Contact Analysis of a Gear Pair Using Linear Complementarity

The current computation models for gear contact analysis and wear prediction are mostly based on finite element analysis which consumes a lot of time and effort. In this paper, an alternate model to spur gear contact analysis is developed using linear complementarity. A linear complementarity solver computes the contact forces between meshing teeth along the path of contact. From the contact forces, sliding wear in gear tooth is predicted. Archard’s wear model is used for the wear prediction. The results of linear complementarity and finite element model are compared for both contact forces and sliding wear. For identical meshing gear pair, the linear complementarity model consumes much less computation time than the finite element model.