Stress Analysis of Polycarbonate Spur Gears for Sugarcane Juice Machine Using FEA

Abstract

This dissertation work describes design and analysis of Spur gear. In this work, it is advise to replace the metallic gear of sugarcane juice machine with plastic gears to reduce the weight as well as noise. Polyamide 66 and Teflon as plastic materials have been widely used at the manufacturing of gear mechanism .For the purpose Nylon and Polycarbonate plastic materials were considered namely and their feasibility are checked with respect to metallic gear (Cast iron). From the static analysis, the best plastic material is recommended for the purpose. Static analysis of a Gear tooth model has been performed using ANSYS? 10.0. The Finite Element Method is used for Plane stress analysis of a Spur Gear tooth model. Solution obtained by this method is approximately correct. Analytical methods that are used for getting correct solution of analysis problems. In this work by taking geometrical approximation of a model the plane stress analysis is made to increase the accuracy of a solution and to minimize the solution time. The loading conditions are assumed to be static. The element chosen is solid 8 node 183 (planer element). The bending stress and strain is calculated by this numerical method and compared with the solution obtained by analytical method. plastic gears are suitable for the application of sugarcane juice machine under only limited load conditions as compared to Cast Iron spur gears.