INFORMATION PAPER

International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering, Vol. 1, No. 5, May 2009

A Study on Reducing the Root Fillet Stress in

Spur Gear Using Internal Stress Relieving
Feature of Different Shapes
M. S. Hebbal1, V. B. Math2, B. G. Sheeparamatti3
1
Basaveshwar Engineering College/ Dept. of Automobile Engineering/ Bagalkot/India
mshebbal3000@yahoo.com
2
Basaveshwar Engineering College/ Dept. of Mechanical Engineering/ Bagalkot/India
vbmath@rediffmail.com
3
Basaveshwar Engineering College/ Dept. of Electronics &Communication/ Bagalkot/India
sheepar@yahoo.com

Abstract-Gear teeth failure due to fatigue is a common
phenomenon observed. Even a slight reduction in the root
tensile stress results in great increase in the fatigue life of a
gear. If gear fails in tensile fatigue, the results are
catastrophic and occur with little or no warnings. Therefore
for all the reasons mentioned above, this work is of more
practical importance. For many years, gear design has been
improved by using improved material, hardening surfaces
with heat treatment and carburization, and shot penning to
improve surface finish etc. Few more efforts have been
made to improve the durability and strength by altering the
pressure angle, using the asymmetric teeth, altering the
geometry of root fillet curve and so on. Most of the above
methods do not guarantees the interchangeability of the
existing gear systems. This work presents the possibilities of
using the stress redistribution techniques by introducing the
stress relieving features in the stressed zone to the
advantage of reduction of root fillet stress in spur gear. This
also ensures interchangeability of existing gear systems. In
this work, combination of circular and elliptical stress
relieving features are used and better results are obtained
than using circular stress relieving features alone which are
used by earlier researchers. A finite element model with a
segment of three teeth is considered for analysis and stress
relieving features of various sizes are introduced on gear
teeth at various locations. Analysis revealed that,
combination of elliptical and circular stress relieving
features at specific, locations are beneficial than single
circular, single elliptical, two circular or two elliptical stress
reliving features.
Index Terms—spur gear, FEA, stress relieving features,
bending stress, stress redistribution.
I. INTRODUCTION
An efficient system is one in which all the elements are
reliable. Hence appropriate care must be given to all the
elements in the system to confirm the overall reliability.
In light of this, a deep investigation needs to be carried
out to identify the methods to overcome the failures of
the gear and to improve the reliability of the system
consisting of gear as one of its element. In order to
improve load carrying capacity of the gears Litvin F. L. et
al. [1] and Tsai M. et al. [2] focused there research work
to design the stronger tooth profiles. Hoffmann G. et al.
[3] developed advanced material for high load gear
applications. Townsend D. P et al. [4], Legge G. [5], and
Herring D. H. [6], proposed improved methods on heat
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treatment. In their recent work, Spitas V. A et al. [7], and
Alexander L. K et al.[8], redesigned novel gear root
fillets to improve the strength of the gear.
The objective of this paper is to reduce the root fillet
stress of spur gear by introducing the stress relief features
on a stressed gear. Therefore a systematic study is carried
out to investigate the effect of introducing stress relief
features of various shapes, (combination of the different
shapes, and sizes) at different locations. Further to find
out the more beneficial location and parameter of the
stress reliving feature on a stressed gear tooth. This study
hypothesized that systematic experimentation with stress
reliving feature of different dimension, combination and
location would provide a fundamental understanding of
their effects on stress in spur gears. This work finds its
application for aerospace gears where lighter yet stronger
gears are required.
The idea of using hole as stress reliving feature is not
new: in 1990 the work of Dippery [9] showed that, stress
concentration reduction is possible in generic shapes
using holes as stress relief. In 1992 Srinivasalu [10]
experimented by placing the holes in relatively low stress
neutral axis of the bending of the gear tooth. Although
bending stress reductions were not obtained from this
placement, the aided flexibility of the gear tooth reduced
the contact stress and improved the fatigue life of the
gear. The theory that the maximum tensile stress can be
reduced by placement of holes in the stressed area is
based on the idea that stress will be relived and displaced
away from the critical area. This would definitely change
the stress distribution in the gear and would most likely
transfer more of the stress to the compressive side of the
gear tooth.
In the earlier work, of Fredette L. [11] and Hebbal M.
S. et al. [12], the stress redistribution is studied using only
circular holes as stress relieving features. In this work
combination of circular as well as elliptical stress
relieving features are used and the effect of change in
orientation of the axis of ellipse on stress pattern is also
investigated.

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INFORMATION PAPER
International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering, Vol. 1, No. 5, May 2009
Figure 1. Max. principal stress without stress relieving features
II. ANALYSIS
A finite element model with a segment of three teeth is
considered for analysis. A point load of 400 N/mm of
gear width is applied at the tip of the gear. The teeth are
meshed with two dimensional 8 node quadrilateral
isoparametric elements. The boundary conditions used
are similar to the one proposed by Von Eiff et al. [13]. A
program is developed in APDL (ANSYS Parametric
Design Language) to automate the process of geometry
creation, meshing, applying boundary conditions and
displaying the results. The program reads an IGES file
out from the CATIA for geometry of gear teeth, the
location and size of the stress relieving features. A
standard spur gear with module 2.54mm, number of teeth
47, pressure angle 20 degrees, radius factor 0.3 is
considered for analysis. The gear material having
modulus of elasticity equal to 2.1x105 N/mm2 and
Poisson’s ratio equal to 0.3 is considered for analysis.
The FEA results of root fillet stress (without holes) are
compared with the stress calculated using the gear rating
calculation procedure specified in AGMA standards. The
FEA results are found to be in close agreement with the
calculated stresses based on AGMA standards for the
specific geometric configuration of the gear. Therefore
the results that fallow are given more credibility. The
convergence of the results is confirmed by experimenting
Figure 2. Max. principal stress with single circular stress relieving
features
164
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Figure 3. Max. principal stress with two elliptical stress relieving
features
with, altering grid density and monitoring difference in
the displacement of a point at the tip of the gear on
centerline of the gear for each conjugative trial. In
addition to this, the APDL program developed to model
the gear segment was used to find out the root fillet
stresses for the gear with same configuration as the one
used by J. D. Andres [14] (to validate his work) and the
results are found be in close agreement .
Fig.1 shows the maximum principal stress without any
stress relieving features. A location grid of 1x1 mm is
used for stress reliving feature. Configurations of stress
reliving feature used, for the various analyses are as
follows:
• circular stress reliving feature one at a time
(Fig.2)
• elliptical stress reliving feature one at a time
• circular stress reliving feature two at a time
• elliptical stress reliving feature two at a time
(Fig.3)
• one circular and one elliptical stress relieving
feature at a time (Fig.4)
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
It is found that the maximum principal stress at root
fillet is 270 N/mm2 without any stress relieving features
(Fig.1). Maximum principal stress v/s orientation of
major axis of the elliptical stress reliving features at more
beneficial locations and combination of size, are plotted
in Fig. 4.
Principal stresses in the gear segment with elliptical
stress reliving features are as shown in Fig. 3. Various
cases are considered for analysis choosing different
values of parameters viz. centre of ellipse (x,y), major
and minor radius (a,b) and orientation of major axis(α).
Analysis reveals that the case with two elliptical holes
having parameters for ellipse-1, x=1.2mm, y=59mm,
a=0.6mm, b=0.3mm, α =-600 and ellipse-2 with
x=0.6mm, y=55.1mm, a=0.6mm, b=0.3mm, α =750,
shows the greater benefit in comparison with other cases.
As the location of stress relieving feature approaches
the high stress gradient zone up to a certain value, the
results are found to be beneficial. Later on the benefit
INFORMATION PAPER
International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering, Vol. 1, No. 5, May 2009

to the change in size of the stress relieving feature. A

careful selection of more than one location for
introducing stress relieving feature is more beneficial
than choosing only one. Stress reductions by means of
introducing stress reliving features with a combination of
elliptical and circular holes are found to be better. The
elliptical stress relief feature have better control over
changing the stress redistribution pattern as it has more
parameters (two axes and orientation) to redistribute the
stress, over circular stress relief feature.

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Figure 4. Max. principal stress with elliptical and circular stress
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IV. CONCLUSIONS
[9] Dippery R E, “A study in stress concentration optimization
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350 – 521.
300
[12] M.S. Hebbal, V.B. Math, C.M. Veerendrakumar,
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250 Fillet Stress in Spur gear”, National Conference on Recent
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Advances in Design engineering ( RADE 2007 )
[13] H. Von Eiff, K. H. Hirschmann, G. Lechner, “Influence of
150 Gear Tooth Geometry on Tooth Stress of External and
100
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fillet
circle
December 1990, PP. 575 – 583.
50 [14] J. D. Andrews, “A Finite element analysis of bending
0
stresses induced in external an internal spur gears”, Journal
0 1 2 3 4 5 of strain analysis, Vol. 26,No.3, 1991, pp 153-163.
x coordinate of center of circle

Figure 5. Max. principal stress Vs x coordinate of center of circle

and figure out the effect of the holes on gear stresses.

Stress reduction by means of introducing stress reliving
feature is possible. The redistribution is highly sensitive
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