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TRANSMISSION GEARBOX
SUMMARY
A new approach for 3D modelling and analysis of a modern automatic
transmission system is presented in this paper. The gear pairs, planetary gear
system, bearings, shafts and clutches are represented as analysis objects and the
planetary carriers and housing are represented as stiffness quality finite element
components. They are all combined together into one whole hyperstatic system
in RomaxDesigner. The complex planetary gear carriers and gearbox housing
are modelled by means of reduced stiffness matrices created in a finite element
analysis package Nastran. A 6-speed automatic gearbox was modelled in
RomaxDesigner based on above method and the full operating duty cycle of
the transmission has been input and used for the analysis. This method allows
to dramatically reduce the size of the model and can thus be carried out to a
time scale that enables quick concept designs as well as responsive problem
solving in existing gearboxes.
1: CURRENT ISSUES OF MODELLING TRANSMISSION SYSTEM
An automatic transmission gearbox is a very complex mechanical system
which includes planetary gear train, shafts, bearings, clutches, shifting
mechanism and gearbox housing [1,2]. All these components are connecting
with each other through gear meshing, bearing mounting and other
connections. The different gears are selected by switching on or off a
combination of different clutches on the planetary gear trains. The housing is
normally mounted on the engine or chassis or both. All those components are
interacting with each other and hence when changing certain parameters in any
component will inevitably affect other components. In the process of
transmission design, it is important to optimise it considering the changes in
these parameters but at the same time to maintain or not to compromise the
performance of the transmissions internal components. It is difficult to achieve
Figure 1:
Figure 2:
Figure 3:
Figure 4:
Figure 5:
Figure 6:
Figure 7:
Outer part
Inner part
Figure 8:
Figure 9:
The gearbox housing influences the deflection of the mounted bearings and
therefore affects the meshing of the gear trains. In order to accurately predict
the gear transmission error, the influence of the housing must be considered.
However, the gearbox housing has a very complex geometry and cannot be
modelled as a simple component in RomaxDesigner. The inclusion of the
influence of the housing on system deflection is achieved by condensing the
housing finite element model into a reduced stiffness matrix and incorporating
it into the current system model. The reduced stiffness matrix represents the
interaction between the bearings and the housing. In the case study, the finite
Misalignment (um)
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1st gear- 1st gearcoast
drive
2nd
gearcoast
2nd
geardrive
3rd
gearcoast
3rd
geardrive
4th gear- 4th gear- 5th gear- 5th gear- 6th gear- 6th gear- Reverse Reverse
coast
drive
coast
drive
coast
drive
geargearcoast
drive
Figure 12: Mesh misalignment of a gear pair under different operating conditions
9: CONCLUSIONS
A new approach for the modelling and analysis of a modern automatic
transmission system with transmission software RomaxDesigner has been
presented. The modelling and analysis of the major components of such a
transmission system like the shafts, gears, bearings, clutches, planetary gear,
planetary carriers and gearbox housing were covered and illustrated by a case
study of a 6-speed automatic gearbox. The housings interaction with the
engine and chassis through the transmission mountings are also included. The
planetary carriers and gearbox housing are incorporated into the internal
transmission system by means of a reduced stiffness matrix which is extracted
using a commercial finite element package.
This new approach makes the model very compact and significantly reduces
the modelling and analysis time of a complex automatic transmission system.
The model can predict the shaft, gear and bearing life much faster than a
conventional finite element analysis model without compromising the
accuracy. By taking the advantage of modelling the gearbox system as a whole,
the model can predict the gear mesh misalignment accurately, allowing
transmission designers to efficiently modify the gear tooth micro-geometry to
compensate for the effect of misalignment prior to the prototyping.
REFERENCES
1. Design Practices: Passenger Car Automatic Transmissions, third edition,
AE-18, Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc., USA, 1994
2. Design Manual for Enclosed Epicyclic Metric Module Gear Drives,
ANSI/AGMA 6123-A88, October 1988
3. HARRIS, J, JAMES, B M AND WOOLLEY, A M, -Predicting the Effects
of Housing Flexibility and Bearing Stiffness on Gear Misalignment and
Transmission Noise using a Fully Coupled Non-Linear Hyperstatic
Analysis, Proceedings, Institution of Mechanical Engineers,
C577/005/2000, May 2000.
4. POON, S, Y, -A New Approach to Transmission Design, Romax Internal
Document, 2004
5. Visual/Nastran 2002 User Manual, MSC Software Corporation, Santa Ana,
USA, 2002
6. ALLAN, R K, -Rolling Bearings, Sir Issac Pitman & Sons, Ltd, London,
1954
7. RomaxDesigner User Manual, Romax Technology Ltd, Nottingham, UK,
2003