Improvement of Hypoid Gears Dynamics Performance Based on Tooth Contact Optimization

The meshing noise of hypoid gear has a significant influence on driving axle system. It should be strictly controlled in order to reduce the whole vehicle noise. Meshing internal excitation of hypoid gear is a main source of vibration noise, closely connected with geometrical shape and meshing status. There is no comprehensive analysis on the impact of various contact patterns on vibration noise in previous studies. Therefore, the method for controlling contact characteristics of hypoid gears is studied in this paper, which includes adjusting the position and length of contact pattern, direction of contact trace and the theoretical transmission error. Also, a non-linear dynamic model with multi-freedom for the hypoid gear pair of the driving axle is established to evaluate the dynamic response of the gear pair. Then an example was carried out to improve the dynamic characteristic of hypoid gears by tooth profile modification. It is proved that the dynamic transmission error and mesh force can be reduced effectively through reasonably controlling the contact characteristic parameters of the gear pair. This complete process of tooth profile design, dynamic analysis and tooth contact characteristic adjustment is therefore demonstrated to be an effective approach to the optimization of hypoid gear design in order to acquire good vibration and noise performance of the driving axle.