fn
Fig.8. Mode shapes of gear train with two idler gear
(Steel)

= 20 Hz

= 28.33 Hz
The range of operating frequency is in between 20 Hz to
30 Hz approximately. This range is very small when
compared with lowest natural frequency of 5158 Hz. Hence
FEM reveals that resonance will not take place on any gear
train and the design is safe for both the materials.

VII. CONCLUSION
Modal analysis on three spur gear trains of the portal axle
gearbox was performed using FEM simulation under free-
stress state. All gear trains have similar resonance frequency
behavior when plotted against the first four mode shapes.
There is a huge difference between the natural frequencies
of the gear train when compared to operating frequency.

Fig.9. Mode shapes of gear train with two idler gear (CI)

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Retrieval Number: I10900789S219/19©BEIESP Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
DOI : 10.35940/ijitee.I1090.0789S219 425 & Sciences Publication
 International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE)
ISSN: 2278-3075, Volume-8, Issue- 9S2, July 2019

Hence resonance will not arise with in this operating speed.

It can be concluded that, gear train with Cast Iron material
undergoes less frequency compared to Steel material.

VIII. REFERENCES
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Published By:
Retrieval Number: I10900789S219/19©BEIESP Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
DOI : 10.35940/ijitee.I1090.0789S219 426 & Sciences Publication