Fatigue fracture analysis of gear teeth using XFEM

Gear teeth in gear transmission systems suffer seriously from fatigue failure during service. In this work, a 2D double-tooth model was constructed with periodic boundary conditions. The fatigue fracture behavior of gear teeth was analyzed using the extended finite element method (XFEM), with emphases on the impacts of initial crack geometries and cyclic load factors. The results suggested that the shortest fatigue life is expected for 0 degrees orientation cracks initiating at the maximum principal stress. Cracks that initiate closer to the bottom land of gear tooth are relatively safe. Moreover, to evaluate the fatigue load conditions, load ratio, load range, and mean load should be all taken into considerations. Further XFEM simulation for material selection was performed to guide the gear design. Among various material parameters, the material constant C and tensile strength are the most significant ones in determining the fatigue life.