A new model for calculating time-varying gearmesh stiffness

Time-varying gearmesh stiffness (TVGS) is the main cause of gear vibration, and its accuracy affects the responses of dynamic models. An exponential curve model based on the Saint Venant's Principle is proposed to calculate the gearmesh stiffness of cracked spur gears in this paper. With the proposed model, the TVGS under the circumstances of healthy condition and four crack cases are computed, whose results have a good agreement with those of finite element method (FEM). Therefore, the exponential curve model can be used to estimate the TVGS and an alternative to FEM in gearmesh stiffness calculation is provided.