A Piece-Wise Beam Model For Shafts With Abrupt Changes Of Section In Gearbox Products

In the design of gear box, the modeling of shaft with abrupt changes of section is essential. A piece-wise beam model is proposed in the present study, which aims to estimate the deflection of the abrupt change shaft. The local flexural rigidity and equivalent radius of a generalized stepped shaft model is investigated using the finite element method. Based on these analysis, the piece-wise beam model is established. As verification, a design example is performed using the proposed model, conventional beam model and the solid model, in which the result of solid model is used as benchmark. The result reveals that the proposed model could provide significantly higher accuracy in estimation of the deflection for abrupt change shafts.