Experimental measurement of spur gear mesh stiffness using digital image correlation technique

Mesh stiffness is the main cause of gearbox vibration. A crack in the tooth of gear reduces the mesh stiffness. Researchers are trying to evaluate the mesh stiffness of healthy and faulty gears by different techniques and modifying the existing techniques for the purpose of vibration based fault detection in gearboxes. Generally, the mesh stiffness is evaluated statically for full mesh cycle and it is used for vibration analysis of the gearboxes. In this paper, a new experimental technique of mesh stiffness measurement by using digital image correlation (DIC) technique has been proposed. The experiments were performed on healthy as well as cracked gears. The obtained results were compared with finite element method (FEM) and analytical method (AM) and showed a good match. The results show that the DIC technique can be used to measure the mesh stiffness.