Influence of Von Mises Stress on the Deformation behaviour of a Pinion Spur Gear under Cyclic Loading in a Bottling Machine: An Approach for predicting surface Fatigue failure in Gears

Fatigue failure predictions using analytical method have become cumbersome due to the types and mode of load applications on the gear teeth. The study employed a simulation approach to predict the fatigue behaviour of a pinion gear under cyclic loading by the determination of the Von Mises stress which can result to Surface deformation. The simulation was carried out on the gear component with emphasis on the teeth at different interval of 60, 90, 120 and 150 seconds using SolidWorks program. The result showed that increased stress resulted to increased deformation. Thus a minimum and maximum Von Mises stress of 1.303e+001 N/mm² and 7.370e+001 N/mm² were observed at 60 seconds against the fracture strength of the chosen material, gray cast iron (276 MPa). Further to this, the equivalent minimum and maximum deformation at 60 and 90 seconds were observed to be 7.192e-004 mm, 2.304e-002 mm at 60 seconds and 1.594e-003 mm,2.365e-002 mm at 90 seconds at the tooth respectively. This implies that deformation increases as stress increased and they are both functions of time. Based on the results of these analysis, Von Mises stress and the cyclic loading played an important role in predicting the deformation behaviour of the pinion gear. Thus, it is worthy of note to say that this concept has reduced the rigorous calculations in analytical method of failure predictions.